Ebooks (and More) for young readers

Serving three-year-olds who want to watch videos of Curious George at the computer station, providing ebooks with both text enlargement and audio format capabilities, and assisting teachers in reinforcing reading skills has never been easier. Through the use of these specially designed programs that meet the needs of individuals often overlooked by most ebook programs, librarians can now provide 24/7 resources for their special library populations.

Grade PreK-3

Cost $1,249 per school

The Big Picture Scholastic’s BookFlix is an online literacy resource that pairs classic video storybooks from Weston Woods with related nonfiction ebooks from Scholastic. By linking nonfiction titles with fiction, BookFlix reinforces early reading skills and introduces children to a world of knowledge and exploration.

The program provides 80 fiction and nonfiction paired books; 20 Spanish pairs; read-along options with word-by-word highlighting options to encourage students to follow along; mouse-over definition and narrated text support to help beginning, reluctant, or new English language learners; educational games that reinforce vocabulary development; author biographies; selected Web sites that support the content and extend the lesson; educator resources with detailed lesson plans; and remote access.

Look & Feel BookFlix home page screen of blue skies filled with fluffy white clouds features a list of subject categories on the left-hand side. Students have several choices, including Animals and Nature, Earth and Sky, People and Places, Family and Community, and Music and Rhyme. To the right is the featured pair of fiction and nonfiction titles, and a Fun to Know category lists books filled with Adventure, Celebrations, and Imagination.

At the top of the home page is the Learn More icon; a Help icon with assistance for accessing the program, system requirements, and an FAQ; and a Resources icon that lists all of the paired books and provides a Title Browse, ways to use Paired Books, Classroom Activities, and more.

Once a category is chosen, a new page lists several paired text choices. For example, the category Animal and Nature provides 27 pairs of fiction and nonfiction books. Selecting a pair of texts will automatically take the user to a new page that allows the student to watch a Weston Woods video of the fiction book or read along with the nonfiction book.

To the left of the page, students may select Watch the Story, Read the Book, Puzzlers, Meet the Author, Explore the Web, or more about that specific category.

A video overview of BookFlix is available at: teacher.scholastic.com/products/bookflixfreetrial/programoverview.htm

How it Work Once students select a category and the specific paired texts to read and watch, they choose which title to begin reading.

If students select the video storybook from Weston Woods, they have the option to select the read-along feature and see each word highlighted on the screen as it is narrated in the video. This feature helps to reinforce fluency, vocabulary development, and reading comprehension.

After students have read the story, they can read the related nonfiction ebook, which helps to connect the fictional work to real-world facts. Students may again read the book on their own or activate the read-along feature, which highlights each word in the text. Key vocabulary words are highlighted in yellow and have definitions to aid early readers and new English language users.

Afterwards, students may demonstrate their comprehension through the Puzzlers section, which provides games that ask questions and provide reinforcement of reading comprehension. Students can learn more about the author and his or her books through the Author section. Finally, to extend the paired text program, students may select the Explore the Web icon to go to age-appropriate Web sites which are safely embedded within the BookFlix program site.

For Students and Teachers Librarians and teachers working with younger students will love the opportunity to introduce them to a wealth of great children’s literature including The Snowy Day; Click, Clack, Moo; Cows That Type; or Curious George Rides a Bike through the Weston Wood videos. With the paired non-fiction Scholastic titles, younger readers are able to access information books with bright photographs and easy-to-read text. (For a complete listing of paired texts, go to teacher.scholastic.com/products/bookflixfreetrial/content.htm) As a tool for reading reinforcement, Scholastic BookFlix provides parents with the unique opportunity to use the program, through the library’s Web site, at home. This option, for many families, provides both entertainment and educational features that can be directly related to classroom instruction for reinforcement of reading skills.

Report Card As a product that provides such wonderful titles via the use of Weston Wood videos, BookFlix allows students, teachers, librarians, and parents the opportunity to read along and enjoy books in an online environment. With few read-along ebook programs available for this age group, Scholastic’s BookFlix deserves an A+ for not only introducing this format to preschool and elementary students, but also for providing reinforcement of reading skills through wonderful videos and outstanding book pairs.

