UW-Eau Claire’s senior lecturer Rob Reid has kept very busy in the last few years. Besides teaching in the Foundations of Education department, Reid has written 12 books; six of them in the past three years.
Once this year is over though, Reid said he will have written an additional four books. In between that, Reid has also written articles for LibrarySparks, The Shy Librarian, School Library Journal and the Children’s Literature Network. More specifically, Reid writes story program articles and a column for the American Library Association called “Reid-aloud alert.” The column identifies good books to read to children.
Reid said this column has led to one of his next books, which should be out any day. The book is called “Reid’s Read-alouds” and is a guide for teachers, parents and librarians.
Twelve years ago, Reid published his first book “Wave Goodbye,” which went out of print in 2002 but will be back in paperback soon.
“I’ve always liked to write,” Reid said. In the mid ’90s he found a good audience among people within his profession. The books went over well.
“It’s been the type of relationship where now instead of me trying to come up with the book concept to sell to the editors, the editors are coming up to me and saying ‘what do you want to do for your next book?'” he said.
“It feels like a long progression to get to that point and I’m very flattered.”
The next book that should be coming out soon is called “Coming Down to Story Time.” It is a promotional picture book about things to do in a library story program, but the text is to the tune of “She’ll be Comin’ ‘Round the Mountain.”
As busy as Reid has been in the past years, he is still working on more.
The first thing Reid mentioned was a children’s picture book biography about William H. Robinson. Robinson was born into slavery in North Carolina and wrote a book about his experiences. Reid said the man was buried about a five- minute walk away from his house.
“I read his book and I said to myself, ‘I think there’s a children’s book hidden within here,'” Reid said.
He decided the book could be educational as well as interesting to the teachers.
He also mentioned that he was working on a companion book to the first “Reid-aloud” book. The first one contained books from 2000, but in the companion book, Reid hopes to use books from around the “Charlotte’s Web” era.
Reid said he has been a very busy person, with school, his books and visiting libraries to talk about getting children interested in their own literacy. Some of his books are aimed at teachers, some at parents and some at librarians, but they are all there to benefit children and to make learning fun and exciting.
