Inspirational Sound

Twice last week one of my favorite people for learning about new websites and apps, Heather Moorefield, Education Librarian at Virginia Tech and chairperson for the American Association of School Librarians Best Websites for Teaching & Learning sent out tweets about a web 2.0 application she feels is worthy of exploration.  The original platform Booktrack: Soundtrack for Books was officially launched on January 5, 2012.  The company launched their dedicated education platform on March 21, 2014.  It is called Booktrack Classroom.  In their about section they state:

Booktrack Classroom is an exciting new technology that synchronizes audio with text to create an immersive reading experience.

When first accessing the home page the navigation bar along the top invites you to go to separate pages if you are teachers, parents, need help, want to log in or click on the free to use button.  You can also view a short video about the site, read six research-based features, and visit another page as a student.  At the bottom of the home page you can read the about section, the teachers' blog, a lesson plan library grouped by elementary, middle and high school ages, press releases, university studies, the terms of service and privacy policy (very detailed) and go to the download page.

To begin using the site I clicked on the green Free to Use button.  A new window opens with several choices, bookshelf, create, register, login and help, available at the top.  I clicked on the register tab.  A form pops up asking you for your display name, email address, and password.  You need to read and accept the terms of service and privacy policy.  An account confirmation email is sent immediately.  You should note that students under the age of 18 need to have a parent or guardian read and accept the terms of service and privacy policy before they can use this site.  This was stated in the terms of service.

When your account is created and you have logged in, you can then create a classroom.  For the purposes of this review I will only have a single student.  When I selected the + Add a Class button a new window opens.  You are asked to enter in a class name, country, school, grade year, school year and a rating.

Once you save your class, you can add student first and last names.  I then clicked on the student details tab.  Enter in a student's name, clicking add when you are done. As you can see in the images below you have the option to choose a common password, and select all to block, unblock, delete and change password.  I have added one student.  It shows their name, login name and assigned password.

To continue with my tour of Booktrack Classroom I selected the Bookshelf tab.  At this new window you can view previously created Booktracks.  They are grouped by content, genres, styles, and languages.  They each have star ratings. If you choose to read one the second image below appears on your screen.  When clicking on read the third image appears advising you on the options for reading the selection. Simply click in the middle to start.  

I then went to the top navigation bar choosing create.  Again an overlay with complete, easy-to-understand instructions appears. Click anywhere to begin.  First you type in a title for your chapter, then type in or copy and paste the text.  You can make any of the text bold or in italics.  There is an undo and redo option.  

Before moving to sound I did select save.  Upon clicking on the sound tab a new overlay appears giving you more instructions.  Click anywhere to start.  After your text is highlighted you can choose between music, ambience and effect.  

With your choice made more options appear above the highlighted text.  You can change the track, adjust the volume, the fade in and fade out seconds, choose to loop or delete.  Plus at any time you can view your work in the reader.  Again before clicking on publish I saved my work.

At the publish screen you add a title, the author and creator are entered in for you, a description, genre, type, rating and language.  You retain the copyright of everything which you held prior to creating this Booktrack.  When you select to create a cover, you are adding text with font style options, font size choice, font color and bold or in italics text.  Clicking adds the text box.  Double clicking allows you to make changes.  You can upload a cover image from your computer or browse through their gallery.

  

You can save, publish or delete your final work.  Choosing publish causes a new window to open asking in which class you would like the Booktrack placed based on your rating.  Make sure you place a check mark in the correct library box; otherwise your Booktrack will not appear on a bookshelf.  Once a Booktrack is on a bookshelf it can be read.

This application makes the reading of your writing much more engaging; actually fascinating.  Including sound with your written words gives them an emotional edge.  I highly recommend you give Booktrack Classroom a try.  My Booktrack, because I created a teacher account, is only available to me and my students.  You can go to the site and read other previously created Booktracks.  I do have a question submitted to see if I can make my Booktrack available to others.  UPDATE In order to make a Booktrack available to the public, you need to use the original global platform linked above.

