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2013 GradeReading.NET Summer Reading Lists

Keep your students reading all summer! The lists for 2nd, 3rd and 4th, include 10 recommended fiction titles and 10 recommended nonfiction titles. Printed double-sided, these one-page flyers are perfect to hand out to students, teachers, or parents. Great for PTA meetings, have on hand in the library, or to send home with students for the summer. FREE Pdf or infographic jpeg. See the Summer Lists Now!

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Selling ebooks is as hard as selling a print book and the biggest problem is “discoverability,” the new buzz word these days. Even once a reader discovers your book, how much should you charge? Mark Stoker, head of Smashwords, a service that distributes ebooks, has done some hard statistics and lets the data speak for itself. Watch this slideshare and see what data makes the most difference to what you are currently doing.

Also provocative is Julie Bosman’s recent NYTimes article about the impact of a “daily deal” to get your ebook noticed and catapult it to the top of the charts. Last year, I heard ebook developers talk about turning Dr. Seuss books into ebooks. They said they put everything into the launch date, hoping and expecting the new release to hit the number one spot in the iBook store and Kindle store. It MUST hit that spot, they said, in order to sell well.

What other strategies are working for your ebooks?

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As readers of my site know, I have been fascinated by multimedia book apps since the launch of the iPad and the first interactive books apps in 2011. I remember first reading the Pop-out Peter Rabbit that spring, and then The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore in the summer of 2011. I was drawn into these apps by the way they combined the visual delights of picture books with the magic of audiobooks. They had a bit of the allure of the movies, and yet book apps put the readers firmly in charge of the pacing -- pulling the reader in to turn pages, discover hotspots and interact with the story.

Perhaps it is my perspective as a children’s librarian that draws me to the story aspect of book apps more than the interactive features, but I firmly believe that it is this sense of story, along with the interactive features, that draws children back to apps again and again. After all, if children just wanted interactive features, they would choose games like Angry Birds. Children really do love stories and the magical world that stories create for us in our minds, and this is just as true for book apps as it is for printed books. To paraphrase Martha Parravano, a book app might be an intangible piece of computer software, but at its heart a book app is an experience that unfolds for a child as they are reading it (Sutton and Parravano, 2010).

But the question remains: How can we apply what we know already to evaluating this new media? Because book apps combine so many different elements, we need to draw on our knowledge of children’s books, learning theories, and online or multimedia teaching to understand how we as librarians can review book apps, what features we might consider, and why.

If you're interested in the different aspects I consider when I evaluate a book app, please take a look at my article Book Apps as a New Interactive Learning Experience: Evaluating and Reviewing This New Media, published in the recent CSLA Journal from the California School Librarians Association. The Spring 2013 issue of the CSLA Journal focuses on new media, and I was very happy to contribute my experience with book apps.

I am also excited for the work of the AASL Best Apps for Teaching and Learning task force to be announced next month at the ALA Annual Conference. Our committee has been working hard to select the top 25 apps for teaching and learning, and we have a great selection to share at the conference.

I value the work of my local, statewide and national librarian organizations in supporting my professional development. These communities of engaged professionals help further my own thinking, provide thoughtful sounding boards when I am struggling with my own work, and encourage me to grow in new ways.

I would like to thank Jeanne Nelson, editor of the CSLA Journal, for her guidance writing this article. I would also like to express my sincere appreciation for Michelle Holschuh Simmons, professor of library sciences at San Jose State University. Much of my original thinking was developed in her class on information literacy.

©2013 Mary Ann Scheuer, Great Kid Books

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Information technology and new technological devices are revolutionizing the world of literature, and children’s literature is no different. The ever-increasing numbers of e-books and e-readers in recent years has sparked debate about whether or not e-books are bad for the book industry or reading in general. This argument has been especially critical in the arena of children’s literature. Though children’s e-books have both their improvements and downsides over print books, they achieve the same goal of reaching out to children and telling stories or conveying information in a way that children can understand and enjoy.

One improvement e-books have over print books is the superior picture quality of e-books. This is particularly important for a lot of children’s books. Lots of children’s books, both fiction and nonfiction, contain beautiful color illustrations or photographs. Backlighting on computers or iPads make these pictures brighter and more vivid, enhancing the child’s enjoyment and reading experience. Additionally, pictures which splay across two pages and are split down the middle by a page divide in a print book look better on a screen where there is no page divide.

