Growing Readers: TumbleBooks

Guest Blogger, Maria Meachum

As a Librarian, and more importantly as a Mom, I have observed that when it comes to reading children seem to follow one of two paths. They read faster than you can get books from the library or they have great difficulty in learning to read (or just don’t enjoy reading as much as TV, videos and games.) As a parent of both types of readers my favorite solution is a great program called TumbleBooks. This program is offered by my public library, and should be offered by yours. To get this subscription at your library “ASK FOR IT!” Go to www.tumblebooks.com and do the free trial to see how this type of e-book can satisfy kids on both reading paths. TumbleBooks is an online collection of animated talking picture books which teach kids the joy of reading in a format they’ll love. They even have something for the older kids if you want to check out www.tumblereadables.com.

For the reading lover they offer a large variety of e-books to choose from including award winners. For the child who has difficulty these e-books can be set to audio narration and the book can be read to them, allowing the echo technique to be utilized without spending all your time with your child. Adding to this (or to turn sound off) is the highlighting feature. This feature allows the child to tell which word is being read because the active word changes color. Some of the books have even been animated which makes the already fantastic illustrations come alive. The animation feature appeals to your TV and video addicts. The game junkies will also enjoy some of the reading games featured on TumbleBooks. It is a win-win website and I hope you enjoy my recommendation.

Maria works at the Bellwood Public Library (Bellwood, IL). She is Mom to two kids, ages 7 & 9. I also count it my privilege call Maria “family.” She is my husband’s cousin but they treat each other more like brother and sister. They like to say that they are the only normal members of the family.