Winning personalities come to life in Big Buddy Biographies

Recommended Reading: Lindsey Vonn: Olympic Champion (Big Buddy Biographies)

Winning personalities come to life in Big Buddy Biographies! This dynamic group of kid-friendly sports standouts, singing sensations, television and movie superstars, and even First Kids will inspire young readers. Each book highlights a person’s background, claim to fame, and dreams for the future. Colorful graphics, oversized photographs, and short, engaging sentences and paragraphs will encourage reluctant readers to dive into these fascinating lives! Included are table of contents, Did You Know facts, glossary with phonetic spellings, and index. Big Buddy Books is an imprint of ABD0 Publishing Company.

Who is Lindsey Vonn?
Lindsey Caroline Vonn is an American World Cup alpine ski racer who competed with the United States Ski Team. She has won four overall World Cup championships – one of only two female skiers to do so, along with Annemarie Moser-Pröll – with three consecutive titles in 2008, 2009, and 2010, plus another in 2012.
See: Lindsey Vonn: Olympic Champion (Big Buddy Biographies) Library Binding, by Sarah Tieck
Vonn won the gold medal in downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics, the first ever in the event for an American woman. She has also won six consecutive World Cup season titles in the downhill discipline (2008–2013), four consecutive titles in Super G (2009–2012), and three consecutive titles in the combined (2010–2012). Vonn is one of six women to have won World Cup races in all five disciplines of alpine skiing – downhill, super G, giant slalom, slalom, and super combined – and has won 59 World Cup races in her career through the end of the 2013 Alpine Skiing World Cup.

Only two ski racers have more World Cup victories in their careers, Annemarie Moser-Pröll of Austria with 62 and Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden with 86. With her Olympic gold and bronze medals, two World Championship gold medals in 2009 (plus three silver medals in 2007 / 2011), and four overall World Cup titles, Vonn has become the most successful American skier in history. Vonn received the Laureus World Sports Awards Sportswoman of the Year for 2010. She was also honored again as the USOC’s sportswoman of the year for 2010.

Four classic Richard Scarry titles re-released along with a newly discovered, previously unpublished picture book

Random House Children’s Books has acquired U.S. Rights to Richard Scarry’s THE BEST LOWLY WORM BOOK EVER, a newly discovered, previously unpublished picture book.

Richard Scarry is one of the world’s best-loved children’s authors ever! Generations of children all over the world have grown up spending hours poring over Richard Scarry’s oversize books filled with the colorful details of their lives. No other illustrator has shown such a lively interest in the words and concepts of early childhood. Born in 1919, Richard Scarry was raised and educated in Boston, Massachusetts. After five years of drawing maps and designing graphics for the U.S. Army, he moved to New York to pursue a career in commercial art. But after showing his portfolio to one of the original editors at Golden Books, he found the perfect home for his children’s books. In the extraordinary career that followed, Richard Scarry illustrated well over 100 books, many of which have never been out of print.

This acquisition coincides with the launch of Random House Children’s Books rebranding program, which begins with the re-release of four classic Richard Scarry titles with a brand-new cover design. Kicking off the program is Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever, celebrating its 50th year in print. With over 4.5 million copies in domestic sales, every oversized spread in this Scarry classic has hundreds of things for children to look at, point to, and identify. Additional titles on sale today are Mr. Paint Pig’s ABC’s, Richard Scarry’s Best Little Board Book Ever, and Richard Scarry’s Busy, Busy, Town!

“Parents and children have delighted in my father’s fun library for well over 50 years now,” says Huck Scarry. “This fresh look to the books should ensure that the love for his adorable characters will surely thrive for a whole new generation.”

The newly discovered and acquired picture book, THE BEST LOWLY WORM BOOK EVER, will be published in August 2014 and will be a welcome addition to the library of Scarry books published by Random House Children’s Books. The manuscript was discovered by Scarry’s son, Richard “Huck” Scarry, in his father’s studio. It is thought to date from around 1990 (Richard died in 1994). Written and sketched by Richard Scarry with illustrations completed by his son, the book centers on one of the most beloved Busytown characters: Lowly Worm.

“With over 300 million books sold worldwide and his books translated into dozens of languages, Richard Scarry is a household name,” says Loehr. “We are thrilled to be working with his son, Huck Scarry, to bring THE BEST LOWLY WORM BOOK EVER to fans old and new.”

Continuing in the Richard Scarry tradition of introducing the words and concepts of early childhood, in THE BEST LOWLY WORM BOOK EVER, Lowly takes readers through a typical busy day: going to school, helping on the farm, learning good manners, and traveling in some of his amazing vehicles. Children can also search for him in a fun “Where’s Lowly?” section and join in as he counts to 20. As with the classic Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things that Go (celebrating 40 years in print in 2014), readers can find Goldbug on every double-page spread.

