She really loves him. She loves him so much he isn't allowed to do anything that she thinks might be dangerous. The heroine has more spunk than the movie version, read it and compare! Look out for Mums with button eyes! Sometimes Mums get things wrong. Sometimes a foster Mum can help make it right.
This is the story of a Dad who was found and a Mum who was lost, and there is love and hope in both stories. An Iranian family in California in the 70's. A warm and funny portrayal of relationships within a family under tricky and sometimes unwelcoming circumstances. Our famous do-it-yourself, number 8 fencing wire approach to problems and a general can-do attitude seem to be part of our national psyche.
So this week I've put together a list of books that celebrate our heroes, the people who have helped to build that reputation for small but mighty! Find it in Non-fiction Also by the same author "New Zealand sports hall of fame; 24 Kiwi champions" Mark Inglis" — amazing story of can-do despite adversity. Gorgeous pictures with short, often sad stories of the men, women and animals who played their part in the World Wars.
Jean Batten's incredible flying adventures" — the latest from David Hill author and Phoebe Morris illustrator who also gave us Sir Edmund Hilary's and Burt Munroe's story in lovely picture book with non-fiction hybrid books. Find them all in Junior Non-fiction. David Riley is a teacher from Manukau in Auckland with a passion for connecting students, particularly boys, with reading.
Find them in the 's. Farming Books We love Farming! In the Awakeri school library there is a steady demand for books featuring farms, farm animals and farm machinery, especially those created in New Zealand. It's great when kids can see themselves reflected in books and although not every child at school lives on a farm, the ones that do are often very fervent in their quest for farm books. Luckily we have a pretty good stack of farm-related books, fiction and non-fiction. Factual books about farming can be found in the Non-fiction 's, and the list below are wonderful, sometimes wacky stories from our Junior picture book section — and they're all by New Zealand authors too!
If you want to see more, you better get a moove on! Rasmus - Elizabeth Pulford; a lovely story about a goat and a boy and loss. Cow power and Baby cow power - Kim Riley; based on a true story and written by a Manawatu dairy farmer, it's a favourite for good reason. On the farm series - Milking time and Harvest plus others Jamie and Lee Lamb; this series is one that never makes it back to the shelves because it's so popular and we have some new titles this year too!
The moon and farmer McPhee - Margaret Mahy; a farmer learns to enjoy life after his animals remind him of joy. Allis the tractor - Sophie Siers; the beautiful illustrations by Helen Kerridge make this lovely book come alive. Moo and Moo and can you guess who? Baa baa smart sheep and I love lemonade - Mark and Rowan Somerset; these books have been around for a while but still funny Mrs Wishy Washy's farm - Joy Cowley; She's been keeping animals clean since and we still love her.
The three cattle dogs Gruff - Chris Gurney; three dogs must cross a bridge with a fearsome Taniwha underneath. The two smaller dogs say wait for their older brother Tuff to cross Sounds a little familiar but with a Kiwi twist! Sad books say so much I have always enjoyed sad books and there is a long history of children's books that tug at the heart strings, from Hans Christian Andersen's "Little match girl", to "Charlotte's web", "The giving tree" and the wonderful "Warhorse". There has been trends in children's publishing to remove sad or confronting elements in children's books — old classics rewritten or banned.
And it's true that some children are more upset than others, but surely that is the time for lots of talking, not avoidance of issues like death, illness and cruelty. Real life can be sad, it is misleading to pretend otherwise, and seeing how other people deal with sadness - even in fiction - gives tools to children who are coping with traumatic events. Even if a child has never experienced a significant sad event in their life they may still be fascinated by sad stories — it doesn't mean they feel sad, simply that a book is a safe place to experience an emotion, to think about it in a new way.
The other common theme in sad stories, is that there is hope or renewal after a sad time — and that is a message for all people, young and old. In , while stuck on a delayed train bound for Clapham Junction, London, Jo Rowling had a story idea for a young boy attending a school for wizards. It was to take five years to complete and another two years before her agent found a publisher, it has been said that twelve publishers turned the manuscript down! Since then the seven book series, totalling 4, pages, has been translated into more than 70 languages and sold more than million copies!
Along the way single mother Jo Rowling became JK Rowling and the ninth best-selling author of all time, with an estimated personal fortune of million pounds! As well, the seven books were made into eight movies, and in , a spin-off book made as a charity fund-raisers, "Fantastic beasts and where to find them", was also released as a block-buster movie with the screenplay written by Rowling herself.
The "Harry Potter" series is very popular in the Awakeri school library, particularly with Year 5's and 6's, although it is read by kids and adults well outside of those ages. Perhaps the continued popularity is because it has very strong universal themes - good versus evil, personal responsibility, discrimination and friendship. Whatever the reasons behind its popularity, it has turned many non-readers into readers, and irregular readers into committed ones and that is no small piece of magic!
Plus an extra one! Beginning in October, the British library in London is holding an exhibition inspired by Harry Potter with historical items from their collection, including rare manuscripts such as the 16th century Ripley scroll which reveals how to create a Philosopher's Stone. And lastly, a quote from JK Rowling — "We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: To celebrate Ag Day we look at an author who excels at animal stories and is very popular in our school library and all over the world, Michael Morpurgo. Born in in St Albans in the UK, his parents separated during the war and he did not meet his biological father until he was in his 20's.
After a short stint in the army, where he has said he enjoyed the friendships and the food but not the shouting, he and his wife Clare both became teachers. While teaching, his favourite daily activity was to read aloud to his class - eventually he ran out of books and decided to write his own. He has since written over books, at least five have become movies and others have become stage and radio plays.
His most well-known book "Warhorse" is both a movie and a very successful stage play featuring life-sized horse puppets. Many of his books are about or feature animals, often in a historical setting, such as the First or Second World War, and others have a farming setting. Morpurgo also helped found the Children's Laureate in the UK.
