Fun kid's book sites

Catalogs from publishers??? Old hat!  Now the thing is book trailers and interactive pages online so that kids get to love a brand and want to buy it when they see it in a store.

Take a look at TOON books cartoon maker.  It's a simple enough graphics program, allowing children to pull elements from a popular series into a frame and add background and words to create their own cartoon.  Try it out.

Chronicle Books has added a book trailer to the page advertising their new big trucks book, Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site! Just scroll down to watch the video.

Simon and Schuster has created a page for the Cheers! series about a girl who is horrified to find out that she is relegated to the B cheerleading team.  Her life. (as she says) Is seriously. O-V-E-R.  The page has a playlist, an excerpt of the book, a trailer and party plans. Why not?

In the meantime, while book publishers scramble to find new ways to sell books, lawmakers are pushing ways to make it a lot harder for those books to make it into classrooms, public libraries and the homes of underprivileged children.   Exactly how we can insure that all American children get the food and resources they need to succeed is a huge worry.  So, I challenge my readers to write one letter - email or snail - to one lawmaker each day in the month of April, urging them to keep federal funds for education and health and wellness to poverty stricken children and districts IN the budget.

Thanks!  I'll let you know who I send MY letter to today.