Upcoming Scarry anniversaries include I Am a Bunny (1963, 50th anniversary), Chipmunk’s ABC (1963, 50th anniversary), The Gingerbread Man (1953, 60th anniversary), Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things that Go (1964, 40th anniversary), and Richard Scarry’s Best Mother Goose Book Ever (1964, 50th anniversary). The anniversaries celebrated over the coming years are further evidence of what a prolific and beloved author Richard Scarry was and continues to be.

Random House & Golden Books for Young Readers Editorial Director Heidi Kilgras will edit the book.

The Common Core: Teaching K-5 Students to Meet the Reading Standards

This essential resource, The Common Core: Teaching K-5 Students to Meet the Reading Standards,  explains the key points of the CCSS reading standards, then aligns each Standard with appropriate research-based strategies, and shows you how to use those strategies to teach your students. Classroom applications and student examples will make this your go to CCSS resource.
The International Reading Association is the world’s premier organization of literacy professionals. Our titles promote reading by providing professional development to continuously advance the quality of literacy instruction and research.

Research-based, classroom-tested, and peer-reviewed, IRA titles are among the highest quality tools that help literacy professionals do their jobs better.

RELATED READING:  Teaching the Common Core Math Standards with Hands-On Activities, Grades 6-8

Helpful advice for teaching Common Core Math Standards to middle-school studentsThe new Common Core State Standards for Mathematics have been formulated to provide students with instruction that will help them acquire a thorough knowledge of math at their grade level, which will in turn enable them to move on to higher mathematics with competence and confidence. Hands-on Activities for Teaching the Common Core Math Standards is designed to help teachers instruct their students so that they will better understand and apply the skills outlined in the Standards. This important resource also gives teachers a wealth of tools and activities that can encourage students to think critically, use mathematical reasoning, and employ various problem-solving strategies.

• Filled with activities that will help students gain an understanding of math concepts and skills correlated to the Common Core State Math Standards
• Offers guidance for helping students apply their understanding of math concepts and skills, develop proficiency in calculations, and learn to think abstractly
• Describes ways to get students to collaborate with other students, utilize technology, communicate ideas about math both orally and in writing, and gain an appreciation of the significance of mathematics to real life

This practical and easy-to-use resource will help teachers give students the foundation they need for success in higher mathematics.

Click on image to read more

Some of the many areas by this series of books addressed include:
-Comprehension
-Response To Intervention/Struggling Readers
-Early Literacy
-Adolescent Literacy
-Assessment
-Literacy Coaching
-Research And Policy
An amazon review said:

As a reading specialist and a member of the ELA Common Core committee for grades 5-6, I am looking for more information and resources to help roll out Common Core. This resource gives a detailed explanation of CC, and a breakdown of the skills the students need to master by the end of the year as well as activities and strategies to use in the classroom for each of the strategies. It also gives you plenty of ideas to incorporate some of the other CC standards so that you are not just teaching one standard but a number of them. I can’t wait for the grade 6-12 edition to come out! I have purchased a number of resources and none of them come close to containing the information and suggestions that this one does. Common Core is hard enough to wrap your mind around but I have a much clearer idea of what it is now and what we need to incorporate and how to do it! It truly is a must have.

Join Amazon Prime – Watch Over 40,000 Movies, Free Kindle Reading Apps, and Support for the Writing Community

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In other news Automatic Book Update is Now Available. Opt in for automatic book updates to receive new versions of your books when we have confirmed that improvements were made. In order to retain your notes, highlights, bookmarks and furthest reading locations, ensure that all your Kindle devices and reading apps have the “Annotation Back Up” setting turned on.

Free Kindle Reading Apps

If you don’t own a Kindle, you can still read Kindle books. Free Kindle Reading Apps are available for many devices, including:

 

iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch	Android Phones & Tablets
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Learn more about these free Kindle reading apps.

And finally, a love of reading and a profound appreciation for the people who create great books is part of our DNA at Amazon.com. Amazon.com offers grants for nonprofit author and publisher groups that share our obsession with fostering the creation, discussion, and publication of books. See the link below for more details:

Supporting the Writing Community

Dear Zoo: A Lift-the-Flap Book By Rod Campbell is a Great First Book

In this delightful tale about a youngster looking for the perfect pet, readers can lift the flaps to see the animals the zoo has sent. New art and a gold-ink cover for this 25th anniversary edition give this classic a fresh new look.
Readkiddoread said:

You’ll have a basket of fun with this interactive lift-the-flap board book which will get your babies and toddlers joining right in. It starts, “I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet. They sent me an . . .” On the right hand page, there’s a yellow box marked “VERY HEAVY!” Pull down on the little tab, and there’s a big gray elephant in there. The text says, “He was too big! I sent him back.” On each successive page is an unsuitable animal in a crate. The giraffe is too tall, the lion too fierce, the camel too grumpy, the snake too scary, the monkey too naughty, and the frog too jumpy. Little ones will pull open each flap, call out the name of the animal, and repeat the refrain. What is the perfect pet? A dog, of course. This is the 25th Anniversary edition of the book … though there’s also a spiffy pop-up version available.

