Six Skills by Age Six: Launching Early Literacy at the Library

The state of Kansas's 6 by 6: Ready To Read program, an initiative that aims to help kids develop fundamental proficiencies by age six, lays out the foundation for libraries to turn storytime and library programming into early literacy milestones. This text-heavy volume takes readers from the development of the initial implementation through the time line and budgeting of the new statewide enhanced early literacy program upon which the book is based. Focusing on how to integrate this program into established early childhood programming, Foote and Debrick emphasize skills that are easy to demonstrate to caregivers and that translate well into home settings. Covering three levels of programing, ranging from large events and kits that include activities for all six developmental milestones to midsize storytime activities and take-home literacy kits, the authors explain how the program can be adapted to suit libraries of all sizes. Unfortunately, there are no visual representations of the activities and kits. Of further help would be electronic downloads or a shipping list with vendor information for the activity pieces mentioned. The cost to implement the program on a statewide scale is extensive and may be overwhelming to smaller libraries. Overall, the authors do a wonderful job describing the process and providing examples of each type of early literacy stage. However, readers may find themselves left with as many questions as answers.