Senor Parrot’s Perch

Jackson Fish Market has created an application called A Story Before Bed that lets you read a story to your own kids online. The product has many very cool applications and ideas. Click on this link for a demo.

They have the cooperation of several major children’s book publishers who have licensed digital versions of some of their books. To personalize, i.e. read the book to your kid yourself, all you need is a webcam and a browser, and for $6.99 your on your way to reading and sharing books with your kids or grandkids. Special deals are available for parents in the military. Go to their website to get an idea of how it works.

I tweeted earlier about StoryChimes, an app for the iPhone. This would be perfect for the iPhone, as well.

Here’s a great idea. Justin James, a dad with some cool ways to keep kids occupied, developed his iPhone app, called StoryChimes, to provide stories for kids on their parents iPhones and iPods.

“I want to occupy [my daughter's] time whether we’re at the supermarket or something like that. I can give this to her and she can kind of play with it and listen to a story,” says James. “I just think it’s a little more educational than maybe some sort of game or something she might be playing with.”

James’ simply illustrated stories are narrated by professional actors. He currently has eleven titles available and Story Chimes has children’s songs available, also.

Here’s a video link:

How to Be a Detective

By Barbara Mitchelhill

Illustrated by Tony Ross

How to Be a Detective, by Barbara Mitchelhill, and illustrated by Tony Ross, is one of a series Mitchelhill has written about Damien Drooth Supersleuth. Damien is quite the amateur detective. and he has built up quite a reputation in his town as an outstanding amateur sleuth. He’s a confident fellow, conceited, even. If you’re familiar with Nate the Great, he will remind you a bit of him. Written for slightly more advanced readers than Nate the Great, How to Be a Detective has more action and more humor.

When Damien opens a school for detectives he immediately has a long line kids waiting to get in. After a few short words of introduction to identifying criminals, he leads his class into the fray. They head downtown and begin to search for criminals. Watch out! If you have a beard, or maybe close-set eyes, these crime hunting kids will be onto your trail.

And in How to Be a Detective, they do find a tail! Er, a trail! at the local dog show. The whole gang gets involved solving this one and Damien’s students are ready, maybe even more than Damien is.

I’m happy to know that Damien Drooth Supersleuth is a series. I’ve already several more. This is a terrific book for grades 2-5 and could easily become a favorite. I know that my older daughter would have loved this book when she was younger. She consumed every mystery and detective book she could get her hands on, even attempting books much beyond her reading ability at the time.

Barbara Mitchelhill has a website where she talks about her life, career as a teacher and writer, and tells us about all her books.

Robot Zot!

by Jon Scieszka

illustrated by David Shannon

Robot Zot! by Jon Scieska and David Shannon explodes with energy. Robot Zot has landed in the backyard and quickly invades the house where he destroys the toaster, an infomercial, and plenty of other things, and he rescues a toy telephone from a toddler, convinced she is captive queen. Everywhere he is followed by his faithful robot pet who looks something like a Spanish conquistador’s helmet.

Bravery is the key here. When our hero Zot faces the enemy, quaking and tempted to turn, he screws up his courage and shouts his battle cry, “Hero Zot–never fall. Hero Zot–conquers all!”

Jon Scieska has created pure boy material here, full of daring, high adventure, and zany mayhem. Then again, if your girl is the type who loves silly antics and great illustration, she’s covered here, as well.

Illustrator David Shannon completes this book with high energy and perfectly expressive illustrations. Its difficult to imagine a better collaboration between author and illustrator. Every pose and every view is perfect. Each kitchen counter appliance seems alive and menacing. The vacuum hose is a giant boa constrictor. The wide-eyed toddler the cruel captor. A dad lurks occasionally in the background, scratching his head at the devastation Robot Zot leaves in his wake.

