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President Obama Spotted Reading Penguin Group (USA) Books

The Daily Beast recently pulled together a compilation list of every book that President Barack Obama, “Reader in Chief,” has been spotted with since May 2008. The list included two Penguin Group (USA) titles:

• Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet by Jeffrey D. Sachs (The Penguin Press/Penguin). Read about it in this New York Times article.
• Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll (The Penguin Press/Penguin). Read about it in this New York Times article.

To view the complete list of books, click here.
 

Avery Author Pam Allyn Spreads the Love of Reading in Kenya

In What to Read When, Avery author and award-winning educator Pam Allyn (pictured) offers an eye-opening guide to how parents can best inspire children through reading together. Providing essential advice that ranges from choosing appropriate titles to reading aloud effectively, What to Read When ultimately celebrates the power of reading aloud with children.

Over the summer, Allyn traveled to Kenya, where she was able to share her powerful message as part of LitWorld, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to ending child illiteracy. This past July, LitWorld hosted one of its Teacher Training Institutes in the Kibera region of Nairobi, where Allyn and 74 other teachers led individualized training sessions for local teachers. Despite the harsh conditions of the slum, in an email Allyn described not only the resourcefulness and determination of its local teachers, but also the children’s eagerness to learn. One young girl even waited for her because she wanted to re-read Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat. Over the course of eight intense days, in the workshops she and her colleagues encouraged teachers to share their stories, try new methods of reading and writing, and eventually lead their own lessons.

All in all, the experience taught Allen the importance of nurturing teachers through reading and writing as well as young children: “Teachers and parents and guardians must be educated and nurtured in their work too. They can learn new methods and best approaches to raising and teaching children. In this way, we can and will reach millions of children.”

Read an excerpt from What to Read When and Pam Allyn’s posts on the Penguin Blog.
 

Perigee Author Ammon Shea Pens Column for the New York Times Magazine 

Ammon Shea, author of Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 pages (Perigee), filled in for the vacationing William Safire, writing an "On Language" column that ran in the New York Times Magazine this past Sunday, August 15th. Shay's engougement (definiton: irrational fondness) for dictionaries led him to spend a year reading through all 20 volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary. In his column, titled Dated Definitions, he explores the history, revisions and future of The OED. The New York Times Magazine plugged Reading the OED, as well as Shea's upcoming book about the history of the telephone book, in his byline. Read the full piece here.