What's the Best Way to Say Merry Christmas?

There are only 25 sleeps until Christmas. For some that means they make an extra special effort to be nice, not naughty. For others, the Great Christmas Gift Buying Dilemma begins:


Would Aunty Molly like this t-shirt with built in spy camera?


Did I give Grandpa a set of BBQ tools like this last year? Would he prefer a gold plated watering can?


What do you buy for the teen who has everything?


If The Dilemma is driving you crazy, I have a one word suggestion: BOOKS. Or in the case of the teen or a relative from the Planet Zxpl, two words: book vouchers. Tell everyone you are giving only books this year, so those hanging out for a Rolls Royce won't be disappointed. Then check out the offerings from your local book store, shop online, plunder some publisher websites, or trawl the book review sites to find the exact match you want.


Don't forget audio books, e-books, graphic novels, magazine subscriptions (some Alphabet Soup would be great for kids who love to read!), non-fiction, poetry, puzzle books, books with accompanying toys, pop-up books, books about different cultures, books in other languages... and of course book vouchers. Try matching a book with another gift to double the pleasure and meaning - you could match a dinosaur toy with a non-fiction book about dinosaurs, or match a soft sheep toy with Shirl and the Wollomby Show. 


Remember the precious add-on gift of your own time. If your primary aged children love action stories about warriors, introduce them to Sandy Fussell's Samurai Kids series, and add a certificate pledging help to create their own Samurai costume, or some of the other fun ideas at the website. How about adding some certificates for reading dates, perhaps at a local picnic place or a quiet cafe, to a gift basket of great books? Reading together truly does double the fun.


Boomerang Books put out a Kids Reading Guide 2010-2011 recently and there are sleigh-loads of interesting books there. They also have lots of lists to guide you. 


Remember to plunder publishers' web sites! If I find a book that interests me at one, often I'll Google it to find what the book bloggers think of it, read a couple of reviews to get a better feel for it. I figure publishers are bound to think their books are great, so I do more research just to be sure. 


A great place to find reviews about Australian children's and YA books is Kids Book Review. 


Jeanne at A Peaceful Day has honed in on wonderful Christmas read-alouds to share with 8-10 year-olds.


If you're looking for Book Chook recommendations, try the widget top left on my blog, where you'll find recent reviews, or type Book Review into the search box on the right. Need a gift for someone overseas? Look at A Ute Picnic, by Lorraine Marwood. Lorraine has just won the  Prime Minister's Literary Award for children's fiction, so she's the Australian writer on everyone's lips. If you're an Australian, you may be interested in the current giveaway here at The Book Chook. 


Know any bookaholics? I have found the most wonderful gift for them! Clue: A real Tan instead of a fake one. If you guessed Shaun Tan, you're correct. How does a deluxe limited collector's edition of The Arrival sound?


This exclusive edition includes hard cover limited edition copies of both THE ARRIVAL and its new companion title SKETCHES FROM A NAMELESS LAND, along with a FIRST RELEASE SIGNED PRINT of an illustration taken from The Arrival. Each of the 1500 suitcases will be uniquely numbered and individually signed by Shaun Tan.This deluxe clamshell box set opens like a suitcase, revealing a vintage pattern (worn and stained) interior. (more at The Arrival!)


If you can't afford that Tan, how about The Robot Book, a delight I truly hope Santa brings me? Check out the trailer below.

Melissa has some great book gift suggestions at Imagination Soup.


Here are the 40 top picks from Read Kiddo Read. 


And MotherReader has the most wonderful list, categorized by age from pre-school to adult, and matching specific books with extra gift suggestions. 


Have I convinced you? Buying books as gifts truly is an easy option, and you have the satisfaction of knowing you're giving something that lasts, one that may make a difference to someone's life. In the case of children, you may well be giving them the key to the magical kingdom of reading.


