Book Review, The Pony Patch Collection

Do you know any horse-crazy kids? Lots of people have sports and hobbies, but it seems to me that children and adults who love horses want to spend every waking moment immersed in their obsession. Which is where books like this come in!


The Pony Patch Collection is actually four junior novels in one. Written by Bernadette Kelly, and illustrated by Liz Alger, it was published by black dog books in 2009. I love the style of this publication, which is perfect for kids who need some support in their reading. It's a paperback, so is not too heavy to hold, despite being a collection of four. It has large print and lots of white space, so it's not daunting the way a middle grade chapter book might be. It's illustrated, which gives young readers lots of clues if they choose to read it independently.


Norton is a naughty pony that loves to eat. His owner, Molly, thinks he is the most perfect pony in the world.


Kelly has created such lovable characters in Norton and Molly. There is much humour in the dichotomy between what Molly thinks, and what is actually happening.


At the third jump, Mrs Withers said, 'This jump is called an apex. It can be tricky, so it's important to plan your approach.'

Norton had a plan, but it didn't seem to be the same as mine.


Alger's black and white sketches are just as full of action and life as the stories, and complement them beautifully. Often, Molly's words don't quite gel with what we SEE has actually happened, and Alger also manages to show such a variety of expressions on Norton's face, making many giggle-worthy moments.


After the four Norton books (Naughty Norton, Losing Norton, Norton Saves the Day, and Norton's Blue Ribbon) comes a great glossary, information on looking after a pony, and pony facts. So kids are actually getting fun fiction stories linked to solid non-fiction facts, a definite win-win.


The Pony Patch Collection would be a great choice if you have kids who love horses, but it is definitely also worth considering if you have children who will enjoy humour and action in an easy-to-read format. black dog books have added still more value to the book with excellent teacher's notes on their website, making it the perfect choice for homeschoolers and teachers.

Writing with Avatars (1)

In the column I write for the wonderful Alphabet Soup magazine, I talk to kids about trying tricks that published writers use to get into a story. One of these is getting to know the characters in your story before you write. Some people do this by creating a character profile; others by searching for pictures to represent their characters.


One way that might work for your kids is to create a picture of a character by using an avatar builder. Here are some web spaces where kids can design a character by choosing features, clothes and expressions. If your children are not too keen on writing their own stories, they might enjoy building an avatar, and perhaps labelling features, or writing just a short description of their creation, what it looks like, what it can do etc.

Mini-Mizer


I've mentioned this one before and I think boys in particular will love it. They can personalize their own lego character with the online editor, changing accessories and expressions until they are happy. Use the arrows to scroll though different choices, and even add text to shirts! After that, it's a simple matter of taking a screen grab of their creation, before using it in the writing activity of their choice. My shirt says "tuff girls rule", but I think my avatar's fierce expression is at odds with her tools of choice. 

Bless This Chick


At Christmas last year, I used Bless This Chick to build a festive avatar for my own email signature. This reminds me of playing dress-ups with my dolls and is very cute. I know it's not politically correct to make gender preference predictions, but something tells me girls will love this one. Make sure your kids have a really good look around as there are all sorts of choices to scroll through.  

Muggins


Muggins has a range of basic avatars to choose from, both human and animal. After you choose one, you can select outfits, scene and props, even change the mood. I could not get past the finish screen, so had to take a screen grab of my character. (If you need screen capture software, I like Skitch and Grab for Mac, and have heard great things about Jing.)


Robot Building Station


Part of the Smarty Games site, this is a very simple place for young kids to build their own robots from a limited number of features. You can print or take a screen grab.

Build Your Wild Self


One of my favourite avatar builders, this lets kids choose from a range of human and animal features to create something quirky and new. As you can see, I expressed some elements of my personality hitherto hidden from my readers. The site lets you print or share, and of course, you can take a screen grab. 


