What’s a Book Chook?

July Highlights at The Book Chook Blog

Sat, 7 Aug 2010 20:36:56 +1000

I reviewed several wonderful books in July: There Was an Old Sailor, Princess, Clown, I Spy Mum, Burgher and the Woebegone and Tatiara. I learnt how to make a poster about wonderful books at Keep Calm and Carry On. I suggested one way to help kids write a book review. I became excited about celebrating Pandemonium Day and Cow Appreciation Day. And most exciting of all was the publication of the trailer for my picture book, Monster Maddie, followed by the publication of The Book Chook Cook Book, which you can download for free on this page of my website.

June Highlights at the Book Chook Blog

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:10:35 +1000

Literacy, literacy, literacy! June 1 saw the publication of Literacy Lava 5, which you can download for free at this page. Sue Walker, author of Arnie Avery, visited The Book Chook and gave some tips on involving kids in writing activities. There were book reviews of Molly’s Memory Jar, Oh No, Monster Tomato! and Not Me!

Create a Story Box suggested ideas for involving kids in story. Comics and cartoons are another way kids can express themselves through story. I had lots of fun researching places where you can Read Comics Online, and suggested ways kids can use Lego as a springboard to writing and other activities.

Drama 1 explained why The Book Chook believes Drama is beneficial to all children, and Drama 2 provided some ideas for incorporating drama into everyday family or classroom life.

May Highlights at The Book Chook Blog

Mon, 31 May 2010 15:12:41 +1000

May has been another busy month at The Book Chook. The theme has certainly been food, with Let’s Eat Our Way to Literacy (1) and then (2). The Book Chook Cook Book was born because of this, with recipes being sent in from all over the world, including some great ones to cook with kids. It’s not too late to add yours to the collection.

We had a Giveaway of eight Alex Rider books, plus reviews of Taming Butterflies, Hailey Twitch is Not a Snitch, Your Mother Didn’t Do That, When No-One’s Looking on the Farm, and Duck for a Day.

My most exciting news was that my first published children’s picture book, Monster Maddie, had great reviews on Amazon, and on BeAFunMum blog.

I wrote an article about using puppets to encourage literacy, and one about using ToonDoo to create books with kids.

April Highlights at The Book Chook Blog

Thu, 13 May 2010 11:02:19 +1000

The Book Chook discovered and shared lots of resources for involving kids in history during April. From the wonderful History Channel, to interactive resources and games, there were lots of sites to excite kids about history. The Book Chook got excited too when Tagxedo burst onto the word cloud scene - you can see my cloud in the illustration above, which I generated by typing the url of my blog into the Tagxedo screen. There were lots of positive comments from parents over the music resources I found in Involving Kids in Music 1 and Involving Kids in Music 2 as well as in my reviews of Makedo and books like Flight of the Bumblebee.

April was also the month that I received the print copies of my first children’s picture book, Monster Maddie. That was an exciting moment! You can read more about it here and check out a wonderful review on its Amazon page.

March Highlights at The Book Chook Blog

Fri, 2 Apr 2010 11:58:59 +1100

Wow! I published 28 articles on The Book Chook blog about children’s literacy and literature in 31 days during March 2010. I just kept finding great books, educational websites and ideas to share with parents and teachers who love literacy.

If I had to pick a highlight of the March highlights, it would have to be the Share a Story - Shape a Future Blog Tour. Around 2000 people visited my blog that week, linking to read articles from all over the blogosphere on the topic “Literacy My Way”. There were so many excellent presentations on ways to develop literacy other than traditional reading. It certainly takes a village to raise a reader, and there are many people to thank for what they contribute to our children’s literacy.

Because of my increasing concern over cutbacks to school and local library budgets, I wrote articles like Bookless Libraries. On a brighter note, I reviewed Letters to Leonardo, Ponkidoodle,
The Tighty Whitey Spider, Squeezy Cuddle Dangly Legs, The Slightly Skewed Life of Toby Chrysler, and The Pony Patch Collection.

As usual, I found lots of resources online that parents can use to help with their kids’ education. You can download free classic children’s books at Audio Owl, and make a free animated movie at DomoAnimate. Help kids to get involved in writing with a great Historic Tale Construction Kit
or develop characters with avatars. Or see my suggestions for literacy activities that won’t break the bank.

Literacy Lava 4 was published here on my website on March 1. You can still download this free pdf for parents on all aspects of literacy, or find earlier issues in the archive.

(Cartoon above created by The Book Chook at ToonDoo.)

Monster Maddie

Fri, 2 Apr 2010 11:43:09 +1100

Monster Maddie is my very first picture book to be published! It’s available from Guardian Angel Publishing, as a pdf, as an e-book CD, or in print as a paperback, or from Amazon.

It’s the story of a little girl at a new school, who wants to make friends. She does bratty, monsterish things in a desperate effort to be noticed. When Maddie makes a little girl cry, she finally realizes she IS a monster, and feels sad and ashamed. Befriending a kitten shows her the way back to forming healthy relationships with the other kids.

Guardian Angel Publishing has an excellent reputation among Homeschool and Christian parents for providing stories that are wholesome but not “preachy”. One great feature is the activities section found at the back of many GAP books. After Maddie’s story, I provide all sorts of follow up activity suggestions, a reader’s theatre script you can use with your kids, and other ideas to get the maximum value for your money.

February Highlights at The Book Chook Blog

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:06:58 +1100

I had two great letters from parents in February. The first asked whether she should stop her daughter reading books for pleasure that were easy for her. The second wanted to know some free places where her son could read online. Both letters generated a lot of reader interest and comments.

Two guests were Paul Collins, publisher at Ford Street and author of The Slightly Skewed Life of Toby Chrysler, and Gloria Blanchard, Canadian author and Grandma of a dormant reader.

I continued with the third in my Reader’s Theatre series, described how kids could make little movies with D’volver and Xtranormal and expressed my concern about the downgrading of school and public libraries. As usual, I found some great educational resources online and shared them via posts like Maps, and Storytelling.

Book reviews: The Last Dragon, Birdsong, I Spy Dad and Jaguar Warrior.

January Highlights at The Book Chook Blog

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +1100

A popular January post at The Book Chook was What’s So Great About Children’s Literature?
I put forward my views and was joined by many enthusiastic commenters. For parents, I talked about ways to defeat the “b” word in Boredom Busters, and suggested ways to Turn a Catalogue into a Classroom.

Another popular post was Using Toys as a Springboard for Writing where I suggested all sorts of ways to encourage kids to write about their toys.

My story, Double Trouble, was published at Rainbow Rumpus, an online zine for kids of LGBT parents.

December Highlights at The Book Chook Blog

Mon, 4 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +1100

Literacy Lava 3 was published on December 1, and received an enthusiastic response from parents and teachers. Christmas time inspired Book Chook posts like A Letter to Santa, some ideas on How to Thank a Teacher and BookChook made some Resolutions for 2010. The giveaway of PicPocket Books for iPhone was a great success, with many parents showing interest in a picture book app.

November Highlights at The Book Chook Blog

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:39:27 +1100

The absolute highlight of November was my first blog birthday, when I gave away a free pdf I’d created called Literacy in the Playground. Grab yourself a copy if you’d like to wander down memory lane and re-visit skipping rhymes or teach your kids some clapping chants. I was so touched by the people who took time to email me and comment favourably about the blog this month. You all rock!

In November, I began a series about Reader’s Theatre on the Book Chook blog. I posted reviews of a great YA book called outside In, and had fun playing with art at sites like Mutapic and Scrap Coloring. Google Wave arrived, and I began using it to collaborate with some wonderful Australian writers.