Ethically Sharing Children’s and Young Adult Literature Online

The focus of this curated list of resources is to ethically share children’s and young adult literature online. I have been an online educator for twelve years. I am a staunch defender of creators’ rights to their work and hold the graduate students in the courses I teach to a high standard. It is a violation of copyright for individuals to record and distribute read-alouds of copyrighted works. As noted in last week’s post, librarians and educators will likely not be sued by the creator(s) or the publishers if they do so, but that’s not the point. The point is to model respect for the rights of the copyright holder.)Books Read Monitor Online ImageIn “normal” times, fair use does not cover public distribution on the open Internet. Fair use can only be applied when book reading recordings are available behind password protection. In that case, the password-protected space is considered a “classroom” or “library.” School Library Journal and Kate Messner recently posted various publishers’ guidelines applicable during the pandemic. (You will note that the majority stress password protection.)

Kate Messner posted “Publisher Guidelines for Fair Use for Online Read Alouds.”

School Library Journal posted “Publishers Adapt Policies to Help Educators.”

All of the links curated below provide ethical ways to share children’s and young adult literature online. Many of these resources were collected by Worlds of Words Board members who teach undergraduate-level and graduate-level children’s and young adult literature courses. (Thank you especially to Kathleen Crawford-McKinney for her annotated list.)

I have added some additional resources that have come across my screen in the past week. All of these resources are useful to students, classroom teachers, librarians, and families.

Access© – Read Aloud Canadian Books Program provides links to resources Canadian book publishers are making available during the pandemic. (Added 4/10/20)

American Family Stories offers short retellings of oral stories by storyteller Joe McHugh. You can subscribe to his 3- to 6-minute stories or simply drop in and listen. (Added from comments section 4/6/20)

Paige Bentley-Flannery, Community Librarian, Deschutes Public Library, created a webpage “Children Authors Read Aloud and Other Facetime Events.”

Children’s Book Council curated a list of publishers who have provided links to online learning resources. “From fiction to non-fiction, STEM books to graphic novels, book publishers have created a wealth of content to support educators, librarians, booksellers, parents, and caregivers,” these resources are freely accessible on the Internet. (Added from comments section 4/6/20)

Betsy Diamant-Cohen, creator and director of Mother Goose on the Loose (MGOL) early childhood resources, has given permission to freely share MGOL resources on the open Internet. (Added 4/6/20)

Digital Children’s Book Festival: After the Tucson Festival of Books was cancelled, Ellen Oh and Christina Soontornvat organized a virtual festival, which will be held on May 1-2, 2020.

EPIC Reading offers educator registration with student sign-ups. You can find books that are read aloud, or the text that you turn the pages when ready. Educators can set up collections of books and assign them; this gives students free access to digital books, including novels.

The International Children’s Digital Library offers children’s literature from around the world written in multiple languages.

Kid Lit TV offers a read-aloud corner with authors reading their own books. They also have a section called “Storymakers” with author interviews. For Children’s Book Week, they published a section called Creator Corner, where they have authors explaining their creative process.

Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems: Mo is doing a “doodle” hour every day from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. Eastern time weekdays. He will take questions on his work or look at your own doodle (available live for two more weeks). You can also access the archive of previously recorded shows. Great way to get to know this Author/Illustrator.

Make Way for Books offers an app with stories for preschool children in English and Spanish that adults or older children can read to younger ones.

Parents Magazine: U.S. children’s divisions of Penguin Random House, Penguin Young Readers and Random House Children’s Books, in partnership with Meredith/PARENTS, are launching READ TOGETHER, BE TOGETHER. It is a series of daily virtual story times with bestselling and award-winning authors and illustrators, and celebrity readers. (Added from comments section 4/6/20)

Rex Ogle: Aiden Tyler, Quaran-teen – A Webcast “Serial” with Author Rex Ogle sponsored by Junior Library Guild begins tomorrow, March 24. You must register.

School Library Journal:Kid Lit Authors Step Up to Help Educators, Students, and Parents.”

Kwame Alexander is sharing on his website.

Laurie Halse Anderson has set up a Twitter hashtag #QuarantRead book club where readers can ask her questions.

Jarrett J. Krosoczka is sharing on YouTube every weekday at 2:00 p.m.

Grace Lin is sharing on her YouTube channel.

Dav Pilkey is sharing drawing demonstrations and fun activities. (Added from comments section 4/6/20)

Simola Live
Beginning March 23, authors and illustrators are sharing their work online.

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators has published a page with links to authors reading their own work.  (SCBWI is offering other types of online resources as well.)

Storyline Online publishes professionally produced children’s books read by actors.

While it is critical that school librarians provide children’s and young adult resources online for students, educator colleagues, and families, it is important we not lose sight of the ethical use of ideas and information. As noted in last week’s post, it is also critical that we keep our commitment to equitable access  foremost in our minds.