This is an award given every two years to a prominent author or illustrator to promote children's literature, he himself became the third Children's Laureate from to As well as writing, for 25 years Morpurgo ran a charity called "Farms for city children" now into its fortieth year, which takes inner city kids and their teachers onto working rural farms. Morpurgo's books often talk about special relationships — between human and animal, between young and old, and between siblings. His animal books are very popular at Awakeri and at least three of the middle and senior teachers read them aloud to classes.
An unusual slice of history, with the love of a cat at the heart of the story. Great first line too. Plus we have many other Michael Morpurgo books in the library, including, "Private Peaceful", "Sparrow: Actually with the farming changeover, the floods affecting many families and lots of five-year olds we have had around 24 new children start over the past two months.
It can be a tough experience. Coming in at mid-year when it feels as if all the other friendships are set in stone, especially in the older classes, is daunting. And being five and having countless new rules, expectations, playgrounds, and enormous older children thundering past must feel a little bit like arriving on a different planet! Luckily there are plenty of friendly faces to support new kids and lots of excellent books mirroring those feelings of nervousness and helping everyone to feel not so alone.
Here are my top ten picture books and chapter books about school. There are lots more at the Awakeri school library — open lunchtimes and after school to anyone who needs some quiet time! Cleversticks — B Ashley; A new boy finds school hard until he discovers he has a skill that no-one else has. David goes to school — David Shannon If you ever want to bring an alligator to school, don't — Elise Parsley, a young girl gives sage advice about show and tell choices!
Little rabbit goes to school — Harry Horse; Little rabbit is a bit nervous about leaving his favourite toy at home but taking him to school proves to be complicated as well. Lily's purple plastic purse — Kevin Henkes; Lily thinks her teacher is amazing, but when she gets told off it takes a while for her to see both sides of the situation — but can she fix the situation?
Look, there's a hippopotamus in the playground eating cake — Hazel Edwards; there's a few different stories about Hippopotamus, in this one he provides a familiar, quirky face to a little girl starting school. Marshall Armstrong is new to our school — D. Macintosh; sometimes new people do things very differently. My teacher is a monster, No I am not! Harry and the dinosaurs go to school — Ian Whybrow 10 best chapter books about school and being the new kid Middle fiction Angel of Nitshill — Anne Fine; the new girl is really different.
She challenges the way things have always been — could she be an angel? Baby aliens got my teacher — Pamela Butchart Weirdo series — Anh Do; being the new kid is even harder when your name gives everyone the giggles! Terrible two — Mac Barnett; new town, same old pranks. But the town already has a prankster, how will it cope with two and can they be friends?
Millicent Min, girl genius — Lisa Yee; Millicent hides her true abilities to protect her new friendship. In US literature professor Dr Rudine Sims Bishop wrote an article where she beautifully described books as windows into other worlds, the reader need only step through their imagination to become part of that world. She also said that when light is shined another way windows can be mirrors and that "literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience.
She made the point that children from dominant social groups were suffering from this imbalance too, since it is sometimes only within a book that a child may experience another culture and that to only see "reflections of themselves, they will grow up with an exaggerated sense of their own importance and value in the world — a dangerous ethnocentrism.
Tolerance is not always promoted by public figures such as politicians, diversity of appearance is not well represented in popular culture, and the very way we search the internet creates a false affirmation of our personal world-view. She finished the article by saying that people who are children's literature enthusiasts are often idealistic, believing that books can change lives.
It won't take the homeless off our streets; it won't feed the starving of the world; it won't stop people attacking each other because of our racial differences; it won't stamp out the scourge of drugs. It could, however, help us to understand each other better by helping to change our attitudes towards difference.
When there are enough books available that can act as both mirrors and windows for all our children, they will see that we can celebrate both our differences and our similarities, because together they are what make us all human. Draper Back to the top. When is a doctor not a doctor? When he's Dr Seuss! Just a little way from his childhood home is Mulberry Street, made famous in the first Dr Seuss book published in , "And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street". He adopted his middle name Seuss as a pen-name after he was caught drinking gin at college during prohibition, the Dr was added later.
A career drawing cartoons for advertising followed and included work for the US army during the Second World War. Dr Seuss went on to write and illustrate an incredible 60 plus books for children. Even after his death in new stories were discovered amongst his effects and published posthumously, including "Hooray for Diffendoofer day" and "What pet should I get". One of his most amazing and enduringly popular creations was "The cat in the hat" , which has only words - a response to the stilted "Dick and Jane" readers that were believed to be killing off children's reading in the 's.
A bet by his editor that he couldn't write a fun children's book with only 50 words was answered in with "Green eggs and ham", which contains exactly 50 different words. By the time of his death, Dr Seuss books had sold more than million copies and been translated into more than 20 languages. Dr Seuss did become a real doctor when his old college, Dartmouth, awarded him an honorary doctorate in Dr Seuss has been repeatedly commemorated in the United States, with stamps, his birthday is used as the date for a reading campaign and the Theodor Seuss Geisel awards celebrate excellence in reading books for beginners.
But perhaps his biggest legacy is a universal enduring fondness for his books — people in New Zealand seem to remember Dr Seuss books well into their adult years - quote "One fish, two fish" in any room and at least one person will finish with "red fish, blue fish! In the Awakeri school library his books remain popular from 5 to 12 year olds, and are particularly requested when older children "buddy" with a younger class for reading aloud.
So why do Dr Seuss' books remain so well-loved with each new generation? It's probably because the themes in Dr Seuss' books are universal and life-affirming. Be kind to others and help them if you can; appreciate what you have and who you are and remember that good things take effort; and that a little imagination can be the greatest possession in life. Here are my top ten favourite quotes from Dr Seuss - check out his books in the "S" section in Junior Fiction. A person's a person, no matter how small - Horton hears a who The more that you read, the more things that you'll know.
