This week, I wrote a guest post (my first!) for Book Creator for iPad, one of the apps I used to create and publish Short Vowel Shorts. The post is entitled “Can You Code Better Than a 6-Year-Old?” And was kindly described as fascinating by the Book Creator Team. Click here to read the post.

Fat Cat vs. Bad Bat just hit 20 ratings (Thanks, Thoughtful Raters!) and had this 5 star review added on iTunes: I’m planning on using this excellent short vowels book with my small elementary ESOL class. – Hurst teacher I confess I had to look up what ESOL means. Turns out that it stands for English for Speakers of Other […]

Or: Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones, But That One Star Rating Really Bites In my son’s Reception classroom, there is a chart. It helps the children be aware of their behaviour and has made a big impression on him during the first two weeks of school. The chart is made up of five A4/8.5 x 11 size colour […]

Hey, d’ these blow up into funny shapes at all?  Well, no … unless round is funny. Fat Cat vs. Bad Bat just crossed the 1,000 download mark! And I’m having an informal little celebration and also want to say thanks. So … Thanks!!! Giving the books your endorsement with personal and specific fb shares and personal recommendations to friends […]

You may have heard the quandary: How do you eat an elephant? And it’s answer: One bite at a time. But how do you read: “an elephant?” Same answer: One bite at a time. Learning to read is something that happens over time. Little by little. Bit by bit. As the saying goes: “You can’t cram farming.” (As in, it […]

“Some children might not be ready for as big a jump from letter sounds to reading words and sentences and would benefit from making it a few little hops instead of a bigger jump.” –  Jordan K., Elementary School Librarian The Creek Is Wide Have you ever taken a walk through the woods with your small children and come to […]

International Literacy Day 2013 Today, Sunday, September 8th is International Literacy Day! (Also observed by the International Reading Association on Monday, September 9th.) I was going to write, “To celebrate, I’m doing 2 things.” But as I read over UNESCO’s Literacy Day page, 9 countries picture on facebook and UNESCO’s Literacy Infographic (definitely check out the Infographic) which lists THE […]

Pacey, our vanilla retriever and the inspiration for Bup Pup, and a much younger version of me in Devon, England. In honour of National Dog Day, Bup Pup vs. Ug Slug vs. Hug Bug was released early and for today only it’s free on the iBookstore! Happy National Dog Day! & Happy Reading! P.S.  Check out the Bup Pup cover […]

You Can’t Give a Specific eBook as a Gift from the iBookstore? Really? I’ve had more than one learning curve on this ebook adventure so far. Recently, I’ve had a few people ask how they can give Short Vowel Shorts as gifts to their friends’ kids or to their grandchildren. I figured that it was as simple as going on […]

Trying to Climb Up the Down Escalator In their excellent book, Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard (highly recommend!), Chip & Dan Heath describe the power of identity in hindering or facilitating change.  They state that “[a]ny change effort that violates someone’s identity is likely doomed to failure.” When deciding what to do or not to do, we […]