How do we become better readers?  We improve our reading skills the same way we improve other skills:  We practice!

Accelerated Reader is a program that ensures reading success for every child by encouraging students to read independently in a reading level range/zone.  This Zone of Proximal Development, or ZPD, enables each child to choose books within her or his range for good practice and sincere enjoyment.  This program provides not only the time for reading, but also the motivation to want to read.

The goals:
*To improve reading skills.
*To provide an opportunity for all students to read independently.
*To ensure success for each student as a reader.
*To build student's self-confidence.
*To inspire a love of reading.
*To develop lifelong learners.

Books that match these quiz titles may be found in public libraries, classroom libraries, home libraries, book stores, or Tavan school library.  Most Tavan classroom libraries and the school library have AR books leveled for students.

The Grand Canyon Reader Award - Over 55,000 students across the state of Arizona nominate their favorite books for this award each year.

During library time students will listen to 10 fiction and 10 non-fiction books chosen by other children in Arizona and the Arizona Library Association.  Children vote for their favorite book.  In February, their votes will be tallied with other children's votes throughout Arizona to choose the Grand Canyon Reader Award (formerly Arizona Young Reader's Award) for 2009.

Book titles are:    
Fiction:
Bats at the Beach by Brian Lies
But Excuse Me That Is My Book by Lauren Child
Chick and Salsa by Aaron Reynolds
Duck at the Door by Jackie Urbanovic
Max's Words by Kate Banks
The Perfect Nest by Catherine Friend

Phoebe and Chub by Matthew Henry Hall
The Secret Science Project That Almost Ate the School by Judy Sierra

Some Dog! by Mary Casanova
There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea by Jennifer Ward

Non-Fiction:
Ant, Ant, Ant:  An Insect Chant by April Pulley
Beachcombing:  Exploring the Searshore by Jim Arnosky
Boy Were We Wrong About the Dinosaurs! by Kathleen Kudlinski
Built to Last:  Building America's Amazing Bridges, Dams, Tunnels and Skyscrapers by George Sullivan
Cookies:  Bite-Size Lessons by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Eat, Shoots, and Leaves:  Why Commas Really Do Make a Difference by Lynne Truss
An Egg Is Quiet by Diana Hutts Aston
Great Estimations by Bruce Goldstone
Monkey Business by Wallace Edwards
Theodore by Frank Keating

Students read these intermediate books and vote in February for their favorite--along with other children in Arizona, their votes choose the Grand Canyon Reader Award for 2009!

Blood on the River:  James Town, 1607 by Elisa Carbone
Clementine by Sara Pennypacker
Counting on Grace by Elizabeth Winthrop
Deep and Dark and Dangerous:  A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Haha
The Invention of Hugo Cabret:  A Novel in Words and Pictures by Brian Selznick
Phineas L. MacGuire...Erupts!:  The First Experiment by Frances O'Roark Dowell
The Sisters Grimm:  Book One, Fairy-Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley
Yellow Star by Jennifer Rozines Roy
Younguncle Comes to Town by Vandana Singh

Randolph Caldecott Medal
Invention of Hugo Cabret:  A Novel in Words and Pictures by Brian Selznick

John Newbery Medal
Good Masters!  Sweet Ladies!  Voiced from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schiltz

Coretta Scott King Book Award
Author: Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

Illustrator: Let It Shine illustrated by Ashley Bryan

Pura Belpré Award
Author: The Poet Slave of Cuba:  A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano by Margarita Engle

Illustrator: Los Gatos Black on Halloween illustrated by Yuyi Morales