The more that you learn, the more places you'll go - I can read with my eyes shut I know, up on top you are seeing great sights, but down here at the bottom, we, too, should have rights - Yertle the turtle Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no-one alive who is youer than you - Happy birthday to you Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try! I'll, maybe, get stung… But I've bought a big bat.
I'm all ready, you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me! Your mountain is waiting.
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So… get on your way! If you haven't read a Dr Seuss book for a while grab one today and share it with who-ever is around! Resilience Ten great picture books about resilience and perseverance: Sometimes bad things happen to great people. As adults we mostly accept that, and we want to help our children learn the knack of bouncing back from adversity or to slog on when things are proving tough. The recent flooding has been horrible for many people in our community, who are faced with the clean-up of a stinky mess that only grit and hard work will fix. At the same time, the media have christened today's young adults the "snow flake generation" — too sensitive, over-protected and less resilient than previous generations.
Perhaps every generation thinks that the next is "softer" or has it easier than themselves, when really the challenges are different but still challenges none the less.
most popular
I don't think there is an easy answer to building resilience and perseverance in children, but perhaps a very small start might be to read inspiring and funny books about the struggles of others — even if the "struggle" is an elephant that has promised to protect an egg — no matter what! Here is my top ten picture books about resilience and perseverance, you can find all of these in the Junior Picture book section of the Awakeri school library or the Middle and Senior Picture book section. A young scientist learns that mistakes are learning and part of the process and should not be seen as failures.
Funny, sweet and sharp with great pictures, perfect for any age. Nothing gets Pete the cat down, he just keeps on going — kind of a sixties vibe to this one, but a great lesson in letting things go. Sometimes you'll be top of the heap — and sometimes you won't. A promise is a promise, steadfastness lessons from a pachyderm. Don't listen to nay-sayers! A family loses everything in a house fire and works to slowly rebuild the things that are important to them.
Written by Michael Jordan's Mum and sister, he wasn't always the tall, confident ruler of the courts — the grit that he built up playing when he was the smallest of his friends and brothers made him the sports person he is today.
A beautiful, sad story of hope finding a way through extreme circumstances. A father posts himself inside a box to a better life from the slavery of the South. The author notes at the end are heart-rending. Aesop's Fables - Large truths through small tales! This week we are looking at stories that many people from different generations and backgrounds grew up with - Aesop's fables. However the stories would have been passed down originally by mouth, and were not collected until some hundred years after Aesop's death.
Many stories which could not have been from Aesop are wrongly attributed to him and historians still argue over the origins of many. His name has become associated with all fables, a kind of story that is short, true-to-nature, but with plants and animals that can talk and having a lesson. The stories were originally for adults and many have a religious, social or political theme.
They began to be used in the education of children from the Renaissance onwards. Fables use a small incident to show a larger truth or a moral lesson — often the lesson is stated at the end of the story, for example; "Slow and steady wins the race". Aesop's fables make great read alouds for children because they are brief but have plenty of scope for conversation.
Discussions might arise about greed, pride, strength of character, friendships and honesty. The language used often reflects the great age of the stories and introduces some very old - but probably new to your child - words and phrases. On other levels you could talk about Greek history and art, slavery, how modern philosophy and language evolved and how stories from different cultures often have similar themes.
The Awakeri school library has many books featuring Aesop's fables. Two I particularly like are Michael Rosen's "Aesop's fables" which feature simple concise retellings and the jewel-like colours on a black background art of Taleen Hacikyan. Check out these and other books from the Awakeri School library, try the town libraries for similar or have a dig around at home or at grandparents houses, you may be amazed at what turns up - remember fables have been around for more than years!
Here is list of some of the stories attributed to Aesop - which ones sound familiar to your family? Isn't that a great word! The Summer holidays are just around the corner. Whether your family is the relaxing around the house kind, the camping and beach kind, or the working on the farm kind, every kind of family wants their children to have a great holiday and return to school excited to do well in Sadly, those children who do very little reading over the holidays can expect their reading levels to remain the same or even to drop in the new year.
This is known as the Summer slide and it is a serious and sometimes under-estimated contributor to a child falling behind. If a child is not reading for 6 weeks of each year, by the end of primary school that amounts to a total of 48 weeks - almost a year less reading than a child who has continued to read over the holidays. This is only considering the summer holidays, add in the other holiday weeks and the lost time is doubled.
Much research has been done in New Zealand and internationally on the Summer Slide there are some links about reading research below , which can be boiled down to these key points. The reading that happens in the summer should be seen by children as fun, relaxing and a normal part of life.
Don't refer to reading as a school thing. Children pick up on subtle signals about what is a chore and what is for pleasure. Reading mileage is more important than level. That means the habit of reading is more important than trying to improve word recognition or comprehension over the holidays - that will come too, but don't force it. Don't worry if they seem to be reading "easy" books over the holidays, reading lots of words with enjoyment and understanding is key to confidence and seeing themselves as readers.
Children need to choose books that make them laugh or get excited. It's not time to force them to read that old set of "classics" that no one else in the family fancies. Free choice is key to enjoyment. If there are no books in a house, reading cannot happen. Surround them with reading material, all sorts. Give books and magazine subscriptions for presents. Accept hand-me-down books from other families. Stock up the car. Go to the public library, garage sales and op-shops and think cheap and cheerful!
Easy tips for everyday reading for busy families. Read in front of your children everyday - Dads too. Talk about what you read in the newspaper, sports magazine, at work, when you were little. If you read as part of your down time, so will they. Use activities as reading opportunities. If you're cooking, have your child read out the recipe.
