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I was very excited by the partnership between the Association for Library Service for Children (ALSC) and LEGO/DUPLO. My library purchased classroom sets of three of the Read, Build, Play book and block sets for use in storytimes and other programs. I planned a special storytime series to debut the new sets. The three sets we used were Grow, Caterpillar, Grow, Let’s Go Vroom, and Busy Farm. The librarian toolkit (available here: http://www.readbuildplay.com/Read-Build-Play_Librarian-Toolkit.pdf) was a great resource for storytime ideas for each book, and it also provided good information to share with parents/caregivers. Here is an outline of how we ended up using the Grow, Caterpillar, Grow book and block set in our special storytime offerings for two and three year olds.
We opened with the same intro each week of Roll, roll, roll your hands (adding verses as appropriate). The first book we used with the Caterpillars and Butterflies theme was The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. I used a caterpillar made from green DUPLOs as a prop for this story. As the caterpillar ate through each item of food, I placed it around my DUPLO caterpillar.
Next we did a flannel board rhyme of Five Little Caterpillars. After that we passed out paper butterflies (made from stapling a paper butterfly cut from a piece of construction paper to a straw). We did the rhyme Color Butterflies and children raised their butterfly and made it fly when their color was read.
Next we read the book Butterfly, Butterfly by Petr Horacek. When we finished reading we turned on some music (Grow Caterpillar from the DUPLO Jams set available at www.readbuildplay.com). While the music was playing in the background the children helped me build a DUPLO caterpillar. We used a colored die and had a basket of the square DUPLO pieces. Each color on the die had a number on it. The children would add that number of colored blocks to our caterpillar on their turn.
After we built our caterpillar, I passed out copies of Grow, Caterpillar, Grow and together we read the story. After we read it as a group, I passed out the DUPLOS for each book and together the parent and child read the story again and built each bug as they read. This was a great place to insert the literacy tip included in the Librarian Toolkit about why it’s important to read a story twice.
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Kara Fennell Walker works as the Head of Youth Services at the Geauga County Public Library in Middlefield, Ohio. She is writing for the Early Childhood Programs and Services committee. If you would like to learn more about her LEGO/DUPLO programs, you can email her at kara.walker <at> geaugalibrary.info.
It's just so great when The Children's Book Review's best selling middle grade book turns out to be a great classic. Such is the case with this months title, The Children's Homer: The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy, by Padraic Colum—what a great introduction to the always intriguing Greek mythology. The hand selected titles from the nationwide best selling middle grade books, as listed by The New York Times, feature books by super-talents Kate DiCamillo, Katherine Applegate and R.J. Palacio.
All the excitement surrounding The LEGO Movie sparked a renewed interest in the venerable building toys at my house. The following books that include all kinds of tips, ideas and techniques to re-purpose existing LEGO pieces for all sorts of fantastic creations.
Our latest list of current popular middle grade books features Lego books and multiple Newbery award-winning titles. The hand selected titles from the nationwide best selling middle grade books, as listed by The New York Times, feature titles by super-talents Kate DiCamillo, Kevin Henkes, Katherine Applegate and R.J. Palacio.
I've posted about the Gallery Project before--this was the brainchild of Art Director Kirk Benshoff, and he brought it to Hachette Brook Group three years ago. Two weeks ago, the third annual Gallery Project in the NY office was held. Publishers Weekly reported on the event here:
Editors, designers, and publicists spend their days refining and supporting a writer’s art—his or her book. But, in an effort to once again put its employees’ own talents on display, the third annual Hachette Book Group Gallery Project was held by the publisher last week in HBG’s New York office.
The art on display ranged from photography, to painting, to book sculptures, and more. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but a few of the creations were children's book related, like this felt recreation of Ethan Long's Chamelia (posing with the book's editor, Connie Hsu).
Artist: Glen Davis
Of course, I was obsessed with this Lego sculpture of Mr. Tiger, from Peter Brown's Mr. Tiger Goes Wild. Jonathan Lopes is a true Lego artist. Check out his Facebook page for BKNY Bricks here!
Jonathan Lopes, Mr. Tiger, and me
1 Comments on The Gallery Project, last added: 11/4/2013
The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) has teamed up with LEGO® DUPLO® to expand the Read! Build! Play initiative by creating the LEGO® DUPLO® Read! Build! Play! 2013 Summer Reading List. This reading list features recommended titles that inspire play for children age 5 and under and is free to download.