There are other improvements. Audio books enable young children to hear stories without their parents having to read to them. This way if parents are doing something else the kids can have a book out and have a computer read it to them, and parents can interact from the kitchen or the driver’s seat (“What’s the picture of?” “What kind of sound does that animal make?” etc) without having to take their eyes off the stove or the road to read the book. Additionally the fact that iPads, e-readers, computers, and other electronic devices can hold hundreds of e-books in a tablet that takes up about as much space as one book makes them convenient for traveling and ensures that children always have something new to read.

Parents will like that the e-books are often cheaper and more durable than print books. Our favorite books all suffer from over-use – dog eared pages, worn covers, pages falling out. These happen even to adults’ favorite books, and most kids are far less careful with their things. E-books don’t have pages that can fall out or covers that can get bent in the bottom of a backpack. There are durable tablets available so that kids can drop the e-readers without breaking them.

The most important thing is to get children reading and to get them reading good books. Fiction has to have characters and an interesting plot. Children get this from the story itself, not the media. Harry Potter is still Harry Potter whether you’re reading about him in the familiar-smelling, dog-eared pages of the books you’ve had for years or whether you’re reading about him on a computer screen with the movie soundtrack emitting from the same computer. The same idea goes for nonfiction. Children’s nonfiction has to have information that keeps the child engaged and which the author explains on the child’s level. These qualities are things that both print books and e-books have in common. The goal is still the same – to get kids reading and interacting with language and information. Information is powerful no matter the media through which it is conveyed. 

For more information on children’s e-books from Sylvan Dell, go to Amazon. Our e-books are $0.99 through the 18^th of May.

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Time Magazine recently published an article "Fifty must-have iPad apps". I know that I usually write about books and apps to share with children, but today I'd like to share apps that I am finding myself using to conduct my professional life. I am actually finding that tweens and teens are starting to use these apps as well.

Check out the link to the article for the full list. Here I am going to share 5 apps I've been using regularly that are on their list, and 5 apps I plan on checking out soon.

Five essential apps I've loved using:

• Dropbox:  I use this constantly to access documents on the go, to backup and store files, and to share documents with others. Great, smooth interface. 
• Feedly: I have switched all my blog reading over to Feedly and am loving the iPad app. In fact, I'm reading more blogs than ever now with Feedly. Love it!
• Flipboard: I used Flipboard more before I started using Feedly, but I still switch over to it for accessing Twitter and other news in a visual way. I'm intrigued by SLJ's Digital Shift article on using Flipboard for students to create their own customized, curated digital magazines.
• Paper: This app lets me doodle, draw and brainstorm in such a creative, intuitive, beautiful way! I just love it. Travis Jonker of 100 Scope Notes first turned me onto Paper, and then it was recognized by Apple as the App of the Year.
• Waze: This traffic app helped us navigate our way through LA traffic maze last summer - with  my 13 year old navigating and me at the wheel! Waze identifies optimal routes, taking into account traffic, hazards, and blockages as well as simple navigation.

Five apps I want to check out:

• Blogsy: I have not written blog posts on my iPad yet. I'm wondering if any blogging friends have done this much. Every time I try, I find it clunky and difficult. Hoping that Blogsy has a better interface!
• Comics: Love my first look at this interface. I'm curious to see if this app has many comics for kids.
• Newsy: I'm interested in Newsy's video approach, and want to see if it's sensationalized or straightforward. Time writes that it "features professional anchors who deliver the news in easy-to-digest, no-fluff snippets," which sounds good to me.
• Pinnacle Studio: I'm interested in moving toward video editing on the iPad. I love taking videos of student performances using the iPad, and am curious whether this app can give me similar control and options as a desktop video editing tool like iMovie.
• Tweetbot: I use Twitter throughout my day for professional connections, resources and learning opportunities. I'm curious to see if Tweetbot provides a more streamlined, reliable app than the Twitter app.

What apps do you consider essential for your professional and personal learning? Do you see kids starting to use these? Are there any you'd add to Time's list?

I've loved being part of the American Association of School Librarian's task force choosing the Best Apps for Teaching and Learning. I can't wait to share our recommended list this June at the ALA Annual Conference!

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Fleshbot Fiction has so far added the steamy works of talented authors such as Daisy Danger, William O., Howard Raymond, Louise Lagris, Olivia Glass and Louise Friday, and will post more diverse, fetish-specific stories on a regular basis as the site grows with its audience. The low, fixed price points will encourage customers to discover more new authors and their searing stories.