Pass a road map to the back of the car and have the kids find the route to Nana's house. Turn the sound off on the TV and the captions on. Read picture books out loud for fun. Try a ghost story while camping. Read or tell a bedtime story every night - even to the big kids. Take turns as a family, use funny voices!
Keep a photo journal of the holidays. Write captions for each photo - make it as simple or as crazy as you like. Collect as many jokes from family members as possible and draw funny pictures too. Play word games like Scrabble or Boggle or hangman. Set aside a bedtime 10 minute time slot for reading to happen. Start with reading aloud and then leave time for solo reading — even if they are not quite reading on their own yet, it's habit forming and emphasizes reading as relaxing. Chop up magazines and make words or sentences. A lot of people have a stash of old magazines they would be happy to give away to a family.
Join the library Summer reading programme - it's free and fun!! Make time for reading and make sure the only slide that your family sees this Summer is the kind with water on it!! Survival stories have remained a popular choice for middle and teen readers since perhaps the first of its kind, "Robinson Crusoe" was published in It is probably the delicate balance between reality, genuine suspense and ingenuity of the hero that keeps generations coming back for more.
Whether the story is firmly grounded in real-life events, such as the story of Louis Samperini in "Unbroken" or the completely fantastical setting of Panem's "Hunger Games", readers get hooked on the struggle and sometimes downright unluckiness of the hero. Perhaps the appeal to teens and pre-teens are that survival stories mimic - in the extreme — the independent life-stage that they will soon be entering.
Below is a small sample of survival stories in the Awakeri School library. Most are in the Senior fiction area listed by author surname, or Middle and Senior Non-fiction listed with Dewey decimal numbers. Hatchet — Gary Paulsen. Had to be top of the list, heart breaking and riveting and very believable kid-next-door hero, a favourite for a long time. Island of the blue dolphins — Scott O'Dell, a great read-aloud, a brave young Native American, based on a true story.
Kensuke's kingdom — Michael Morpurgo, is a genius for wrapping up action and history with characters you really care about. My side of the mountain — Jean Craighead George, falls somewhere between a survival and extreme camping story, amazing description of taming a wild animal for falconry. Hunger Games — Suzanne Collins, a modern dystopian fantasy take on survival stories, gripping and a hero who has strengths that even she doesn't know about. Tomorrow when the war began — John Marsden. Before we had the Hunger Games, John Marsden's very plausible story about an invaded Australian town and the group of teens who fight back was and is a great read.
Ice Dogs — Terry Lyn Johnson, dog sledding journey gone wrong. Figgy in the world — Tamsin Janu, set in Ghana an innocent young girl sets out to walk to America for medicine for her Grandmother. Sweet and funny, sad and thought provoking. Extreme adventures series — Justin D'Ath, with titles such as Killer whale and Shark bait, the resourceful hero Sam Fox has many chances to test his survival instincts. The drover's quest — Susan Brocker, disguised as a boy, young Charlotte must take a mob of cattle across Arthur's Pass to find her father in the gold-fields.
Maze runner — James Dashner, has gripped many a teen and pre-teen, atmospheric and desperate. Mission Survival series - Bear Grylls, uses his own life experiences to give this series a realistic, exciting edge. Adventure Double; Diving and Amazon adventure — Willard Price, showing their age a little bit but still pacey, absorbing stuff. Code Red series — Chris Ryan, an ex-special forces soldier turned writer. Titles such as Flash flood, Twister and Vortex, these books are exciting and often carry an ecological message too.
The true meaning of Smekday, film is called "Home" — Adam Rex, a funny twist on alien invasion survival stories, young Tip, makes a trip across an invaded America with a bumbling alien called Boov, who causes mayhem for them both. Non fiction Can You Survive? These are shelved in the fiction area because of their size, but are very factually based. Unbroken junior edition — Laura Hillenbrand, could be fiction the events are so amazing, bad luck and determination battle it out for dominance in a young runner's life.
Again, it's true but shelved with the fiction to make it easy to find! Great Escapes — Lost at sea — That's some of the books that would fall within the heading of survival, there's lots more.
Thursday, 14 December 2017 - Volume 726
Hint — These would make amazing Summer Reading presents or books to borrow from the town library, especially for camping families. How about a survival book for a family read-aloud over the holidays? Back to the top Roald Dahl - years! September 13, marks years since Roald Dahl was born in Wales, near Cardiff to Norwegian parents. Roald Dahl was a pilot, a diplomat, a screen-writer, and an inventor. But he is best known today as the author of 21 of the best children's books of all time, published in 59 languages and selling an estimated million copies world wide.
Roald Dahl continues to top surveys of the best authors for children more than 25 years since he passed away, all this despite never winning a children's book award during his lifetime! Roald Dahl was a very tall man, around 6ft 6, with a large personality to match! He was a talented sportsmen, flew combat aircraft in World War two, surviving a fiery crash; worked for the spy agency MI6 in its early days and after the war marrying an American movie star with whom he had five children. But alongside the rather swashbuckling adventures Roald Dahl was to know many sad times too.
He lost his father and an older sister within weeks of each other when he was only three years old. His four-month old son Theo was hit by a car while sitting in a pram and suffered near fatal injuries. Two years later his daughter Olivia, contracted measles encephalitis and died at age seven. His first wife Patricia Neal, while pregnant with their fifth child, had a brain hemorrhage requiring months of rehabilitation to walk and talk again. But the dark times seem to have infused his books with an underlying sweetness and sadness that reflects reality and doesn't pretend unhappiness doesn't exist to the reader.