However, if you need more than books as gifts, here are some more festive ideas and gift suggestions I found in a quick spin around the web:

• Two creative word-based games for teens from Dawn at Moms Inspire Learning.
• Christmas Presents for Geeks at Science@Home
• Christmas gift ideas at BeAFunMum
• Make a Gingerbread house at Playing by the Book and check out more Christmas craft ideas at Red Ted Art's blog carnival.
• Not a gift idea, but a wonderful Christmas booklet from Elise at Creativity Abounds. It's full of creative ideas to get kids thinking about others and finding the true Christmas spirit. 
• A great home-made gift idea at teach mama - using family photos to make playing cards for Old Maid, Go Fish and Memory. I love finding ideas like this, because there's always something so special about a home-made gift. Add the benefit of a real learning possibility, and you've got something that wins the coveted Book Chook Feather of Approval. And it's free!

Stop Press!  LITERACY LAVA 7 IS PUBLISHED!

Book Review and Giveaway, Your Life in Comics

I'm a great fan of Bill Zimmerman. He has a wonderful website called MakeBeliefsComix which I described in Make Your Own Comic at MakeBeliefsComix and Practise Languages at MakeBeliefsComix. So I was thrilled to see that Bill has created a new book, Your Life in Comics, 100 Things for Guys to Write and Draw. It's been published by free spirit publishing and the art work is by Tyler Page.


What’s more fun than reading comics? Making your own.

Most other books give you all the words and illustrations so you don’t have a say about what happens. Your Life in Comics isn’t like that. Instead it’s an interactive comic book where you can tell stories from your own life. There are also cartoons where you get to decide what happens to other characters. Fill in the talk and thought balloons to show what people say and think—their fate is in your hands! Other fun freestyle activities let you doodle, make lists, and write about cool stuff in your life.


What I love about this book is that it targets boys, (recommended for ages 9-13) and does so in such a way as to encourage them to express their feelings in writing (and images.) I'm not saying girls wouldn't want to use the book too; in fact, I know I would have loved something like this as a kid. But the characters are mostly male. It's often important to boys that they can identify with "boy things", so this book could be perfect for them.


Essentially, Your Life in Comics offers kids prompts for writing and drawing in comic formats. I like the variety - there are activities that focus on personal achievements, sports, and embarrassing moments, as well as starters for narratives. There are also opportunities to draw comic pictures inside frames, add to started comics, and design cool stuff. Included at the back of the book are a range of different blank templates.


I love the fascinating suggestions sprinkled throughout, ideas that might start kids on designing their own websites or discovering more about inventions, codes and virtual worlds. I really enjoyed Page's art work too - it's quirky, expressive, and fun, yet leaves lots of room for a kid's own work.


This book would make a great resource for teachers, keen to find prompts they can use with boys. I think it would also make an ideal gift for boys who love comics, and might be just what they need to get them started in using the comic format to express themselves. The website also has free templates to download. It's fantastic when publishers offer freebies to kids, parents and teachers like this!


GIVEAWAY: In conjunction with this review, I'm pleased to offer one Australian reader a copy of Your Life in Comics. To enter, send me an email via Contact Me tab above, with "comics contest" in the subject line, and with your name and email address included, so I can contact you for your postal details if you win. Winner drawn and notified December 10, 2010. 

Creative Prompt - Start with an Old Picture

Pictures make great prompts to spark creative ideas and narratives. Recently author, Sandy Fussell, shared excellent tips for using pictures to help spark creative writing in kids in her guest post, Becoming a Story Detective.


The trick is to find pictures that speak to you in some way. Browsing through photographs is one way to find them. Another is to be alert to great photo opportunities as you wander through life. If you enjoy the process of creating art, then I'm told splashing paint onto a canvas is a particular joy that can also unleash your creative self.


For me though, sadly not a painter by any definition, an old picture can make a great prompt. There's something about vintage photographs that makes me immediately start to wonder about the expressionless character depicted. Does that gentleman with the stern face look that way because of the twelve kids in the picture? Is the lady not smiling because she realizes a spider just fell inside her blouse? Questions like are often all I need to start daydreaming, then jotting down ideas for a story.


If you're looking for pictures you can use with your kids, try that dusty shoebox in Grandma's cupboard or some old photo albums. If you'd prefer someone else's digital photographs, I like Morguefile where you can use pictures you download without attribution. You can also try Public Domain Images Online which can be searched via categories like Historical. But my favourite source of really old photos is Wikimedia Commons, a database of over 7 million freely usable media files.