Meez


If you don't mind annoying video ads that start each time the page refreshes, AND you don't mind that features "cost" (they give you 2500 free coins once you save), you might like to visit Meez with your kids. I now know enough about 99.9% of germs to open my own Dettol business, but I quit trying to make an avatar. I'm not usually so negative, but Meez just didn't feel like a good place for kids or chickens.

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Designing an avatar will be an end in itself for some kids. Others will go on to design a cast of thousands. Some will use their avatars to dictate characters for the video or board game they are creating. Some might even write a short play about their characters. Even if the avatar only forms the portrait section of a simple Wanted poster, you have the satisfaction of knowing your kids have been involved in creating and writing, while having fun online.


A definite Book Chook win-win!


If you know any other free avatar building sites you think would be useful to kids, please let me know via comments or email (Contact Me tab.) Later this week I will have another post about avatars suitable for encouraging kids to write, with historical avatars, gadgets and more. 

Book Review, The Slightly Skewed Life of Toby Chrysler

The Slightly Skewed Life of Toby Chrysler was written by Paul Collins, and published by Celapene Press, 2009. I interviewed Paul, who has had two Notable Books in the Children's Book Council of Australia Awards, on The Book Chook recently. I was intrigued by what he had to say about his latest novel, in particular the character who spoke in malapropisms.


Toby's mum has been missing for more than a month. His new friend, Ginger, has lost her dad. So how can an abandoned red shoe, an unusual plan and map coordinates help them in their search for their parents?

And why is everyone looking for Toby?


I guess the book title should have hinted to me that Toby Chrysler doesn't have a normal life. After reading this novel, I am here to say "slightly skewed" doesn't begin to cover it. Toby, (or Milo to others, because he's not exactly Quik) lurches from one misadventure to another until we are left gasping and wondering if he will ever recover. Toby is one of those people who mean well, but somehow stuff just happens to him.


Collins knows that kids want action and he gives it to them. Any young person who has ever wondered if he is slightly different, will relate to Toby who didn't mean to kill Mrs Appleby next door, and especially not twice. Collins produces quirky characters by the bin-full - some will make you laugh, some will make you cry, but all will grab your attention and refuse to let it go.


This would make a great book to offer young teens. There is wry humour as well as slapstick humour, plenty of action, and yet the book is thought-provoking too. Why and how does our society discriminate against anyone who is "different"? Is telling the truth always the answer? Why would a mother leave her own child, anyway?


And those malapropisms? Toby's friend Phuc mangles the English language with expressions like "the best laid plans of lice and men", and I think kids will enjoy them as much as I did.

DomoAnimate

Domo Animate has a studio where you can create your own animations. You need to register, but that is the usual quick process. The editor is simple - a matter of dragging characters, backgrounds, effects, music and objects to your working screen. You can make changes like flipping, moving forward and back, altering the handle on the speech bubble etc, as well as add emotions and movements to characters. You can preview, make changes, then save and get an embed code, or share with your friends.


There's also a tutorial you can watch to get you started, but I don't think your kids will need it.

This is a great online place to engage kids in creating their own comic-type stories, with just enough writing to drive the story forward, but not so much as with a narrative. Longer texts are daunting for some kids. You can add lots of scenes (I got tired of testing this function at scene 18), and there's a long list of music to choose from. I like the different styles of characters you can have, too - as well as classic cartoon figures, there are stick figures, Domo figures, monsters etc. One more great feature: you can take a screen shot like the one above, and save it as a jpg on your own computer. The animation part of it is actually minimal, but I don't think that hurts. Kids can think of it as a kind of hybrid comic/slideshow.


I hope you'll give DomoAnimate a try with your children. Here's a sample one I made below.


DomoNation.com: Bigfoot by bookchook


Like it? Create your own at DomoNation.com. It's free and fun!

Highlights Kids

Highlights magazine is a well known US children's magazine. Their Highlights Kids website has heaps of great free activities where children can read and interact with elements from the magazine. In Goofus and Galllant story adventures, you can decide what happens next in the story. At Story Player, you can listen and read along with audio stories like Monster Me by Eileen Spinelli. There are also rebus stories, hidden picture puzzles and science experiments.