Even when the subject of the books are as fantastical as a giant peach travelling to New York, that balance of dark and light are what gives the stories an authenticity and credits readers with the intelligence to accept that not all of life or endings of stories are neat and tidy and perfect. Roald Dahl was also an imaginative bender of language who invented dozens of words which are collectively known as "Gobblefunk" and give his stories the lyrical sound that makes them a pleasure to read aloud.
The school library has recently purchased the "Oxford Roald Dahl Dictionary" which explains and defines many of his original gobbelfunk and other unusual words used in his stories and poems. Check out the book and the fun Dahl inspired puzzles and pictures in the Awakeri school library.
Here are a few wonderful quotes to come out of Roald Dahl stories, thanks to Good Reads; https: BFG "I am the maker of music, the dreamer of dreams! Those who don't believe in magic will never find it. Wet, windy and grey weather? To make the most of a dismal situation I've put together a list of great snuggle books.
These are all perfect to read aloud, and have plenty of positive messages about family, friendship, bedtime or winter! Why do we like to read scary stories? It is a funny thing about books and reading that sometimes we like to see ourselves reflected in what we read, as an affirmation that what we feel or how we live our life is approved by others. But we also like to read and imagine ourselves in situations that are far from our real lives — and that is where scary stories come into play.
Even the most unrealistic fantasy fiction has strands of reality about bravery and strength and human nature. Whether it's battling the undead and vampires, or perhaps becoming a vampire ourselves, books that make our pulse race allow us to feel the fear, be challenged, test our strength and weaknesses — but remain completely safe! Perhaps that is why it is such a popular genre with teens and pre-teens, as a way of gearing up for braving new environments and challenges in early adulthood.
When we empathise and recognise elements of our own personality in a fictional character and celebrate their successes, it makes us feel braver and more positive in our real lives. If they can battle zombies or ghosts or button-eyed other mothers then we can brave the kid who said our haircut was dumb.
Here is just a small a shiver of the selection of scary stories in the Awakeri library! Junior picture books — These tend to reveal a twist at the end where the "scary" element is revealed to be completely harmless and benevolent. Bright "The grumble mumble rumbler" — M. Drewery "Wolf's coming" - J. Kulka "One dark night" — L. Wheeler "The dark at the top of the stairs" — S. Dennis Middle fiction — these tend to fall into two categories, common fears such as fear of the dark or over-the-top cartoon horror. Masters "One night at Lottie's house" - M. Dann "The beasts of clawstone castle" — Eva Ibbotson "The Frankenstein teacher" — Tony Bradman "Bunnicula, a rabbit tale of mystery" — Deborah and James Howe Senior fiction — the books in this section are often very sophisticated in how the fear builds within a story.
Kids need books with strong characters — male and female! This week I'm talking about something that has been bitterly debated in the US and the UK and on the surface seems quite innocent — Boys books and girls books. The debate began in the US after a female author, Shannon Hale, was told at a school that only girls were given permission to attend her book talk during class time , with the inference being that her books were only of interest to girls because they have mostly female characters.
The author was offended, not only because her talk was primarily about the process of writing but because of the sweeping assumptions made on behalf of the boys at the school. In the UK, debate has sprung up around books and toys being marketed and labelled as "for" boys or girls, with the result that many publishers publicly announced they will not produce books with gender based titles or recommendations.
Leaving aside the toy debate marketing pink decorative-based toys to girls and blue action-based toys to boys , the underlying assumption regarding books seems to be that boys don't want - or worse, don't need — to read books with strong female characters.
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Gosh, where to start? The idea that boys or girls should only read books that feature primarily their own gender is crazy! To extend that thinking, kids would never be interested or would need to read books about anyone who is differently-abled to themselves, some-one with a different ethnic background, skin colour, religion, from a different country, a different time period… Heck, let's not extend their mental boundaries at all! Let them only read their own diaries, with their own thoughts, because how could they relate to someone else - that other person might be different?!!
Kids need books about all sorts of people to learn and appreciate that the differences and similarities between people is what makes the world such an interesting place. A quote I particularly liked was a comment from a librarian following an article on the school Library Journal website, she said; "Books are stories, stories are life, life is female and male.
Let's promote books for the strength of the main characters and the story line, and in the firm belief that all characters can contribute to inner growth. With that said here are three lists; Books with strong female characters; Books with strong male characters; and books that are very evenly balanced between male and female characters — and my recommendation is that they are ALL great reads for boys and girls!
Back to the top Is there such a thing as a "Bad" book? Recently I watched an interview with Andy Griffiths, best-selling Australian author. In the interview he mentioned early opposition to his books, perhaps not entirely surprising given that one series is titled, "The day my bum went psycho", "Zombie bums from Uranus" and "Bumageddon; the final pongflict"!
Griffiths, with writing partner and illustrator Terry Denton, are topping best-seller lists all over the world. Their "65 storey treehouse" book sold more than 70, copies in Australia in the first three days after release in In the books, two boys hypnotise their school Principal Mr Krupp into wearing only a cape and oversized underwear - poop jokes abound. So are chart-topping children's books selling just because they have poo and bum jokes? And if that is the reason for their popularity should we be concerned - is there such a thing as a "Bad" book?
There are definitely two schools of thought on this subject. The first is that adults are the gatekeepers of quality for what children read. The second is that better any reading than no reading. There is a myriad of reasons that our country is in these straits; we all know beverages are only a small aspect of it. There is blame to go around aplenty. Restaurants, retailers, other food marketers all encourage massive consumption of products that have little or no nutritional value. Schools have cut exercise programs. Video games and TV are the standard activities for our kids.
I could go on and on about the causes. But please allow me to be politically incorrect and address the biggest part of the problem: No matter what the influences are externally, it all starts and ends with the responsibility of family members to educate their children as to what is right and wrong. Parents need to have better control on limiting certain foods. A cultural shift is imperative to combat obesity — but we have to do our part as well. As marketers, retailers and distributors, you have a responsibility to educate and encourage your communities to live, eat, and, yes, drink better.
