A Children's Library Open Its Doors Again

I should start out by saying I did a really cool speaking/signing event this weekend. One that got me thinking.

What made it so cool was that it took place at the Grand Re-Opening of the Palo Alto Children's Library. The very idea of a community library devoted solely to books for children is a heady one. When I mentioned to a wonderful woman named Maya—who was the heart and soul and spirit behind this grand makeover—that I could not think of another library like this one, she said there are just a few others. What a shame! Imagine if every community could have one!

I must say thank you to everyone who volunteered to make the event so successful (the sizeable turnout ended up being well informed and well cupcaked!) and to Kepler's Books & Magazines for inviting me to be the guest author at such a festive community celebration.

On a more note that's a bit more bloggy...

You simply must check out the 2007 National Assessment of Education Progress at Grades 4 and 8. I'll tell you, things look a little brighter in this report. There's much to be hopeful about in here. Here's one example: "Fourth graders in 2007 scored 2 points higher than in 2005 and 4 points higher than in 1992." There are oodles of interesting charts and factioids organized in a way that makes the whole thing easy to breeze through. Oh, and I did notice with some interest that girls still whup boys in reading in both age groups. DOH! You can download the report—in part or in whole—here. Let me know if anything in the report catches your eye.