2020 CLEL Bell Award Winners
In the midst of January changing over to February, I missed the announcement of the 2020 CLEL Bell Award Winners! Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy (CLEL) is an amazing resource for librarians, teachers, parents, and caregivers with great book suggestions and tips and tricks for storytimes. I’m a huge proponent of learning about storytime skills for people beyond librarians. These skills can be used with groups of kids in childcare centers, for babysitters and nannies and for parents. And storytime doesn’t have to be 20 kids at the public library. Storytime can also be you and your little curled up on the couch together. The concepts are still the same although adjusted for the crowd size.
The CLEL Bell Awards are given to a picture book that fits into one of five categories – Read, Write, Talk, Sing, and Play. These are the five early literacy practices that should be focused on with young children before they reach kindergarten. And what’s even better? These practices are things families are doing every day, now research has shown why it’s so important. Early literacy is not teaching kids how to read. Early literacy is teaching kids the building blocks to becoming successful readers. These five practices build on six early literacy skills promoted by the Public Library Association (PLA) and the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC). Librarians know these concepts as Every Child Ready to Read. CLEL has a section on their website that you can review for more information.
From 25 titles on the shortlist, the following titles are the winners of the 2020 CLEL Bell Awards.
- The Book Hog by Greg Pizzoli (read)
- The Thank You Letter by Jane Cabrera (write)
- Daniel’s Good Day by Micha Archer (talk)
- Red House, Tree House, Itty Bitty Brown Mouse by Jane Godwin, illustrated by Blanca Gómez (sing)
- Who Has Wiggle-Waggle Toes? by Vicky Shiefman, illustrated by Francesca Chessa (play)