TeachingBooks.net has developed a “Book & Reading Engagement Kit: Home Edition portal with Student/Educator-Adult/Institution access. It includes a large collection of activities and resources and some read-alouds. (Added from comments section 4/6/20)

Image Credit

Geralt. “Books Read Monitor Online.” Pixabay.com. https://pixabay.com/photos/books-read-monitor-online-3659791/

This entry was posted in Access, Literature, Traditional Literacies and tagged , , by Judi Moreillon. Bookmark the permalink.

About Judi Moreillon

Judi Moreillon, M.L.S, Ph.D., has served as a school librarian at every instructional level. In addition, she has been a classroom teacher, literacy coach, and district-level librarian mentor. Judi has taught preservice school librarians since 1995. She taught courses in instructional partnerships and school librarian leadership, multimedia resources and services, children’s and young adult literature, and storytelling. Her research agenda focuses on the professional development of school librarians for the leadership and instructional partner roles. Judi just completed editing and contributing to Core Values in School Librarianship: Responding with Commitment and Courage (Libraries Unlimited 2021). She has published four other professional books including Maximizing School Librarian Leadership: Building Connections for Learning and Advocacy (ALA 2018). (See the book study on this blog.) Judi earned the American Library Association's 2019 Scholastic Library Publishing Award.

7 thoughts on “Ethically Sharing Children’s and Young Adult Literature Online

  1. Thank you to Lies Garner, Librarian at
    Hawthorne Scholastic Academy, for sharing this information on the AISLE list:

    Parents Magazine just announced a NEW partnership #ReadTogetherBeTogether (launched yesterday) and for all the moms/dads out there who are hunkering down with their kiddos – this is coming at a perfect time.

    Here’s the scoop – #ReadTogetherBeTogether
    The U.S. children’s divisions of Penguin Random House, Penguin Young Readers and Random House Children’s Books, in partnership with Meredith/PARENTS, are launching READ TOGETHER, BE TOGETHER. Originally slated to launch in summer 2020 is kicking off now, in light of the current COVID-19 situation, with a series of daily virtual story times with bestselling and award-winning authors and illustrators, and celebrity readers.

    This week’s schedule featuring reading by Misty Copeland, Danica McKellar, Tiffani Thiessen, Brady Smith, Scott Kelly and B.J. Novak can be found at the http://readtogetherbetogether.com.

    The dedicated website will also host reading tips for parents and caregivers developed with PARENTS, as well as an extensive list of recommended age-appropriate books.

  2. Thanks, Dr. Moreillion! I will share this with my staff when we go back to “school” on the 30th.

    Lisa Seddon
    Teacher-Librarian, New Westminster School District
    MLS, TWU/2015

  3. Nick Glass/TeachingBooks.net has developed a Book & Reading Engagement Kit: Home Edition portal with Student/Educator-Adult/Institution access: https://www.teachingbooks.net/show.cgi?f=engage

    As noted: “Permission to post these buttons and direct access links in the public domain is granted through at least the middle of September, 2020.”

    Thank you, TeachingBooks!

  4. Thank you so much for this great post with curated links to online materials. I appreciate the time that went into your work, and I know it’s going to help a lot of people (like me!).
    I have a question for you. I’ve been having a discussion with educators who create classes for an online school for young learners. The question we are debating is whether or not read-louds for instruction is fair use on the online school platform. My answer was no, because the lesson is recorded, and parents have access to the class after they pay for it. So, they can watch the lesson over and over again. One person said because parents need to log into the class, it’s not considered a public recording, and would be considered fair use. I’m wondering if you agree with this after reading your point about password-protected access.
    Thank you for sharing your insight.

    • Dear Maureen,
      If the recording is behind password protection, it is definitely covered by Fair Use Guidelines.
      If it’s not behind a password, please read my 3/30/20 blog post for two divergent opinions on that.
      Best,
      Judi

  5. Dav Pilkey at Home will feature new video content created by Pilkey himself on Friday mornings at 8 a.m. ET on social media channels and the websites of the Library and Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company. Beginning April 1, fun and free activities will be available online including how-to-draw demonstrations, engaging read-a-louds and inspiring resources from the Library’s collections.

    Starting April 1, Dav Pilkey at Home can be found here:

    Twitter: @LibraryCongress
    Facebook: facebook.com/libraryofcongress
    Library of Congress: loc.gov/engage
    Facebook: facebook.com/scholastic
    Twitter: @Scholastic
    Dav Pilkey at Home: scholastic.com/davpilkeyathome
    Scholastic Learn at Home: scholastic.com/learnathome

    More info: https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-20-026/?loclr=ealn&fbclid=IwAR3EiOvQrlrH8W8jSs5lNJg7kyDJfpCC15bc02GX_K1ZZb9H01GFCvEYiN4

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