Take on Our Challenge: Read Across the Library ! @ LOC

Read Across 

the Library

Take on Our Challenge: Read Across the Library!

LOC Blog: 8.21.22020 by Sasha Dowdy

We are five weeks away from the 20th annual National Book Festival! If you are a parent following this blog, you are likely a fan of the Library or the festival, but how could you get your kids excited, too? We challenge you and your family to read across the Library!

The Library of Congress collects widely, and contains the largest collections of comics, maps, foreign language materials, and more in the world. Can you read a book that matches material from each of these 12 areas of the Library? Use the descriptions below and examples from past National Book Festivals as inspiration for the challenge. Or, use the challenge as a way to organize your experience at this year’s National Book Festival; representative titles are included below.

When you find the perfect book, you can use this printable book journal and “bingo”-style game board to have kids record their books and to compete or compare their challenge with siblings or friends.

Read Across the Library game board

International collections 

African & Middle Eastern

Asian

European 

Hispanic

A book about countries and cultures in these regions; a book by an author from these regions; a book translated from languages spoken in these regions: Africa and the Middle East, Asia, Europe, Central and South America.

All the Way to Havana by Mike Curato (ages 3-8)

Nya’s Long Walk by Linda Sue Park (ages 5-8)

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (ages 8-12)

When My Name was Keoko by Linda Sue Park (ages 9-12)

2020 festival, children’s stage:

Kwame Mbalia, Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky (ages 8-12)

Angela Dominguez, Stella Diaz Never Gives Up (ages 6-9)

Science, Technology and Business

A book about business, farming, money, or the economy; a book about running and managing a business or farm; a book that made a lot of money! A book on STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math; a book about cooking and food.

Girls Who Code: Learn to Code and Change the World by Reshma Saujani (ages 9-16)

2020 festival, children’s stage:

Sophie Blackall, If You Come to Earth (picture book, ages 5-8).

Jon Scieska & Steven Weinberg,

AstroNuts Mission 2: The Water Planet (ages 8-12)

Tonya Bolden, Changing the Equation: 50+ US Black Women in STEM  READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on 7 readability formulas:

Grade Level: 13

Reading Level: fairly difficult to read.

Reader's Age: 18-19 yrs. old

(college level entry)