Once you/the kids find an old photo you like, ask some questions:


About a thing
who owned this?
what was it used for?
did it cause a problem?
then what happened?


About a person
who is this?
what's their name?
what's their occupation?
what do they want more than anything else in the world?
what's stopping them from getting it?


About a place
where is this?
what once happened here?
or what is about to happen here?
how does this place make you feel?
what can you smell, hear, see, taste here?


Jot down ideas as fast as you can, scraps of phrase, words, whatever comes to mind. Save them in an ideas book, then let the sentences flow once your story becomes clear. Don't forget to ask what if? What if the old castle walls begin to crack and the flood waters are rising? What if the unicorn loses his magic?


What I did


I found a Keystone Cops photo from 1914 at Wikimedia Commons. The date meant it's in the public domain, the attribution is : By Mack Sennett Studios [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. I'm not actually old enough to remember the films, but I loved the looks on the cops' faces, so I jotted down a snippet of telephone conversation and ideas.


"What's that you say? The mayor's in a fish? Oh, in a fix. What kind of fix? Yes...Yes... I see. He's in the bathtub and his bow is caught in a flap. What? Oh, his toe is trapped in the tap!" and so on. I decided the room smelled of dust, mildew and onions, I could hear a cow mooing outside and my what if entailed the cow, festooned in someone's laundry, breaking into the police station and charging the chief.


Old photos make a great start for illustrations in a child-created picture book too, as Tania McCartney told us recently in Crafting a Picture Book with Photos - Guest Post.



My article today is the twelfth in a series of prompts that I hope might spark some creative expression in your kids, and maybe you too. I hope you'll join me so we can all challenge ourselves to be more creative. You can catch the rest of the prompts at the first post in the series, by scrolling down to Update.

If you and/or your kids respond to this prompt and you'd like me to showcase it on my blog, I would be thrilled to do that. If you post it on your own blog, please let me know (in comments or email, via the Contact Me tab), and I'll add your link to the relevant post.

Writing Fun

You've probably guessed by now that I love to think of kids being involved in creative activities like writing, drawing, constructing, choreography, and improvisation. Because I'm a writer, I'm particularly interested in finding ways for kids to become involved in writing, however long or short it is, and ideas for getting them started. That's one of the reasons I started my Creative Prompt series.


But sometimes children need to write things that might not allow as much room for their own creativity. Schools in particular are keen on teaching students to write the different text types, as well as on learning to recognize their features and read them. After all, we can't only read fantasy all our lives, even if it's our preferred genre.


Jenny Eather has a wonderful website to support young learners with this. Writing Fun explains the different text types, gives a possible structure for them, and includes tips in a sidebar. Then it allows kids to compose their own examples inside a template, and print them in the template format. The text organizers actually help students with the writing process, giving them a structure to work within. You can also look at examples other students have done.


You'll find these text types: Information Report, Narrative, Procedure, Response, Recount, Description, Explanation, Persuasion/Exposition, Discussion and Poetry, plus some everyday texts: Letter, Email, Invitation, News. All of the organizers are available in Word format for download too.


If your child brings home a writing assignment asking for a recount or a procedure, and you're not sure of the difference, stop by Writing Fun for help! And if you're a teacher, I recommend this site as a wonderful resource.

Photovisi- Easy Photo Collages

I read about Photovisi on Farr-Out Links to Learning, a great blog by Jen Farr, who shares my passion for playing with images.


Photovisi is a free and easy to use online tool to create photo collages. Select one of the many collage templates, add your photos and then customize by dragging items around. After the collage is finished, it's available for download and print!


You don't need to register at this site, which makes collage building fast. But if you do register, a simple matter, you get access to more templates. Once you choose a template from a nice range, you upload your photos from your computer or other sources. It takes a few seconds only to save it, then you can share it via email, download it, or go ahead and have it printed on their options, which I politely declined.


This week, Photovisi emailed me they'd added a new feature, one that enables users to add text to a collage:
Adding text is very easy, just click on the 'Add text' button in the menu bar of the tool to get started.


I was delighted to find it really is easy. I grabbed some pics from the folder I used last week in Creative Prompt - Look Within, chose a template with space for four pics, uploaded them and added a couple of captions, all in the space of about five minutes. 


