The beauty of a web 2.0 site is that your users innovate with the tools you give them.

We originally saw the site as a book publishing tool. But Jennifer Poulter, an educational author form Australia, saw in Sharing-Books a tool to publish one page books that she calls poster-poems as classroom aids to help students learn poetry and/or help teachers introduce discussion topics relevant to their classes. The form of the poster-poem has been received well and Jennifer's work has been used in classrooms around the world. One of our authors, Urs Dietrich, who wrote Miki Makes a Promise, reported that on his last trip to Odessa, he visited a classroom where Jennifer's poster-poems were used to teach English.

Now it is author Timothy Schenk who published last week a surprise he had hinted was coming. Timothy has previously illustrated two poster-poems written by Jennifer. He also wrote and illustrated My Pretty Pointe Shoes that won the second prize in the July 2009 Simone Woods Awards. This time Timothy published our first talking book: Fan of Halloween.

Fan of Halloween demonstrates Timothy's technical know-how as he took advantage of a new feature Adobe introduced to PDF files, the ability to insert flash files. So as you download what looks like a normal and relatively small PDF file, you also download a little movie and a recording of Timothy reading his poem. When you click on the image of the pumpkin on the page, the pumpkin moves in as Timothy reads the poem.

This is very exciting and very promising. We deliberately limited the file type of our books to PDF so that universal distribution would be easy and that given the small size of the files, our books could be downloaded in low bandwidth regions of the world. Obviously this limited the books in being two dimensional. Now we can see the form of the e-book developing new and valuable attributes. Imagine a PDF e-book where a child can click on a cow and hear it go Moo! Or have an alphabet book read to them or having technical details added to a science book.

We thank Timothy for innovating with this first book and showing the way to one more imaginative use of Sharing-Books.com

Labels: children books, digital publishing industry, e-books, Halloween, J.R. Poulter, new features, picture books, publishing, teaching english, technology, Timothy Schenk

At Sharing-Books we love to tell the story of how Jennifer Poulter innovated with our publishing model and introduced to us the idea of a one page book - the poster poem. This is a format that Jennifer perfected for the purpose of helping children learn. Jennifer engaged a number of her illustrator friends into collaborating for posters covering a wide range of topics. The poems address issues affecting all children and Jennifer includes in the description of the poster-poems ideas on how they can be used. Jennifer's works have received a lot of praise and we are pleased to share with you some of the kind words acknowledging Jennifer creativity.

"As  fourth grade teacher, I love Jennifer Poulter's poem posters. My class loves them for their richness of language and rhythm. Jennifer's topic selection is varied and great. There is something for every interest. The children enjoy being able to find and download new poems!" Teacher USA Feb 09

"This is a great resource."
Assistant Director, Assessment Resources Branch, Teaching & Learning Division
Queensland Studies Authority

"Materials super.......will activate people within QSA to develop some literacy enrichment learning materials around your work."
Teacher, assessment package writer /senior education officer Australia

"I will forward this on to my boss as he may like to forward it to schools in our district! Looks like really great stuff!"
AVT Behaviour Management Teacher & outgoing Artistic Director QPF

"I'm going back to work next week to teach two days a week in a grade 2/3 so these will be most helpful in my ideas and programming.
Great stuff!"
Australian primary school teacher

"I loved your poems. I shared them with the fourth graders in my class, and they enjoyed them too.
Thanks for sharing!"
Teacher USA

"Now at school we're having an English week. And I gave your poems to children to work with them as translators - to translate in poetical style. They like this type of work - so creative! So this way I use your poems, they are funny, I love people with the sense of humor, and I hope the students and I will laugh together listening to the kid's (your) poems in our native language."
Teacher Ukraine

"You know, today we've had a lesson using your poems - and my kids' translations (Expelling Spell, Pandamonium, Ten of Them and Little People...), if you could hear and understand Russian, it was brilliant, fabulous and funny, of course... lots of laughter!
They (age-11) translated the poems themselves and did not only translate, but rewrote them in rhyme. To my delight they caught the heart of your works, and some of their works were not worse than the originals :) And they asked me for more! I've just downloaded your other posters….
Thank you from me and from my students.
All the best!"
Teacher, Russia

"The kids and I did the Expelling Spell poem on Friday and they LOVED it as well as the illustration…"
American teacher, preschool and lower primary grades

"I downloaded your posters, thank you. Most of all I liked the ones about pandas and cats. My little daughter will be in a rave - she's a fan of animals, especially cats. Susie Dreaming is very nice and cute."
Parent /Teacher from Ukraine

"I have to tell you that I took it to school with me to read to my preschool students and they LOVED it! (So you know it's good now! They are truly the best sounding boards!)
The poem was a hit with the three and four year old age group, good job!"
Teacher review, USA

"I enjoy the poem very much, [I saw an Angel…]. Especially for children. Last week our topic in class was "Earth in danger", we were talking a lot about this,…. So your poem will be a good continuation."
Teacher Ukraine

"I read some of your work on Sharing Books.  One poem I was particularly taken with is Susan Watching Clouds.  It was really kind of sad--it stirred something in me."
Speech & Language Pathologist USA

"I absolutely love the sharing-books.com resource. Seriously, thanks for all you do."
Response from a parent [USA] on “Pandamonium” free teacher, librarian, home-schooling resource

"Jennifer Poulter skips and skims,
her words awake the free spirit within.
One laughs and giggles, but pauses some time,
To ponder the rhythm, the prose and the rhyme.
They create a world where ideas play,
But dance to the sound with the words that they say.  
A heart filled with colour, spectrum, and fun
To frolic and spin in the warmth of the sun
Thank you"
Jan Ramage,[primary teacher and double award nominee CBCA]

"I have just worked with Jennifer Poulter, writing one of her poems in calligraphy and placing the finished item,  Zoo View, on the site.  I understand that ISBN numbers are gradually being added to books/posters on the site, always good for publishing credit – Sharing Books is the publisher. If you investigate the site, you will see that Jennifer has been very creative and productive there lately, and teamed with many top illustrators – I’m sure to everyone’s advantage."
Peter Taylor, SCWBI Queensland Organiser, teacher, writer, calligrapher, illustrator

Labels: children books, ebooks, teacher resources, teaching english