Growing a Reader: Kids' Books, Tips and More

A – B – C – D – E – F – G – H – I – J – K – L – M – N – O – P – Q – R – S – T – U – V – W – X – Y - Z

Our ABCs are all around us -– every day — in books and blogs, on packages and signs, and in that old-familiar song that we quietly sing when we're trying to figure out how to place something in alphabetical order.

And ABCs are a very important part of Toronto Public Library's Family Literacy Month celebrations. We are inspired in part by the organization ABC Life Literacy Canada who created Family Literacy Day in 1999 "to raise awareness of the importance of reading and engaging in other literacy-related activities as a family."

This year's official theme for January 27th's Family Literacy Day is "Learn at Play Every Day" and one of the suggested activities from Honorary Chair Barbara Reid is "Make and Play with Letters". Why not try making letters out of paper, foam or even glitter glue and turn your ABCs into homemade art! (Download more of Ms. Reid's Family Literacy Day activities from ABC Life Literacy Canada here.)

Toronto Public Library knows a little something about learning at play too! In fact, "Play" is one of the five pre-reading activities suggested in our "Ready for Reading" program. There are many ABC inspired activities on our website as well, including picking your family's "Letter of the Day" and "Letter Hunt" — just go all around your house, from the kitchen to the bedrooms, and try to find all the things that start with a particular letter.

Maybe you can'take some letter games with you wherever you go. For example, next time you visit the grocery store, try to find at least one thing that begins with each letter of the alphabet…though you might not want to buy all 26 items unless you are in the mood to try something new like perhaps a quince.

Toronto Public Library has many alphabet books in our collection and one of the most unique ones is Amy Krouse Rosenthal's Awake Beautiful Child (Ages 3-6). In it, the author really takes the idea of playing with your ABCs to a whole new level, as all of the sentences in the book consists solely of three words that use the starting letters A, B, and C, and only those letters, in sequence, just as she has done in the book's title: Awake Beautiful Child. 

To celebrate the release of this book, Krouse Rosenthal and McSweeney's Books held a contest that encouraged people to randomly put strangers in alphabetical order and then post photographic proof on social media. You could try this at home too (though maybe not with people that you don't know!). Ask your family, including cousins, aunts and uncles, to line-up in alphabetical order or have your child put their very favourite stuffed animals in order from A to Z.

Bear, dog, flamingo, monkey, mouse, octopus and whale – all lined-up in alphabetical order.

And there you have it — some exciting ways to learn and play with your ABCs every day.

(P.S. Did you see how I played with my ABCs in this post?  Go back and try to find all the highlighted letters, from A to Z.)