Why not try it out with your kids? Little ones can have fun adding their own names to pictures of themselves, or writing Mum/Dad on a picture of you! Older kids can assemble pictures of their latest Eisteddfod success, or recent soccer games, and add witty captions. Another fun way to add a little writing to your family's every day!


Discover more ways for you and your children to play with words and images in these articles:
Becoming a Story Detective - Guest Post
The Book Chook Plays with Publishing
Crafting a Picture book with Photos - Guest Post
The Book Chook Makes a Slideshow 
Glogster
Use FlauntR to Play with Images and Text
Fast and Fun Writing with Kids

Book Review, The Pig's Knickers

It's a little known fact about Book Chooks that they've always yearned for a pair of polka-dot knickers. So, apparently, do pigs.


The Pigs Knickers was written by Jonathan Emmett, illustrated by Vanessa Cabban, and published by Walker Books (2010). It begins with Pig unable to enjoy the lovely day because he's sorry for himself. He feels drab and dull and wishes he looked special. A gust of wind blows a gorgeous red pair of knickers Pig's way. Those knickers transform Pig into a pirouetting, break-dancing, tango and salsa-ing gymnastical superstar. Or do they? Perhaps Pig was special even without his knickers?


This is such a happy picture book! Young kids will giggle over the title, and continue giggling over Pig's antics. They'll love being able to act out the actions with Pig, while parents will appreciate the subtle humour of the story. There's lots of great language to discuss.


Illustrations are simple, colourful and have lots of movement and action. All the animals have personality, and there are differing perspectives to give visual interest. Pig himself is exuberant, dramatic and laugh-out-loud funny.


Guess which chook has a new favourite picture book?

Bump Up Your Child's Reading Skills by Dining Out - Guest Post

This guest post is contributed by Alisa Gilbert, who writes on the topics of bachelors degree. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: alisagilbert599@gmail.com.


It’s an exciting time when your child’s learning how to read. Suddenly, letters are not just foreign shapes on pieces of paper or the fronts of buildings anymore. They begin to make sense, and children learn how to combine different consonants and vowels to sound out words they hear every day. Luckily, working on your child's reading skills doesn’t have to be restricted to just school, homework, and bedtime stories. Take advantage of meal times as well, and bump up your child's reading skills by dining out.


The act of eating can actually benefit your child's learning capabilities. Specifically, chewing can boost concentration, focus, and memory retention, researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine found, according to an article published on CNN. They recorded the academic performance of a group of non-gum chewing students and a group of gum-chewing students and found that the gum-chewing students had better overall final grades than those who did not chew gum during the study. Scientists have theorized this may be because of the act of chewing. You can take advantage of this find by encouraging your child to practice his or her reading skills while dining out, as chewing is a part of eating and practicing reading during a meal (or immediately before one) could help them to retain the information better.


Begin by having your child look over the menu with you. Have them pronounce the names of dishes as well as what’s inside them, helping them along the way to discover what foods they would like to order. When the waiter comes around, have your child read the waiter's name tag and say the name aloud. Encourage them to tell the waiter what they would like to order off of the menu. This makes children feel involved and gives them a chance to actively use the reading skills they’re picking up. Even learning how to correctly pronounce dishes with unusual spellings, like "spaghetti," will teach them about all the different ways that consonants and vowels can sound. When food arrives at the table, practice with your child how to spell their dish and have them read the name of the dish again. This way, the word they just read is not just a word, but also something that they can eat and enjoy.


It’s a great idea to take the family out to a restaurant that serves ethnic cuisine to see how dishes are spelled and pronounced in different countries and cultures. At these places, children can learn about how different languages use the same consonants and vowels to form very different sounds. Have your child practice pronouncing the items on the menu and be sure to give them encouragement when it comes to tougher words. Don’t worry about having the different ethnic cuisine names confuse your child. Kids have fun trying to pronounce the names of foreign dishes because it’s something that they normally don’t encounter. As an added bonus, taking children to dine and learn at ethnic eateries exposes them to different cultures, teaching them about the wonders of diversity.


All in all, mealtime is a great place to not only get together and bond with your child, but to sneak in some fun learning outside of school. Kids enjoy reading off the menu, and ordering their own dishes. You have the satisfaction of knowing too, that eating at ethnic restaurants will open your child's mind to tolerance and diversity.


