Great Websites for Kids —
ALSC, the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association has had for a while a section promoting the best websites for children they have found. Called “
Great Websites for Kids” it is updated regularly, so check back if you haven’t visited it lately. The first page has categories listed you can select: “Sites of the Week,” “Recent Sites,” Most Popular,” and “Top Rated” and contains links to sites from The Crayola Home Page to Giggle Poetry and Farmer’s Almanac for Kids. If you are wondering what sites you are missing, here is a good place to start. I gave up trying to count the number of sites to which they link. There are also plenty of author sites included: Shel Silverstein, The Brown Bookshelf, Jan Brett, Avi, and Janet Stevens for a start.
My Bus by Byron Barton has a human bus driver picking up dogs or cats at each of the bus stops. The driver takes some of the animals to the boat, some to the train, and others to an airplane. A simple story that includes favorite animals and popular transportation machines. A little math is implied: addition as the animals board the bus and subtraction as they depart. Each illustration clearly shows the dogs and cats still on the bus, so counting how many are there is another activity for listeners. A good choice for story times.
(The Nebraska Library Commission receives free copies of children’s and young adult books for review from a number of publishers. After review, the books are distributed free, via the Regional Library Systems, to Nebraska school and public libraries.)