To accompany the Read! Build! Play! 2013 Summer Reading List, LEGO® DUPLO® has created a free downloadable parent activity guide. This guide includes inspirational building instructions matched with each book for children and their caregivers. Doors in the Air (Orca Book Publishers, 2012) by David Weale and illustrated by Pierre Pratt is one of five titles featured in the Summer Activity Guide for children ages 3-5.
Doors in the Air is the story of a boy who is fascinated by doors. He marvels at how stepping through a doorway can take him from one world to another. He is especially enthralled by the doors of his imagination, which he refers to as “doors in the air.” He delights in discovering that when he passes through these doors, he leaves behind all feelings of boredom, fear and unpleasantness. Doors in the Air is a lilting journey through house doors, dream doors and, best of all, doors in the air.
“Surreal in its effect, this celebration of the creative mind encourages young readers and listeners to open doors of their own.” —Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2012
“Written in Seussian rhyming couplets…[and] employing alliteration that makes reading it aloud a pleasure…Doors in the Air is a fantastical triumph, celebrating the spaces in which the ordinary and the extraordinary intersect.” —Quill & Quire, May 1, 2012
While we sort through our 600+ photos from Toy Fair, here's the Toy of the Year winners, which includes both Lego's girl-centric Friends line and Playmates' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line, which we saw previewed yesterday. It's huge and no doubt the Turtles are back— although now owned by Nickelodeon and not creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Still, it's a property that has stood the test of time to become a true perennial for kids — if Michael Bay's live-action version doesn't somehow kill it again, that is.
1 Comments on Resurgent TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES among Toy of the Year winners, last added: 2/11/2013
I went to the Wal-Mart on Chirstmas Eve this year and bummed around looking for stocking stuffers, and I was shocked to see that in the toy aisle, the Turtles were the only product totally sold out. Plenty of Legos. Plenty of My Little Ponies. Plenty of Marvel superheroes. Zero Turtles. They’re huge with the kiddies again.
Kid's Book Website Tuesday, everyone!! Remember those posts? Well, I am trying very hard to return to a regular posting schedule. Today is Tuesday so....
Thanks to BookAunt, I discovered another blogger who is besotted by books written for children. Great Kid Books! Written by Mary Ann Scheuer, an awesome school librarian, Great Kid Books reviews, discusses and opines about books written for non-adults.
The site is designed for grown-up people but having another blog to guide me through the labyrinth of children's books is always useful. Check it out.
Somewhere during the past three days I visited a site with book related games and quizzes and graphics and animations on it and I said to myself, "Self, THAT's a good site for KWBT." Lucky for me, I bookmarked it. Here it is!!
LEGO Books Fun Stuff from DK Books! What's not to like? It's LEGO; it's books! Create your own LEGO character mash-ups. Download coloring sheets and games. Watch videos. Buy books. If you stroll around the DK site, you'll find other fun stuff to do. DK offers all kinds of awesome, visually appealing, accessible and informational books for children and adults. Enjoy.
Heroes in Action announces their satirical Mitt “Romney the Robot” figure. Yes, other politicians have also been depicted…
Heroes In Action also produces toys modeled after other presidents, including Barack Obama (“Baracula”), Bill Clinton (“Wolf Bill”), George W. Bush (“Zom-Bush”), as well as other political figures such as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (“Hilluria, the Secretary of Stake”) and Al Gore (“Algor, An Inconvenient Assistant”).
Today is Super Hero Day at the LEGO booth! Here are the exclusives! Not to be offered in sets! Shazam! and Venom (or Spidey, since there’s no tongue or muscles). Bizarro and Phoenix! There are two sweepstakes URLs on the Bizarro and Phoenix pictures, but they aren’t working right now! How soon before someone constructs Bizarroworld? And then has Phoenix eat it?
Publishers Weekly announces that Abrams ComicsArts will be offering digital e-books in partnership with Comixology! The first five titles:
My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf
Empire State: A Love Story (or Not) by Jason Shiga
Mom’s Cancer by Brian Fies
Fairy Tales for Angry Little Girls by Lela Lee
Cats, Dogs, Men, Women, Ninnies & Clowns: The Lost Art of William Steig by Jeanne Steig with Illustrations by William Steig
Well, the capuchin monkeys at Stately Beat Manor remembered who I was, so I didn’t have to run that gauntlet again. (Stately Beat Manor is situated on an island in the Hudson, near Croton. Back in the 1940s, when organ grinders were eradicated from the streets of New York, Gerhard von Fulano Zutano Mengano y Perengano, the inventor of the mechanical clapping monkey, offered his island estate as a nature preserve for the numerous orphaned capuchin monkeys. Since then, they have become quite protective of the grounds, discouraging any boater foolish enough to get in range of their catapults.)