Thanks Alisa. Alisa's a freelance writer looking to expand her writing horizons, so if you're a blogger looking for guest posts, contact Alisa! 

Creative Prompt - Look Within

Often when we decide to do something creative, we look outside ourselves for an idea, something to start us off. But today I'd like to suggest we indulge in some navel gazing. Let's look inward for our inspiration.


My Year Six students would be sniggering about now, thinking of organs and intestines! No, by inward, I mean let's look at who we are and what makes us tick.


A prompt like this is a great one to do at the beginning of the year with a class, or any group you're just starting out with. This is something almost any age can do too. It's a great way to get people talking about themselves, expressing thoughts and feelings, and getting to know each other a little better. If you do it as a family activity, it can also be a wonderful way to get to know more about those we only thought we knew very well!


Telling others about ourselves lends itself to collage, writing and poster making. Or maybe a hybrid of all three. Supply kids with old magazines and they can choose pictures, captions and words that best represent themselves. But your children/students might choose to create a short movie, a wanted poster, a description in writing, a slideshow using photos and captions at PhotoPeach, a self-portrait in pastels or using an online art editor like Slimber, or perhaps a tool like Blabberize where they can simply talk about themselves.


If they have trouble with choosing pictures and words, ask them questions to help eg what do you like to do for fun? can we find a picture of you/someone doing that? Help them to focus on favourite books and movies, foods and sports, holiday places and heroes - all things we usually like to talk about and share with others.


What I did:


We've just been in Tasmania for several weeks, so I decided to focus on myself in Tasmania. I wanted to send something to friends a little different to the traditional postcard, but also something where I could exercise my creativity muscles. A digital poster seemed the answer, so I went to Notaland again. (I told you about it last year, in The Book Chook Plays with Publishing.) Notaland, like Glogster, allows users to create presentations by embedding photos, text and other bits, and seemed perfect as a tool to express a little about ME! I love the clip art they offer too.


I selected pictures that reflected snippets and highlights of my holiday, and tried too to convey my own reactions. Can you pick up my earnest desire to see a platypus in the wild? My biggest problem was that I'd forbidden my husband to take any photos I didn't look gorgeous in, but he couldn't seem to help himself! So my poster is weighted more toward things I liked than myself in action.


If I were doing this with students, I would get them to think about the final product before taking the photos. It would make a great project over a couple of weeks, with them setting up shots of themselves and getting someone to snap the action. They could also trawl through creative commons licensed pictures to add to their choice. Book Chook tip: reduce file sizes and organize the pics you want to use ahead of time, as uploading large files slows the Nota editor down. I reduced to web friendlier sizes of under 150kb. Making a presentation at Notaland would also make a fun family activity, just for the sheer joy of creating and playing with words and images.


The great thing about presentations like this is the way they allow possibilities for text, which sneaks a little bit of writing into poster creation.I avoided video clips, because it makes the page load more slowly, and I figured I'd already slowed it down with lots of lovely Nota bling, including a Google map of Tasmania. Once I'd chosen pictures, figured out captions and added bling until my poster bulged, I was done. Nota gives you an option to embed the result (under the Share tab) so you can see Tassie and Me below. Scroll bar at the right side. 





My article today is the eleventh in a series of prompts that I hope might spark some creative expression in your kids, and maybe you too. I hope you'll join me so we can all challenge ourselves to be more creative. You can catch the rest of the prompts at the first post in the series, by scrolling down to Update.


If you and/or your kids respond to this prompt and you'd like me to showcase it on my blog, I would be thrilled to do that. If you post it on your own blog, please let me know (in comments or email, via the Contact Me tab), and I'll add your link to the relevant post.

Try a Fun Quiz at Blogthings

Blogthings is a cute place for young people to interact with words and read. There are lots of ads, so it's definitely best for children with parent supervisors. For kids who are not yet convinced about the joy of reading a novel, it might be a place to interest them in the idea of reading and taking a quiz, then they could move on to a quiz in a magazine, or newspapers. 


