Picture Books Languish as Parents Push ‘Big-Kid Books’ Drew Angerer/The New York Times Sophia Coudenhove read a picture book on Wednesday to her 14-month-old daughter, Anna, perhaps too young for a chapter one. “So many of them just die a sad little death, and we never see them again,” said Terri Schmitz, the owner. The shop has plenty of company. The economic downturn is certainly a major factor, but many in the industry see an additional reason for the slump. “Parents are saying, ‘My kid doesn’t need books with pictures anymore,’ ” said Justin Chanda, the publisher of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Booksellers see this shift too. “They’re 4 years old, and their parents are getting them ‘Stuart Little,’ ” said Dara La Porte, the manager of the children’s department at the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington. Literacy experts are quick to say that picture books are not for dummies. “To some degree, picture books force an analog way of thinking,” said Karen Lotz, the publisher of Candlewick Press in Somerville, Mass.
Adventures in Library Land: Little eLit | Young Children, New Media & Libraries 33 Great Apps for Storytelling and Creativity 2013 Update… Here are the main apps I suggest for storytelling. Some of them are actual bookmaking apps, some are apps for creating stories in various ways and others are apps I would use to help kids plan out a story. Educreations FREE- (example HERE and HERE) There is also a web version of this tool StoryBuddy 2 $4.99- (example HERE and HERE) Explain Everything $2.99- (example HERE and HERE and HERE) Toontastic FREE*- (example HERE and HERE) Feltboard $2.99- (examples HERE and HERE and HERE) Skitch FREE- for labeling (example HERE and HERE) There is also a web version of this tool Popplet $4.99- (example HERE and HERE) There is a “lite” version of the app and is also web based Tellagami- FREE- Much like Voki but in app form. Write About This $3.99- creates prompts for kids and reads the prompt to them Haiku Deck FREE- easy way to create a presentation (example HERE) Doodlecast Pro $3.99 (example HERE) FYI: Everything this app offers Explain Everything can also cover Puppet Pals My Story ThingLink
The Contemps Barbara Braxton: 500 Hats |teacher librarian in the 21st century Abby the Librarian: Those Summer Reading Club Prizes So. Revamping the prizes for the Summer Reading Club. We're doing it this year and I'm really, really excited about the changes we've made. We typically have about 1000 PreK-5th grade kids finish the Summer Reading Club and earn prizes. For many years, we've offered a packet of coupons donated by local businesses (free ice cream, pizza, zoo passes, etc.), which we're still doing. So this year, we've put together a bunch of different Science Activity Packs. Each of these links will take you to more details about the activity, but basically we provide the supplies and a sheet with instructions, challenges, and/or ideas for additional activities they can do with the materials provided. Yes, they were labor-intensive to put together, but it gave us a great project to utilize the volunteers we have at the library! This year, we've culled together prize books from donations and from review copies I receive for this blog. There are more reasons than that, of course.
City Map of Fictional Streets and Landmarks This is a map that contains “over 900 film titles including cinema classics such as Lost Highway, On the Waterfront, Jurassic Park, Reservoir Dogs, Carlito’s Way, Nightmare on Elm Street, Valley of the Dolls and Chinatown.” (via We are Dorothy) I don’t know if it’s included on the map, but I’d really like to live at “P. {Map by We are Dorothy, £25}