I love Robot Zot!. Every reading seems to get better. It’s perfect for a bedtime read, take-along in the car, for pre-readers or kids headed for the second grade

Mother Osprey: Nursery Rhymes for Buoys and Gulls

By Lucy Nolan

Illustrated by Connie McLennan

ISBN: 978-1-934359-96-9
Published by Sylvan-Dell Publishing, emphasizing Science and Math through Literature

Twinkle, twinkle, starfish dear,
hiding in the shallows here.
Just beneath the waves you lie,
like a star tossed from the sky
Twinkle, twinkle, starfish dear,
hiding in the shallows here.

Mother Osprey: Nursery Rhymes for Buoys and Gulls, written by Lucy Nolan and illustrated by Connie McLennan, is a collection of  fun and entertaining parodies of many favorite Mother Goose nursery rhymes. But the rhymes inside Mother Osprey are parodies with purpose. Math and counting skills, science and history are all lessons taught in these poems.  Don’t think “Boring” when you see that this book teaches hard subjects like math or science. The rhymes and illustrations are pure enjoyment in themselves.

Most of Lucy Nolan’s rhymes are pure silly fun that kids will enjoy listening to over and over and even memorizing; the rest vividly illustrate a point in time from history. An appendix in the back adds more facts and explanations that the parent or teacher can use to draw young listeners further into a teaching moment. A map shows where each of the habitats is located.

Twinkle,  Twinkle starfish dear, quoted above, places the starfish in its natural habitat and opens up rich opportunities for discussing the shallows and beaches along a rocky coast. What other animals life nearby? What do they eat? What eats them?

But Lobster Pies is just plain silly:

Old Mrs. Wise
made lobster pies all on a winter’s day;
her greedy son
grabbed every one
and took them clean away.

What a surprise
for Junior Wise
lay inside that croaker sack.
When he sat on a bench
to eat a pinch,
the lobster pies pinched back!

Nursery rhymes satisfy at many levels: they’re great fun to listen to, with their rhymes and the rhythm of their meter. They’re pleasing for the strength of their imagery. They easily capture a child’s imagination, slipping into their memories and never losing their ability to bring enjoyment. Children seem to never tire of repeating them over and over and the verses are a natural invitation to singing. Nursery rhymes teach children language skills and the repetition packs information into their young, developing brains and they help develop their ears for word use and phrasing.

Mother Osprey is a perfect gift for your child or your child’s classroom teacher, whether in preschool, kindergarten, or the early grades. The rhymes are a perfect starter to get children to focus on some part of the environment, or a place. They introduce elements of nature in an interesting way, which leads naturally to a discussion of what is in the rhyme.

The dog ate my blog. That furry white happy hairball mix of maltese and miniature poodle has sapped up all my free time. I read for a few minutes a day. I finish nothing.

I started reading a stack of puppy and  dog training books, as if training my dog will free up any time!

Here’s few we liked that we picked up from the library. All of these were picked by the 5-year old:

The Apple Pie That Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson and illustrated by Jonathan Bean. Told in pictures and verse, The Apple Pie that Papa Baked is a fun view of the farm at harvest time. The story is about a young girl and her father who bakes an apple pie for his daughter with the apples he has picked from their tree.

Illustrated in blacks and browns and reds, it has an earthy look and feel. The hills and paths, trees and sun have that round, plump feel, almost like a Grant Wood Iowan landscape, but I wouldn’t go too far with that comparison. If I were smarter, I’d know the style of the verse – you’ve seen it before, but here’s an example from one page:

These are the clouds,
heaped and round,
that dropped the reain,
cool and fresh,
thatwatered the roots,
deep and fine,
that fed the tree,
crooked and strong,

and on it goes.

Two by Caldecott Medal winner Eric Rohmann: Clara and Asha and My Friend Rabbit

In Clara and Asha (Ala Notable Children’s Books. Younger Readers (Awards)), Clara is a young girl who has lots of friends, one of whom is Asha, a big fish she met in the park. Asha was a part of the giant fountain, but she brought him home. Now, inseparable friends, Asha follows Clara everywhere. The story is very fun, all of a child’s imagination, and the illustrations are even more fun, and the true spark in the book.