It purports to have a quiz for instance that will deduce who you are as an Australian animal. I don't think anyone is going to take it too seriously, but after answering a few quick questions, I found out I was a sugar glider.

You Are a Sugar Glider

You are both cute and active. You are very curious about the world around you. People may find that you are a bit quirky and offbeat, but you are truly very intelligent. You are very social, and you bring a playful element to every occasion. You are easygoing and not at all aggressive. You only will act to defend yourself.

What Australian Animal Are You?

Blogthings: Take a Quiz. Annoy Your Friends.

There are hundreds of topics though spelling isn't their strong suit. Students could innovate on the idea and make up their own quizzes, perhaps for a topic they're studying: What Kind of Fish Are You?


I also found a How's Your Vocabulary? quiz. This would be a fun thing to do before starting a program to enrich your own vocabulary - like subscribing to Anu Garg's Word a Day, or others in this Make Use Of article. Don't forget that a great way to enrich your child's vocabulary is to read aloud from great children's literature, not forgetting the classics!

Say NO to Bullying

This week is Anti-Bullying Week in the UK. It seemed to me an excellent time for a Book Chook rant about bullying.


I hate the devastation bullying can cause. I'm trying really hard to get myself out of the mental habit of thinking, "I hate bullies" because I don't think that's a useful or productive way to think. But when I contemplate the way bullying can literally ruin someone's life, the way it can erode self-esteem, robbing people of happiness or of life itself, I wish there were something I could do to lessen its impact.


That's why I was glad when my picture book, Monster Maddie, was published. I hoped it might help kids recognize that their own behaviour could be bullying, and help them see that there is always a different way to act. When Jeanne from A Peaceful Day reviewed my book, I realized all over again that bullying can be anywhere in our society and I echoed Jeanne's heartfelt plea: "Don't assume that your nice children would never bully another child. Please."


In fact, I urge all parents to discuss bullying with their kids. Even if you don't think your children are victims of bullying, or bullies, you can't watch over them every minute. Helping kids role play bullying scenarios so they have a possible plan of action, or reading and discussing books or videos about bullying means that you and your child are not powerless. You're taking what action you can to say NO to bullying.


Sharing a book with your child which has a bullying theme is one way to bring up the subject. I recommend Susanne Gervay's I am Jack, Blubber by Judy Blume, and a wonderful picture book, One, by Kathryn Otoshi. Jeanne also discusses the Newbery Honor book, The Hundred Dresses on her blog today, in a post I urge you to read. For kids who are being bullied, it really can help to know they're not alone, that others have suffered and survived. For kids who are bullying others, it may lead to that aha! moment when they realize their behaviour constitutes bullying, and that they are hurting someone else. Dawn at Moms Inspire Learning has great suggestions for books to share with your tweens and teens, too. 


There are also internet resources that might be useful to you. Beatbulllying.org has lesson plans and tips for parents, the anti-bullying alliance has many resources, including ideas for school assemblies and plays, and Bullying.No Way! (Australian website) has excellent information about being a bystander during bullying.

• Bullying is a difficult problem that only gets worse when it is ignored. Research has demonstrated that bystanders play a significant role in bullying.
• Bystanders are present most of the time (85%), where adults are rarely present
• Most young people feel uncomfortable but very few know what to do to stop it happening
• Bullying behaviour is reinforced where people watch but do nothing
• When bystanders do intervene, the bullying is more likely to stop quickly most of the time.(Bullying.No Way!)

If you'd like an activity for kids to participate in after your discussion, how about creating a poster, making a puppet show, creating a digital story, or even writing a script and making a little video at Xtranormal? A follow-up activity like this helps kids consolidate what they've learned, gives them an opportunity for creative self-expression and can give you an insight into how much they've understood. If you'd like your kids to see some student-made anti-bullying movies, check out Bullying. No Way! Or to take a look at a Book Chook example made at Xtranormal, click below.





Bullying seems a huge problem, just like lack of literacy, or governments neglecting libraries. Rather than allowing ourselves to feel overwhelmed and powerless about it, I believe we should start with one step in the right direction, then another, then another. If we all work together, I truly believe we can make a change in society. If we can stop one child going to bed each night in tears, if we can prevent one suicide or total breakdown, why wouldn't we try?


