Betsy Bird's Blog, page 291
April 2, 2014
On Beyond Haiku: New Forms for Poetry Month
Back in 2011 I wrote a post called Poetry Month Ideas: Try Something a Little Different (note the conspicuous disappearance of ALL the images from said post and sigh along with me). Well, time has passed but my quest to find new and interesting ways to teach poetry, aside from the standard set of haikus and limericks, continues. Today we update ye olde post with some old and new forms. If you should find yourself this month in the position of having to instruct some kids in the ways of poetry...
New Forms for Poetry Month: Shake Things Up a Bit
Back in 2011 I wrote a post called Poetry Month Ideas: Try Something a Little Different (note the conspicuous disappearance of ALL the images from said post and sigh along with me). Well, time has passed but my quest to find new and interesting ways to teach poetry, aside from the standard set of haikus and limericks, continues. Today we update ye olde post with some old and new forms. If you should find yourself this month in the position of having to instruct some kids in the ways of poetry...
April 1, 2014
Press Release Fun: Author Morph App from TeachingBooks.net
Innovative apps are difficult constructs to come up with, particularly when you feel like everything’s already been done. That’s why I was so intrigued by the Author Morph app. Now we have one that combines the convenience of an immediate learning experience with what can only be described as an author/illustrator’s worst freakin’ nightmare.
Here’s the official press release:
TeachingBooks.net has just announced its new Author Morph app. Here’s the company video demonstrating the app, where you...
March 31, 2014
Review of the Day: Curiosity by Gary Blackwood
Curiosity
By Gary Blackwood
Dial (an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group)
$16.99
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3924-6
Ages 9-12
On shelves April 10th
Blackwood’s back, baby! And not a minute too soon. Back in 1998, the author released The Shakespeare Stealer which would soon thereafter become his best-known work. A clever blending of historical fiction and adventure, the book allowed teachers the chance to hone Shakespeare down to a kid-friendly level. Since its publication Mr. Blackwood has kept busy,...
March 30, 2014
Video Sunday: Football players, grateful artists, and tambourine players galore
Time to up the bar. Years ago N.D. Wilson made what has to be the most ambitious book trailer created by an author I ever did see (it was for The Ashtown Burials and if you missed it you can watch it here and see what I mean). Now, after copious Florida research trips where he shot this footage, Wilson returns. Think the narrator on this is Morgan Freeman? Think again. It’s Wilson himself and this is a beautiful glimpse of the book. Tell me you don’t want to read it right now now now.
March 28, 2014
iPad Use and Babies: Throwing a Wrench in the Works
I think we all uttered a collective scream as one when news of this particular Fisher Price toy came to our attention this holiday season past:
It’s called the Newborn-to-Toddler Apptivity Seat and out of curiosity I wondered if it was still on the market. Indeed it is, and the comments on Amazon make for a day’s worth of reading right there. Naturally the notion of strapping your child into a device and forcing them to look at a screen ala Clockwork Orange (admittedly a baby in a bowler would...
March 26, 2014
Review of the Day: The Fox and the Crow by Manasi Subramaniam
The Fox and the Crow
By Manasi Subramaniam
Illustrated by Culpeo S. Fox
Karadi Tales
$17.95
ISBN: 978-81-8190-303-7
Ages 4 and up
On shelves now
In the classic Aesop fable of The Fox and the Crow where do your loyalties lie? You remember the tale, don’t you? Long story short (or, rather, short story shorter) a prideful crow is tricked into dropping its bread into the hungry mouth of a fox when it is flattered into singing. Naturally your sympathies fall with the fox to a certain extent. Pride...
March 25, 2014
Press Release Fun: Voting Now Open for the 7th Annual Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards!
So I don’t know if you’ve been following but there’s been quite a sane, collected, interesting discussion going on in my last Press Release about the CBC’s Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards. Long story short, Rush Limbaugh’s book was nominated and folks are debating the merits or demerits of its inclusion. I feel like I may be cursing the entire enterprise by even mentioning it, but it’s so civilized that I highly recommend you take a gander.
As for today’s post, the actual voting for sai...
March 24, 2014
Librarian Preview: Simon & Schuster (Summer 2014)
Foof! It’s been a while! At least it feels like it has. For whatever reason I haven’t posted a good Simon & Schuster Preview since . . . um . . . since their Spring 2011 list was premiered. Whoopsie! Let’s make up for lost time then.
First off, Simon & Schuster does their librarian previews much, I suspect, as they do their marketing proposals to bookstores or in-house. They hand out these gorgeous full-color handouts of all the titles they’ll be talking about. They also begin the day with the...
March 23, 2014
Video Sunday: And to think . . .
And here I thought that Dr. Seuss films began with The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T and those short animated specials and ended with stuff like the CGI fests we’re seeing in theaters practically every year. Not so! Good old stop-animation also has had a hand in Seuss’s silver screen career. Interestingly, this is the only film version (that I know of) of And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street.
And To Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street by CarlStallingEnthusiast
Fun Fact: Beatrix Potter was a fan of t...