Slow But Sure

For several years during a study of the rain forest, our students were treated to seeing some of the inhabitants of this biome.  Rather than being in a large venue, the keepers brought them into a classroom.  To be able to see these beautiful animals up-close was an unforgettable experience for our students (and for me too).  One of the most fascinating of all the creatures was the sloth.  Sleeping during the entire presentation, we were able to see all the special features on this unique being.

I often wonder how many of the students were thinking what I was thinking when seeing the sloth; what if we lived where they lived so we could see them as often as we see squirrels, rabbits or deer?  In Sparky! (Schwartz & Wade Books) written by Jenny Offill with illustrations by Chris Appelhans, a girl takes definite actions on her thoughts regarding a sloth.

I wanted a pet.
A bird or a bunny or a trained seal.

When approaching her mother with requests for each of these pets, her mother replies in the negative... repeatedly.  In an effort to convey her true desire for no pet all, her mother says

You can have any pet you want as long as it doesn't need to be walked or bathed or fed. 

That certainly narrows down her options but her mother did promise.  Luckily she has a super smart school librarian.  In the book given to her she discovers a picture and description of a sloth.  Wasting no time she orders this creature.  Guess who is not overjoyed at the sloth's arrival at their home?

Carrying her new friend, who she names Sparky, outside, placing him on tree branch, she makes sure to announce his presence with a Guard Sloth! sign.  He tends to sleep quite a bit making his skills at games less than stellar except for Statue (my smile grew to a grin at this point).  A rather irritating girl, Mary Potts, comes over to scoop out this neighborhood novelty.  Her unkind remarks cause the girl to advertise Sparky's numerable accomplishments with a talent show.

Her efforts all week to prepare Sparky for the Trained Sloth Extravaganza, while intense on her part, move with Sparky's own particular brand of speed.  On the day of the show Sparky performs to perfection as only he can.  When everyone, three guests including her mother, leaves the girl starts another game with her companion knowing the conclusion may come slowly.  That's her deepest hope.


Within the reading of the first two sentences you know a whisper of humor will be running through the narrative.  Author Jenny Offill maintains this feeling until the final sequence but as the story evolves something becomes even more apparent; a respectful acceptance and enduring affection between the girl and the sloth.  Her characters, the mother, the girl, the librarian, Mary Potts, Mrs. Edwin and the sloth, are wonderfully normal; sometimes described with a single sentence or bit of conversation.
Due to Offill's word choices in these limited depictions we know everything we need to know about them, feeling an emotional response or connection.  Here is a sample passage.

We stood there for a while, watching him sleep.  His fur ruffled gently in the breeze.
"I feel sorry for you", Mary said.  "My cat can dance on her hind legs.  And my parrot knows twenty words, including God and ice cream."


Using watercolor and pencil, illustrator Chris Appelhans creates pictures filled with warmth and charm.  The initial view of Sparky on the dust jacket and matching book case makes you want to hug him.  On the back the four vignettes of the girl with him make you want to hug her.  Endpapers in shades of soft brown, rose and green feature a pattern of grasses.

Thick creamy paper supplies the background for all the visuals using the same hues as the endpapers with darker rose red for increased emphasis.  Appelhans changes the size of his pictures to compliment and extend the narrative; images may be individual elements on a page, cover a portion of a page, and extend edge to edge on a single page or two pages.  When I saw how he pictured the girl as a ringmaster wearing a cape made from the same fabric as the curtain with a colander on her head, the tenderness and admiration I felt for this girl increased by leaps and bounds.  Clearly she is as much an individual as her sloth.  The font for this book was designed from Appelhans' hand lettering.

I have many favorite illustrations in this title but the final double-page spread is gorgeous.  On the left is Sparky's tree.  He is lying on the branch with the girl next to him, her hand extended to his head. The colander is hanging on the end. Beneath them and to the right is the setting sun.


Sparky! written by Jenny Offill with illustrations by Chris Appelhans is enchanting for the words, the pictures and the beautiful combination of the two.  This sloth and his girl will win a place in your heart.   Be sure to read it to every child you know...as often as you can.