Are you with me? I'd love you to tweet this post or email it to friends who might be interested, so together we can say NO to bullying!

Image credit : poster by Book Chook based on pic from Chesi - Fotos CC on Flickr

Book Review, Riley and the Curious Koala

Here's a new title from Australian author, Tania McCartney. It's the third in a series of children's picture books about Riley, and titled: Riley and the Curious Koala, A journey around Sydney. The first two were Riley and the Sleeping Dragon, and Riley and the Dancing Lion (my review).


In this latest adventure, we see Riley zooming around Sydney in his little red plane in search of a koala, a most curious creature indeed. Riley is accompanied by the characters we met in the earlier books, Panda, Dragon and Lion. I loved that McCartney has chosen my hometown as the setting for this book, and enjoyed recognizing Sydney scenes during Riley's quest.


All of the Riley books use real places and photographs. Kids get a taste of an authentic setting, and a dollop of reality in their fiction. I'm sure some kids who are world travellers will enjoy recognizing places they've been, while for others, the books will help them understand a little about other people's lives. In Riley and the Curious Koala, McCartney has kept to the successful formula of stunning black and white photographs as the backdrop for Kieron Pratt's illustrations.


These illustrations are not only full of life and humour, they show kids how their own art can be added to photographs to create book illustrations. Pratt also adds another layer to the story by providing visual clues for the reader that aren't obvious to Riley. My favourite page is the double spread of Taronga Zoo where McCartney's text encourages kids to identify animal riddles like:


"...feathered and speckled
and downy and stumpy
and lumpy and bumpy..."


Riley and the Curious Koala would make an excellent choice as a gift for a child who lives in another country, especially one who's about to visit Australia. It introduces kids to the sights of Sydney and to many native Australian, as well as exotic animals. This also makes it a good choice for schools doing units on Australia.


The Riley books help kids to see how accessible book-making is, and encourage them to give it a try themselves. Riley and the Curious Koala is an excellent model for kids to innovate on, using their own photography and art work, and creating a story to accompany it. Yesterday on The Book Chook, Tania McCartney discussed how to craft a picture book with photos, explaining techniques she uses in workshops with kids. That post was part of Tania's blog tour for Riley and the Curious Koala which you can find out more about at Tania's website.

Crafting a Picture Book with Photos - Guest Post

Making books with kids is a wonderful literacy activity. We've been lucky enough to get tips about it from Vanessa Levin, Susan Kapuskinski Gaylord,  and I've brought you some suggestions of my own in Book Chook Ideas for Making Books with Kids. Today, as part of a blog tour to celebrate her book, Riley and the Curious Koala, Tania McCartney shares her inspiration and expertise on crafting a picture book with photographs.


Crafting a Picture Book with Photos
by Tania McCartney


If a picture paints a thousand words, the addition of photographs adds yet another dimension to the powerful visual medium that is the Picture Book. A great picture book has the ability to gather up and plunge children deep within its pages – sometimes rendering text superfluous, but most oftentimes taking it to whole other levels of nuance and meaning. Such is the deliriously happy marriage of words and pictures.


Being a fruitless artist and instead finding my craft in words and photography, creating my first children’s picture book using photos seemed natural for me. Coupled with a hopeless love of travel, Riley and the Sleeping Dragon: A journey around Beijing (the first in the Riley series) was born of my love of all these elements (and my tragically absent artist’s gene). And frankly, having to travel to take photos for my books – well, let’s just say my husband thinks I’m a mastermind in tax deduction.


But creating a book using photos needn’t mean leaving home shores. As Writer in Residence for a Canberra School last year, one of the most incredible experiences of my writing life was producing a series of books with children aged 6 through 12 – in which the children were required to take their own photographs (around their school), write their own adventure modelled on Riley and the Sleeping Dragon, and construct their books into real life ‘published’ tomes.


The use of photos in this way is not only a hands-on and highly creative way to observe the world around us, it’s a priceless way to create mementos of our life, woven slickly into a storyline – coupling the real with the unreal in a way that adds such depth and eye-popping cleverness kids absolutely adore.


