Books Are for Talking, Too!

Books are for Talking, Too! (Fourth Edition) is a researched-based, practical resource for promoting early literacy and oral communication skills through the low-text picture book genre of children’s literature. This time-saving guide suggests literally hundreds of quality books and details methods for professionals - or anyone working with preschool through grade 5 + children - to use in addressing a wide variety of skills. The updated, 4th edition of this popular resource adds over 60 new children’s books to its catalogs, now totaling over 250 children’s book entries. It is packed with more methods for targeting early literacy skills (e.g., concepts of print), vocabulary (e.g., idioms, similes and metaphors, homonyms, synonyms, antonyms, beginning concepts), grammar and syntax constructs, storytelling skills, social/pragmatic language, critical thinking, speech production skills (including articulation, fluency, and voice), and much more. Plus, a whole new section is devoted to phonological awareness training using the same games and research-based techniques as featured in the last edition, with newly added, easy-to-find picture books. These and more features make this updated, 4th edition even more resourceful for speech-language pathologists, early education teachers, special education teachers, librarians, parents, and anyone working with an individual child, groups of children, a whole classroom, or in classroom collaboration. Sections 1 and 3 contain researched information on the uses of books, suggestions for looking for more books, and extensive catalogs of picture books, one appropriate for Preschool and Kindergarten (PK-K), and another for Grades 1 through 5 and beyond (Gr 1 - 5+). Section 2 contains researched information on phonological awareness (PA), tables for the hierarchy of PA skills, tables for the sequence of games found in the PA catalog showing detailed directions and examples, and a catalog of picture books in two parts (beginning and advanced) for use in PA training using playful games from meaningful words taken directly from the story. Section 4 contains four easy-to-use indices. The Topic Exploration index covers more than 90 different topics that can be used to coordinate with and support classroom curricula. Topics include American History Cultures Folklore Kindness and Empathy Mathematics Music and Musicians Perspective-taking Planets and Solar System People of the World Shapes and Visual Images Sounds and Listening, and much more. The Skills index lists books under easy-to-find categories. Over 75 skills can be found under the headings of Concepts of Print Vocabulary Grammar and Syntax Language Literacy Pragmatic Language Phonological Awareness Articulation Voice, and Fluency All books listed in the Skills index are cross-referenced with the books in the catalogs. Two additional indices provide listings by author and title. Readers can take advantage of this trove of information, time and again, year after year, to find resources in children's literature with useful methods to target the skills children most need to develop, all within the fun and joyful atmosphere of interactive storybook reading.