PARENT INVOLVEMENT IN THE FOREST OF READING®

THE FOREST OF READING® AWARD PROGRAMS... Where Children and Young Adults pick the Winner!  Get them involved in the largest recreational reading program in the Country!

The readers read to be eligible to vote for their favourite Canadian book. You can help ensure they have success by supporting them in this program.  The Award affords an opportunity to honour and encourage imaginative authors/illustrators who create works with high appeal to children and young adults. There are no politics. Authors/Illustrators win by writing books that readers like - pure and simple.  Make sure your child or young adult is in a Forest program.

Make sure your school or library has a group in which your young person can participate. If you don’t know ASK YOUR SCHOOL/LIBRARY! Take copies of the Forest of Reading® flyer to show principals, teachers, teacher-librarians, library staff and parent-teacher councils who may not be familiar with this exciting program. Please contact olaprograms@accessola.com if you need a flyer sent to you.

HOW PARENTS CAN HELP

For most schools and libraries, the biggest obstacle is having sufficient funds to purchase the copies necessary to keep excited readers reading. Each participant must read a minimum of five books before becoming eligible to vote. If the books are not available, frustrations rise and the number of children who will be able to qualify to vote becomes limited. Libraries will welcome your willingness to fund even one book, let alone several. Make your support go further by asking librarians to order the books for you - they get a discount. To order books you can contact S&B Books, official wholesaler of the Forest of Reading®, at www.sbbooks.com.  Alternatively, you can contact olaprograms@accessola.com and they can put you in touch with S&B.  Let other parents know they can help, too.


Other parents will want to help as well. But if they do not know about the Forest® or know there is a desire for it, they will not be able to help. Talk to your home and school group, your principal or your librarian or library staff. They will be pleased to help you help them.

Encourage your child to read, read, read.

Children get very excited with this program. They take considerable ownership if they can get through a lot of books, but they gain even more if the adults around them are encouraging them. For younger children you can build interest by reading some of the books aloud or getting your young person to tell you about them.  For older kids you can get them engaged in interesting conversations about the books subject matter or introduce them to other books by the same authors.

BE A SUPPORTER OF CANADA'S LARGEST RECREATIONAL READING PROGRAM IN THE COUNTRY!

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“…the Forest makes you smart and you can learn from information in the books…”

“…some people think books are just for looking at pictures…before I hated books but now I love them…Now I have a good collection of books.”
 
“…books teach very interesting facts and people can learn how to do pranks, where animals live, how to save animals or just jokes!”
 
“…normally only adults can vote for stuff and children can’t vote.  In the Forest you can vote for your favourite book.  Also, I normally just read books on topics that I know and that I know I will like.  The Forest shows me a variety of books I’d like to read.”
 
“…I can talk to a teacher or adult about a book and I can have a private discussion on it and we can have different views about the book.”
 
“…sometimes when people read a lot they can’t find new books to read.  The Forest of Reading helps because it has new recommendations for books to read.  Also, it is in a lot of schools, so if your friend is in a different school you can talk about the books.“
 
“…It is better than reading books because it’s hard to find someone who’s reading the same one as you, so reading doesn’t come up a lot, which is why some people might not like to read…”
 
“…you get to read books on a regular basis and if you didn’t like reading before you get used to doing the Forest programs every year and really get interested in reading.”
 
“…It makes us want to read the books because you want to know who’s in the competition so then you can say, ‘I want this book to win!’  It is a fun reason to read.”
 
“…when you read, you get more knowledge in your brain! The Forest books are interesting and come with good lessons.”
 
“…it represents non-fiction, fiction etc.  It also makes our authors more famous because people vote for their books and it help you learn, teaches you morals and my favourite part – The Festival of Trees™.   You can buy books and you might even meet authors!”
 
“…it encourages kids to read.”
 
“…by voting you are able to say ‘I like this one’ and by the votes the authors will know what they need to improve on to write better books.  The Forest also helps with us learning new subjects and becoming more knowledgeable.”
 
“…kids get to explore books and learn who the authors are and tell the authors what they liked and didn’t like (in person or on-line).  Kids get to vote and you get into a habit of voting so that when you get older, you don’t become to lazy to vote.”