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This digital tool offers the youngest learners a range of content covering various high-interest topics in an ad-free portal. Children can safely explore the resources that cover popular early learning topics, such as animals, vehicles and transportation, and concepts like letters and numbers.

Understanding the racist roots of nursery rhymes can help librarians and early childhood educators decide what is appropriate to share with children—and what should be left behind.

Everyone wins when public libraries collaborate with these preschool programs, which are funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and implemented through local agencies.

At story hours or in more casual settings, readers will come away from these two charming books about family and baking hungry. In each, family and friends—woodland animals or human dear ones—gather, and beautiful loaves of challah are enjoyed by all.

Singsong language is good for infant brains, according to new research. 

During the pandemic, many families relied on Mo Willems’s playful, calm, and supportive “Lunch Doodle” videos, sponsored by the ­Kennedy Center, on YouTube. The Mo Willems Workshop channel has expanded its content. Here's SLJ's review.

Early chapter books? Easy readers? Whatever you call them, transitional books are key for young students, librarians say.

Offer registration help to caregivers, add voting activities to engage children and adults, and share these age-appropriate books about civic engagement. 

These books nurture literacy, empathy, and understanding.

Incorporating interactive features, engaging text, and delightful rhymes, these board books encourage the magic of a shared reading experience that no screen, app, or video can replicate.

Extending Brooklyn Public Library’s Books Unbanned initiative to young kids and parents.

Librarians share views on the best way to help kids get ready to read.

The science behind board books, a brief history of the format, and a look at the publishing market. 

Early learning offerings by informed staff and programs extended from the height of the pandemic can help all young children thrive.

In these fun picture books, children can follow along with kids—and animals!—on their quest to obtain a new live-in best friend. These 11 stories range from the first desire for an animal companion to the responsibility of caring for another life. 

Tips for engaging young kids with these works, which can build visual literacy and foster social-emotional skills, plus a video demonstration. 

A team of librarians and academics identifies different kinds of counting books and recommends titles and read-aloud strategies for each. 

For many young readers (and their grown-ups), boarding an airplane is easier said than done. This list features titles to prep young travelers in advance.

The first day of school, separation anxiety, a sandwich running the classroom—all the usual suspects show up in these seven beauts about helping kids cross the transom back into the world of curiosity and learning!

From YouTube to TikTok, ­librarians’ videos are promoting early literacy and allowing access to learning activities. These tips and examples will inspire you to hit Record.

ABCs. 123s. The first year of school has come to an end, and it’s graduation time. These seven titles are the perfect picks for celebrating this monumental milestone.

Artfully designed casewraps, endpapers, flaps, and even copyright pages bring young readers deep into a picture book's world and spark engagement. 

Is a mix of ages better in a group, or one? Youth services staff make compelling cases for both approaches.

Travis Jonker raises up the best titles for reading aloud. “Some will be obvious and popular. Others lesser known. All will be story time gold.”

 For our September issue, journalist Martha Hinton reported on new approaches to teaching the topic of slavery in U.S. classrooms. 

Do you and your library program need attention?  Use these tips to refresh and recharge. 

Back to school means time to revisit Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's How to Raise an Antiracist. This New York Times bestseller is his answer to the many questions parents and educators have on how to bring children into conversation, about how to be better citizens in the world, and how to treat their peers with compassion and inclusion.

Looking for fresh picks to add to your Spanish-language board book collections? These seven titles fit perfectly in little ones’ hands and are just right for lapsits and baby story time.

Literacy development depends on many factors, including access to learning that helps students crack the alphabetic code, their community's ability to meet social-emotional needs, and engaging curriculum. 

Librarians can encourage adults to interact with babbling babies to enhance language learning.

The combination of engaging tales, funny pictures, and language children can grasp while learning to read is propelling a booming market. 

Scheller and Ramirez engage students while addressing the word gap at Eiland Elementary School in Houston, TX, and are the first recipients of the LIbrarian/Teacher Collaboration Award, sponsored by TLC.

Virtual maternal health sessions, books in clinics, and more ways for public libraries to reach families since the pandemic.

Four STEM-themed adventures for elementary students drawn to the appealing series. 

SLJ is publishing lists all summer long—from family stories to mysteries to teen reads. Here's some of our favorite picture book biographies, from inventors and engineers to scientists and artists. The individuals profiled in these captivating read-alouds will inspire young readers (and their grown-ups).

The pandemic habit that we hope will last—reading together! We pulled together some favorites that allow for exploration, discussion, or just lap time.

Ebooks aren't ideal for tactile toddlers, but in virtual story times, they can minimize problems like glare and book size.

Libraries are providing rich, ­creative sensory experiences to the young children who need it most. Here are ideas for stimulating, hands-on activities.

Librarians can promote empathy during virtual story times by modeling open-ended questions, providing parent tips, and encouraging dramatic play.

The need for engaging books for the very youngest children has seldom been higher. From small-format, wordless books to those filled with fascinating details, recent board books allow children to investigate the world around them without leaving familiar surroundings.

As access to physical books has become difficult during the pandemic, digital libraries, Zoom story times, and other resources help young students stay connected to books and stories.

Created out of necessity, virtual library programs for little ones and their families, who tune in from home, have many upsides.

Research shows that preschoolers naturally categorize people by race, can be conscious of social stereotypes as early as age six, and naturally attribute positive traits to their own ethnic or racial groups.

Some books are just nicer when they are shared! We pulled together some favorites that allow for exploration, discussion, or just lap time.

Suggestions for family and caregivers who are virtually connecting with young children.

From inventors and engineers to scientists and artists, the individuals profiled in these captivating read-alouds will inspire young readers (and their grown-ups). Looking for more summer reading recommendations? SLJ is publishing lists all summer long—from family stories to mysteries to teen reads.  

Mentioning the census in storytimes, including virtual storytimes, is a simple way to reach families about this vital issue. 

First make a schedule for your little one including choice time, quiet time, and screen time for when you need to work or rest. Then use these resources.
 

The Boston Children’s Museum and the Institute of Museum and Library Services are doubling the number of states participating in a school readiness initiative. Creating a coalition of museums, libraries, and community groups is key to its success.

Addressing technology’s negative impact on parent/child engagement and group participation.

The latest in the developer's transportation series provides templates for viewers to get their app designs rolling.

Holiday anticipation can wreak havoc on bedtime routines. Deck your seasonal book displays with titles that will lull young children to sleep when all else fails.

Simple motor tasks and games boost young children's executive function and cognitive skills.

Children should be encouraged to look closely at the world around them and ask questions. These recently published titles for preschool and early elementary students will do just that as they build a solid foundation for STEM work and wonderings.

Libraries offer a range of career support programs for childcare providers.

Refresh your lapsit collections and storytime repertoire with these warm and whimsical titles for babies and toddlers.

It's been a space-themed month, and Avokiddo's new app adds to the fun with a production that fuses logic, puzzles, and elements of physics. 

For SLJ's early learning issue, our reviews team curated this booklist of the most appealing and eclectic board books of the summer.

The plight of immigrant families at the U.S. border prompted the Brooklyn Public Library and others to act. 

While traditional storytime isn’t going away, public libraries are exploring new strategies to serve toddlers and preschoolers, from STEM for babies and Touchpoints for Libraries, to new guidance on screen time.

Getting more families into libraries is one goal of the FamLAB Project, which has tapped a cross-sector cohort to expand out-of-school learning opportunities for young children and their families.

Simple ways to avoid gender stereotypes during library storytime.

How to extend toddlers' attention spans and model mindful practices.

Chelsea Clinton spoke to the crowd and read books to neighborhood kids after cutting the ribbon to officially open the space, which is a project of the Laundry Literacy Coalition.

Sensory explorers by nature, toddlers are made for scientific inquiry. Here's how to engage them.