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Today is St. George’s Day, the patron saint of England, and it’s the day we traditionally celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday (see a timeline at Mr. William Shakespeare). I've been looking forward to reading Touch Press's fantastic app The Sonnets by William Shakespeare, and I snapped it up today when I saw it on sale. I want to share this wonderful enhanced, multimedia experience that provides both artistic enjoyment of classic literature and increased academic understanding of complex text.

The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
developed by Touch Press
version 1.0, 2012
available on the iTunes AppStore

Touch Press writes that "The Sonnets by William Shakespeare allows you to enjoy, explore and understand these immortal works of literature as never before." While that seems like hyperbole (as never before?), I am truly amazed at the rich experience that reading this app brings.


This app brings together dramatic performances of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets with the annotated, unabridged text and critical essays. Students can watch professional actors ranging from Patrick Stewart to Kim Cattrall recite the sonnets - an inspiring experience on its own. But you can also switch over to reading the poems while you listen to the professional reading, with lines highlighted as you go. Just watch David Tennant's performance of the famous Sonnet 18: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"



The actors' readings bring me so much greater appreciation for these poems than simply reading the text by itself. I also love the way that Touch Press brought so many different actors to this project, providing readers with the sense that we all can connect with Shakespeare's works in different ways.


The academic notes and videos also provide many different ways in for readers, reinforcing the idea that there is no one correct interpretation of these poems. Since I was reading more for my own pleasure, I was drawn to the video interviews with different academics and professionals. It was fascinating to hear different opinions on the same topic, giving me insight into the range of debates that still surround these poems. For example, I never realized that we don't exactly know whom the Sonnets are written for or to. Students will also find the line by line annotations helpful.


Throughout, Touch Press marries the text and the narration, the artistic and the academic, the visual and the auditory -- providing a seamless, multi-layered, multi-media reading experience. Overall, this is an app that I will come back to again and again. Get this for students who are auditory learners, but also get this for friends who love listening to poetry or learning about Shakespeare's plays.

For more information, see the Touch Press website: The Sonnets by William Shakespeare. For more reviews, see: School Library Journal, The Guardian newspaper, and The Independent newspaper.

I purchased the review copy for my own home library. If you make a purchase using the Amazon links on this site, a small portion goes to Great Kid Books (at no cost to you!). Thank you for your support.

Review ©2013 Mary Ann Scheuer, Great Kid Books

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Penguin has proposed to drop the agency eBook pricing model in the European Economic Area following similar deals from Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, Hachette, and Holtzbrinck last year.

AppNewser has more about the deal, from the European Commission press release:

In the proposed commitments, Penguin offers to terminate existing agency agreements and refrain from adopting price MFN clauses for five years. In case Penguin would enter into new agency agreements, retailers would be free to set the retail price of e-books during a two-year period, provided the aggregate value of price discounts granted by retailers does not exceed the total annual amount of the commissions that the retailer receives from the publisher.

 

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Confused by the crowded marketplace for digital reading devices? Reader Rocket will help you sort it all out with detailed comparison charts of major eReaders.

AppNewser has more:

The site lets you search based on different attributes that an eReader offers and sort listings based on which qualities are most important to you. Say for example, that you care most about battery life and compare eReaders based on the amount of battery life they offer. For example, the Kobo Glo has the most battery life in eReaders with 55 hours, ahead of the Amazon Kindle Touch, which has 30 hours. But Amazon’s device beats the Kobo in price at $96 compared to $146. Got it down to two choices? The site will show you head-to-head comparisons and summarize the pros and cons of each devices, so that you can find the device that is right for you.

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For the next year, Simon & Schuster will test a pilot eBook program with the New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library and Queens Library.  Here’s more from the release:

The participating libraries can acquire any Simon & Schuster ebook title at any time during the pilot’s one-year term, with each title usable for one year from the date of purchase.  Each library can offer an unlimited number of checkouts during the one-year term for which it has purchased a copy; each copy may only be checked out by one user at a time.   All of Simon & Schuster’s frontlist and backlist titles that are available as ebooks are eligible for the program, with new titles being made available simultaneous with their publication.

In an interesting twist on the traditional model, patrons can buy books through the library online and the library will receive a portion of the sale. The New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library programs will start April 30th and the Queens Library program launches in May.