As well as stories to read online, their website has some nice activities to promote creative expression.


Picture Maker


The art work offered here is delightful - tiny pictures of characters that kids can drag and drop to the position they want on their chosen template. The really nice feature is that you can interact with the picture by not only stamping characters, but drawing, and changing colour. There is no save feature, but kids can print or take a screen grab.


Make a Robot


Click on a background, then scroll through parts available. Click on the robot parts, and click where you want to place them to assemble your robot. Controls let you flip, resize and move, as well as add colour, draw and erase.


This would make a great place to create pictures for a narrative set in a futuristic environment.


Finish the Creature


This follows the same formula as the two above. Choose a background template, then mix and match body parts to create a strange creature. Writing is encouraged too. Push a button and you get to name your creature and describe it, then you can print out your picture and words.


My favourite activity was Time Machine. Use the lever to choose "past", and you are shown not only a timeline of the magazine, but also a timeline to put the issues into a social context. Great to get a sense of a print magazine's place in history. There's also an index page that shows you every activity available. Even if you don't subscribe to the magazine, Highlights Kids.com is well worth a visit.

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(The Book Chook blog is undergoing renovations at the moment. Things will be back to normal soon. Well, as normal as they get around here.) 

The Book Chook Goes to School

Regular readers of The Book Chook may have noticed I am fascinated, nay obsessed with web 2.0 tools. I truly love their potential for encouraging kids to communicate with joy and creativity.


So I was delighted to enroll in an online course last year, called Easy Web 2.0 Tools. It was run by Nik Peachey, through SEETA, the South Eastern European Teachers Association. (You didn't know Australia was part of South Eastern Europe? Seriously, isn't it wonderful to be part of a generous community of learners who all help each other!) I re-visited a couple of tools, like Wordle and D'volver, and experimented with new ones like TokBox, and 280 Slides.


Our assignment for 280 Slides was to create an engaging multimedia task with it. 280 Slides is similar to a Power Point presentation, but it allows you to embed video. I decided to use two short animated films, Oktapodi and The Piano, and ask my students, a group of adults who are keen to write, to use the films as prompts for further creative activity. Basically, I added some quick text to my slides, grabbed an image from my computer for my title page, then used the site's toolbar to add the url of the two videos I'd bookmarked at Youtube.


How is this useful to parents? I think 280 Slides might be an interesting one to introduce to your kids when they are asked to choose media to demonstrate something they've learned. Instead of a static slide show, they can embed video clips to illustrate points. The great thing is, they can find images and video from Flickr, Youtube and Vimeo by using the built-in search box on 280 Slides. Or they can add material from your own computer. The presentations they make can be shared by email, embedded or downloaded and saved. Pretty cool, huh?


If you want to find out more about 280 Slides, there's a tour you can take at that site. It truly is very quick and easy to use, and I hope to use it more. Can you think of a way it might prove useful to you and your kids?


Here is my assignment. Click to play. Click to move on to the next screen.

Book Review, Squeezy Cuddle Dangly Legs

Kids under six will so relate to this picture book! Any adult who has participated in those "not bedtime just yet" rituals will relate to it too. Squeezy Cuddle Dangly Legs was written by Peter Whitfield, illustrated by Jacqui Grantford and published by New Frontier Publishing in 2007.


Mum and child obviously have a boisterous cuddle routine where Mum dangles the little girl upside down and much fun ensues. But then our clever girl demands butterfly kisses ... and rubby nose kisses ... and this little piggy ... and ... Do you get the picture? Kids will enjoy seeing the gentle mischief our pyjama-clad heroine gets into. I predict they'll want to participate in her bedtime routines too. Peter Whitfield has kept the text simple, and font large, inviting kids to join in the refrain of "Squeezy cuddle, dangly legs. Squeezy cuddle, dangly legs."


