One More Story - Digital Picture Book App

One More Story is an impressive digital picture book app with loads of features that inspire young students to read. Its slogan is "Authors you know, books you love, " which is why I think that this app is so great. The creators are committed to consistently having high-quality literature that is well-known and popular in order to hook a reader. On principal, the creators include Caldecott winning titles throughout their library, along with many celebrated children's authors and classic titles.

The features of this digital picture book app include the following:

•  Each piece of literature has original music and effects that are unique to the book. The music was composed by the former music director of Sesame Street, so they are catchy and specifically targeted for students and children. Additionally, the books are narrated by professional actors. This guarantees that the books are read with meaning, which is so important to helping a child become immersed in a text. There are also a variety of voices, which are intended for students that are ELL to become exposed to many versions of American spoke English.
• In addition to being read to, children can choose to read the book in Read-Along Mode. This is perfect for early readers still developing confidence in their foundational skills. The books play with narration by an author and have the aforementioned music and effects, but also highlight each word as they are individually spoken. This helps with many pre-reading skills, which builds on a child's understanding of print.
• For more advanced readers, users can enter into I Can Read It Mode, which is specifically designed for emergent readers. In this mode, there is no music or narration. It does, however, give the students the opportunity to click on unfamiliar words so that they can hear it aloud. One of my favorite features is the My Word List. This helps with fluency as users move through the titles. When students are in the I Can Read It Mode, every word that is clicked is automatically added to the My Word List. They can click the word to hear it over and over again until it is mastered. Once it is mastered, students can move the word to the My Learned Words list.
• Any challenging words are automatically included in the Vocabulary feature, which includes definitions of the words and the words used within the context of the story. This is so helpful to readers that need the extra assistance. 

I am such a fan of this tool, not only because it has incredible literature and so many wonderful features included, but also because it is so considerate of different learners. There are features for ELL students, students with disabilities, students struggling with fluency, students that are pre-reading, students that are emerging readers, and students across the spectrum. 

I would definitely use this in my classroom, as I think it is an extremely valuable tool for all kinds of readers!

My Backpack - Digital Picture Book App

MyBackpack is an interesting early education app that can be downloaded from the iTunes app store. Targeted towards students from preschool to second grade. I like to think of this app as an all-encompassing tool which incorporates not only picture books, but also original songs, nursery rhymes and mathematics into its interface.

The features of the app include the following:

• 16 "Traditional Tales" books, which are nicely illustrated and interactive. These books are intended to be read-along stories, but allow the child to choose from a few options. The child can read the story on their own, be read to by the app, or watch the story like a movie. This is a wonderful feature for early readers as it would help them build confidence in reading books. There are also features that allow the reader to interact with the picture books by clicking on the pictures. Readers may also click on unfamiliar words and they can be read aloud to help with fluency and pronunciation.
• 8 nursery rhymes, which are meant to be read-alongs. Each page has interactive features which are meant to engage pre-readers and keep early readers excited about the rhymes.
• 35 original songs are included, which involve topics about reading, math, and science. They are pretty catchy, so I can imagine users getting excited about the songs!
   
• 4 mental mathematics games, which are interactive and have several levels for users to progress through. Although this does not have to do with reading, including these games may encourage users to explore the app further and use it for several purposes. 

Although I really enjoy this app and thing that it has a lot of high-quality features that would be beneficial to early readers, teachers, and even parents, I do think that it is important for the app to expand the number of books that they provide access to. I would consider the books high quality in terms of the illustrations, interactivity, and the multiple ways in which they are presented to children. I do think, however, expanding the variety and diversity of the books would make this app even better for children to use.

I like that there are other subjects integrated into the app and I think that the songs and nursery rhymes are extremely valuable to early readers, but I fear that the games may overshadow the literature included in the app.

Overall, I think that this would be a great app to incorporate into my classroom—if I was teaching young students. If I used it, though, I feel as though I would have to restrict or limit access to the games on the app in order for students to get something out of it.

Epic! - Digital Picture Book App

Epic! is an incredible digital picture book app available for free to educators and librarians. I've personally used this app with students and have found great success engaging students and getting them "hooked" on a digital title.

Some notable features of this app include:

• The service is completely free if you are a verified educator. It is relatively simple to sign up and as long as you work in a school as a teacher or librarian in the United States or Canada, you have full access to everything the app offers.
  
• The app provides unlimited access to thousands of books. Many of these titles are considered high-quality literature. A large percentage of them are well-known books or popular children's series. There are also a variety of titles published especially for the app that you would not be able to find elsewhere. This gives the app a unique variety within its titles that works to encourage students to read with diversity in mind.
   
• Epic! gives educators access to create unique profiles for each of their students. These profiles are helpful because they recommend titles to individual students based on what they've previously read or their self-reported interests. The profiles also track students' reading progress, which can help a teacher gauge a student's stamina and how quickly they move through books. 

Although there are considerable benefits to using this app, there are some drawbacks to consider when introducing this to your students. Primarily, like any digital picture book service, students must be taught how to use it and navigate from one book to another. Epic! has a rating system that students can engage with at the end of each of the books that have been read, so this is another element that can enhance the reading experience but requires some form front-loading. 

Additionally, students being introduced to a digital media for the first time tend to think of these kinds of apps as a game. In my experience, students I work with often try to get to the end of the book as quickly as possible because they enjoy swiping through the pages This is an obstacle that any teacher needs to help students overcome in order to successfully introduce digital texts. 