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On Wednesday night, I was a featured writer at the Norwich Free Academy Book Expo in Norwich, Connecticut. This was the first time I'd been invited to such an event since my books have been available only in eBook editions, and the first time since self-publishing Saving the Planet & Stuff as an eBook in February. As you may recall, I had plans:

Because my four eBooks were published in paper and ink back in the day, I did have "books" people could see and handle, though they couldn't buy them. But additionally I had the laptop loaded with
the Saving the Planet & Stuff trailer







                  The Saving the Planet & Stuff page from my website
and the website, itself, which I could maneuver through there on the hard drive, meaning I wasn't dependent upon the high school library where we were located having WiiFii. (Though it did.)






So how did all this work out? Well, there are two factors to consider.

1. Sales. No sales have yet been generated as a result of this appearance. This isn't necessarily an indication of failure. Many authors with paper-and-ink books making public appearances will make no sales at all. Selling just a few books at an appearance is about as much as most writers can hope for. Years ago, I had a bookseller tell me that if he could get four sales from an in-store appearance, he was happy. I've attended many book fairs that generated long lines for the one or two big names who were invited to draw customers while the rest of the writers sat looking bored or embarrassed. This is a fact life.

2. Connecting with the reading public. Here is where I saw a big difference between the NFA event and other events at which I've appeared. I definitely did more chatting and interacting than I've done in the past. I think this was due to two factors. A. Though there was a book sale going on, because I had eBooks, I did not expect to make any sales that evening. The only people who would be buying my self-published book, the one I was really promoting, would be people who owned a Kindle or a Nook, because those are the only two platforms we've published it to so far. In all likelihood they would make their purchase, if they were going to make one at all, at some other time, not right there. This took a big burden off my shoulders. There was no anxiety about whether I was going to "succeed" or "fail" with sales, because I went in there knowing there would be none right there on the spot. I was feeling kind of light-hearted. Jolly, even, which is not what anyone would call characteristic of me. B. Look at the next two pictures. Notice the difference between Gail with the laptop and without it?                    
                                                                                                             
Without the laptop, I am behind a table, as most authors are at festivals and book fairs. There's always something between the writers and the public. You sit and hope someone will come talk to you. There is a stilted conversation between the person on one side of the table, who is the "writer," and the person on the other side of the table, who "is not."



at other events, because I was moving around and could. I got into a discussion with a couple of people about Goodreads, one of whom had never heard of it. I wrote "Goodreads" on one of my business cards so she could remember it--and me, presumably. In fact, I gave out more business cards than I usually do. Which, okay, wasn't many. But it was still a different experience.

The connecting with the reading public part of an appearance is important. In the short-term, invitations to speaking engagements and school visits can (and, in my case, have) come about because of connections made with the public. In the long-term, meeting other writers, librarians, teachers, and booksellers and making new Facebook friends of all kinds can help out down-the-line in ways we can't foresee at the time of the meetings.

So I think there is a workable method that eBook writers can use for public appearances. A much bigger problem will be, I believe, finding opportunities for public appearances in the first place. Most festivals and book fairs are fundraisers for some group. (The one I attended this week was not.) The group sells the writers' books, just as a bookstore would, and the profit it makes is its fundraising. Groups aren't going to be able to sell an eBook, self-published or not.  Kobo has an arrangement with independent bookstores that enables participating stores to keep a percentage of the sale of eBooks sold from their websites. Will there one day be a similar arrangement for book fair and festival organizers, which will then welcome eBook authors? Until there is, I don't know how often writers like myself will be appearing at public events.
                               

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Editor Lionel Bender discusses changes in the world of children's nonfiction. 

http://publishingperspectives.com/2013/03/childrens-nonfiction-publishing-comes-of-age/

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No trees are destroyed in the making of an eBook. Sounds like a good thing, n'est-ce pas? You take a living tree, kill it, mash it into pulp, squish it into paper, print a book on it, read it, and, some day, it's going to end up in book heaven. A book, it could be argued, is pre-trash.

So shouldn't an eBook, which is kind of nothing, a lot better environmentally speaking?

Some would say that it depends on how many books you read. Producing devices for reading eBooks  requires resources, as does producing traditional books. How many traditional books do you have to replace with eBooks to offset the environmental impact of the creation of the reading device? As few as fourteen? As  many as a hundred? Estimates vary.

Some would say that it depends on what kinds of devices the eBooks end up being read on.  If readers move to some kind of tablet that they use not only for reading but for accessing the Internet so that they no longer need a desktop or laptop, they'll be using a lot less equipment and the resources required to make them.