If you wish to know more about either the author or the illustrator follow the links embedded in their names to their official websites.  This link to the publisher's website will give you a glimpse at interior pages in the book. If you go to the Random House Kids pages for Sparky! there are oodles of activities, printable bookmarks, different pages to see from inside the book and a Q & A with the author and illustrator.  Yesterday John Schumacher, teacher librarian and blogger at Watch. Connect. Read. hosted Chris Appelhans at his site.  Colby Sharp, teacher and blogger at Sharpread highlighted Jenny Offill. Make sure you read both of the interviews.

When The Wind Blew In

It's a rarity in the north along the Lake Michigan shoreline to have a day without wind.  Small craft advisories and gale warnings are commonplace.  Depending on the direction these breezes can be a blessing or a curse.  You're never sure what sights you'll see during the gusts or after they subside.

Wind can play a paramount role in a book; whether the piece is fiction or nonfiction.  Its part, sometimes so integral to the narrative, can make it feel like a character.  The Grudge Keeper (Peachtree Publishers) written by Mara Rockliff with illustrations by Eliza Wheeler has fantastic fun with this force of nature.

No one in the town of Bonnyripple ever kept a grudge.  No one, that is, except old Cornelius, the Grudge Keeper.

Cornelius receives everyone's grudges, no matter their size or importance, storing them carefully within the rooms of his cottage.  When a goat eats zinnias, a schoolboy hooks the teacher's toupee like the catch of the day and a clumsy guy treads, not so lightly, on a gal's new shoes at the local dance, grievances are aired at the Grudge Keeper.  As you can well imagine after much time passes, every nook and cranny is overflowing with grudges in Cornelius's home.

In the true nature of folktales, life as the people of Bonnyripple know it, is about to change.  A wind starts to blow.  At first no one notices but when a particular pie flies off a window ledge and the schoolmaster's hair piece ends up as a goat's entree, unease ripples through the town.  As the gale continues to howl during the night, people gather their grudges to be taken to Cornelius as soon as they safely can.

All is calm as the day dawns except for the state of the folks' attitudes.  Marching up to the Grudge Keeper's house on the hill, they can't believe their eyes.  Grudges are everywhere in a ginormous pile, mixed and matched not according to size or importance. More than one discovery is made this day. A mischievous boy, a cat and, of course, the wind may have lent a helpful hand.


Fortunately when Mara Rockliff has a thought, her imagination takes wing fashioning it into a timeless picture book for all ages.  Word play abounds in exquisite descriptions, alliteration and puns.  When she makes a statement she supports it with picturesque phrases.  Characters' names roll off your tongue leaving a smile on your face.  Here is a single passage.

The wind had mixed and mingled, tossed and turned,
tumbled and jumbled, and finally dumped the rumpled,
crumpled grudges in one whopping pile.


You know you are going to someplace special when you open the dust jacket and matching book case on this title.  The golden glow continues on almost every single page of the story.  The pastoral setting, the style of the homes, inside and out, and the attire wore by the townspeople is from a time past, a time filled with just enough magic to make it fanciful.

The opening and closing endpapers, different, feature important characters before and after the wind. The initial title page gives a snapshot of the village with Cornelius trudging up the hill in the distance, wheelbarrow loaded with grudges.  The formal title page and verso is a two-page spread of the village in the distance zooming in on Cornelius.

Double page illustrations, almost exclusively throughout, made using dip pens, India ink and watercolor by Eliza Wheeler exude welcoming warmth. Delicate lines convey a wealth of emotion, movement and whimsy.  Careful readers will sense events to come based upon hints in her visuals; the swirl of wind during the night or the glance of the schoolmaster at the crouching boy.

One of my favorite illustrations is the cutaway of the Cornelius's cottage in the beginning.  The layout of the home is small but filled with comfortable items.  Tiny scrolls representative of the grudges are sorted in numbered jars; a quill and inkpot sit upon a desk next to a book for record keeping.  Already every possible storage space is overflowing.  Cornelius is reaching for a jar on the mantel, stuffing yet another grudge into the opening.


With a delectable union of narrative and pictures The Grudge Keeper written by Mara Rockliff with illustrations by Eliza Wheeler has all the earmarks of a charming, enduring story.  You feel as though you've discovered a forgotten fairy tale on forgiveness.  Will there be words younger readers might not know?  Yes, but that's the joy of this book, the wonderful use of language.  I highly recommend this title.

