Today is Anne Frank’s birthday. Here on Earth, a program on Wisconsin Public Radio, offers a program on Rutka Laskier’s diary. Ruska’s diary has just been discovered and published. She was a 14-year-old Polish Jew killed in Auschwitz who is being called the Polish Anne Frank.
Just the story of her half sister discovering that her father had previous children who were killed in the Holocaust is enough to cause chills.
The program will be available to listen to in the next day or so.
Scholastic and Disney are venturing into the world of ebooks for children. Targeting schools and libraries, Scholastic’s BookFlix pairs nonfiction ebooks with short online movies. Disney is aiming straight for families and will allow downloads of books for a fee. Should be interesting to see if either of the plans works with consumers. It will all depend on cost for both companies.
I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry.
There is something so very approachable and wonderful about this book. Children will see the cover and just have to take it home with them. Mine wouldn’t let it rest on our pile of books to read once they spotted it.
It is the story of a giant shrimp who is very sure that he is the biggest thing in the entire ocean. Bigger than shrimp, bigger than jellyfish, crabs, turtles. But he might just be wrong! The illustrations are simple, wonderfully big and bright, and are perfect to read to a very large crowd because they will project well across a room. The story is perfectly simple and short with a nice twist.
Recommended for any age of story time. This book is also a great read for emergent readers who will like the short sentences on each page and the repetition. It reads like a very basic reader, but has the marvelous illustrations that take it to another level.
Bob and Otto by Robert O. Bruel, illustrated by Nick Bruel.
Bob, a caterpillar, and Otto, a worm, were very good friends. They both liked digging in the ground, eating leaves, and playing in the grass under a big tree. But then Bob feels the need to go up into the tree and Otto disagrees, deciding to go down under the tree into the ground. While they are apart, Bob turns into a butterfly but nothing happens to Otto. How will Otto feel when they are reunited?
This is a sweet story that is strengthened by the repetition of the prose when the characters are climbing or digging. The book’s illustrations are also strong, focusing on life up in the tree and deep below the ground. The parallel frames are very effective.
This book will be great with two different age groups. First, for storytimes with toddlers, this book is ideal. Add it to your butterfly story pile or for a great addition to insect storytimes. But wait! It will also work well for emergent readers. Even the most early of readers will be able to read the repetitious parts and it may encourage them to read on beyond those sections. Read on!
The Nancy Drew movie comes out this Friday. You can find all sorts of articles about the film, the real author of the series, Nancy’s fashion, and star Emma Roberts.
Visit the movie’s homepage to view a trailer, see photos, download wallpapers, screensaver or buddy icons, or read Emma’s blog.
Michael Rosen has been named the British Children’s Laureate. An author for over 30 years, Rosen has written some of the all-time favorite books of many. Story times just wouldn’t be the same if we couldn’t read restless toddlers We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. And if you haven’t read Michael Rosen’s Sad Book, then run run run and get your hands on it. It is a treat to see an author with this range of quality writing get an honor like this.
Got an email today from Cheryl Rainfield, who does a great job of providing book reviews of picture books and books for teens. She has great taste in books, clever titles, interesting subject grouping, and a friendly written style. She gives each title a star rating, but so many of her choices are winners that it is hard to go wrong.
ReadingRockets is a very useful site for getting children ready to read. They offer strategies for struggling readers that allow parents and teachers to find answers to specific issues, techniques for teaching reading, a collection of recommended authors and books, plus links to podcasts, webcasts and blogs. This is the place to go even if your child isn’t struggling with reading.
This site has digital copies of almost 400 rare books. You can find books by Galileo, Copernicus, Einstein, and Shakespeare. There is also the complete Poor Richard’s Almanac by Benjamin Franklin and rare editions of the Gutenberg Bible. Towards the top, under category, those of us interested in children’s lit can choose just those titles. You will find many Lewis Carroll titles in a variety of languages as well as titles from the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Very interesting and you don’t have to sneeze from the dust this way.