Get involved in youth sports programs. Better labeling is a step in the right direction: Smaller serving sizes are also a step in the right direction. I think that the 48 oz. Bundle healthier offerings in your stores, not just nacho-and-energy-drink specials. There is so much more we can and need to do. We are at a crucial juncture on the battle of the bulge. Imagine what it can do for your sales. They also downplayed the role it might play in enabling nimbler distribution for non-core, niche beverages. And CCE will handle more overseas operations if the deal goes through. CEO Indra Nooyi said that PepsiCo plans to ramp up cross-promotion between Pepsi products and Frito-Lay snacks, building on the statistic that consumers pair a beverage with salty snack about 90 percent of the time.
A major retailer called before the Super Bowl, she said, and requested a list of snack and beverage products that he wanted in 24 hours. After all, as Nooyi pointed out, PepsiCo is now the second-largest food and beverage business in the world, and the third largest consumer products company in the world. UBS analyst Kaumil Gajrawala noted that Dr Pepper Snapple Group, which acquired a string of its bottlers ahead of its spinoff from Cadbury, could be a surprise winner in the deal. In a sign that the regulatory environment is changing, the U. Food and Drug Administration recently sent letters to 16 firms — including five RTD beverage companies — citing ingredient and health claim violations.
Squarely in the sites of the FDA are health claims. POM, for example, has cited studies that its pomegranate juice products can help consumers improve their blood pressure, cut their risk of prostate cancer, and improve erectile function — all claims more akin to a drug than a food product. Once the FDA reviews and better understands the substantial science, we are confident that the agency will agree with our position. With so many products making functional claims as a springboard to sales, increased FDA action is worth watching. Projects have reached out to friends and contacts for support, splashing emails about their proposals and the Pepsi Refresh Project across cyberspace.
Local news outlets have taken notice. For example, The Daily Times of Ottawa Illinois published a story about a local Boy Scout attempting to build a baseball diamond with Refresh Project funds, and In North Carolina, the Gaston Gazette reported that a local group is not only running for a Refresh Project grant, but has advertised their participation on a local billboard.
PepsiCo accepts 1, project proposals for each round of voting. For the first round, the company achieved that number in 72 hours. In the second round,. Bough said, the company closed its entries in 16 hours. For the recently-completed third round, it took just 16 minutes. PepsiCo initially committed to the program for one year, but Bough said the initiative has achieved double its expected participation and has yet to anoint its first winners.
At that point, he said, he expects to see more support and exposure. The data showed that subjects that ingested the Sustamine supplement during the rehydration period suffered significantly less performance reduction than when consuming water alone. The clinical study covered the ability of Sustamine L-Alanyl-L-Glutamine to enhance fluid regulation in healthy, active individuals in relation to both endurance and high intensity exercise. Good News and Bad News As the Pepsi Refresh Project has proven, a well-executed digital program can generate a surge of earned media, and the environment for such a program continues to improve.
Meanwhile, Twitter surged to 20 million monthly visits, up from 2 million, and comScore reports that four out of five internet users visit a social. But not all new-age advertising ideas have found an easy reception. A Honeywell survey conducted by Harris Interactive in December found that just four percent of surveyed internet users had redeemed mobile coupons, compared to 65 percent that had used coupons printed from the internet or their email, and 86 percent who had clipped physical coupons.
However, 66 percent of respondents said they were at least interested in trying mobile coupons. In the double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 45 men and women with moderate to highly stressful lifestyles consumed Wellmune WGP or a placebo each day for four weeks. The study measured both stress-related incidence of upper respiratory tract infection symptoms and psychological well-being. After two weeks, 32 percent of the subjects in the placebo group reported respiratory infection symptoms, compared with only 10 percent in the group taking mgs of Wellmune WGP.
At four weeks, 28 percent of the placebo group reported symptoms, compared with 8 percent in the group taking Wellmune WGP. The Wellmune WGP group reported a 41 percent increase in general health when compared with the placebo group over the four-week study period. In comparison with the placebo group, the Wellmune WGP group reported statistically significant increases in vigor and reductions in fatigue 38 percent , tension 19 percent and confusion 15 percent. The psychological health assessment was obtained with a Profile of Mood States questionnaire.
Energy Stix offer exceptional value to the consumer and come packed with two individual Energy Stix per blister pack. A completely new incremental sales opportunity offering great sales margins to distributors and retailers alike. Fortunately for Coke, smartwater continues to grab share. For more information, call Boston Beer at Due to popular demand for this beer, Shipyard has released this product as its permanent spring seasonal. This product has 5. For more information, call Shipyard at Deschutes Brewing has launched a pair of special beers. Jubel is a deeply dynamic presentation of the flavors found in its festive winter seasonal, Jubelale.
A limited amount of Jubel will be available in 22 oz. For more information, please call Deschutes at The newest options for cooler and shelf. The beer will begin shipping March 1, For more information about where to purchase Oskar Blues beer visit http: Honey Brown is available in all 48 states in the continental US. Honey Brown pricing is market-specific. This product will be sold as 6- and pack 12 oz. For more information call Produced by Cantina di Soave cantinasoaveusa. For sales and other inquiries, please call The latest release from the prestigious Luce della Vite estate in Montalcino, Italy has hit the US market with an elegant new look.
In addition to the excellent conditions of the vintage, the Lucente label has been updated to visually express the quality of the wine inside. For more information, call Sin Vitality Drink is an invigorating blend of vitamins, caffeine and natural flavors. The Sin of Excess — a sweet treat with a splash of lemon — is the introductory flavor. With just 5 calories per can, Sin-Free is the sugar-free, low-calorie counterpart to Sin.