Please follow the links embedded in Mara Rockliff's and Eliza Wheeler's names to enjoy their websites.  This link is to an interview of them both at the Peachtree Publishers blog about the making of the book.  Here is an earlier interview of Mara Rockliff at John Schumacher's blog, Watch. Connect. Read.

The Joys Of Childhood

Boredom was not allowed in our home growing up.  When you live a certain way for so many years, it becomes a habit, part of your personality traits.  To this day, I have never been bored.

Have I ever been in the company of children who've uttered those two classic words?  Of course I have!  On September 4, 2012 when the team of author Michael Ian Black and illustrator Debbie Ridpath Ohi (their first collaboration) released I'm Bored (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers), readers were introduced to an energetic, persistent little girl and one very apathetic potato.

I'm bored.
Bored.
Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
I'm so BORED!

In the midst of her boredom a potato appears.  Yes...I know what you're thinking but there in the middle of this monotony a spud joins the narrative.  The girl's initial surprise lasts about five seconds before she gives it the old heave-ho.

Not looking where it is tossed, the potato arcs up and down, bonking her on the head, falling to the floor and saying as clear as day,

I'm bored.

When the girl asks the potato if it wants to do something, it replies in the affirmative but the only thing it likes is flamingos.  There are no flamingos in the vicinity.

In fact the potato says it lacks interest in anything else because it is stuck with a kid.  To the potato, boys and girls are the worst kind of boring.  The girl is flabbergasted with the potato's assessment of children.  He replies with a challenge.

She demonstrates a series of activities.  No.  The potato is still bored, bored and bored some more.  She excitedly shows the value of having an imagination by becoming a ballerina, lion tamer and a fairy princess.  Negative.  When she continues to prove what can be done, even donning a potato costume, the potato is unfazed.

The girl explodes in a tirade, stomping off in a huff.  For a bit the potato is alone until a third character arrives.  Excitement turns to chagrin.

Without a doubt Michael Ian Black has a handle on the mind, heart and language of children.  The conversation between the girl and the potato is so real, you'll be expecting to hear the sound of voices the next time you put a bag of potatoes in your shopping cart.  All the examples the girl provides to prove children are not boring probably happen in homes every day.  The final three sentences of the story are perfection, completing the circle.


In a word the illustrations of Debbie Ridpath Ohi are delightful.  The pig-tailed girl on the dust jacket and book case, wearing yellow barrettes and the striped t-shirt with the heart, even with the dejected look, is adorable.  Opening and closing endpapers in shades of blue are patterned in the words boring and bored in a variety of font styles and sizes.  The face of the girl and her potato pal are tucked into the design.

Digitally rendered the characters pop off the stark white backgrounds.  Body postures and facial expression, even on the potato, are chock-full of spunky humor.  Ohi alters perspective and size of the illustration to make a point.  When the girl is imagining all the possibilities, faint lines of blue create scenic backdrops.

One of my favorite series of illustrations is her interpretation of swinging, jumping and flying.  Ohi places the girl in a jungle grasping a vine, skiing on a hill and box on her head floating above the Earth as an astronaut.  In all of them the potato becomes a part of the pictures as a coconut in a monkey's hands, as the head on a snowman and as a dot on Earth speaking a tiny Boring.


Lucky for us readers Michael Ian Black and Debbie Ridpath Ohi have sent another title out into the wild.  NAKED! (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, April 29, 2014) truly strikes a chord for all parents, guardians and caregivers as well as their children.  It might be a once-in-blue-moon occurrence or a nightly ritual but it happens.

Naked!
Look at me, everybody!
I'm naked.

Leaping from a nighttime bath, a child joyously streaks down the hallway, down the stairs and into the living room as Mom runs behind.  A startled Dad holding an infant doesn't really know what to do.

Cookies taste better when you are naked.  Naked is so great it might be the only way to go to school or play on playground.  No clothes for this little person.

Wait a minute.  Did you say cape?  Okay, maybe a cape is okay.  Capes are for heroes; heroes who like to eat cookies.

