I Can Name that Book in One Pic!

Can you name that book in 5 pics?

A bit earlier this summer, my good friend Cathy Nelson shared her thoughts with me as she began planning for this fall’s Teen Read Week (sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association). She has several great ideas (see her post here), but the one that immediately captured my attention was her Books2Pics slides.  For each book, she created a slide containing pictures of several of its key elements. Her plan is to have one displayed each day during Teen Read Week and challenge the students to identify the book.

Because the idea looked just plain fun to me, when I finished reading one of the 2012 South Carolina Young Adult Book Award (SCYABA) nominees, I created a Books2Pics slide and shared it with Cathy and another good friend (and the third of the original Three Media Musketeers) Heather Loy, challenging them to “Name that Book.”

After I had created three of these slides (I’m telling you, it’s addictive!), I finally had that light bulb moment.  All of the YA books I am currently reading are from the 2012 SCYABA nominee list (gotta be familiar with those books!).  Why not sponsor a “Name that Book” contest during Teen Read Week similar to our YA Lit Jeopardy contest last year?

Name that Tune

For those of you not old enough to remember the “Name that Tune” game show, during the Bid a Note portion of the show two contestants vied for prizes by identifying songs from just a few notes.  A bidding “war” took place before one contestant had to name the song.  Contestant One would say, “I can name that tune in 5 notes” and Contestant Two would either counter by saying, “I can name that tune in 3 notes” or “Name that tune,” placing Contestant One in the hot seat to name the song from just the number of notes he/she had bid.

Each of the book slides I have created contains five photographs of key elements in the book.  I have used PowerPoint’s Customize Animation feature so that only one photograph will appear on the slide each time the mouse is clicked.  Two students, or teams of students, will challenge each other to “Name that Book” in 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1 photograph(s).  Since all books in the game come from the 2012 SCYABA nominees, there will be no need to give individual hints before each new slide.

“Picture It @ Your Library” is this year’s theme for Teen Read Week making this contest a perfect fit.  I can only hope that the students will have as much fun playing “Name that Book” as I have had creating it!

Video: South Carolina Young Adult Book Award Nominees 2011-2012

South Carolina YABA 2011-2012 Video

The nominees for the South Carolina Young Adult Book Award for the 2011-2012 school year were announced earlier this month.  To encourage interest in the books, I promote them in a variety of ways:

  • SCASL Book Award Committee Brochure (contains book cover images and blurbs for each book)
  • SCYABA bookmarks (Follett Library Resources generously provides one free set of 50 for each SCASL Conference attendee)
  • bulletin boards
  • book displays
  • booktalks
  • book trailers
  • Animoto video

For the past two years, I have created an Animoto video of the nominees and have shared it here.  (Animoto allows you to upload the video to YouTube, but because YouTube is blocked in most (if not all) of SC schools, I usually share the Animoto link.)

What other ways have you promoted your state award list nominees?

Advocacy: WBALTV Segment Promotes Children’s Books

The Best Books Of The Year For Kids – Video – WBAL Baltimore.

Barb Langridge of abookandahug.com was recently featured on Baltimore’s WBAL Channel 11 News.  In this segment, she discussed several recent honor and award winning books:

1.  Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein  (Caldecott Honor)

2.  A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip Stead and Erin Stead (Caldecott Winner)

3.  Dave the Potter by Laban Carrick Hill and Bryan Collier (Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award)

4.  One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia  (Coretta Scott King Author Award)

5.  Bink & Gollie by Kate DiCamillo and Tony Fucile  (Geisel Award)

6.  Heart of a Samurai  by Margi Preus  (Newbery Honor)

7.  Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool  (Newbery Award winner)

~Barbara Langridge, http://www.abookandahug.com/announcements

Barbara is a booktalker extraordinaire and in a five minute segment convinced me to read all seven books.

Promoting Books

Watching Barb animatedly talk about these children’s books started me thinking. How can we use Barb’s experience to promote our libraries and library programs?

  • Offer to do a similar booktalk for your PTO or other parenting groups in your area.
  • Share the video with the education reporters for your local newspaper and television stations.  Offer to provide a similar service to both.
  • Locate your local independent newspapers/newsletters.  Contact the editors and offer to write a column focusing on children’s books (or in my case, young adult literature).
  • Are there parent bloggers in your area who might appreciate a guest blogger?  Contact them and offer to write a post.
  • Contact after school care programs in your area to offer to do booktalks.
  • Is there a college or university in your area that offers an education degree?  Contact them and offer to be a guest speaker for classes.

Be Prepared

You know your community.  When you approach others to offer to speak or write, be prepared with local statistics and research that backs the power of reading. Have an example booktalk you can do on the spur of the moment or an example of your writing about books to share.

At a loss for where to start with books?  Why not choose award winning books (as Barb did in this video segment) or use your state’s award nominees?

One Last Word (or two or three)

Bravo WBAL Channel 11 in Baltimore for seeing the need to offer this service to your viewers!

To show your support for the segment and this television news program’s support of reading, please leave a comment on the video segment page and like the Facebook group for abookandahug.

Visit abookandahug.com and check out a new feature:  tools for children to create booklists.

Barb’s Books Alive program is carried on a cable network.  Do you know of any similar programs on children’s literature?

2010 Edgar Award Winners Announced

Mysteries have long been my favorite genre. Give me a good whodunnit and I’m happier than an allergist in spring time.

The Mystery Writers of America met on April 30 to announce the 2010 Edgar Award Winners.

Young Adult Nominees

The nominees for this year’s Best Young Adult Award were:

Abrahams, Peter Reality Check

Cooney, Caroline B.  If the Witness Lied

Ford, John C. The Morgue and Me

Low, Dene Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone

Mitchell, Saundra Shadowed Summer

And the winner is….Reality Check.

Juvenile Nominees

The nominees for this year’s Best Juvenile Award were:

Barnett, Mac The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity

Beil, Michael The Red Blazer Girls: The Ring of Rocamadour

Hahn, Mary Dowling Closed for the Season

Reynolds, Aaron Creepy, Crawly Crime

Springer, Nancy The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline

And the winner is…..Closed for the Season.

We only have one of the young adult titles (If the Witness Lied) in our school library so I’ll be checking the public library for the other nominees this summer.

Speaking of Mysteries

The South Carolina Young Adult Book Award nominees for 2011 include Something Wicked by Alan Gratz.  Seems it is the second title in the Horatio Wilkes mystery series.  I just recently read Something Rotten, the first title in the series, and loved it.  English teachers who are looking for modern day novels to pair with Hamlet need to give this one a spin.

Now I’m reading Something Wicked, a modern day version of Macbeth.

What good mysteries have you read lately?

Photo used through a Creative Commons license

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddsock/3623474374

South Carolina Young Adult Book Award Nominees 2010-2011

Although the voting for the 2009-2010 award is still a few weeks away, I have been preparing a book order for next year’s nominees which inspired this video.