Helping to ease the stresses of day-to-day life, Serenity Zen Beverage stands at the other end of the spectrum as a relaxation drink with zero calories, sugar or carbohydrates. Sin products are available in an 8. For more information, please call The Dream Water shot size 2. This product features only one ingredient on the label, percent coconut water.
Extracted straight from Brazilian coconuts, this product has no preservatives and no added sugar, and is completely allnatural, fat free, cholesterol free and gluten free, with 60 calories per Each bottle contains 16 8 oz. The Perfect Puree of Napa Valley has launched Beverage Artistry, a premium line of eight unique blends and nine fruit bases that embodies the latest trends in mixology. Beverage Artistry blends include: Additionally, Beverage Artistry bases offer fresh single flavor varietals including: The new Beverage Artistry premium beverage bases are packed in convenient frozen, 32 oz.
The product can be stored frozen for up to two years; once thawed, it keeps refrigerated for days at degrees F. Beverage Artistry is distributed in the U. For more information and recipes, please visit: The brand-new 6 oz. The carton features a mini gable-top cardboard design with an attached straw.
Beginning this March, Kroger supermarkets will offer the new size in the single-serve option. Combining lime, lemon, green melon and orange fruit flavor, Lime Melonade has an alcohol content of 3. Lime Melonade will be available in 12 oz. For more information, visit www. A special take on traditional iced tea, the new Lemon Iced Tea is a mix of premium black tea infused with the crisp taste of a fresh-squeezed lemon. The Citrus Green Tea offers a blend of premium green tea and the citrus flavors of orange,.
The three new flavors are available in either a For more information, call Sweet Leaf at Honest Tea uses USDA certified organic black tea from India and blends it with lightly sweetened lemonade for a perfect balance between sweet and tart. The drink has 12g of sugar and 48 calories per 8 oz. For more information, call Honest Tea at Brewed from real tea leaves and botanicals, these new beverages provide the perfect balance of the refreshing flavor of tea and the zero-calorie all-natural sweetness of stevia. These products will be available at Whole Foods and select natural food retailers nationwide.
For more information call Tazo at Direct compressible granulations designed to deliver exceptional compression and flow in a variety of nutritional supplement and capsule applications. Concentrated conditioners, softeners and leavening systems delivering performance and cost savings. Innovative microencapsulations that enhance stability, maximize shelf life and improve taste. Multiple ingredients combined into functional and potent blends. Natural grain-based world food aid fortificants containing essential nutrients for global humanitarian aid programs.
From meal replacement bars to yogurt smoothies, gummy bears to fortified water, functional foods to sports nutrition, our innovation, technical expertise and superior service are. Formulated to ensure precise addition of highly potent vitamins and trace minerals where accurate dosing and proper solubility are critical. Within marketing organizations clamorous for new sources of growth, a conspicuous success inevitably breeds a knockoff. Entries come and go, but none makes a real dent, except maybe as a value alternative.
This distinction carries some practical relevance to those of us invested in the innovative side of the beverage business. It implies that what appears to be abundant opportunity really is a solo success story, and all the pretenders are doomed to exhaust a lot of money, Of course positing this theory is one thing; recognizing the situation, or at least recognizing it reasonably early, is another.
Once enough casualties have piled up it becomes kind of obvious. Only a handful attained any degree of success: Brands like Snapple Antioxidant Water, Jones 24c, Vital Lifestyle, despite often arduous attempts to establish themselves as somehow distinctive from vitaminwater — adding more meaningful amounts of vitamins or other nutrients, less sweetness — have inevitably missed the mark.
Another brand, Talking Rain, put most of its effort behind its ActivWater enhanced water for the past year or two, but has found retailers gravitating instead to its Twist juicesweetened water brand. I can see this dynamic unfolding in other segments. Nobody else among scores of challengers has made a real dent aside from Red Bull, which has only eked out an 8 to 10 percent share despite its powerful retail clout. Looking back, one certainly can wonder whether sports drinks are not so much a category as a single brand — Gatorade.
Sorry, I mean G. True, Powerade has carved out at least a minority share, but at the cost of literally hundreds of millions of dollars invested over a year period. But it sure seems hard to beat them by offering an essentially identical proposition under a different brand name. Incidentally, smartwater itself has drawn a flotilla of attackers, but it remains to be seen whether any of those will make an appreciable dent.
In energy shots, it may be very difficult for another energy shot to dislodge 5-Hour, short of some fatal misstep or some exogenous factor, like a regulatory crackdown. Longtime beverage-watcher Gerry Khermouch is executive editor of Beverage Business Insights, a twiceweekly e-newsletter covering the nonalcoholic beverage sector.
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Until recently, in fact, San Pellegrino and other high-end waters were considered the only classy options for highend, non-drinking diners. The Coca-Cola Company actually came out of food service, born when Dr. John Pemberton started selling Coke as a fountain. To suggest that Coke achieved industry dominance by pairing fountain soda with lunch is a gross oversimplification, but still, a look at its example can show how on premise sales can play a role in building the brand.
Jim Dinkins, a Vice President of Marketing for the Foodservice and On-Premise Division at Coke, sees restaurants as just one of many places that the company likes its products to appear. For a company with nearly. This expansive definition embraces the broad range of areas that Coke appears in, from sports arenas to chain restaurants, schools and amusement parks. Wine Country Soda, said that on-premise restaurant and winery sales have been enough to support his California-based. Vignette makes a premium soda out of grape varietals, which Galvin said appeals to non-drinkers who want to participate in the wine country or fine dining experience.