Brrr...only wearing a cape can be chilly.  It looks like nakedness is over for the night.  Whew...


In this title Michael Ian Black's word choices suggest he might have personal experience with a child preferring not to get dressed after a bath.  As in the first book he depicts how quickly a mood or train of thought can shift.  It's the portrayal of this shift from naked to wearing a cape, to becoming cold and relinquishing freedom for comfort that will have readers smiling and giggling; as well as the quick dashes to get another cookie.


The color palette of purple, green, orange, teal and a splash of pink shown on the matching dust jacket and book case is as lively as the child gleefully running about naked.  The opening endpapers in the orange of the back and the closing endpapers in the purple of the front are the canvas for one happy little person in the tub, peeking in from the edge, climbing, swinging and reciting from a paper among the NAKED! letters.

Using her considerable skills Debbie Ridpath Ohi renders her illustrations digitally bringing laughter and light to the narrative.  The zeal of the child is in contrast to the mom trying to get him/her dry running behind with a towel, carrying clothes in vain, and finally getting the pajamas on for bedtime.  In each picture she is looking a little more frazzled until she lovingly kisses her child goodnight.

Nearly all of the backgrounds in this title for pictures of varying sizes are textured in lighter colors, representing wallpaper, painted walls or flooring in the home.  The facial features on the characters are hilarious as are all the little details.  The toys in the bad guys' headquarters are a little girl with pigtails, a potato and a bunny.  The letter on the child's cape is an N.  All the faces in family portraits are exclaiming at the child's nakedness.  I see a copy of I'm Bored on the living room sofa.  I'm also thinking who wouldn't want to have a pair of pajamas like this child has?

One of my favorite illustrations is when the child is in their pajamas.  Wearing little mouse slippers, they are standing on a stool brushing their teeth looking in the bathroom mirror.  The mom is leaning against the sink, hand to forehead thinking...finally.


Michael Ian Black and Debbie Ridpath Ohi certainly make a dynamic team as evidenced by their two books, I'm Bored and NAKED!  Both titles capture the essence of each situation with exhilaration.  I guarantee you will be asked to read these more than once.

Please follow the link embedded in Debbie Ridpath Ohi's name to access her official website.  She has another site, Inkygirl, which is a wonderful resource for both these books.  Here is the link to her pages on I'm Bored.  This link is to the pages for NAKED!  These links are to the publisher's pages for I'm Bored and NAKED!  

For those curious, here's my children's book illustration hardware setup these days: pic.twitter.com/jITOYDHO9y
— Debbie Ridpath Ohi (@inkyelbows) April 23, 2014

Natural Attraction

There's no denying the joyful jolt you get when pleasantly surprised.  You may discover robins have built a nest in the new ivy you placed in a hanging planter.  Seemingly overnight the tops of perennials are popping up through the soil.  You hear the clatter of hoof beats running down the middle of the road after you and your dog startle deer during a late night walk

The same feeling can happen when you open a new book by an author /illustrator.  Having read their previous work, you have certain expectations.  I have to say when I read the April 29th release of Gravity (A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press) written and illustrated by Jason Chin I may have said "Wow" more than once before I closed the back cover.

GRAVITY MAKES OBJECTS FALL TO EARTH.

This is the first of only seven sentences in this title which explains clearly, concisely and precisely what gravity is.  One word appears on each of the first six pages except for the last page on which two appear.  The first page, without any text, is part of the initial two page visual.

Readers see sky filled with clouds as a surprised seagull flies by an open book, this book, covering most of the illustration.  Continuing with the bird's eye view, a panorama spreads across the next two pages; a small figure can be seen on the beach below as the book descends much like a bird itself.  It falls next to a boy wearing a beach towel for a cape, goggles and a snorkel.  His hands are holding a toy spaceship and astronaut.  Scattered on the sand are the remnants of lunch and sand castle building.

With the next sentence, everything slowly swooshes into space because gravity is gone.  Our moon moves away from us as we move away from the sun.  Everything changes without gravity gliding through space.  Fortunately with gravity the sun, Earth and moon are once more keeping each other in place; mass determining the strength of the pull.  It also means those things sent adrift fall back to Earth.


