Monday
"Adventures in Cartooning" by James Sturm, Andrew Arnold and Alexis Frederick-Frost
Adventures in Cartooning is more of an adventure story than the how-to book the title would indicate. It follows the story of a princess who wants to create a comic. She is helped by the Magic Cartooning Elf. He shows her how to take simple pictures add dialogue and panels to make a comic. The comic then takes off as a knight and his cowardly horse try to defeat the candy-stealing dragon. In the end, the knight is revealed to be the princess who wanted to have an adventure as well as create a comic. The Magic Cartooning Elf introduces vocabulary such as panel and word bubbles that are used in cartooning.
The book is presented as a graphic novel or comic. The princess and the elf are simple figures and the directions on how to draw them appear in the back of the book. Most of the illustrations in the book are created using basic shapes; they are the type of pictures that seem possible for the reader to draw. The Magic Cartooning Elf demonstrates the necessity of comic features such as panels. The continuity of the story makes much more sense once panels are added. He also demonstrates how perspective can be shown by placing objects differently within the panel. On page 30, the reader feels the horse is going quickly downhill because the panels are placed in a downward diagonal on the page.
The Magic Cartooning Elf also demonstrates how words and pictures work together in comics. For example, on page 34, the elf gets the knight to admit that the wall is ten miles high and a thousand miles long because the knight said so. The reader adds the information the characters provide through spoken word or thoughts to the illustrations to get the full picture in a cartoon.
Adventures in Cartooning is an entertaining read just for the story it contains. When you add the useful information about how comics work, you get a must read for anyone interested in cartooning. I would recommend this book for anyone aged 5-12. It is a great way to get a budding cartoonist going!
Adventures in Cartooning won the 2010 Gryphon Award presented by The Center For Children’s Books.
Sturm, James, Andrew Arnold, and Alexis Frederick-Frost. Adventures in Cartooning. New York: First Second Books, 2009. Print.
Just One More Book by Andrea Ross and Mark Belvis
According to the creators, Just One More Book is “a thrice-weekly podcast which promotes and celebrates literacy and great children’s book.” The website appears to be updated with a blog post concurrent with each podcast. Users can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or RSS feed. The podcast is a combination of discussions of favorite children’s books and interviews with authors, illustrators and experts. The podcast also uses listener-submitted audio reviews.
The website features an archive of podcasts divided into many specific categories dating back to July 2006. The podcast appears to gone on hiatus from October 2009 to November 2010 as Ross battled cancer; there were several posts during this period related to her progress. However, there is a promise of regular updating beginning again in December 2010. A few special features of the website include a list of books reviewed as well as lists of featured authors and illustrators. These lists are found down the side of the webpage. The lists are quite lengthy, which makes browsing rather cumbersome. Having the authors and illustrators divided into alphabetic links or pull down menus might improve browsing.
Down the other side of the webpage is a lengthy list of categories. Some of the categories are divided into subcategories. These categories facilitate finding podcasts about a specific topic. For example, the category “values” is divided into 21 subcategories including hope, respect, courage and curiosity. Another category is “tips and tricks,” which seems to relate to self-publishing children’s literature and finding and buying good books.
Navigating Just One More Book is a bit cumbersome because the user has to scroll down quite a bit to access all the available information. Dividing this information onto separate pages may improve the navigability. Interested users can keep up to date, not only by subscribing to the podcast but also through email, Twitter, Flickr, and GoodReads. They are also encouraged to contact Ross and Belvis through several different means. Just One More Book also includes a long list of related blogs, podcasts and other institutions that may interest the user. If Just One More Book is updated regularly again, it would be an interesting podcast to subscribe to.
Just One More Book was named the American Library Association “Great Web Site.”
www.justonemorebook.com
100 Scope Notes by Travis Jonker
100 Scope Notes is a blog authored by Travis Jonker, an elementary school librarian and sometime reviewer for School Library Journal. This blog is focused on “children’s literature news and reviews.” 100 Scope Notes has archives dating back to November 2007 and has been updated in November 2010. There are posts about new books, articles relating to children’s literature, authors, covers, and a link of the day, news and reviews.
The posts are divided into broad categories, which make it easier to find posts, although the categories are not as specific as on some blogs. One interesting feature is a picture of Jonker’s library hold shelf as well as pictures sent in by readers. Since these are school libraries, the hold shelves do not have a ton of books on them. These pictures provide and interesting look at what books are in demand.
The book reviews are thorough and, like those on Kids Lit, include a picture of the cover, book trailers if available as well as links to other reviews of the same book. There are opportunities for users reply to or like a post. Another interesting feature is the “Link Du Jour.” Each day Jonker posts a link of the day. These links are things such as CNN’s coverage of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and announcements of various awards.
The website itself is easy to navigate. The categories appear as tabs along the top. However, the first thing one notices when navigating to 100 Scope Notes is the slideshow showing the posts for that day. The slideshow is a bit distracting from the rest of the page because it cycles through rather quickly. The archives appear through a drop-down menu on the side of the page along with links to other blogs on similar topics. Users can also subscribe to 100 Scope Notes via email.