Some would say that it really just depends.

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16 classic Ray Bradbury books are coming to digital booksellers for the very first time.

We’ve posted the complete release schedule below, but the list of new eBook releases includes beloved books like Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Illustrated Man.

William Morrow, the longtime publisher of the late, award-winning writer and cultural icon Ray Bradbury, announces the release of 16 of Bradbury’s classic backlist titles in ebook format for the very first time. An additional seven titles will be released in e-book format over the next several months. Alexandra Bradbury, the great author’s daughter, had this comment in the release:

The entire Bradbury family is excited to know that Dad’s work will finally be available to all readers: traditional print readers and the new generation of digital readers … We’re especially pleased that digital editions of Bradbury books will be available through libraries as well as e-retailers, as Ray Bradbury was an ardent supporter of our great public library system.

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If you are thinking about using PressBooks to build your digital book, the company has a new partnership that will help you sell your book in 11 different marketplaces.

AppNewser has the scoop:

PressBooks, a company that offers an online toolset for self-publishing, has partnered with BookBaby to help authors distribute their titles in eBook stores. Thanks to the partnership, authors can create their eBooks online, manage all of the design and production of the title and then upload the title to 11 eBook stores including: the Kindle Store, Apple iBooks, Nook, and Kobo, all from the same interface.

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Do you like to read digital shorts? The website and company Thin Reads launched today, dedicated entirely to the eBook singles marketplace.

Thin Reads will feature reviews, news, interviews, writer profiles and analysis of eBook singles. The company has created a database of over 700 singles, tracking digital books released since 2010. Thin Reads also released a few fascinating data points:

*54% of all e-book singles available in the database are listed as Original, which means they were created especially as short works of non-fiction or fiction intended to be read on an electronic platform for its original release.
*12% of all e-book singles available in the database are listed as Encore, which means they were originally published or presented previously in another format. 2% of all e-book singles in the database are listed as Encore+, which means that new or updated content was added to a story that was previously published.
* 31% of e-book singles in the database are fiction. 69% are non-fiction. Narrative non-fiction accounted for 20% of all e-book singles in the database.

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U.S. District Court judge Richard J. Sullivan has ruled that the used marketplace ReDigi was a “direct, contributory, and vicarious infringement” (PDF link) on Capitol Record’s reproduction and distribution rights.

This could have dramatic implications for the future of a digital used book marketplace, as the judge wrote that “the Court cannot of its own accord condone the wholesale application of the first sale defense to the digital sphere.” The first sale doctrine would pave the way for the reselling of digital books. Here is an excerpt from the landmark decision:

the Court cannot of its own accord condone the wholesale application of the first sale defense to the digital sphere, particularly when Congress itself has declined to take that step. Accordingly, and for the reasons stated above, the Court GRANTS Capitol’s motion for summary judgment on its claims for ReDigi’s direct, contributory, and vicarious infringement of its distribution and reproduction rights. The Court also DENIES ReDigi’s motion in its entirety.

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Video game maker Joe Booth has raised more than $11,700 on Kickstarter for their iOS book app. The funds will be used the cover the costs to commission an illustrator and finish developing the interactive book. We’ve embedded a video about the project above–what do you think?

Here’s more about the project: “Vidya Books leverages the best elements of Choose Your Own Adventure storytelling, classic adventure games, traditional novels, and modern action games to create something fresh and magical…You interact with the words as they appear — your interaction directs the main character.  You swipe the screen, touch words, and manipulate the device — and that moves the story forward!”

Welcome to our Kickstarter Publishing Project of the Week, a feature exploring how authors and publishers are using the fundraising site to raise money for book projects. If you want to start your own project, check out How To Use Kickstarter to Fund Your Publishing Project.

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Pepi Moves House

Just completed "Pepi Moves House" e-book five in the series  written by Alarna Gray....Coming Soon! A Toy Dog is for Real Series New Works Program

Characters developed a play written by Marcia Trimble for Boston Children's Theater - New Works Program This is a sequel to Marcia's FREE ebook - Fairytale Moments - Who is Your Giant?

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Do these lines stir passion and longing as you hear Juliet's words? Or do they make you squirm and recall agonizing afternoons trying to slog through Shakespeare plays line by line? Students continue to read Shakespeare's many plays, memorizing passages, learning how to closely read text for themes and character development, and trying to decipher 16th century idioms.