Jason Chin's economic use of words has a dual purpose in this title.  Not only do they provide a definition of gravity for younger readers but they act as a narrative impetus for his illustrations.  Repetition of key phrases reinforces meaning and brings the story full circle.


You have to wonder what this book will deliver when you first glance at the matching dust jacket and cover.  Why are a toy astronaut, beach ball, half-peeled banana, toy spaceship, sand pail and shovel floating above Earth?  Plain, rich, deep blue endpapers representative of the atmosphere envelope the pages.

Using a book, this book, as part of the illustrations is a stroke of genius.  It gives the sense of a continuous story.  As an element in the pictures it acts exactly like a gravitational force drawing the reader into the words and pictures.

When gravity is gone, the looks of disbelief on the boy, the sea gull and crab add a dimension of humor.  In that first scene you can almost hear everything moving away from the beach out into space.  Carefully readers will notice other important items next to those found on the beach when everything is drifting away from Earth.

When showing how the moon moves from Earth and the Earth moves away from the sun, Chin uses a series of four panels shifting perspective.  It's a brilliant use of layout and design.  Again when creating his visuals for defining how mass determines gravitational pull, readers will gain a true sense of size as he shows tiny black objects approaching the gigantic sun as well as comparing the sun and Earth at opposite ends of a double-page illustration.

Without giving away the conclusion of the story, I have to say Chin's final two-page illustration and the one on the publication page at the close of the book are masterful pieces of storytelling.  His ability to present factual information within a visual narrative is done magnificently.  One of my favorite illustrations is in the beginning when the boy looks at the open book after it falls on the beach.  What is the boy (and the seagull) thinking?


I find myself smiling every single time I read Gravity written and illustrated by Jason Chin.  The blend of text and illustrations is stunningly conceived and executed.  Prior to the publication page Chin includes two pages with smaller illustrations telling readers more about gravity.  Eight sources are listed in a bibliography.  I will be including this book in my Mock Caldecott list for 2015.

Please follow the link embedded in Jason Chin's name to access his website.  There is a host of information there for educators.  This link to the publisher's website shows you illustrations from the book. Update:  This link is to an interview of Jason Chin by Julie Danielson at Kirkus Reviews.  She follows the interview with artwork on her blog Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.




Please be sure to see all the other nonfiction books others have read and reviewed at the 2014 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge hosted by Alyson Beecher at Kid Lit Frenzy.  This week she is highlighting new releases for May.

It's All About The Music-SFSKIDS

I sometimes wonder if we realize the role music plays in our everyday lives; especially for children.  It seems as if they are wired to notice a rhythm, a beat, in everything.  On April 29, 2014 Larry Ferlazzo, educator, author and blogger at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... featured the updated website of the San Francisco Symphony for children, SFSKIDS.  

At the home page for SFSKIDS a navigation bar offers users the following choices:

• Discover
• Listen
• Play
• Perform
• Conduct and
• Compose.

A search box is located at the far right of this list.  Beneath this is a welcome paragraph with an invitation to start.

Deciding to start before exploring the navigation bar, I clicked Let's Start!  You arrive at the Discover Music, Sea of Knowledge page.  In the lower right-hand corner you have the choice to visit the previous location, advance to the next location or enter the Sea of Knowledge.  Off to the Sea of Knowledge it is!

Here you learn about instruments, music and composers.  (This is the same page you can access by clicking on the Discover button at the top.) Your next window showcases three large bubbles with smaller bubbles attached.  The larger bubbles contain the most information (knowledge); the smaller bubbles show the links between the larger bubbles.  Once you select a larger bubble, more bubbles and links appear as shown in the images below.  I started with instruments.

The language used is easily understood but the depth, bubbles leading to other bubbles, is fantastic.  During your exploration of the Sea of Knowledge you can hear, softly in the backward, the roll of waves.  There are many opportunities to listen to music during the journey.

When you get to an actual picture of an instrument a short example of it being played begins.  You can zoom in on parts of each instrument.  If you select music or composers you can access a timeline.  Choosing a specific period will give you certain musical pieces.  A short history is given for each. 