My Friend Rabbit is the story of a rabbit and a mouse, both friends. Enthusiastic Rabbit get his friend stuck in a tree and, to try to get him down, he builds a ladder of animals. Not so good an idea, as it turns out. Mostly in pictures, the silliness abounds, and there’s really no need for words here. Eric Rohmann won the 2003 Caldecott Medal for this book.

Cat & Mouse: A Delicious Tale by Jiwon Oh

This book was the most fun of the bunch. Cat and Mouse are best friends. Cat takes cooking lessons and discovers that mice make delicious dishes, and, no big surprise, a rift in the friendship ensues. The book is delightful. Jiwon Oh’s illustrations are a combination of modern manga and ancient Chinese landscape. Go to the library or the bookstore to look for this one.

Lured into a nearby woods, which he’s somehow never noticed before, by a gently urging breeze, Simon Bloom finds himself the keeper of the Teacher’s Edition of a Physics text book. Suddenly appearing above him, it klonks him on the head. Inside, Simon finds the formulas that allow him to manipulate the laws of physics.

Someone else wants that book, though, and that mysteriously cloaked person won’t let anything get in the way of getting that book! Simon, and his two friends Owen and Alyssa team up, learn their physics and face their enemy.

Simon Bloom is a great introduction to the science fiction genre. Aimed at the middle school aged children, it introduces the possibilities of manipulating the laws of science in a fast-paced and entertaining romp through the world of 11 and 12 year-olds in a mixture of science fiction and fantasy. Unlike the vast majority of fantasy, however, this book’s plot turns on the laws of physics, like gravity, velocity, and electronic charges, and how gaining an understanding of and manipulating these laws is both satisfying and empowering.

This is an excellent first novel for Michael Reisman. Its a smart book full of action and adventure, cleverly laid out and developed. It clearly is meant to have sequels, but this book is completely self-contained, with a satisfying ending that ties together all the loose ends. Nevertheless, Reisman pulls loose some of the strands before the last page and has me anxiously looking forward to the sequel.

Universal studios has purchased the rights to the movie for this. That’s good news.

Reisman’s Myspace page

Book Info: (I read the Advanced Reader’s Copy, possibly a smidge differerent than the official version here)

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile (February 14, 2008)
• ISBN-13: 978-0525479222

If you’ve read The Mysterious Benedict Society then you’ll remember that Mr. Curtain, the bad guy in the story, had developed his own power system using wave and tidal power. Here is a YouTube video of the AP news story with a brief report and description of actual work to harness the power of waves to produce electricity. Its a neat video showing some actual devices and deployments in the lab.

This is an exciting new direction, especially in light of the renewed interest in alternative sources of energy. Think of all the engineering challenges. What sort of materials will withstand the ocean environment for long periods of time and still maintain their functionality? What about barnacles and other ocean flora and fauna? Will they glom onto the apparatuses and bog them down or stop them dead in their tracks?

There are political challenges, as well. Where will these be placed? Will they interfere with fishing and recreation to a great enough extent that political barriers will be raised against their use? Doubtless, there are many challenges to satisfying our never ending needs for new sources of energy.

Here are two other interesting lines of questions I’m interested in here. What ecological effect would wave-energy farms have on ocean habitats and what economic conditions will need to exist for us to really break free of our dependence on oil and coal as our major sources of energy?

Wow, I’m not waiting for this one. Seems Danielle Steel, author of best selling, steamy, adult fare, is entering the kid’s book market with The Happiest Hippo in the World about a hippo born, not gray, but green. It’s expected to be published in the later part of next year by HarperCollins Children’s.

Nothing in the story about what the message might be. Hmm… born green instead of gray. It wouldn’t be about trying to fit in when we’re born with differences, but resolving to accept ourselves the way we are and just be happy about it. Naw, that’s been done before, at least once.

Maybe this green hippo has super magical powers that explain the why of being green and that enable, no, obligate, this hippo to save the world… naw, not from Steel.

The story is at theBookseller.com.