How to use this Page

April is National Poetry, Garden, Humor, and Math Education month.  But did you know that April is also Nation Frog Month?  Here are a few titles that will get your readers jumping out of their seats.

Nic Bishop Frogs, photographed and written by Bishop, is a companion to the 2008 Sibert Honor-winning book Nic Bishop Spiders.  With clear, informative text and vivid photos, this book about agile amphibians does not disappoint.  Readers will enjoy the author’s note at the end of the book which explains that some of these photos were taken in Bishop’s own backyard.  To get certain shots, he even trained a frog to catch food right in front of him!

Great for beginning readers, Fun Facts about Frogs is another book full of wonderful  frog  photographs.  Author Carmen Bredeson teaches readers about frogs in a question-and-answer format.  Complete with a glossary and life-cycle diagram, Fun Facts about Frogs is a great pick-up.

In more of an environmental twist, learn about how the environment affects frogs in Frogs in Danger by Jim Whiting.  Topics of mutated frogs, global warming, and the future of frogs are explored in this photo-filled title.  Readers will get information about what they can do to help the earth and the frog population.

Happy National Frog Month!

Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Gorilla
Gorilla who?
Gorill-a my dreams, I love you!

If you like this knock-knock joke by Tomie dePaola, you’ll be even more tickled and delighted when you pick up Knock, Knock!, the companion title to Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road.  Knock, Knock! features fourteen well known children’s illustrators and showcases their take on the classic knock-knock joke.  Contributing artists/comedians include Chris Raschka, Peter Reynolds, Yumi Heo and David Small.  Children of all ages will be in suspense when reading the setup page and then laugh out loud when turning the page to reveal the funny and sometimes punny punch line.  Not only are the jokes comical, but the creative illustrations and pictures will send readers rolling on the floor laughing.

Happy Leap Day to all and especially happy birthday to everyone who was born on this special day!  Since Leap Day occurs only once every four years, take this opportunity to step out of your comfort level and try something new.

Interested in joining the dance buzz and learning a few moves of your own?  Hip-Hop Dancing by Joan Freese will take you through hip-hop history, explain what type of clothing you should wear, and show how to do a few basic moves.  Once you get the hang of it maybe you (or your middle to high school-aged student) can form your own crew and win a few battles!

Dancing not your thing?  Try your hand in the kitchen with Spatulatta Cookbook by the Gerasole sisters,  Olivia and Isabella (hosts from www.spatulatta.com).  Written for grades 3 and up, this creative cookbook is full of bright photographs, easy recipes, and sections that explain basic cooking skills and measurement.  Delicious and fun recipes like “Mashed Potato Ghosts” and “Yumbo Gumbo” really make this cookbook stand out from the rest – there’s even a section for snacks and another for vegetarians!

If dancing and cooking are too stressful for you, then a relaxing activity like yoga may be what you are looking for.  Strike a Pose: The Planet Girl Guide to Yoga by Karen Birkemoe casually explains how yoga can be incorporated in your everyday life.  Organized for grades 5 and up, it covers a variety of poses, breathing, and meditation.  Simple illustrations will help readers execute and understand beginning yoga positions.

Take your leap today, unless you can wait until Leap Day 2012!

What has 366 days and happens every four years?  That’s right- it’s a leap year which  means 2008 has an extra day instead of the usual 365!  Curious little minds are bound to wonder why?  Help your students learn the answers by teaching about the history and concept of calendars.  Click here!

Growing up in a pet-less house, except for the occasional goldfish, I always wondered what it would be like to have a pet, especially an exotic one.  As a child, my top three picks consisted of the following: an orangutan, a dolphin, and a tiger.  A little boy named Jack also has a pet wish list of his own in the book What Pet to Get? by Emma Dodd. 

Excited that his mom agreed that he may have a pet, Jack explores his endless pet possibilities.  Jack suggests that potentially an elephant, polar bear, or even a T-Rex may work.  His mom simply replies that an elephant “might squash the car,” the polar bear may not like the central heating, and the T-Rex wouldn’t be an option because it “has been extinct for sixty-five million years.”  What pet did both mom and Jack agree on?  Well, let’s just say that Jack’s “little” pet named Fang has a fold out page all to his self.  This fun and humorous story with bright, larger-than-life illustrations is a book that young children will enjoy.

"Senior year at any high school across this country is a major transitional period; a period in which students reaffirm their community ties while, at the same time, they prepare to separate from that community. Hurricane Katrina prematurely forced this transition and moment of separation on thousands of seniors throughout New Orleans ... Y06 allows the students themselves to acknowledge exile while transcending it as they explore these transitions online together, while giving the rest of us a unique way of understanding the personal impact of the New Orleans disaster."

That's the logic behind the Yearbook 2006 storytelling project, a unique multimedia package that shares stories, pictures, diary entries, audio, and video from the New Orleans tragedy--all seen through the eyes of high school students.

Josh Goldblum is a digital storytelling wizard who founded the design firm, Blue Cadet Interactive. He shaped the Yearbook 2006 project from the ground up.

Goldblum is our special guest this week, teaching us the fine art of interactive storytelling in my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing.

Jason Boog:
While describing your Yearbook 2006 project, you wrote: "However, we felt we would need to deliver these photographs in some novel way to differentiate our story from the preponderance of audio slideshows developed by such news organizations as NYTimes.com and WashingtonPost.com." What did you mean by this?

Josh Goldblum:
Well first off I hope I wasn’t being too harsh a critic of the audio slideshow. Continue reading...