Moving to Listen, you hear the sound of a babbling brook at the Music Streams page.  You can make a choice from the list of the music library or by category.  The categories are music by themes and music by composers.  For individual works you are given a time length, the ability to see and hear more on the theme and from that composer.  You can also return to the music library.

Under the Play category, Musical Skies, you have two games, Star Catcher and Mood Journey.  If you like a musical piece, click on it again.  You can use that music to play either of the games.  In the former you try to catch stars according to the beat of the music (your cursor is a conductor rabbit.) In the later words appear on the screen which may or may not reflect your mood as you listen to the music.  Click on any which are true for you.

Tweeting birds invite you to the Music Garden at the Perform page.  From a list of thirteen you pick an instrument. In play the scale a new window opens with a scale.  You click on the individual notes.  You are instructed how to play the instrument in feel the instrument.  With a combination of using your mouse and pressing number keys you pretend to play.  (It's really nifty how they do this.)

With sounds of an orchestra warming up, you are ready to Conduct at the Symphony Hall page.  After clicking on Let's Start! you are once again at the music library ready to learn.  You are first given a right hand beat pattern and a left hand gesture lesson.  Then you can follow or lead the conducting of a piece of music.  (This is great practice for hand/eye coordination and using the computer keyboard.)  Points are given for correctly following the beat.

Selecting the Compose tab takes you to Music Mountain.  When you click on Let's Start! for the first time, they advise you to do the Music Lessons first.  Then you can move on to Starting Tunes, Quick Start and Building a Staff.  The lessons taken in order are:

• The Basics
• Pitches
• Notes
• Rests
• Rhythm
• Tempo
• Instrumentation
• Dynamics
• More Dynamics and
• More Symbols.

Here is what the first page looks like.  Simple one sentence instructions pop up on the window guiding the user.  You are actually allowed to drag notes to the scale to create your own composition.  Then you have the ability to change options (music options) such as instrument, tempo and time signature.  Even at this early point you can share your newly created music giving it a name and your name as composer.  A URL link is supplied.  Here is the link to my first composition.  If you click on the down arrow by more additional choices appear.

I feel so fortunate that I discovered this website through a tweet appearing in my feed from Larry Ferlazzo.  The designers and developers of these pages did a marvelous job of providing step-by-step instructions, offering help when necessary and making the learning of all things music interesting and fun.  I highly recommend use of this website, SFSKIDS.

No Serenity In Solace

When entering a world unlike our own you take a leap of faith.  In real time you place your care in the hands of a capable guide or if venturing alone, you rely on the research of others to supply answers to your questions.  When you open the covers of a book, you explore based upon a blurb, jacket flap summary, review or recommendation of trusted readers.  You do this with a sense of building excitement.

You are a wayfarer in a realm created by an author.  Sometimes you walk more slowly than others, soaking up the words like sunshine after a long cold winter.  Then there are times you inhale the words as if they are food spread before you like a feast after a fast.  In The Mark of the Dragonfly (Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, March 25, 2014) written by Jaleigh Johnson thrill-a-minute action will have you racing alongside the dynamic characters as fast as you can turn the pages.


Scrap Town Number Sixteen
Merrow Kingdom

Micah brought the music box to her on the night of the meteor storm.  Piper never slept on these nights, when debris from other worlds fell from the sky.

Micah and Piper are two of many scrappers living in their community in The World of Solace eking out a living by scavenging in the fields after the meteor storms.  The storms are extremely dangerous not only because of the falling meteors but the green poisonous dust brought with them.  The townspeople by decree of the Consortium hide in an underground shelter during the storms.  There is a race to get to the fields when they are released; those getting there first get the best treasures.

Piper finds herself running outside the shelter as the meteors begin dropping from the sky when Micah's older brother Jory says Micah is missing.  Discovering him hiding beneath a narrow ledge, hoping to arrive at the fields before anyone else, they witness a caravan crossing the field during the storm; another breach of Consortium law.  What they are not prepared for is the largest meteor they have ever seen heading straight for the caravan.