Jacqui Grantford has given us lovely clear but textural drawings to enjoy, made with gouache and water colour pencils on water colour paper. Kids will love the colours, and the softness, and looking for the teddies and toy dog inside the book.


Squeezy Cuddle Dangly Legs would make an excellent choice if you are buying a gift for a baby shower. Picture books like this make wonderful bedtime stories, and that baby you are showering with gifts will soon grow into a youngster giggling over another child's delaying tactics. It would also be a perfect choice for libraries, or schools that include a unit like Who Am I? for the junior grades.


This book just lends itself to follow up activities. Kids could research different family customs for bedtime, write their own bedtime stories, look at nursery rhymes and poems for toddlers, bring along their own favourite bedtime books and toys, even dress up in pj's and help organize a sleepover.


We can never have too many cuddles, so look out for Squeezy Cuddle Dangly Legs and share it with your youngster soon.

Little Treasures

One of the things I love about the internet is that serendipitous moment when you're surfing, linking from site to site, and you stumble across something gorgeous. Today, Kim Cofino's blog led me to musician, Ronley Teper's blog which led me to this beautiful song/video. The colours, the animation, the sumptuous feel ... I hope you have time to take a look, and that it's not just me who loves it!


And continuing the theme dictated by my title, here's a website your little treasures might enjoy. Veronique and Jason Barnard created Boowa and Kwala for their daughter Lilou. It's a magical webspace, though not the place to go if you are looking for realistic koalas. But if you think your youngsters would like to read along with the adventures of a beret-wearing yellow Kwala, and a blue, doggy Boowa, if you think they will enjoy minimal animation, cute songs and gentle humour, if you think they might like silly games, learning activities, musical games, creative games and more, then this is the site for you.


Try this adventure where B and K arrive Downunder if you'd like to sample a story, and listen to the echo song to prove the music won't drive you crazy. Those of you studying French will appreciate that you can read and listen to the French version of the site too. (Echo song in French, and Boowa et Kwala au pays des koalas is on p3)


There are heaps of different activities for kids to explore, and navigation is simple. Ads are unobtrusive and none I saw were inappropriate, but as always, I recommend supervision by parents. Besides, why should your kids have all the fun?

Book Review, Ponkidoodle

A title like Ponkidoodle grabs you right away, doesn't it? Turns out Ponkidoodle is that creature everyone's home has - the one responsible for strange noises and things that go bump in the night. Written by Neridah McMullin, and illustrated by Aaron Pocock, this picture book was published by Little Steps Publishing, 2009.


Lots of kids feel afraid to go to sleep, or have the light turned out. Books like this one try to help kids cope with those fears. I love McMullin's idea of creating an imaginary friend called Ponkidoodle to explain scary happenings, and reassuring kids as to his personality.


What's that noise?
In the middle of the night.
What's that noise?
Giving me a huge fright.


Aaron Pocock immediately backs up the fear implicit in those questions with his illustration of a youngster with huge eyes and trembling lips. But before we can become too involved in that night time terror, we meet the one responsible for it - and it's just Ponkidoodle! McMullin and Pocock's delightfully quirky creature might make peculiar noises but he's cute, furry, green, and very loveable.


McMullin uses rhyming text and humour to engage young listeners. They will enjoy predicting what Ponkidoodle gets up to next, and I am sure will want to design their own cute creatures after reading all about him. I must admit I am now wondering if Ponkidoodle is the one responsible for all those odd socks chez Chook?


This is an excellent quality picture book which will make a fine addition to a home, school or local library. There are great learning activities centered around Ponkidoodle available on Neridah McMullin's website, where you can also find out more about her books. And discover more on Aaron Pocock and his illustrations at his website, a truly magical place!

Let's Celebrate Harmony

Tomorrow is Harmony Day in Australia. Harmony Day promotes the benefits of cultural diversity and celebrates Australia's cohesiveness and inclusivity.


The continuing message of Harmony Day is ‘Everyone Belongs’. It's about community participation, inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.