Grades K-12+

Cost TumbleBooks.com is available for individuals as well as school and public libraries; a 12-month subscription to TumbleBooks.com for a single school is $399 with the rate for multiple schools depending upon the number. TumbleReadables and TumbleTalkingBooks are available for school and public libraries only. A 12-month subscription to TumbleReadables for a single school is $499, with discounts for additional campuses. A 12-month subscription to TumbleTalkingBooks for a single school is $999 a year, again, discounts are available for additional campuses. Pricing is also available for public libraries.

The Big Picture TumbleBooks.comprovides an online collection of animated, talking picture books using existing picture books from well-known publishers such as Candlewick Press, Chronicle Books, Scholastic, Harcourt, and others. Through the addition of sound, music, narration, and flash animation, students are able to read-along and follow the text on the screen. The books can be viewed in auto mode, where the text is read, pages turn automatically, and sentences are highlighted as they are being read, or in manual mode in which audio is turned off and students can read at their own pace.

The program includes online reading comprehension quizzes, book reports, and teacher resources. The collection can be viewed in English, Spanish, and French and includes books in both Spanish and French languages. In addition to the children’s books, TumbleBooks also provides an online read-along collection of chapter books, young adult novels, and classics of American and English literature for middle and high school students.

Aside from providing unique ebooks children, TumbleBooks also provides two other products: TumbleReadables, a collection of large-print ebooks that allow users to easily read online text by adjusting the print size up to a 34-point font, and the TumbleTalkingBooks that provides large print and audio formats of books for all readers of any age or ability.

Look & Feel TumbleBooks.com provides an easy-to-use, easy-to-choose program that introduces its content with the help of an animated “blue book” character. The home page’s top banner provides links to an Index, a list of My Favorites, a Help page, and contact information. Users can listen or read along by selecting the Story Books icon; read independently with TumbleReadable; browse the list of New Books; have fun with the Puzzles and Games; read along in English, Spanish, or French through Language Learning; or listen to an audiobook.

The Audio Book segment of the program provides a Teacher Resource component that allows students to listen to a book online and then select the pencil icon that reads TumbleBook Report. Upon the completion of the audio story, students can immediately answer questions about the book by typing answers into the TumbleBook Report program.

A TumblePad is free for download and provides an innovative talking-book format so that children can follow along with the book. WordHelper allows children to click on sentences to hear words or phrases. Through the TumblePad students play games and puzzles related to the books read. For more information about the features of the TumblePad, go to www.tumblebooks.com/tumblepad/.

How it Works TumbleBooks offers over 150 books in electronic or audio formats. Through the TumbleBooks Web site, users can log in and select titles based upon their reading levels, interests, or abilities and find titles that will engage and encourage readers. With such favorites as Diary of a Worm, How I Became a Pirate, or Tops and Bottoms, children will easily find titles that they can read along with or listen to.

Older students may choose to read classic tales such as The Adventures of Pinocchio, Black Beauty, Anne of Green Gables, or The Wizard of Oz, all in formats that can be adjusted from a 16-to 36-point font size. Students may also listen in audio formats with bookmark functions (so they can easily return to them later).

Through TumbleReadables, middle school and high school students can use audio and adjustable text formats for popular series such as Matt Christopher’s sports books or the fictional Dear America series, as well as classics such as The Call of the Wild. High interest, low vocabulary titles assist teachers in guiding struggling readers to books that they can manage while providing the tools that they need to access and comprehend the text.

Additionally, through TumbleTalkingBooks, students or adults may access 400 titles and 65 read-along titles that include books for children, young adults, and adult titles. The TumbleTalkingBooks program allows 24/7 access.

For Students and Teachers TumbleBooks, TumbleTalkingBooks and TumbleReadables fill the gaps that many teachers and librarians often face with students who need or want books in electronic or audio book formats. Through the innovative TumblePad, users of all ages can easily access and read books at all levels with or without assistance.

For those students with reading or visual disabilities, TumbleBooks and TumbleReadables provide the long-awaited accessibility to books in the library, the classroom, or at home without the need for bulky and expensive equipment.

Report Card Although TumbleBooks, TumbleTalkingBooks, and TumbleReadables provide unique formats for a wide-range of students, the number of available titles is still rather small. However, because all three programs offer such a unique concept that meet the needs of several different student abilities, it is sure to be a hit with many teachers and librarians. As more materials becomes available and more publishers see the opportunities, these products will grow in popularity. Even with the limited number of titles, these products still address the needs of struggling readers and special student populations who are often ignored by other programs. TumbleBooks deserves a strong A.