The tree octopi enjoyed the fresh crabs I brought them from Hunts Point. I’ll play with them during the weekend, in the garden fountain pool designed by Tiffany and Bartholdi. Since I have seniority over the other Beat Elite reporters, I’ll be sleeping in the Kirby Room in the north wing. It has a private balcony, and the ceiling is painted in fluorescent paint, so that it glows like a trippy black light poster! (Yeah, the women love it… it’s better than a mirror!) The Beat’s working library is just a few doors down the hall. (The archives in the sub-basement hold most of her collection, and she likes visitors to peruse specific shelves, so nothing gets too musty or dusty. Last summer it was Soviet Russia and the Warsaw Pact comics. This year, it’s sub-Saharan Africa. Can’t wait to read me some Powerman!)
So, Wednesday marks the beginning of Comic-Con International: San Diego, with Preview Night. There’s not much news streaming on Google, aside from the Twilight tragedy from Tuesday (which hit #1 on Yahoo! News earlier today). There will be some excitement tomorrow, when the paparazzi and bloggers invade. So today is kinda laid back, going with the flow, remembering where Heidi hides her secret stash of chocolate. Here’s some interesting links I’ve discovered, and hope you enjoy! Not much in the way of pictures, but I’ll try to find some to keep things interesting.
Putting the “international” in CCI is this early report from a Russian reporter, filed yesterday. You’ll need a browser to translate it, or you can just look at the pictures.
For those of you stuck on the outside, looking in, here’s a handy interactive map of various events happening in the trolley circle north of the convention center. If you look on the right, there’s a menu, which includes listings of food trucks!
How inclusive has Comic-Con become? Well, venerable Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group will be at Booth #1515. In addition to science fiction and fantasy authors, there will be two notable authors: E.L. James (she of Shades of Grey fame)
1 Comments on SDCC12: Watchtower Wednesday, last added: 7/13/2012
These guys are having too much fun. Brothers Marcin (Xulm) and Przemek (Surpiko) are drawing all the awesome LEGO sets from their childhood. Check out the rest of them on both their blog and flickr.
Also check out their individual websites and blogs, good stuff there too:
Lego has built its way into the social media world (with its new fan community, ReBrick, where users can share images of what they construct and see what other Lego users have been busy making. So long to the days of just playing with blocks!; Legos... Read the rest of this post
When the new firefighter trainee starts his first day he can't seem to get anything right. The chief is worried that the new guy won't be able to become a firefighter, but then they realize they just have to find his special talent! To read more of my review, click here.
0 Comments on Lego City Fight This Fire! as of 1/1/1900
In an odd new twist for the Studio Ghibli film library, Daily Variety is reporting that U.S. distributor GKids (The Secret of Kells) has acquired the U.S. theatrical and non-theatrical rights to thirteen Ghibli films – including Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky and Spirited Away. Disney will retain the home video rights. Gkids is planning to distribute a series of Miyazaki film festivals to theatres nationwide.
Disney must have felt they no longer needed the theatrical rights. It’ll interesting to see how GKids will fare with these films – that company is certainly emerging as a leader in distributing worthy international animated features.
Meanwhile, I just caught up with these incredible Lego sculptures by Iain Heath. Heath’s tribute to the master animator Hayao Miyazaki was unveiled last year at Seattle’s BrickCon where it received the “Big in Japan – Best Overall” award. Check out his entire Miyazakitopia on Flickr. These two (below) are my favorites:
No major injuries this year during our Fourth of July festivities. (Long time readers will remember several burns sustained last year.) So whew. I'm thankful for that.
After a slew of rejections this weekend (and a few from short-listed stories), I've put the old editing nose to the grindstone, hoping to find my stride in this "summer of slack". Unfortunately, I sort of feel like this guy......when I'm trying to write. There are some ideas in my head, I'm sure. Now to tease them out.
Speaking of the cuter-than-a-puppy Lego zombie, I'll have one to give away with other magnificent prizes when Loathsome, Dark, and Deep is released later this year (or early next). Good times, folks. Good times.
