I have a new grandgirl! Her name is Tassidit, which means "bringer of happiness." Born on June 21, 2008, she has indeed already brought much happiness to all family members and friends. Needless to say she is beautiful and, I am sure, brilliant.

I have brought my librarian training into play regarding Tassidit's education. Everyone knows the importance of reading to children, starting at birth. Tassidit has already received boxes and boxes of books from me, all chosen from librarian approved "best" lists for babies and toddlers. I also sent along a brightly painted bookcase and a rocking chair to complete the "library corner."

Imagine my surprise to learn recently that it is not enough to have lots of books around the house and read them to your kid. No! In order to insure readiness to read, parents, caregivers and even grandmothers need to talk to the child as the book is being read. Ask questions such as, "Do you think the wolf looks friendly?" or "What do you think is going to happen next?" or "Aren't 'huff' and 'puff' funny words!" In this fashion you will encourage engagement between the child and yourself. Additionally, you will help the child learn how to think about what is being read.

Friend and colleague Dorothy Stoltz is the Outreach Services Manager at the Carroll County (Maryland) Public Library. I saw Stoltz at a library conference and she could hardly contain her enthusiasm for a recent project.

The Emergent Literacy Training Assessment Project was designed to discover how the library could best support home child care providers in promoting school readiness. It was based on the Every Child Ready to Read initiative sponsored by the Public Library Association and the Association for Library Services to Children. ELTAP was grant funded with federal dollars distributed through the Maryland State Department of Education, Division of Library Development and Services. ELTAP reached out to home child care providers in communities where a significant number of students were assessed as not ready in the area of language and literacy when they entered kindergarten.

Since this was a research project, the 40 participating home child care providers were first surveyed regarding their knowledge of early literacy development and the activities and materials needed to foster this development in the child care setting. Then, there was an assessment of the 3- and 4-year-olds in their care on the key areas of early literacy, including story comprehension, phonological awareness, alphabetic principle and concepts about print.

As part of the project, each caregiver attended two workshops designed to give information and instruction but also inspiration and techniques for helping preschoolers get ready to read.

Caregivers received a large kit of materials to use in their child care homes. One of the resources used was "School Readiness Activity Cards" from the Maryland Ready at Five Partnership. Go to www.readyatfive.org/activities/activity_box.aspx for examples of the materials and techniques utilized in the project. I was so impressed with this user-friendly approach, I sent it to my son and his wife for use with Tassidit.

Needless to say, the project was wildly successful. "Comprehension" by the children in the study was 50 percent better when compared to the control group. "Phonological awareness" and "concepts about print" also posted significant gains. Strangely only "alphabetic principle" gained marginally.

Thanks to Stoltz, I have new respect for my grandmotherly duties. It's not enough to put books in the house, whether by buying them or getting them from the library. No, there has to be reading and conversation to help that little genius get ready to learn to read.