A stomp, a roar, a glint of blade-like teeth, and a tidy resolution: what more could dinosaur lovers ask for? Folding a smattering of facts into a brief fictional story (with just enough prehistoric action), Oceanhouse Media’s “Smithsonian’s Prehistoric Pals” series is likely to please the youngest enthusiasts. Triceratops Gets Lost follows It’s Tyrannosaurus Rex [...]
Watching students trying to perform the nearly impossible when they are told “99% of people can’t lick their elbows (but 90% of people who read this will try)” is just some of the fun that results from sharing National Geographic’s “Weird But True!” facts, now available in app format.
When it comes to science topics, my feeling is, the more visuals the better. If some of them are videos, I’m even happier. DK The Human Body includes a few of those, and some simulations. Consider projecting these on a big screen in front of your classroom; in addition to being enthralled, your students are [...]
‘The World by National Geographic’ app is a hybrid globe and atlas that will put the world at students’ fingertips.
Devin Scillian’s Goldfish is one frustrated creature. Listening to him, you’ll also discover just how snarky he can be. Title: Memoirs of a Goldfish Author: Devin Scillian Illustrator: Tim Bowers Developed by: Gale Cengage Learning, Inc./Sleeping Bear Press Platform: iPad, requires iOS 4.0 or later Version: 1.0 Price: $4.99 PreS-Gr 2-Help! The opening screen of [...]
‘The Poky Little Puppy,’ familiar to generations of children, is now available in digital format.
Nosy Crow’s ‘Cinderella’ app is a fairy tale ripe for the digital age.
Before most educators and publishers assigned levels to titles for emergent readers, there were the Dr. Seuss “Beginner Books” (Random House). The vocabulary in these titles is basic, selected from a list of 300-plus words compiled by Phyllis Cerf at Random in the 1950s. There’s a Wocket in My Pocket is actually one of the [...]
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and the repository of more than 150 million items. This app, which is free, offers approximately 100 titles from its collection. For a modest monthly fee, subscribers have access to thousands of additional books in the public domain. While students will be fascinated by [...]
Appenings at SLJ’s 2011 Leadership Summit
At School Library Journal’s Leadership Summit in Washington, DC last week, I had the pleasure of introducing to attendees two people whose work bridges print and digital publishing, Scott Gordon and Christopher Russell. Scott Gordon is the Senior Manager for Creative Development at Random House Children’s Books. In that role he works with Random’s editors [...]