We have been sharing the interesting, exciting, surprising and oh-so-helpful ways people in the kidlit community have been making online resources available to educators, parents and children during the Covid-19 epidemic. You can find previous round-ups here, here, here, here and here.
Last week, Penguin Classroom announced "Mondays with Michelle Obama," a special collaboration between Penguin Young Readers, Random House Childrens Books, PBS KIDS and former First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama. "Mondays with Michelle Obama" will support the recently announced "Read Together, Be Together" Penguin Random House literacy initiative and PBS KIDS' "Read-Along" effort. This past Monday, April 20, kicked off the four-week series of videos featuring Obama reading aloud beloved children's books: The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson, illus. by Axel Scheffler; There's a Dragon in Your Book by Tom Fletcher, illus. by Greg Abbot; Miss Maple's Seeds by Eliza Wheeler; and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. "Mondays with Michelle Obama" will be livestreamed simultaneously on the PBS KIDS' Facebook page and YouTube channel, as well as on Penguin Random House's Facebook page, and will remain available for viewing on all of the platforms.
Penguin Classroom has posted activity starter videos from Crash McCreery, Lauren Wolk and Veera Hiranandani, as well as writing tips for tweens, and PRH Audio is offering free downloads of Great Expectations, Grimms' Fairy Tales and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz through April 30 on its Volumes app, available on iOS and Android. Other audio entertainment and learning can be found from the Folger Shakespeare Library: seven complete audio performances of Shakespeare's plays are available for free streaming through July 1.
The teams behind YALLFest and YALLWest have scheduled a virtual book festival, YALLSTAYHOME, for this weekend, April 25-26. With giveaways, contests, signed book deliveries, special events and panels with more than 70 authors, YALLSTAYHOME aims to keep young readers "connected and inspired despite our social distance."
The Smithsonian Institution and Smithsonian Enterprises have worked with their partners to provide traditionally paid content for free. Free resources focused on pre-K-12 education, including "tailored lesson plans tied to national learning standards and added support for educators and parents," can be found in the Smithsonian's Learning Lab on the Distance Learning page. The Smithsonian Science Education Center has also made all of its free content available in one place, and its "Smithsonian Science Stories" are freely available on Carolina Biological's learning from home hub. DK and Smithsonian are also supporting readers with free educational content for Smithsonian Maker Lab Outdoors, Explorers, Timelines of Everything and The Space Race Activity Pack. And Silver Dolphin Books is offering downloadable pages for children ages 8-12 from two activity books, Smithsonian Extreme Animals Activity Book and Smithsonian Super Science Activity Book.
Lastly, National Library Week began on Sunday, April 19. Several libraries have digital activities and events planned to celebrate the week and individuals can check out their local libraries' webpages to see if there is anything scheduled. Readers can also celebrate the week with any of these digital libraries: the Digital Public Library of America, the Nautical Archaeology Digital Library, the Central Intelligence Agency's Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room, the Biodiversity Heritage Library, the Getty Publications Virtual Library, the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine and, of course, the New York Public Library's online collection. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness