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In this new BYOD world we live in, creating videos has never been easier.  You don't have to lug around a laptop anymore...you can create stunning videos straight from your iPhone or iPad.

Two newer apps that have come on the scene and made things a LOT easier are both from Adobe and are amazing!  I'm not saying this flippantly..I love these two apps!  Admittedly, book trailers take time, but with these apps and an iPad students can start easily using their camera roll or online sources.  I'll break down both apps as well as give hints on making using these easier.

So here's a breakdown for both-

Adobe Voice:
-search photos on your camera roll OR through a CC image search built-in
- add music Adobe provides or use music from your iPad.
-record your voice to narrate a book trailer
-you can add titles and text between images for a more traditional trailer
-manage how long an image stays on the screen (up to 5 seconds)
-add icons
- from 32 themes that automatically add movement to your video
-save your project to work on at different times before you publish
-it has an option to make it private or public
-share via social media, email, or add it to your camera roll
-available only on iPad

Title: Night Film Author: Marisha Pessl Narrated by: Jake Weber Publisher: Random House Audio Publication Date: August 20, 2013 ISBN-13: 978-0307932655 Listening copy via local library Marisha Pessl's debut novel, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, was a hot read a few years ago. I read it and thought it was intelligent and intricately plotted, but overall a meh from me in terms of being

Title: We Should Hang Out Sometime Author: Josh Sundquist Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Publication Date: December 23, 2014 ISBN-13: 978-0316251020 336 pp. ARC provided by publisher Josh Sundquist is a Paralympian, motivational speaker, and YouTuber who's not so good with the ladies. This biography tells the tale of all the girls he's loved before (or at least crushed on

Title: Beautiful Music for Ugly Children Author: Kirstin Cronn-Mills Publisher: Flux Publication Date: October 8, 2012 ISBN-13: 978-0738732510 288 pp. Copy provided via publisher I picked up a copy of this title (signed by the author!) at the ALA Annual Conference last year, and though it's taken me awhile to get to it on my TBR pile, I am absolutely in love in with it. Beautiful Music for

Title: Now That You're Here Author: Amy K. Nichols Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers Publication Date: December 9, 2014 ISBN-13: 978-0385753890 304 pp. ARC provided by publisher Here's another book in the current parallel universes mini-trend, Now That You're Here by Amy K. Nichols. There's dual narration by Danny, a street artist in Phoenix who lands in his doppleganger's body

VIDEO 1: Claudette is back!

VIDEO 2: What’s Your Favorite Thing About Dragons?

VIDEO 3: What Should be Claudette’s Battle Cry?

VIDEO 4: What’s do you like about dragons?

VIDEO 5: How would you fight a dragon?

Title: Soppy Author & Illustrator: Philippa Rice Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing Publication Date: December 2, 2014 ISBN-13: 978-1449461065 108 pp. ARC via NetGalley "Soppy" is something that's overly sentimental and it's a word used more in the UK than the States.  So it makes sense that the writer/illustrator of Soppy, Philippa Rice, is from the UK. Soppy started out as a webcomic

Title: Where'd You Go, Bernadette Author: Maria Semple Narrated by: Kathleen Wilhoite Publisher: Little, Brown & Company Publication Date: April 16, 2013 ISBN-13: 978-1478978947 Listening copy via public library Where'd You Go, Bernadette was a 2013 Alex Award winner, which means that it's an adult book with teen appeal. Which means it's a book that it is little edgy, a little twisty, a book

Hyperion, 2014

My students EAT UP Laurie Faria Stolarz books!  SO glad she wrote a new one!  Dark, creepy, mysterious, on-the-edge of your seat reading!

We're getting very excited about the new book...not too long now.
My brilliant son Euan has put together this little teaser trailer to celebrate.

Title: Sisters Author: Raina Telgemeier Publisher: GRAPHIX Publication Date: August 26, 2014 ISBN-13: 978-0545540605 208 pp. ARC provided by publisher Raina Telgemeier made her name with the Eisner-winning Smile, a middle grade graphic novel that perfectly captured what it's like to be different when you're not entirely sure you want to be different. Raina has created another note-perfect

A book trailer for Dear White People: A Guide to Inter-Racial Harmony in a “Post-Racial” America has been unveiled. The video embedded above has drawn more than 38,000 views on Facebook—what do you think?

This project was inspired by the 2014 crowdfunded film which shares the same title. Justin Simien, the director and screenwriter behind the movie, wrote the book and Ian O’Phelan created the illustrations.