This year, the theme is "express yourself", probably two of my most favourite words in the English language. By encouraging our kids to express themselves, we are helping them develop their creative side and their communication skills. Whether they do this through dance, art, writing, sculpture, choreography, or building with toothpicks and marshmallows, what matters is all those wonderful opportunities for creative skill development.


At the Harmony Day website, there are some useful resources for parents and teachers that might guide you toward activities you can do to celebrate harmony. Find lesson ideas for primary students and early childhood,and detailed lesson plans. There are two quiz type games on the interactive games page, and some interesting activities as pdfs on the activities page.


I truly believe that respect and acceptance of all cultures comes from mutual understanding. As parents and teachers, one way we can promote this is by sharing great children's literature with our kids, the sorts of books that allow children to walk a mile in someone else's shoes. Dawn Morris has a great list of books that promote cultural diversity and tolerance at her MomsInspireLearning blog. Travelling to different countries is not within everyone's budget, but how about travelling to different neighbourhoods? In a culturally diverse country like Australia, it's not difficult to find people whose clothes and customs are different from our own. Seeking out people from a range of cultures not only helps our kids become more tolerant and empathetic, it enriches all our lives.


It seems to me Harmony Day is a perfect opportunity to indulge in a few of my favourite things - world music, art, conversation and great food! I can feel a party coming on. How about you? Any ideas for cultivating harmony within your family or neighbourhood?

Poetry Book Giveaway

Kenn Nesbitt, of Poetry4Kids.com, has what I would describe as a very generous website. Although his work is, of course, copyright, Kenn allows kids and parents to read his poems, print them out, and listen to some read by Kenn himself. He also does a fantastic job of promoting poetry and encouraging kids to read and write their own poems. My kind of poet!


Kenn's style is what Betsy Bird (of Fuse 8 and School Library Journal) described recently as subversive. He invites kids to conspire with him and have fun with poetry. Titles like Gobble, Gobble Went the Turkey will give parents and kids some idea that we are not talking sonnets comparing a lady love to a dove here. You're more likely to read about a Rappin' Rooster or a bicycle made from a pickle.


Nesbitt has a very high-energy performance style that perfectly complements his poetry. If you want to find out for yourself, go to his site and listen to his poetry podcast, or read along while listening to poems like Today I Touched the Buffalobster. Can't you just see the art and writing potential of that last one?


Recently, I was lucky enough to have a sneak preview of two of Nesbitt's  books, and now I am a fan all over again. If your kids haven't yet succumbed to the delights of poetry, try them with the poems in My Hippo Has the Hiccups or The Tightey Whitey Spider. Both share Nesbitt's quirky way of looking at life. Kids will giggle for sure over Sleeping Beauty waking and reaching for the snooze alarm, or a kitten who talks because he swallows a parrot. Many of the poems rely on a twist at the end for their humour, but Nesbitt also has a range of formats and styles - all of them funny.


These would make great books for the school or classroom library. Lots of kids are daunted by books they perceive as too long. Cats with jet packs and soccer-playing ferret poems make nice bite-sized chunks for a young reader to swallow. Even The Dancing Baboon of Djibouti in seven stanzas will go down a treat with Ethan Long's comic-style illustrations to break up the page and add even more humour.


Sourcebooks is offering My Hippo Has the Hiccups as a freebie! You just need to register with Zinio and the ebook becomes available to you to read online, or you can download it to your own computer by downloading Zinio reader for both Windows and Mac first. (I have not tried the second option yet.) You can also listen to Kenn while you read some of the poems online - fantastic help for young readers. 


This is a wonderfully generous offer in my opinion. Sourcebooks obviously is so certain you'll love My Hippo Has the Hiccups that you will go on to buy The Tightey Whitey Spider. And I hope you do! You'll be getting two books for the price of one and hours of poetry pleasure for you and your kids. Priceless!