8 Comments on All of My Fingers...All of My Toes, last added: 7/6/2010
You're right, that Lego zombie is cuter than a puppy! Sorry to hear about all the rejections. At least you're still plugging away. Me, I'd roll over and go back to bed. Maybe that's why I don't try very hard. I'm afraid of the rejections. So kudos to you for still trying. And writing is easier, I hear, with all digits intact.
'Eclipse' premieres (with the biggest domestic release in Hollywood history. And A.O. Scott says it's "more robustly entertaining film than either of its predecessors." See our YAB Review from Meg Reid for more. Also Twihards have descended on... Read the rest of this post
I've been decidedly absent from the web the last week or so. I've been absent from writing, too.
I started June like a madman, and now I've hit the wall. The summer vacation wall. The "why-the-hell-am-I-more-busy-when-I'm-not-working" wall.
The only thing I've touched (writing-wise) in the last five days is a revision/rewrite of a piece I'm hoping makes it. Maybe I've just jinxed myself. Maybe not.
Although my wife may argue based on my earnings/time spent ratio, writing is not a "hobby" of mine; I consider it a vocation and treat it as such.
But one of my old, bona fide hobbies reared its costly head this weekend: wheeling and dealing Legos on eBay. It all started with the six-year-old and his desire for a retired Power Miners set...did they have to put all those pictures of the other sets in the back of the instruction manual?
Lego really knows how to market.
So I did a few searches for sets & minifigs I used to own...holy jumping catfish Batman! I shouldn't have let that Greedo minifig go for five bucks.
Doing my best to maintain a reasonable control over my wallet. But when they're this cute/menacing, who can say no?
15 Comments on Old Hobbies Die Hard, last added: 6/15/2010
He is awesome, I'd love for him to keep me company as well... so I don't blame ya Aaron, :D
My son is just getting into Legos and being a girl who liked to torment her barbies as a child, I have to say I was missing out with the Lego's thing. I'm having a blast with it!
(Oops. Should I worry about my son having fun??? :D)
I remember having tons of that around as a kid...I guess it was more affordable back then...
I don't remember a vampire figure. That probably wasn't manufactured recently. Conservative Right may deem that inappropriate for children and block distribution...I say 'bite me'.
I used to get a real kick out of Lego when I was little, though the tiny action figures never appealed to me. I usually wound up crafting vehicles for my other action figures to ride in.
I think Tyco had a brand of building blocks too--whatever they were, I got a bucket of them one year and loathed them for not being Lego. :)
I've always had a serious weakness for Lego sets. When I was a kid we were really into the M-Tron and Blacktron space sets, plus anything with castles.
Made for some weird combination. We were into crossover Lego fic, me and the kid brother.
Jamie - Fun and potentially expensive...Legos ain't cheap.
Hinny - I'm sure he is (having fun).
Andrea - I think they just capture some folks' imaginations. Not for everybody, though.
Alan - Lego did a series called "Lego Studios" about ten years ago--a riff on Universal Studios. There's a vampire, a "Frankenstein's Monster", a vampire, mad scientist, werewolf, and mummy.
Gef - There were no Star Wars sets when I was a kid, so I modified my Lego Space minifigs to be Stormtroopers, etc. I even yanked a hand off one poor little guy to be Luke from ESB.
Katey - It's all storytelling, isn't it? In addition to "modifying" my Legos to go Star Wars, we created a whole race of transformers. That was a blast.
Cate - You need a little vampire buddy, then. I recently attending a reading (the book was about adult fans of Lego), and the author explained they didn't really take off in the U.S. until themes were introduced in the late 1970s.
That lil vampire guy is adorable! We just had the regular old non-themed Lego sets when I was a kid, and we made spaceships with them. And houses for ants.
I used to have a collection of action figure bad guys. I sold them all on ebay and at the flea market finally, mostly because I didn't have room to display them and it seemed silly to have boxes and boxes of bad guys in the closet. I expected them to gang up on me one day.
Of all the childhood toys that I no longer have, the ones that I regret losing the most are all the Lego blocks I had. I'd love to have loads and loads of them now, but I've found that they're priced only slightly less per ounce than gold.
Gilette presents 'Uncut' (targeting young guys with a digital documentary series spotlighting artists like will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. Also Dr Pepper announces a year-long partnership with Electronic Arts to hook games up with exclusive online... Read the rest of this post
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...when I'm trying to write. There are some ideas in my head, I'm sure. Now to tease them out.
Love seeing the artwork! Thank you.