Once we have recognition we will look at more aggressive growth. Steve Hersh, founder of Gus, Grown Up Soda, a New York-based maker of premium soda, found that on-premise restaurant sales demand too many resources to make sense financially. That is why restaurants were not an intentional part of his original brand strategy; they fell in his lap after Thomas Keller, the worldrenowned chef and owner of Per Se in New York City and The French Laundry in the Napa Valley, brought Gus into his restaurants as an option for non-drinkers who wanted beverage pairings other than water with their exquisite meals.
But the restaurant accounts do bridge a gap for Gus, between the low-volume on-premise platform and the high volume off-premise platform. Exposure on the right menu has led to sales through the grocery and convenience channels. Sharelle Klaus, founder and CEO of Seattle-based Dry Soda, based her marketing strategy on the idea that consumers would embrace her refined soda if they were introduced to it in the right context; she launched.
She said that she spent a lot of time keeping ever-changing restaurant staff up-to-date on her product and used a PR firm to set a firm footprint in the Seattle area. After the first year of staying strictly restaurant based, Dry went to retail stores; Klaus says the success of her strategy was confirmed in regional sales growth; percent growth in areas where it had a heavy restaurant presence and a 70 percent increase in outlying areas. Klaus found that there are unique advantages to brand building in a restaurant. Klaus is currently busy in Austin pursuing the strategy that brought her success in Seattle.
She hopes that she will be able to build the Dry Soda brand by setting footprints in sequential regions around the US. Coke may want eventually to cross platforms and have both an on and off-premise presence, but initially for some developing brands, on-premise can be a good place to start. We learned a lot in that phase. It started out 17 years ago with a line of premium dry teas. Meredith Post, the Minister of Enlightenment —otherwise known as Director of Communications— said that it used the success of the dry teas in specialty stores to cross platforms to on-premise sales. Eleven years ago it developed a line of bottled teas designed to appear next to wine, and offered it exclusively to restaurants and hotels.
Then, the Republic of Tea used the success of its onpremise sales to cross back over to a retail platform, launching a 12 oz. But transitions can be tricky. Often what works on the fountain or in a restaurant does not work in a cool-. Dry, for example, is redesigning its sleek and elegant bottle because, though it looks refined on a white tablecloth, it disappears into the crowd in a beverage cooler. Burke views the strength of Adina in its packaging and ingredients, a bright bottle that leaps out of the retail environment with loud lifestyle claims.
Burke sees delis and restaurants as an appropriate place for the product, but the challenge lies in how to present it in an appropriate way. In other words, even a company as big as Coke — or as small as Gus — can get hammered if the diners stay home. I look back at the craft and micro breweries that were around when I started, and us and Sierra Nevada are really the only ones with the same ownership.
There was a lot of old beer and a lot of bad beer being foisted on consumers. It was something of a boomtown mentality. Craft brewing looked like a fad that had come and gone, rather than a movement. Koch believes that there is now a much healthier craft beer industry stretching from Brooklyn, N. As of last year, the craft beer segment in the U. Even in the few years before the premium market started to drop, however, its share of full-calorie products was eroding; as light beers buoyed the larger market, craft took a larger fraction of the domestic pie.
The consumer education portion of the craft beer movement is in full bloom, Koch says. The company toyed with the idea of selling an aged beer with strong flavor characteristics as something that could be sold in restaurants in tall, corked bottles took four or five years of development. Starting commercial development of these products, he says, is something that the company can do with real confidence. Of course, that kind of growth has created a certain level of criticism among smaller brewers, who at times have claimed that Koch is too big to still be regarded as craft.
Nevertheless, sometimes, ubiquity begets enmity. Oysters and beer are a classic food and beverage combination — but brewing a beer with oysters is sure to raise some eyebrows. Though both Harpoon and Jones were appealing to consumer curiosity with an odd-ball beverage, Jones knowingly made their Thanksgiving themed drink unpalatable; Harpoon aimed to please the palate. Either way, though, the purpose is the same — standing out in a crowded aisle.
To do that, craft brewers have begun to push the en-. According to the Brewers Association, craft brewing has grown rapidly, increasing production 5 percent by volume and 10 percent by dollars in the first half of — and this took place at a time marked by stagnating premium beer sales. With craft breweries competing. Todeschini says that beer with high alcohol content and extreme hoppy-ness attracted attention three years ago. She says now the new trend is unique ingredients. Brewers generally aim for unique but palatable beers, to reward curiosity rather than scare people away from the brand.
Katie Tame, the brewer at Harpoon who led the oyster stout project, found that oysters, when used in moderation, make a delicious beer. Oysters, when cooked into the wort, add proteins that give body, mouth-feel and head retention to the beer while the oyster brine contributes mineral flavors. But the choice to highlight young women as the true heroes updates the more familiar plot points. Even without the fantastic mystery to drive the plot, these characters deserve a comic series. Each has her own personality, giving the comic chemistry and depth. Her friends are just as colorfully written as she is.
Macy and her rebel brother are in a punk-metal band, and her songs have appropriately deathly lyrics. Karma has puzzling psychic abilities but nevertheless launches a successful seance. Ed is necessary to introduce the character of her ex-girlfriend, who helps the misfits find the next clue on the map. However, Ed is otherwise undeveloped in the first volume. Hopefully, Ed will have a more direct role in future issues. Smith and Lustgarten deserve major props for developing an adventure filled with riddles, ciphers, and even mechanized totem poles.
The artwork is not without detail. In fact, the meticulous attention to background gives the impression that clues might be found everywhere. Franquiz illustrates with bold lines and stunning character design. Moreover, she brilliantly captures the emotions in each panel. Not only does Franquiz create some swarthy images of Black Mary and other pirates, but she also pulls off a Cruella-De-Vil-meets-Harry-Styles pair of evil siblings.
Only Wilder and her friends stand in the way. Franquiz also highlights body size diversity within the group, which is exciting to see in an action adventure comic. Despite their differences, the team has genuine affection for each other.