Caldecott Challenge 1938 to Present

Laura of LibLaura5 and Anna Z of A to Z Library are hosting the Caldecott Challenge. The full details are here.

In a nutshell, I will be reading through all of the Caldecott Medal Winners and Honor Books by year, starting from 1938. I will be blogging about my progress here as well as tweeting using hashtag  #nerdcott.

This is a STRESS FREE challenge and there is no set deadline and I am quite happy about that. I plan on reading them in order and I know that some of the older titles may be harder to find. At this time, I have not decided how I will tackle the posts for this challenge. I may do video reviews for each individual book. I may do a single post for all the books for each year or even each decade. 

I guess I will decide once I read the first set of books. Here is a list of all the books.

Are any of you participating in the challenge? Be sure to let me know and link your blog in the comments.

Book Challenges and Reading Incentives

The past few weeks I have been working on getting my blog set up the way that I want and joining a few blog hops and book challenges.

Because my son is not yet 2, he doesn't really have certain books that he likes over others. I decided to join a few book challenges to help with this. Not only do I have "rules" to follow and my blog readers to hold me accountable, I also have a list to go by for picking out books. This makes it easier for me to find books to share with my son, but it also helps me go out of my comfort zone and find books that I may never have heard of or chosen on my own.

This is a great idea for parents as well. When you have a reluctant reader, a book challenge, with some incentive at the end, may be a good way to get them motivated. You don't have to worry about them not being able to find a book they like-there are book challenges for just about every genre. And when you have a list to follow, it helps to keep you involved as well as your child.

Most book challenges have some general rules, but you can always create your own. Use a book log like this to keep track of your child's reading and have a reward or incentive agreed upon from the beginning. The reward can be a trip to the ice cream shop, a pizza party, or anything that you want. Just be sure to let them choose the incentive.

If your child is not able or chooses not to complete the challenge, still praise them for what they did accomplish. You want them to know that you are proud of any of their accomplishments, no matter how small.

Do you participate in any book challenges or read-a-thons with your child? What types of incentives do you offer? Be sure to let me know in the comments.