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FOUR-YEAR-OLD ANA PEEKS OUT THE WINDOW and jumps up and down as soon as she sees a special visitor pull up in front of her apartment complex. 'Mama, the bags, [...]

It's a damp winter day, and Virginia Euwer Wolff is savoring the Hungarian mushroom soup at Old Wives' Tales, a popular Portland, OR, cafe. She's fond of this soup; it [...]

'I want to know your top 10 best practices for storytime,' a colleague said to me a few months before I retired. 'You've been in youth services four decades and [...]

First Steps began almost nine years ago, in February of 2004. Our first column was about the importance of having fun, because we believed that fun was a key element [...]

Imagine that while interviewing for a library job you're asked, 'What would storytime specifically for African-American families look like to you?' That's what happened to Kirby McCurtis. 'I thought it [...]

These days the news is full of stories about undocumented immigrants. We frequently hear polarizing views about border enforcement, labor laws, and policy makers' myriad approaches to immigration reform. As [...]

It's toddler storytime: let the rumpus begin! Toddlers bound quickly into the room. One hurdles mom's legs while waiting for the opening song. Some hop, others roam, and a few [...]

One of the most surprising early literacy questions we've encountered is about puppets. It came from a youth librarian whose director insisted that he couldn't see how using puppets 'has [...]

It's good to begin the New Year with enthusiasm. Here at Multnomah County Library we're excited about several things. First, and perhaps most importantly, we're looking forward to being successful [...]

One of the most startling things we learned this year is that 48.6 percent of trauma victims in our state of Oregon are younger than six years old. And infants [...]

In a perfect world, every child would enter kindergarten happy, healthy, and eager to learn. They'd run into their classrooms anxious to see friends and already in love with their [...]

We've never forgotten a story that Micki Freeny, coordinator of youth services at the District of Columbia Public Library, told us about her daughter. Kyle was four years old when [...]

Spring is the time of year when we ask our early childhood community partners to help us measure the effectiveness of our outreach services or--said another way--evaluate the outcomes of [...]

Our evening walks around Portland are even more t delightful these days as more and more neighbors have added poetry posts to their yards. Poetry posts, you ask? They are [...]

The young woman sitting alone near the front of the MAX train car was speaking passionately, presumably to a friend on a cellphone. Nothing new--we overhear all sorts of conversations [...]

'This is the most fun I've had with a storytime book in awhile,' said our colleague Steven Engelfried--and immediately, we all snapped to attention. Steven has been a librarian for [...]

Talking about race is difficult. Most of us resort to silence when the topic comes up in conversation, because we fear saying something that could be misunderstood or hurtful. But [...]

How exactly does early brain development relate to reading? That's what our clients want to know. Many of them aren't interested in hearing about neurons and synapses, but they find [...]

After seven months of inescapable rain here in Oregon, the warm sun has emerged and blossoms have burst forth. Nature's reawakening leaves us wondering how the dogwoods and magnolias can [...]

We've learned that there are so many myths out there that make parents feel guilty about reading--or not reading--to their children. We've started collecting the most alarming ones so we [...]

The desire to be with people who laugh or make us laugh must be universal. In our office, we're fortunate to have our own resident giggle bug. At 16 months [...]

A colleague put a lovely image into our heads at a recent discussion of best practices for family storytimes. Librarian Maria Lowe offers family storytimes in the evenings, and she [...]

On these early autumn days, in communities big and small, kindergarteners are stuffing backpacks with colored markers, glue sticks, tissues, and sometimes a favorite book or stuffed animal. Getting ready [...]

Watching our Commander-in-Chief read Where the Wild Things Are (HarperCollins, 1964) at the White House Easter Egg Roll gave us chills, even though we had to experience it vicariously on [...]

As our communities face serious economic challenges, it's easy to focus solely on the dire news of the day: dwindling budgets, programs at risk. So, now more than ever, it's [...]

At a recent statewide workshop, Laurie Danahy, a Head Start prekindergarten specialist for the Oregon Department of Education, urged librarians to 'mathematize' their next storytime. Before you shriek, 'I won't [...]

Phonological awareness. Print motivation. Remember how strange some of the six early literacy skills sounded when librarians first heard about them? These days, the six skills (which also include vocabulary, [...]

Our colleague Yvonne has two passions--storytelling and young children. Meeting with 20 children twice a week for a month, Yvonne transforms a classroom of children into a theatrical troupe performing [...]

Best practice to a youth librarian is using lost of songs in storytimes for babies and repeating them each week. Best practice is choosing books about trucks and teddy bears [...]

A quote from George Bernard Shaw hangs in our office, guiding our daily interactions: 'We don't quit playing because we grow old; we grow old because we quit playing.' These [...]

'The first sound a child hears is actually a poem, the rhythmic, rhyming beat-beat-beat of a mother's heart,' writes Jim Trelease in his introduction to lack Prelutsky's classic anthology, Read-Aloud [...]

CAN I PLAY TOO?' UNDENIABLY, A TODDLER WHO CAN APPROACH friends and ask this sophisticated question is well on his way to kindergarten readiness. As it turns out, children who [...]

CERTAINLY ONE OF THE MOST COMMON WORDS IN A PRESCHOOLER'S vocabulary is 'why.' Once they get past the 'no' stage, it's probably the word that trips up adults most often. [...]

WE LOVE IT WHEN WE FIND EMAIL MESSAGES LIKE THIS IN OUR INBOXES: 'I just used a great book in storytime, Snog the Frog by Tony Bonning, and it was [...]

SUMMER READING IN LIBRARIES ALL OVER THE COUNTRY ORIGINATED as a vacation-time activity for school-aged children. Now many libraries are extending the fun to the preschool crowd as well. 'It's [...]

'MY THREE-YEAR-OLD DOESN'T WATCH MUCH TELEVISION,' A SPANISH-speaking parent recently said, 'My friends say that's why he's not learning English--because he doesn't watch enough TV. Is that true?' Obviously, the [...]

EXTENDING PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICE TO CHILDREN WHO ARE STRUGGLING to become literate isn't always easy. One of the best strategies we've found is to partner with organizations that make it [...]

ONE OF THE MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS WE HEAR FROM PARENTS today is 'What do you think about Baby Einstein books?' or 'Should I let my baby watch Baby Einstein [...]

THE PAST TWO DECADES HAVE SEEN AN EXPLOSION OF RESEARCH IN EARLY learning and related fields. We've found it a fascinating challenge to think about how this research affects the [...]

The tension in our first class is almost tangible. The inmates, waiting in the hallway and watching us unpack books and set up the DVD player, shuffle into the room. [...]

Sublime, stupendous, frilly, plume, sprinkles, and baubles are just a few words in the fancy vocabulary of Fancy Nancy, who would never say purple when she could say fuchsia. Two [...]