Celebrate Children’s Book Week!

Chil­dren’s Book Week has been cel­e­brat­ed through the Unit­ed States since 1919 with appear­ances by authors and illus­tra­tors, par­ties, sto­ry­telling, and oth­er book-relat­ed events in schools, libraries, book­stores, etc., and this year it takes place May 2–8!
Don’t you just love that poster (above) cre­at­ed by the tal­ent­ed Peter Brown? I do! You can order one for your­self right here.
Here are some of my favorite ways you can cel­e­brate (this week–or anytime!):

• Test your skills with our Chil­dren’s Book Week puz­zles!
• Help great authors fin­ish a sto­ry they have start­ed at Sto­ry Starters!
• Down­load the offi­cial Chil­dren’s Book Week book­mark, or make your own charmed book­mark. Bet­ter yet, do both!
• Vol­un­teer to read to patients in a hos­pi­tal or res­i­dents in a nurs­ing home.
• Host a Chil­dren’s Book Week par­ty.
• Hold a book exchange.
• Donate books to a local fam­i­ly shel­ter or chil­dren’s hospital.
• Raise mon­ey for a library, school, day care, senior cen­ter, or lit­er­a­cy organ­za­tion so they can buy books.
• Read the final­ists for the 2011 Chil­dren’s Choice Book Awards.
• Buy books, check out books, read books… every day!

Local­ly, Third Place Books in Lake For­est Park has some fun events sched­uled, includ­ing book talks with Mark Kurlan­sky and his daugh­ter Talia  (WORLD WITHOUT FISH) and Sean Beau­doin (YOU KILLED WESLEY PAYNE) tonight (May 3rd) at 7:00 p.m. and Carmela D’Am­i­co (SUKI THE VERY LOUD BUNNY) on Sun­day, May 8th, at 4:00 p.m. They’ll also have a craft table set up all week for kids to make book­marks and will be offer­ing grab bag coupons.
So, no excuses–it’s time to celebrate!