In September, I was privileged to attend KidLitCon, a gathering of bloggers who blog about children’s books. There are many librarians in the group, but what unites the attendees is a love for reading and children’s books and getting kids excited about reading.
Even librarians who don’t blog themselves will find some gems out there in the Kidlitosphere. You’ll hear about new books, old favorites, and even ideas for encouraging parents to read to kids.
Many attendees were Author bloggers and bloggers who focus on YA, but here are some bloggers who attended KidLitCon who specifically focus on children’s books:
Book Dads: A site that promotes children’s literacy by reviewing books dads can share with their children.
Book Moot: A school librarian’s blog covering books for all ages of children.
The Cybils: Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Award site. Blog includes many reviews of nominated books.
Diamond in the Window: This children’s literature blog includes a lovely feature called We Recommend, which highlights Readers’ Advisory from e-mailed requests.
Family Bookshelf: Reading news, ideas, and reviews.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle-Grade Authors: A blog by several middle-grade authors. The Book Lists are especially helpful.
Great Kid Books: A blog by a school librarian to help parents learn about great books for their kids.
Jen Robinson’s Book Page: Promoting the love of books by children, and featuring Growing Bookworms newsletter.
Kidsmomo: A blog about introducing good books directly to children.
Kid Tested, Librarian Approved: Picture book news and reviews from a children’s librarian.
Laurie Thompson: A blog specializing in children’s nonfiction and youth empowerment.
Mother Reader: A reading Mom with a great sense of humor.
Pink Me: A blog by a librarian, consultant for school libraries, and children’s book reviewer.
Rasco from RIF: Musings from the CEO of Reading Is Fundamental on books and literacy.
Reads for Keeps: Reviews especially focusing on middle grade books by a pair who love them.
Saints and Spinners: Stories, songs and stitches from a librarian and professional storyteller.
Six Boxes of Books: Three sisters who love children’s books.
Sonderbooks: My own website and blog, including sections for Picture Books, Children’s Fiction, and Children’s Nonfiction.
We Be Reading: Reviews of books for all ages, including books enjoyed by the blogger’s 7-year-old son.
One of the outstanding features of KidLitCon was how people fr
Children are natural storytellers—every time they engage in imaginative play, they are creating stories and acting them out. When it comes to communicating their stories with others, children who spend a lot of time with books have a clear advantage. At least, that’s how I see it from the reference desk. One of my favorite things to spot is a pre-reader who opens a picture book and invents her own narrative.
Unfortunately, children don’t always see themselves as storytellers. When my daughter started kindergarten last year, she was tasked with creating a picture that told a story. When I went in for parents’ night, what I found was a scribbled-over picture, accompanied by the words “I am not good at it.” While proud of what was likely her first full written sentence, I was saddened to learn that she didn’t think she could tell a story. Especially since, six months earlier, she and I had created this:
Her story, The Whole Wide World, was created using the collaborative storytelling website Storybird. Storybird offers sets of artwork from a variety of artists, and allows users to arrange the images and add text to create their stories. Writing stories based around art can lead to some pretty creative results, and its simplicity makes it accessible and appealing to all ages.
For those who are ready for a greater control and more options, there are sites like StoryJumper that really open up the possibilities. With StoryJumper, users can arrange visual elements however they choose, including the background, images, and text. The image library includes a variety of themes, including the ocean, modes of transportation, outer space, and others. The art in all the sets is stylistically similar, so users who mix and match themes can still create a cohesive picture.
StoryJumper has many examples of finished books (my favorites being I Can Count to 10 and Who Swallowed Harold?), and there is a tutorial that shows you the basics of its interface.
Introducing our library users to interactive tools like Storybird and StoryJumper can bring out the storyteller in any of the children we work with, whether they’ve realized their potential as authors or not. A blank piece of paper tends to be intimidating, so why not make it fun?
Amy Graves
Manchester City Library
Perhaps you have recorded a book talk, a book trailer, or a program at the library on your new video camera. Now what are you going to do so that you can share the video with the schools, patrons, or put it up on the library website or social networking site? Head on over to Jaycut.com!
Jaycut.com is a free online video editor. You can simply upload your recorded videos, splice them together, and add music and/or text to create your library’s all time “Best Video Ever!” To take advantage of all that jaycut.com has to offer, you must register for an account [located at the top right of the screen].
Once you have created an account and logged in, click the “Create Movie” tab and choose your preferred language [by picking one of the country flags].
Now you are where your video editing skills will come to life. For a brief overview of how the program works, click on the help “?” and watch the “getting started” tutorial video. This will give you an idea of how multiple videos can be used, music added, and titles created.
Upload your files by clicking on the “add media” icon [located next to the help question mark]. Browse for items and select them. (Note: there is a file size limit.) Video clips will be filed under the “video” tab, pictures under the “images” tab, and music or sound recordings under the “audio” tab. Click on a media item and drag it to the “Video A,” “Video B,” or “music” sections of the jaycut.com movie board below. You can add text and transitions the same way.
Once your video is put together, preview your movie by clicking on the play button below the mini video screen on the right. Keep tweaking until you have everything just right.
You can then share your movie to youtube, facebook, etc. by clicking on the “publish/download” text at the bottom of the movie and following the directions. Enjoy sharing your videos!
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Every month, the ALSC Blog will feature a post from ALSC’s Children and Technology Committee featuring tools that help librarians connect and engage with their users.
Our guest blogger today is Joella Peterson, a Youth Services Librarian at the Tumwater Timberland Regional Library, and a member of the ALSC Children and Technology committee.
If you’d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at [email protected].
Actually using the internet to open the kid as far as telling stories, speaking his mind, is a very good idea, I think developing this as interactive game that the kid will have major part in would be a great idea.
Excellent post! And with perfect timing — I have a program about story writing for 4-6 year old already planned for this Wednesday. I scrapped half my plans and am incorporating Storybirds! I’d heard of this site before, but it got shoved to the nether regions of my brain by more pressing matters. Thanks for bringing it back to the forefront!
Happy to help! I hope the program goes well–sounds like it will be a fun one!