Two interesting apps are now available that can help students access and appreciate Shakespeare plays. I would like to share two that I've explored for Romeo and Juliet: one from Shakespeare in Bits and and another from Cambridge University Press. Both apps let students listen to a full cast production of the play while they read along, and let students explore a vast amount of resources to help them understand the play.

Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare in Bits
developed by MindConnex
available on the iTunes app store as a standalone app and in the Shakespeare in Bits universal app
ages 12 - 16

The Shakespeare in Bits app will appeal to students who want a visual sense of the story as they listen and read the play. This app combines an excellent full cast narration of the fully play with a rudimentary animated version enacted on half the iPad screen, while the full text of the play is on the other half. While it sounds cluttered, the design works very smoothly. Each scene is broken into manageable chunks, helping students absorb the original language. I found that students were able to process the meaning of the play more as they read, watched and listened to a scene.


I was particularly impressed by the supporting materials that Shakespeare in Bits provided to help students read Romeo and Juliet. Tap highlighted words, and see them change in the text to more common, modern language. Tap the "L" next to the text and readers learn about the language choices Shakespeare made. In the example below, the note states,

"Notice the contrast in language between the two characters. Juliet begins by asking Romeo a direct question - how did he find her? But we know by now that Romeo never gives direct answers, and his response here is predictably flowery and evasive."

Sprinkled throughout are questions for students to think about. So this app does not always provide answers, but rather guides students to their own close reading of the play. Each section is also accompanied by notes and a synopsis, and readers have a place to make their own notes. I found that the notes were written in an accessible way, one that would help students reading on their own.

In addition, the app provides a guide for each character, summarizing the different characters' perspectives and roles in the story. Visual learners will certainly appreciate the character map showing the pictures of the main characters linked to one another, as their relationships are arranged.

Some might feel that the animations are too rudimentary, but I actually found their simplicity benefited me. The images were enough to ground the action of the play, but I was prompted to embellish them in my own mind's eye. They clearly aren't meant to be how the play would seem in real life. But they can provide a scaffolding for students.

My biggest concern with this app is that it provides too much for students. Will they use the short essays in the Analysis section to replace their own efforts writing analytical essays? Perhaps. But I think that Shakespeare calls for more support than less.

Romeo and Juliet
published by Cambridge University Press
designed and developed by Agant Ltd.
available on the iTunes app store
ages 12 - 16

The apps developed by Cambridge University Press are also an excellent way to support students as they read and think about Shakespeare's plays. This app is perhaps more academic, and so may appeal to some students and teachers wanting something with more gravitas.

Interestingly, the Cambridge and the Shakespeare in Bits apps both use the same audio narration, a full cast recording produced by Naxos Audiobooks, starring Michael Sheen as Romeo and Kate Beckinsale as Juliet. The Cambridge app also allows readers to read along with the full play as they listen to the recording.

Readers control several features that support their reading. Standard and academic glossaries provide support for students translating sections to more accessible modern English, and academic notes providing literary and linguistic background. I particularly liked the scene synopses and detailed synopses that were embedded within the text like stage directions. These helped orient me as I started reading a section. Since the language of Shakespeare does not come naturally to our students, it is often helpful if they know what is going to happen before they read a scene. If readers find these distracting, they can easily turn them off.


Each scene also begins with a few photographs of live stage, television or movie productions of Romeo and Juliet. This gives students the tangible feeling that the play can be interpreted and staged in many different ways.

I found that this app preserved more of a sense of the play as an academic experience, read in a purer form instead of chunked and illustrated. The navigation and coordination of the audio to text are excellent. I can certainly see it appealing to teachers who want students to do more of the figuring out on their own.

I definitely recommend taking some time to explore the section "Examine", which includes clear short essays helping readers understand the characters, themes in the play, the history and choices made in staging performances, and Shakespeare's use of language, style and imagery.


My biggest concern with this app was that the supporting materials were not as accessible to middle school and high school students. Romeo and Juliet is often read by young teens as their first experience with Shakespeare (often in 7th grade). While I liked the circles of characters, I don't think these are as readily accessible to students without any visual support.  The glossaries are not as intuitively supportive as the Shakespeare in Bits glossaries, but they provide more academic support for readers wishing to delve deeper.

This video gives a nice preview of the Cambridge app:


Read more about Cambridge University Press's Shakespeare apps in this article in the Guardian, a British national newspaper: Do Shakespeare plays smell as sweet when released as iPad apps?