Overall, however, Epic! is a great application that allows access to its books on iPhones, tablets, and desktop computers. It is easily accessible and has a wide variety of high-quality, interactive titles that get students excited about reading. 

Everybody Was a Baby Once and Other Poems

This collection of poems features comical children's poems about a wide variety of topics. Most of the poems deal with events that occur in a young child's life, so they are easily accessible themes for children of all ages. 

Although I thought this book was good, I thought it lacked a point and really wasn't engaging enough to warrant using it in my own classroom. It explores some themes that I could potentially use in my classroom and with children, but I don't think that the book as a whole works cohesively enough to do this. 

Additionally, there are some topics that are explored that have deeper, more mature content. Some of the language is very advanced or antiquated, even though this book was published in 2010. There were points were I wondered what words meant because I had never heard them before. Upon looking them up, it was pretty clear that they were words that were once used, but no longer are a part of children's or adult's everyday vocabulary. I found this odd and a little unrelatable. 

Although I don't feel as though this book would add value to my classroom library, there are simple structures within it that would work to introduce rhyme and poetic techniques that we see in writing. These could be pulled out of the collection to model something to students or simply used in isolation to teach a point. 

Everybody Was a Baby Once and Other Poems 
By: Allan Ahlberg and Bruce Ingman 
Published in 2010 

Orangutan Tongs: Poems to Tangle Your Tongue

This poetry book is pretty difficult to read, but a lot of fun! The author, Jon Agee, compiled a collection of several tongue-twisting poems about silly and wacky situations. The lengths of each of the poems vary widely, but they are well-written and easy to get engaged in. The illustrations in this book are relatively simple, but their cartoonish qualities are the perfect accompaniment to the silly tongue twisters.

I really enjoyed reading the poems in this book and found that reading them aloud was even more fun that I had originally thought! I can imagine how funny it would be to do this with a classroom, challenging each other to get through the mixed up words. Probably even more humorous is watching a teacher struggle to get through a poem! 

This book would be particularly helpful with learning about rhyming, word beginnings, and word endings. I can imagine students working on a choral reading for this, also!   

Orangutan Tongs: Poems to Tangle Your Tongue 
By: Jon Agee 
Published in 2009 

Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems

This unique poetry book explores an imaginative world in which animals and inanimate objects are combined to create interesting members of the animal community. The "umbrellaphant," which is the first animal the author writes about, is an elephant with an umbrella at the end of his trunk! He is always content because he is always dry and in the shade. Prelutsky combines other animals, too, creating zipperpottemuses and toadsters that encounter silly situations throughout the rhyming verses. Through the use of puns and plays on words, the author creates a lyrical and sing-song collection of poems that would make anyone giggle. 

The illustrations were incredible, too! I have come to love the mixed media, collaged illustrative style. I find it to be really interesting and unique. It also fits the theme of this poetry book well, combining unlike things to create a cohesive and creative image. The overall "feel" of the illustrations make the book feel vintage, and I enjoy that feature about it! 

I can definitely see myself using this book in my classroom, whether I am working with younger students or students that are in upper elementary grades. I think it could be used as a way to get students thinking about ideas they want to write about or as a model for a poem of their choice. Students can choose two unlike objects and combine them in a creative way. It could also be used to introduce the concept of smilies and metaphors in comparing objects. Art is a great way to culminate this project by allowing students to use recyclable materials to create a physical representation of their creature. I feel like it would be incredibly engaging and interesting to see what students create! 

Additionally, there are a lot of really wonderful words that are used in this collection of poems. They are descriptive and detailed and really accomplish exactly what the author intends to. I can imagine using this book in a lesson on descriptive language in order to show students what the "right" word can do in a situation—especially in poetry. 

Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems 
By: Jack Prelutsky 
Illustrated by: Carin Berger 
Published in 2006

Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are is a classic children's picture book about Max, a mischief-making child in a wolf suit. When he's made too much mischief in his house, his mother calls him a "Wild Thing" and sends him to his room without dinner. Upset and angry with his parents, Max watches as a forest begins to grow in his room. His imagination takes him by boat through an ocean and to the place where the wild things are. Although they are scary at first, Max shows bravery, tames the wild things, and crowns himself as thier king. They engage in a wild rumpus together until Max sends the monsters to bed. In the quiet, Max feels lonely (and a little hungry) and decides that it is time to sail home. He realizes that he wants to be in the place where someone loves him best of all. 

I have read this book countless times, but never through the perspective of it being "banned" or "controversial." With this lens, I found it hard to see anything that I would find upsetting to children or adults. The only thing that I could possibly imagine being a problem is Max's desire to "run away" from his home because of his mother. Parents may view this as a book that promotes this and may not want to expose their children to that kind of mindset. 

Upon discovering that the book was actually banned for how frightening it was, I was genuinely surprised! I don't think that it is scary at all, but this may have to do with the fact that it was published in 1993. I find it so interesting that people may have thought that the illustrations were too much for young readers. I think that the illustrations hold a lot of meaning and the expressions on the faces of the monsters tell a very different story. That's my opinion, anyway. 

I think that there is most definitely a place for this book—and Maurice Sendak's other books—in my classroom as he tells imaginative stories that really capture a reader.

Where the Wild Things Are
By: Maurice Sendak 
Published in 1993