As the dust clears after the shower Piper is horrified to see the caravan destroyed; Micah is now unconscious having been struck by debris from the caravan.  One person, a girl about Piper's age is still breathing in the wreckage.  Using a tarp she gets the two back to town before the townspeople leave the shelter.

The discovery of a mechanical dragonfly tattoo on the girl's (Anna's) arm and another survivor of the storm, an evil man who terrifies Anna and threatens Piper, have the two girls fleeing for their lives. Anna can't remember much about her past but the tattoo signifies she is under the protection of King Aron of the Dragonfly Territories to the south.  Piper is confident there will be a reward for the return of Anna.

Their only hope of getting to the capital city of Noveen as quickly as possible is to sneak aboard the 401, an old black steam engine pulling cars a mile long behind, which has recently arrived in Scrap Town Number 16.  Strangely enough Piper is able to by-pass the security system getting them on the train as it leaves.  This small victory is over before it starts as the chief of security, a scruffy looking boy, Gee, about Piper's age catches them.  As they say readers, the plot thickens.

You will hardly be able to draw a single breath as secrets Piper, Anna and Gee carry with them are revealed.  Slavers, Raenoll, the sarnun with incredible powers, dust poisoning, and the inevitable raiders, after the cargo on the train, flying in gliders keep the adventure at the high octane level.  As the 401 journeys toward its destination, you can feel the tension building toward a conclusion with more twists and turns than the track upon which the train rides.  It's full steam ahead.  Hang on tight!


Jaleigh Johnson's Realm of Solace is a fantastical steampunk extravaganza.  Descriptions of place are detailed, creating pictures in your mind of the towns and terrain.  Her three main people, Piper, Anna and Gee, are resilient, determined and full of heart.  All have risen from dire circumstances adapting to the situations presented in this story; digging deep to be their best for each other.

Characters so intrinsic to the plot it's impossible to call them secondary, Master Doloman, advisor to King Aron, Jeyne Steel, engineer of the 401 and Trimble, the train's fireman, are strong in their representation of good and evil.  It's the conversational interactions and thoughts of all the personalities which make this narrative sizzle.  Here are several passages from the book.

At the edge of town, Piper found a set of fresh tracks.  The land was completely devastated.  The assaults by the meteors meant no trees or grasses would ever take root here, and wild animals avoided it even when the air wasn't choked with poisonous dust.  Craters littered the ground, some of them glowing with a faint emerald light.  Piper didn't stop to look at what treasures they might contain, though for an instant, she was tempted. She'd been poor for so long it was hard to step over what might be a trinket worth a month's supply of food.
The pockmarked ground made the footing chancy, but Piper couldn't slow down.  She jumped from the lip of one crater to the next, her foot sinking in mud and snow.  Her ankle twisted.  She fell on her hands and knees.  Stifling a cry of pain, she got up and went on, half running, half limping.
"Micah, if you can hear me, I'm going to beat you until you can't hold a thought in your head! They'll slide right out your ears!" 

"Don't worry," Piper whispered.  "I'm going to get us out of here."
"Chances aren't good," Anna said breathlessly.  "The knots are too tight.  Cow hitch, square knots, perfect loops---we're the cows, and they're taking us to the slaughter."
"That's good," Piper said.  "Keep talking strange---that way I'll know that you're not panicking."
"I'm scared." the girl's voice was smaller and it made Piper's chest feel tight.
"I am too," Piper admitted. She levered herself upright on the bench.  Anna was right.  The knots were tight; her fingertips were already starting to go numb.


As I was rereading portions of The Mark of the Dragonfly written by Jaleigh Johnson for this review I found myself falling into the story all over again.  You simply can't resist the energy of the adventure, the attractions and interactions between the characters and this marvelous world designed by Jaleigh Johnson.  This is a book destined for a permanent place on my personal bookshelves.  I highly recommend you get multiple copies for your libraries.

Please follow the link embedded in Jaleigh Johnson's name to access her personal website.  Follow this link to the publisher's website to read several of the beginning chapters.  Here are links to an interview of Jaleigh Johnson at SFFWorld.com and a guest post at The NOOK Blog.