Whether you're a parent wanting to help your child experience Shakespeare, a teacher looking for new ways for students to read and think about these plays, or a librarian encouraging patrons to explore new apps, both of these platforms are definitely worth checking out. I know they would have made my experiences fuller and more enjoyable when I was in high school.

Review ©2013 Mary Ann Scheuer, Great Kid Books

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I’ll keep this blog brief because my others have a habit of getting, well, long. And instead of writing what I think, I’m hoping to pick your brains (in the nicest possible way, of course—that’s not an entirely pleasant visual).

I’m on the hunt for innovative ebooks. As in, ones that represent new and engagingly effective ways to tell stories. Can you recommend any? Of any genre?

I mean, sure, it’s great that the industry’s invented electronic text and formats that (with the exception of PDFs) sort and reassemble and re-flow themselves according to the device and your preferred settings. But ereaders represent a bunch of storytelling- and industry-expanding opportunities to enhance the tale and the reading experience. I’m looking for books (and publishers) that are exploring and realising the ebook format’s potential.

In-built dictionary functionality is tops—I no longer have to dog ear pages or make mental notes to scurry off and look words up—but can you think of any ebooks that are seamlessly incorporating other special features-style storytelling elements such as stills and video? Or that perhaps encourage you to access and navigate through the tale from a variety of non-traditional, non-chronological, but non-confusing angles?

I guess the key to the texts I’m looking for is that they’re good, that the elements are integrated and not hey-we-can-insert-a-video-here tacked on. The kinds of texts that give the sense that they’ve come from publishers who see electronic publishing as an opportunity rather than something they’ve been forced, like a luddite with a gun held to their head, to make a token effort at. I’m after the ones that, though the books may be serious, are clearly having fun.

Any recommendations for books or publishers? Or even blogs talking about them? I’m stumped for where to start.

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With 14 political thrillers published, novelist Vince Flynn gets hundreds of reader requests every year for a character index–so the novelist decided to build the database online with help from his fans.

If you want to submit character names for the index, you can use this online form. Flynn will publish the database as a free eBook, including his readers inside the book.

I would like to create a character database for VinceFlynn.com and also offer the information in a free eBook, but I’m busy writing the next Rapp novel so I’m going to need to enlist The Rapp Pack. Together, we’re going to create the Ultimate Vince Flynn Database and have it online and in eBook form by this fall … We’ll do our best to keep the link updated so you can see who has already been suggested … I will make sure that everyone who contributes will be listed in the eBook version of the character index, so please send in your full names along with your suggestions-your names will live on forever in the US Library of Congress!

(Photo Credit: Peter Hurley)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers has released 12 digital books by Robert Cormier, the author of the 39 year old YA classic, The Chocolate War. Did you discover his books as a younger reader?

The digital books include: Fade, Tunes for Bears to Dance To, 8 Plus 1, Beyond the Chocolate War and I Am the Cheese. Knopf Books for Young Readers will continue to publish Cormier’s hardcovers while the Ember and Laurel-Leaf imprints publish his trade paperback editions. Here’s more from the publisher:

A tireless warrior in the crusade for realistic young adult fiction, Cormier not only changed the landscape of young adult literature but also pushed the boundaries of what could be discussed in the classroom. He was ahead of his time in dealing with issues of bullying and the importance of independent thought. “I take real people and put them in extraordinary situations,” he said in an interview with School Library Journal. “I’m very interested in intimidation. And the way people manipulate other people, [as well as] the obvious abuse of authority.”

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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According to a study conducted by Bookboon, only 15.5 percent of surveyed American readers do not intend to read eBooks in the next three years.

We’ve embedded the global eBook chart above, click to enlarge. AppNewser has more details:

The report, which surveyed more than 5,678 Americans on their opinions and adoption habits of eBooks, also found that eBook consumers will grow by 84 percent over the next year. Almost a quarter of Americans expect to buy their first eBook in 2013, and that number is higher for tablet owners, as 30 percent of this audience expect to buy their first eBook this year. According to Bookboon, 27.1 percent of tablet owners are currently buying eBooks, and this is expected to grow to 49.8 percent of the population in 2013 … Three years from now, 57.7 percent of those surveyed expect that more than half of the books they read will be digital. Only 15.5 percent of readers said that they expect not to read eBooks at all.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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