After reading about BigUniverse.com in one of my posts, Jennifer Nelson commented in about a similar site she'd found called LookyBook <http://www.lookybook.com/>. She says, this interactive site allows children and parents to read entire picture books. The books can be reviewed, rated, shared, put on a bookshelf and purchased. The best part about LookyBook is the fact that it is free!
I just discovered BigUniverse.com today, and I had to share. This is a great site — a great companion to ICDL. BigUniverse is dedicated to children's picture books, and the quality is very high.
BigUniverse let's you do a number of cool things. First off, you can create your picture book. Next, you can read popular press picture books from well know authors. (In their media press releases, BigUniverse reports that this feature has increased book sales.) You can, of course, purchase books right from the site. Next, you can connect with children's book authors and experts who blog through the site. Finally, you can create your own bookshelf of books from BigUniverse. This would be a great way to keep up with the books you really like or want to use in your classroom.
Author: John Green
Ages: 10th - 12th grades
Review: There's quite a bit of hype and blogging going on right now about Looking for Alaska. The basis for this banter centers on the fact that this novel, Green's first, is targeting at Young Adults yet the adult language and sexual tones are quite explicit. Take a look at this post with a vlog embed from another blogger to see just how passionate both sides of this issue have been. Warning: Some individuals may be offended by the explicit language used in this posts: Bee's Booknerd. For a summary and commentary, check out Nymeth's exceptional review at her things mean a lot blog.
My take? This is an exceptional book, deserving the ALA Award it received. If it were a movie, it would be rated 'R' for explicit language and sexual content. My tension of recommending this book is tethered between the typical language of teens and actions of teens depicted in the novels versus what I would like to have teens absorb versus the intensely emotional journey Green takes us on as readers. It's the kind of book you want every teenager to pick up but you don't want them to read because it looks like you're condoning the language and sex. Do I think this book should be banned? No, I don't. But I also don't think this book could be chosen as a classroom novel -- unfortunately, even for high school seniors. Do I think high schoolers should read it? Yep, I do. The reconciliation of emotions bound in the storyline is a shared experience, indicative of the human condition.
Author: Sharon Creech
Ages: 2nd - 5th grades
Review: Replay to my real disappointment was not one of my favorite books. They all can't be great, though. What I really did like about the novel was how it seemed to strike an authentic chord with the dynamics of the tween's family and the imaginary self-grandiose world we wished we lived in. Sharon Creech also does a superb job of representing the real life of a middle child. Being one myself, I immediately resonated with Leo, the "fog boy" or "Sardine." Susan's I Love Books blog offers a nice, short summary of the plot line.
I kind of felt cheated at the end of the novel, but that might just be me. While Replay's— as the name aptly suggests—undercurrent is about the production of a play and then Leo's re-play of his life, the building to the play was a little anticlimactic for me. I felt sort of like the story just stopped. It also seemed a little too tidy or quick to finish. The other element that I felt cheated about was the authenticity with which the siblings had been presented throughout the book. The ending became—for me—to Pollyanna-ish. I would like to have seen the "real" siblings portrayed and then Leo's replay.
I also don't want to overemphasize the negatives of this book either. I did enjoy the style that Creech used to present the plot in. I did get a little confused at times about whether we were in Leo's real life of the replay. In any case, do I recommend it? Sure. It's a good story. I would like to hear what other folks think, too.
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