100 Scope Notes is a blog that would behoove someone to follow if he or she were interested in keeping up to date on children’s literature. It is well organized and regularly updated.
http://100scopenotes.com/
Kids Lit by Tasha Saecker
Kids Lit is a blog run by Tasha Saecker, the director of the public library in Menasha, WI. This blog is focused on issues relating to children’s literature. Kids Lit has archives dating back to August 2003 and has been updated in November 2010. Most of the posts appear to be book reviews; however, there are also posts about different awards, various authors and posts related to reading (iPads versus books and the importance of reading). There are also posts about movies and television. There is also a link to Saecker’s tweets.
The posts are divided into categories, which makes it easy to find posts about specific topics. There is a great variety of books reviewed, also separated into these categories. Categories include audio books, picture books, nonfiction, graphic novels, and easy readers among others. There is a total of 23 categories. The book reviews are thorough and include a picture of the cover, book trailers if available as well as links to other reviews of the same book. There are opportunities for users to tag, comment or like a post; however, these features do not appear to be used extensively.
The website itself is easy to navigate. The categories appear along one side of the page and the archives appear at the bottom. The only issue with navigation is that the labels appear over some of the text. For example, the label “About Me” appears slightly over the link “Learn More About Me.” The link is still usable but the appearance is a bit off-putting.
Overall, Kids Lit appears to be an interesting read and a useful resource for anyone interested in issues relating to children’s and young adult’s literature. It is a good place to go to gather reviews about a new book, as Saecker links to other reviews of the book. If you visit Kids Lit, you get a lot of information provided in not much time. Kids Lit is a worthwhile blog to keep abreast of for children’s literature updates.
Kids Lit was named one of the 100 best blogs by “The Daily Reviewer.”
http://kidslit.menashalibrary.org/
www.starfall.com
Starfall.com is a free website that provides phonemic awareness and phonics practice for pre-readers and beginning readers. It provides a variety of interactive activities, ranging from an alphabet to explore to Greek myths. There are also games that practice building words and jingles to remember tricky rules, like “silent e.” There are also stories and activities that relate to specific times of the year, such as Groundhog Day and Thanksgiving. There are games imbedded in the stories, which users can read by themselves or click on the words to have them read aloud. There are four different stages that a user can go through: “ABCs” which is exploring the alphabet, “Learn to Read” which provides easy phonics readers, “It’s Fun to Read” which is a collection of more advanced stories and “I’m Reading” which is a collection of plays, nonfiction, comics and other more advanced materials.
Starfall.com is easy for students to navigate on their own. When reading a story, a user can click around on the pictures to see special things. Once the story has been read, the next arrow or other appropriate button begins to sparkle. The sparkling buttons help the user navigate through the activity. At the end of each story, the user is asked to give his or her opinion by clicking on a happy face, straight face or sad face. Being able to express an opinion helps to gain user buy-in for the activities.
I personally used Starfall.com with classes of kindergartens and first graders for four years. This reflects the usage of about 80 children. I found that each student was able to find something interesting or challenging. There were favorites, such as picking peppers for Peter Piper and the About Me book that children returned to time and again. Once the children navigated to starfall.com, they needed little to no help in navigated the site itself. When allowed to choose their own activities, most chose activities that would be appropriate for their reading abilities. Given my experiences with Starfall.com, I would recommend it for use by children from 4-8 or children who needed to improve the reading skills presented on the site.
Starfall.com was recognized by Homeschool.com as one of their five top educational websites in 2008.
www.starfall.com
Fable Vision – www.fablevision.com
Fable Vision is a collection of different sites that work to spread original stories. This review will focus on FableVision Place, specifically the TeleFable Library and FVTV. According to the site’s creators, FableVision Place is “designed to stimulate curiosity and spark the imagination.” The library and TV station provide two opportunities to share stories. Some stories are presented both as a short animated film in the TV station and a digital book in the library. The digital books in the library offer opportunities for the reader to interact with the text. For example, in The North Star, the reader can choose the character from whose point-of-view the story will be told.
The submissions are from a variety of authors, with different skill levels. Although all the submissions meet a minimum standard, there are differences in the quality of the work. Although the submissions teach a moral, like fables, there still is a variety of styles. Some, such as Cosmic Lobsters, have a definite science fiction feel, while others, such as Counting Sheep, feel more like fantasy. Some of the works would appeal to children’s more than others. Counting Sheep is a humorous story to which children could relate. He Was Me is a more serious story reflecting on the changes that growing-up brings. This story would not appeal to the same audience as Counting Sheep, as it is more serious and provides a deeper message. It would appeal to older children and adults. There are stand-alone stories as well as series that continue from week to week. There are digital presentations of traditional picture-book formats and comic-strip formats. There is a fable that would appeal to anyone on FableVision.
FableVision is a useful resource for teaching students about fables and demonstrating that fables can be written with a modern setting. There are also opportunities for users to create their own animated stories and submit them to FableVision. At least one story from FableVision, The Clever Stick by John Lechner, has been published in print-format by a traditional publisher. I would recommend FableVision Place for children ages seven and up. Having a variety of submissions, stories can be found that would interest a variety of ages.
FableVision was on the spring 210 list of “Great Interactive Software for Kids” compiled by the Association for Library Service to children (ALSC) a part of the American Library Association.
"FableVision Place." FableVision. FableVision, Inc., 2008. Web. 18 Nov 2010.