Thanks to Alison Weatherby, for passing along this opportunity she heard about through a friend whose husband runs a mobile app company. They're developing an educational app for kids and looking for children't book writers to help them write stories for it. (Official email follows.)
Hello,
Hello,
If you are reading this email, it is because someone thinks you are amazing, creative, talented and might be interested in a cool new project to help children learn to read.This is a call for authors and illustrators/photographers to produce some wonderful new books for children. These will be commissioned works (Yes, you will get paid for your work!) that will be purchased by Page One Reading Solutions, Inc. and connected with an iPad app that will be used in elementary school classrooms. If this is something that might be of interest to you, kindly provide me with your contact and interest information via this very brief SURVEY (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QM37DHX). If you would like to learn more, read the FAQs below. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out via email or phone (727-858-2509).
Why is Page One doing this?
My name is Janine Caffrey. For over 30 years I have been an educator with a commitment to helping kids learn to read. All too often (about 66% of the time) American children complete third grade without the reading skills they need. In order to solve this problem, my company (Page One Reading Solutions) is developing a new reading app called Classhopper. Classhopper will contain original "decodable" books.
What is a decodable book?
A decodable book is designed to only include the letters, sounds and spelling patterns that a student has already learned. As a student learns new letters, sounds and patterns, s/he is provided with books that include these new letters, sounds and patterns. A small number of "sight" words might also be included in some books. These are words that may be exceptions to typical spelling patterns, such as "was." Sight words may also include words that do follow a pattern, but that the student has not yet learned. If you are interested in understanding the sequence of skills, please feel free to take a look at a DRAFT of the sequence of letters, sounds and spelling patterns (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jLtWcgVYPp-kyDcyTeFU9L8Fv7JTkFVxEn3zZB32RKI/edit?usp=sharing) that will be used in our Classhopper books. As you can see on the spreadsheet, the first book of the series will only include the letters a, m, s, t and the sight word "the." Each book will add letters, sounds, patterns and/or sight words. Each book can contain everything that is contained in the previous books. By the time students can read Book 57, they will be able to read just about anything you put in front of them. This sequence is open to revisions, which may come from the writers themselves. If for the sake of a particular story, we need to alter the sequence, we can do that.
How will Classhopper books be different?
Decodable books are nothing new. However, they are usually not very exciting. These will be different because of you. We are tapping into communities of writers and artists who want to create really amazing books, that happen to adhere to a sequence. The books can be fiction or non-fiction, using any types of images that would be engaging for children in kindergarten through 2nd grade. The entire series will have lots of different kinds of books for all different kinds of readers. This means overall, the characters and settings should be diverse and representative of all American children. If you have a book that you can write AND illustrate, WONDERFUL! If you want to team up with other people to create a book, that would be great. Of course, you can also opt to write OR provide the pictures. In that case, we will assign a partner for your book. If there are multiple people in a particular geographic area, we might be able to put a group together to brainstorm. Chicago and NYC are likely places - but there may be people based in other areas as well.
What should I do next?
If this is something that might be of interest to you, kindly provide me with your contact and interest information via this very brief SURVEY (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QM37DHX). If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out via email ([email protected]) or phone (727-858-2509).
Janine Caffrey