Alice in iPad

via Atomic Antelope Ltd

via Jago

Tilt your iPad one way to make Alice grow big as a house.

Tilt it the other and she shrinks... v cool.

see it in action here:

And what does it mean for picture books?

And picture book writers and illustrators?

could it be a fabulous cool add on to books? (why not?)

will it keep us all on our toes (absolutely!)

will it replace a picture book? (NO WAY!)

shall I put the kettle on? (yes please)

See the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from s@lly l-j

definition of a bad poem

Louis Simpson (author of Pulitzer Prize-winning "At the End of the Open Road") said: 

"When I write a poem, I don't know quite what it means. If I think I know what it means, I've got a bad poem. I want a poem to be beyond me. I want it to be something that transfers a feeling I don't quite understand the limits of."

more about him here.

Posted via email from s@lly l-j

impeccable writers

"The only impeccable writers are those who never wrote." 
— William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830)

Does the impeccable, do you think, refer to the writing as well as or the overall put-togetherness of the writer? (Mr Hazlitt looks pretty impeccable in this picture but perhaps it wasn't a writing day?) Myself, I think sometimes scruffiness could be a good sign. On the page. In person.

In schools one of the best things is to show children your most dreadfully messy first drafts. All scribbed on and scrawled out. The messier the better. To show them you don't get it right first time. Or even most of the time.

And that writing is as much about crossing out and deleting words as writing them.

in other BABY news ...

a great review of the iHug here, tested by Baby Herself (above).

and now another Baby also adds his take (below) and in-depth review here

(But if you think either of them is going to let go of their copy, you have another think coming...) So you better go and get your very own lovely cuddly copy here:

piggy fans

being a pig is very nice
(it is)
(look this one's having a lovely cappuccino)

and manners can be fun

(really they can)

and when you read this book

(which you could)

children laugh out loud

(it's true, they do)

thanks for FAB review of BEING A PIG IS NICE from Kelley 

who gives you some great ideas on how to use the book

Posted via email from s@lly l-j

David Suchet narrates: Video 22: The Light of the Whole World

(no need to add a code, just hit ENTER and it'll play)

visit the The Jesus Storybook Bible site to learn more
buy the book: here
download audio on  or amazon

baby raves about new book

IN OTHER NEWS: Fantastic review of brand new baby book for babies reviewed by a ... baby (yes, and seen here with her own iHug)

You can read Susie (and her mum's) review here.

Posted via email from s@lly l-j

definition of a boring book

Musing on his craft, Jules Feiffer note that Hemingway's spare language "made sense to a cartoonist's imagination," as "the air between words was like the silent panel in an adventure strip: it told the story by not telling, by giving over to the reader the job of filling in the writer's gaps."

Reminds me of something a favorite publisher taught me. I was reading to children in schools from an early draft of Handbag Friends and, at one particular point in the story (when the poor Handbag Friends enter the Swamp-A-Stomp and the Place of Dangerful Terribleness) the children kept stopping me and asking me all these questions. So I reported back to my publisher and wondered if I should write more on that part. He said no, when they are asking questions, that's when you know it's working. Because you have captured their imagination.

Because the definition of a boring book: doing the job of the reader for them.

The importance of leaving room for the reader.

Posted via email from s@lly l-j