I’m often asked by children why I use black and white photos in my Riley books… and yet when I pose the question straight back to them, they inherently know why. The use of black and white not only lends a timeless and beautiful visual appeal, it allows the illustrations to shine and really pop from the detailed photographic images. Photographic detail is also easier to appreciate in black and white, and this monochromatic look paves the way for bright-coloured background pages, too.


Designing and creating a photographic picture book at home or school is remarkably simple and so much fun. The first step is to choose a setting, then photograph that setting in a variety of angles, ensuring there is enough space to land aeroplanes or UFOs, sail ships to shore or ride horses at a gallop. Allowing children to think spatially like this is quite remarkable to watch.


Once photos are taken, children can then think about a storyline that involves a simple formula – a setting, a main character, a problem (one involving a tangible item is often the easiest), and the journey to solve that problem. Having their main character need to find something or save someone is one of the easiest ways for kids to come to a resolution, especially younger children.


Printing off (on A4 paper, preferably in B&W) and laying out photos to ‘storyboard’ the tale helps children think about their plot laterally. Once their story is fleshed out in this way, children can then start drawing their characters, vehicles and objects, which will be superimposed over the photos. The use of vivid colours is important, so illustrations will stand out brightly.

The easiest way to keep the kids involved in the superimposing process is to physically cut drawings out then lay them on the photos. Photos can either be printed in A4 size (ie: taking up an entire page) or can be printed a little smaller and placed on an A4 sheet before drawings are layered on top. Printing photos smaller allows for the use of both portrait and landscape shots.


I suggest adding the children’s illustrations with tiny pieces of blu-tac, to allow for moveability. Older children can scan their illustrations into a software package that allows them to cut out and place the images on their photos digitally. They can also overlap illustrations onto the background page and add extra hand-drawn elements to the photo, if desired.


The most charming way to add text to pages is handwritten, though children can type, print and cut out strips of text to add to each page.


The final step is to scan and then print each page on quality paper, then bind the book or slide it into a folder with clear plastic pages. During my Writer in Residence programme, the children also created their own front and back covers and verso pages, with cataloguing-in-publication data, dedications and copyright information, adding further dimension to the book. We even made barcodes with faux ISBN and had a mass book launch (yes, the real life media came!).


Adventure stories are not the only way children can use photos to craft picture books. Kids can create amazing autobiographies by using photos, text and drawings, family trees, memory books or they can catalogue special events, friendships, school, travel – the possibilities are endless.


From journaling to creating their own semi-virtual tale, crafting picture books with photos adds a multimedia element to the creative writing process children will adore. And the results will see parents and teachers standing back to regard their efforts with consummate pride.


Tania McCartney is an author, editor, publisher, blogger, book reviewer and mango devourer who loves writing, celebrating and supporting children’s literature – and literacy. She is the author of the Riley series of travelogue picture books, as well as several published and self-published adult books.

Tania is an experienced magazine writer and editor, is the founder of Kids Book Review and is a Senior Editor at Australian Women Online. She lives in Canberra with a husband, two kids and a mountain of books. See www.taniamccartney.com for more.

About Riley and the Curious Koala: A journey around Sydney

Riley and the Curious Koala is the third in the Riley travelogue series of picture books, taking young children on a journey to far flung destinations. Riley’s first adventure began in Beijing with Riley and the Sleeping Dragon, continued on through Hong Kong with Riley and the Dancing Lion, and now enters home turf, with a fun-filled adventure through the beautiful city of Sydney.


Will Riley find this terribly elusive and quite curious fluffy creature amongst the gorgeous watery vistas of one of the world’s most beautiful cities? Panda, Dragon and Lion from earlier books join this little aviator on his sensational Sydney search… and their discovery is a curious (and funny!) one, indeed.


Using stunning black and white photos, pictures of a real life tin aeroplane and hilarious illustrations by illustrator Kieron Pratt, Riley and the Curious Koala is perfect for experienced travellers, armchair travellers or for those wanting a fuzzy little adventure.


Part of the profits for Riley and the Curious Koala will go to the Australian Koala Foundation. 


Thanks, Tania! Kids will love making a book this way, and all of the Riley series make great models for their own travel stories. Book Chook readers can join me tomorrow for my review of Riley and the Curious Koala.  To follow Tania as she zooms around the blogosphere, catch her schedule on her blog.