December 2024

Our annual guide to great kids’ books for gift giving and much more!

In this issue: Children’s Books & Authors / Literacy at Home / In the Classroom / Research, Events & News

Children’s Books & Authors

Books as Gifts: Our Annual Guide to Wonderful Books

December is a time of lights, family, friends, celebrations — and sharing gifts from the heart. There’s a book here for every kind of young reader, learner, and snuggle-in-your-lap story lover.

We’ve included stories about family and friendship, animals, dragons, adventures, art, science, music, and more. You’ll find funny books, a bit of fantasy and mystery, graphic novels, poetry, and informational books that that explore everything from whales in the ocean to telescopes in space.

Happy Holidays from Reading Rockets!

More booklists to explore:

The Best Picture Books of 2024 (Imagination Soup)

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2024 Picture Book Readalouds (Betsy Bird, School Library Journal)

Favorite Books for December Celebrations

Warm your hearts with these holiday stories, from old favorites to new delights. These recommended books for kids are about generosity, love, and friendship, and are perfect for the season, no matter what traditions you celebrate!

Tips and Tools for Nonfiction Book Talks

Book talks are a great way to get students excited about books and reading — including nonfiction! Here are some tips from nonfiction author Melissa Stewart on bringing nonfiction book talks into your classroom.

Watch our video interview with Melissa

100 Children’s Authors and Illustrators Everyone Should Know

Meet 100 wonderful authors and illustrators who create beautiful and timeless books for children, contributing fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, and poetry to our bookshelves. We hope you discover some new books and learn about the folks who brought them to life.

You can meet many of these wonderful book creators in our video interview library!

Literacy at Home

Learning During School Breaks

Visit your local library to take advantage of all the fantastic activities and resources it has to offer — including reading challenges, writing competitions, book clubs, author talks, craft classes, maker space workshops, STEM programs, awesome book recommendations, and much, much more. In this new blog post, Arlington, VA children’s librarian Basheer Kareem shares his ideas for connecting kids to literacy-rich experiences that are great for families whether school is open or closed.

Start with a Book: Read. Explore. Learn!

Do you know children who are fascinated by dinosaurs, planes, bugs, birds, animals, the moon and stars, art, or wild weather? Are there any young detectives, explorers, or superheroes at home? Do your kids love reading poetry, myths, or tall tales? At our companion site, Start with a Book, you can browse 25 kid-friendly topics — each paired with fiction and nonfiction books, hands-on-activities, writing ideas, podcasts, and more resources for building knowledge about our world.

If you are looking for fun learning ideas during the winter break, take a look at Start with a Book!

Listen and Learn with Audiobooks

Audiobooks are a wonderful way to expose your child to complex language, expressive reading, and fantastic stories. Listening to audiobooks also gives kids the valuable and enjoyable experience of using their own imaginations to visualize the people and places they’re hearing about. Here, you’ll find guidance on what to look for in choosing audiobooks as well as listening tips. (Tips in English and Spanish)

How can technology help my child with writing?

Curriculum and Technology Integration Coach Mike Carvella says that some kids struggle with the physical act of writing and others with organizing ideas and revising their drafts. Built-in writing tools like dictation and the ability to add pictures and other graphics can help kids improve their writing and enjoy it more.

Find more video Q&As about writing — including tips on organization, using more interesting words, spelling, grammar, handwriting — in our series Writing SOS: Expert Answers to Family Questions About Writing. 

See also: Developing Writing and Spelling at Home (Tips in English and Spanish)

Sister Site Spotlight: AdLit.org

New Resource! Accelerated Learning

Ask “How will they learn best?” not “Can they learn?”
— Jaime Escalante

What is accelerated learning? It’s a different way of thinking about how to address learning gaps. Schoolwide shifts to support strong partnerships, a growth mindset, robust instruction, and an effective use of time work together to accelerate student learning.

Learn more about how to plan and implement subtle and seismic changes in your school.

In the Classroom

Getting Reading Right Is Messy: No One Has It All Figured Out

“I wish my work was so straightforward and my school’s progress so steady.”

Improving literacy rates on a large scale will require solving the problems that make working in schools like mine so challenging. We can’t get instruction right within our classrooms without addressing some of the problems outside of them. Read this latest blog post from Margaret Goldberg, co-founder of the Right to Read Project and a literacy coach in a large urban district in California.

Is Comprehension Better with Digital Text?

New research indicates that the processing of texts on screens is faster and shallower than on paper. Students don’t comprehend digital text as well as they do paper text — but they can learn how to get the most out of these texts, with the right supports. Learn more in this updated blog post from Tim Shanahan.

Teaching Text Structure

Understanding text structure is key to reading comprehension and also helps strengthen writing skills. In this section you’ll learn about the 5 most common text structures and how to help students learn to identify and use text structures in their reading and writing.

See also: Implementing the Text Structure Strategy in Your Classroom

Our Most Popular Resources for Educators

Millions of you visited the Reading Rockets website this past year! We are grateful that so many of you are looking to us for free evidence-based resources on helping young children learn to read. Here are 5 of our most visited resources in 2024:

Classroom Strategy: Inferencing

Classroom Strategy: Jigsaw

A New Model for Teaching High-Frequency Words

Teaching Vocabulary

Reading 101 Online Learning Module: Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

Research, Events & News

What’s Missing from Teachers’ Toolkits to Support Student Reading in Grades 3–8: Findings from the RAND American Teacher Panel
Published: August 2024

Time in Text: Differentiating Instruction for Intermediate Students Struggling With Word Recognition
February 27, 2025 webinar (International Literacy Association)
Featured speaker: Heidi Anne Mesmer

The Reading League Summit
The Science of Reading: With Growing Awareness Comes Incomplete Understandings
April 22-23, 2025 | Chicago, IL

How AI Will Impact the Future of Teaching—a Conversation With Sal Khan
Edutopia

‘Why is the sky fuzzy?’: Climate change lessons need to start as early as preschool
Hechinger Report

Bilingualism Makes the Brain More Efficient
Language Magazine

Helping English Language Learners Develop a Love of Reading
Edutopia

Florida, the forgotten education-reform star
Fordham Institute Flypaper

Philadelphia students have a new reading and writing curriculum − a literacy expert explains what’s changing
The Conversation

How One Woman Became the Scapegoat for America’s Reading Crisis
The Atlantic (gift article)

The 2024 New York Times / New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books
The New York Times (gift article)

Florida Center for Reading Research awarded $3.6 million grant to advance early literacy education
Florida State University News