Reader's Theatre (4)

In Reader's Theatre (1), I described Reader's Theatre as a great way to have kids interact with a story, as well as develop their imaginations. In Reader's Theatre (2), I revealed the Book Chook method for turning a piece of literature into a Reader's Theatre script. In Reader's Theatre (3), I showed you the Book Chook way of leading a group of kids to performance. Now it's time to discuss different ways to use Reader's Theatre.


Once your Reader's Theatre script is written (or perhaps borrowed from somewhere else - see * below - if you don't have time to start from scratch), what can you do with it?


Family Read Aloud


Reader's Theatre scripts are great for families to use in a read aloud time. Once you have a few scripts to choose from, kids can swap parts with each other, and unconsciously internalize lots of language. Everyone's reading fluency and expression develops, particularly after repeated readings. Choosing a script that makes everyone laugh is a great way in for a family new to read alouds. Little ones can buddy up to read with Mum or Dad, and reluctant readers might enjoy reading just the sound effects to start with. Kids might like to dress up to suit their part, or even bring along a prop they think might suit the story.


Radio Play


Do you remember the old days when radio plays were popular? No, neither do I, I'm too young. But I know the basics - it's like TV with no visuals. You can use a Reader's Theatre script as the basis for a radio play. Kids will have fun working out the voices they should use, devising sound effects and perhaps composing or finding introduction music. Once they've practised, they can record themselves. Programs like Audacity are free to download, and microphones aren't too expensive. Or you may have a tape recorder still at home. If all else fails, children can read their script while hiding behind a closed curtain or suspended blanket, allowing audience members to close their eyes and use their imaginations to follow the story.


Neighbourhood Concert


Putting on a play, with everyone memorizing their parts, takes a long time. Reader's Theatre is much quicker, and more accessible to a wide range of groups. Very short and simple scripts can be used at the kindergarten level. Parents make an appreciative audience, or kids might like to perform for the local preschool. If your library has book groups, or perhaps a special summer program for students, and you need an activity to engage kids, why not get them started on creating and performing a group script based on a favourite novel, or characters from a game? Reader's Theatre is also ideal because it allows for a range of ages and abilities to be involved. Tweaking, by say adding small extra parts for younger readers, or giving them signs to hold, encourages inclusivity. If there's going to be a block party in your neghbourhood, you have a ready-made audience for children to perform Reader's Theatre.


Reader's Theatre - the Movie


There are so many resources available for making little movies. Many families have video cameras, some computers have built in cameras, and some "still picture" cameras have video capability. Even if the performance is only you and one child, it will be fun to video yourselves using the computer camera, and play it back. If you're not happy with it, try again. Practising is a great way to build fluency, but you will know when your child has had enough. (That'd be when their eyes close, and they begin to snore!)


Once your kids have recorded a Reader's Theatre performance, there are post-production resources that enable them to make changes to the video. They can add soundtrack, add special effects, edit and learn many great skills while so doing. Software, like iMovie for Mac, and Movie Maker for PC, allows children to edit, and then share their creations.


For any of the above ways to use Reader's Theatre, developing an accompanying soundscape can be useful. The simplest soundscape might be a child clanging two saucepan lids to herald the arrival of a King, but quite complex ones can be built with ingenuity and technology. Encourage children to think about where in the script to use sounds, and how to make them.


Weave sound together in layers with taped music and voices, add percussion instruments, or look for great sound clips online. Kids might like to create their own tunes in Garageband, or with a keyboard at Kiss Tunes. If it's too difficult to use a pre-recorded soundscape, you might consider just pre-recording an introduction and conclusion, and relying on a real life sound effects person or team for individual noises.


Aaron Shephard describes Reader's Theatre as the "perfect combination of education and fun." I think he's right!


* In Reader's Theatre 5, I'll bring you resources useful to those interested in Reader's Theatre - places to find scripts online when you don't have time to make your own, as well as links to general articles with more information. I will also have a gift for you from The Book Chook, one of my own scripts.

Photocredit: Morguefile