I’m pleased as punch to be premiering the book trailer for Michael Hall’s rather magnificent picture book RED today.  The simple tale of a blue crayon labelled with a red wrapper, it’s rather subtle and brilliant.  Naturally I wanted to know where Hall got the idea for it in the first place.  Here’s his response to that query:

My interest in crayons began when I fell in love with Mickey Myers’ Crayola prints (see below) in the 80s. Crayons — when represented in two dimensions on paper — make an appealing subject. They are also joyful and unpretentious, and they can work as a metaphor for many things. I used them several times in my graphic design work.

At one point, I made a series of drawings by scribbling one entire crayon—until the crayon was too small to hold—onto a piece of toothy paper and gluing the crayon’s label below the drawing. Each one seemed like a picture of a life. There were many variations; one of them involved pairing one colored scribble with a different colored label.

Later, when I began making picture books, I knew that at least one of them would be about crayons, and the mismatched label idea seemed like a good place to start.

At first, I couldn’t let go of some of the more grown-up aspects of the metaphor. My first draft followed Red, a blue crayon with a red label, until he was completely used up, and the crayons put his label to rest in a grassy field. The berry crayon delivered the eulogy: “When I look up at the clouds, I can’t help but feel that he’s still with us.” And the last page — a picture of the ceremony beneath a crayoned blue sky — read: “And he still was.”

Needless to say the tale is vastly different from this first draft.  No crayon funerals are in evidence now.  Just a great book with a kicker of an ending.

Enjoy the trailer!

Many thanks to the folks at Harper Collins for passing it along.

Having mastered ballet in Flora and the Flamingo, Flora takes to the ice and forms an unexpected friendship with a penguin in Molly Idle's Flora and the Penguin.

• do not try to summarize your plot--you only have a couple of minutes
• think more poem than narrative--less is definitely more
• engage the senses
• if music doesn't add anything, leave it out
• silence is meaningful
• ASK FOR HELP
• it's just a taste, keep it short
• and let it go!

Title: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore Author: Robin Sloan Narrated by: Ari Fliakos Publisher: Macmillan Audio Publication Date: February 26, 2013 Listening copy via local library I know I'm not the first to call this a mash-up of Umberto Eco and Doug Coupland because that's exactly what Robin Sloan's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is. It's a mystery about manuscripts and codes, it's a

Rock star Amanda Palmer unveiled a book trailer for The Art of Asking. She became inspired to write her new nonfiction book after she gave a TED talk in 2013. In the video embedded above, Palmer plays piano and shares her ideas on asking—do you have any regrets about not asking for something?

At the night of the book launch, she celebrated the publication with an event at Porter Square Books. Click here to listen to her lead the crowd in singing the “Happy Birthday” song to her husband Neil Gaiman. Do you predict that Gaiman and Palmer may collaborate on a writing project one day together?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Title: Rotters Author: Daniel Kraus Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne Publisher: Listening Library Publication Date: March 27, 2012 ISBN-13: 978-0449014950 Listening copy via Sync I know it's past Halloween, but seriously, Rotters by Daniel Kraus is pretty much the perfect Halloween read (or in this case, listen). Joey Crouch lives in Chicago with his mom. He's somewhere on the autistic spectrum,

Simon & Schuster has unveiled a book trailer for The Tucci Table: Cooking With Family and Friends. The Hunger Games actor Stanley Tucci collaborated on this cookbook project with his wife, literary agent Felicity Blunt. Tucci cooks up a little bit of “seduction at the stove” in the video embedded above—what do you think?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Penguin Random House has unveiled a book trailer for Jennifer Lopez’s memoir. The Hollywood entertainer stars in the video embedded above—what do you think? The publication date for True Love has been scheduled for November 04, 2014. (via Beyond Beautiful JLo)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Blue Rider Press has unveiled a book trailer for Ann Droyd’s If You Give a Mouse an iPhone: A Cautionary Tail. This project parodies Laura Numeroff’s beloved picture book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

Comedic actor and Saturday Night Live alum Fred Armisen lends his voice and serves as the narrator. The animated video embedded above features a story that discusses “the perils of our tech-obsessed lives and a fully charged romp for readers of all ages”—what do you think?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Have you ever asked a celebrity to appear in your book trailer? In the “Funny or Die” video embedded above, Aasif Mandvi makes this request of Jack Black, Wyatt Cenac, John Oliver, and more.

Mandvi has written a book of personal essays entitled No Land’s Man: A Perilous Journey through Romance, Islam, and Brunch. Chronicle Books will release it on November 04, 2014. (via The Huffington Post)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.