And an amazon reviewer called it a great first book:

My daughter has loved this book from the very beginning. She was fascinated by the animals revealed when I lifted the flaps, and then had a great time learning how to lift the flaps herself as she grew older. She’s a year old now and brings it to me to read to her more than any other book that we have. She gets a kick out of the animal sounds we make when we lift the flaps, too. It’s the only lift-the-flap book we have that she hasn’t managed to tear off any flaps. I think this book has been instrumental in showing her how much fun books can be – I highly recommend it.

Campbell’s famous work, first published in 1982, was enormously popular among very young children  in Britain. It has been translated into Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Persian, French, Gujarati, Hindi, Panjabi, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Somali, Spanish, Turkish, Urdu, and Vietnamese, as well as being published in a number of formats and alongside various merchandise

Four Twitter ideas for teaching concise writing, a FREE Ebook and other resources

Here are some activities that I will use in my 10th and 11th grade creative writing class this summer for TRIO/Upward Bound.

The strategies  teach concise writing and are based on Twitter. However, the ideas can easily be adapted for other platforms including Facebook status updates or text messages.

SOURCE: Less Is More: Using Social Media to Inspire Concise Writing
1) Personal Writing: Students write a series of Twitter-esque personal “essays” (140 characters maximum, including spaces and punctuation). Topic ideas include the school year, life lessons, relationships and personal goals. Each one can be stand-alone, or each post can be part of a series. They might do this, for example, for personal writing or in the context of developing college essay ideas. They then develop one or more selected posts into a longer piece. Afterward, debrief: How did starting off by writing brief expressions of their ideas contribute to their writing process?

WRITE GOOD OR DIE IS A FREE EBOOK that gives survival tips for 21st century writers, from best-selling authors Kevin J. Anderson, M.J. Rose, Heather Graham, J.A. Konrath, Gayle Lynds, Alexandra Sokoloff, Jonathan Maberry, and more. How to develop your craft, improve your writing, get an agent, promote your work, embrace the digital age, and prepare yourself for the coming changes in the publishing industry. Edited by Scott Nicholson. Other contributors include Elizabeth Massie, Harley Jane Kozak, Douglas Clegg, Brandon Massey, Mur Lafferty, Dean Wesley Smith, David J. Montgomery, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Robert Kroese, and Adrienne Jones. Covering art, craft, and business. All proceeds benefit the non-profit organization Literacy Inc., which promotes reading among teens.

2) Authentic Writing: Taking a page from Andy Selsberg, students find ways to contribute meaningfully and authentically to the world of the Web. Ideas include, as Mr. Selsberg suggests, writing descriptions to “sell” an item of used clothing on eBay, commenting on a YouTube video or contributing a product review on a site like Amazon, as well as participating in our daily Student Opinion discussions. Establish guidelines for good Web citizenship. Have students read each other’s posts and provide helpful feedback. How was this activity different from writing academic essays that only the teacher reads?

3) Poetry: Students read the Twitter poems by Billy Collins, Claudia Rankine, Elizabeth Alexander and Robert Pinsky. They then write their own original “Twitter poems” or rewrite a classic poem or one of their own poems in 140 characters or fewer. They can also look further into the history and impact of brief poems, like Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro” and William Carlos Williams’s “So Much Depends.”

4) Creative Writing: Students write pieces inspired by so-called Twitter novels and cellphone novels, either by writing the equivalent of an original story or novella 140 characters at a time, or by “crowd-sourcing” the work, by having each student contribute a line, in turn, to a class novel.
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RELATED RESOURCES
From The Learning Network

• 10 Ways to Develop Expository Writing Skills With The New York Times
• Lesson: The Plot Thickens?
• Student Opinion: Do You Use Twitter?

From NYTimes.com

• Bloggingheads: Twittering Away
• City Room: A Life on the Streets, Captured on Twitter
• Magazine: I Tweet, Therefore I Am

Around the Web

• Purdue OWL: Paramedic Method
• Figment
• TwiHaiku

The Common Core is written, but the plan for implementing the Common Core is not.

The Common Core: Teaching K-5 Students to Meet the Reading Standards http://t.co/od0V5xNlQX
— Boise Idaho News (@boisenews) August 15, 2013