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Online Newsletter
 
Twice a year we e-mail out an informative newsletter about teaching with audiobooks - there is no obligation to buy anything to receive this up-to-date and friendly communication.
  
However, when you subscribe, you will be eligible to receive a 15% discount on your next order of any Audio Bookshelf productions featured on our website. Whether you call, fax, mail or e-mail your order, just tell us you are an online subscriber taking advantage of your 15% discount.


Here is our current newsletter:

Dear Educators!
Welcome to our sixth newsletter to help you teach the love of reading and listening!  Print it out and read it when you get a quiet moment...


One of the best birthdays my husband ever had was the wintery January day in the early 80's that we woke up to a blizzard and I spent much of the day reading The Secret Garden to him.  It was the least expensive gift I've ever given him and the most remembered.  Blackstone's The Secret Garden recording read by award-winning narrator Wanda McCaddon is a treasure and one of my personal favorites.  It's available also through Audio Bookshelf.
 

There's a fifth sequel to Hatchet due any minute called Brian's Hunt and available in unabridged audio in December. It will be in our new catalog. Other new titles that will be featured in our 2004 catalog distribution insert and never before available in audio: The Little House in the Big Woods series - we'll have the first three books available. One CD we're particularly excited to be featuring is The African-American Audio Experience highlighting Langston Hughes, Nikki Giovanni, Loraine Hansberry, Richard Wright, ZN Hurston and Gwendolyn Brooks. Important listening for high schoolers and adults.
  

 
A terrific idea to get kids reading was covered in VOYA in the October 2002 (yes 2002!) issue - an ALL YOU CAN READ BUFFET!! The idea was conceived of and put together to great success by Kara Falck of the Shaler North Hills Library in Glenshaw, PA. In a six hour reading marathon, the person who could read the longest would win a $50. gift certificate to a local mall and there were second and third place cash winners as well. Everybody got a small prize, pizza and ice-cream sundaes. The reading marathon was a hit with 59 kids and ran from 11:30 to 7:30. Kara says it was the most rewarding and inspirational program she has ever coordinated - the kids said that next time they hope it will run LONGER. Check it out with either Kara or read about it in the 10/02 VOYA.
   
 
In USA TODAY - 12% of our 15 yr. old readers are "poor readers", making US students, as a whole, just average in reading skills compared with other developed countries. Another 6% are even worse than "poor". No news to our newsletter subscribers. Some teachers tell us that up to 50% of their kids are struggling with text. Audiobooks are a real bridge to text for most of these kids. According to the article, family income plays a bigger role in the literacy rate in the US than elsewhere. There is definitely funding available for family literacy programs (see funding sources below) - and you can use these funds to buy audiobooks for your school or public library to help families read more together. Most 15yr. olds around the world say they don't read for enjoyment... hmmm, I believe allowing them to take out audiobooks could change that attitude somewhat!
 
 
I get calls from time to time asking about making copies of my productions for school use. It is illegal to do so, no matter what the reason. All authors' materials are protected by copyright and all recordings of those materials are protected in the same way. I own those recordings. As well, you cannot make recordings of picture books, even if no commercial recording is available, without written permission from the publisher or other rights holder.
 
It's said that giving "rewards" for reading devalues the activity, "giving the impression that reading cannot stand on its own as an enjoyable pursuit" (SLJ, Betty Carter 10/96).  This includes points in reading programs.  What is your experience/response as an educator?
  
 
In a recent Reader's Digest:  "While teaching Shakespeare's As You Like It to my freshman English class at the University of Kansas, I was reminded of how much of our common language is shaped by our best writers.'I can't see why everyone thinks Shakespeare is such a great writer,' commented one student. ' His plays are full of cliches.'"
 

 
Right now, we're reading out loud Bill Bryson's Made in America - An Informal History of the English Language in the United States at our house.  A highly entertaining read about the source of today's American English!  And yes, Shakespeare had a huge influence on the phrases we use today...

 


In the VOYA October 2003 issue just rec'd there's an uplifting article about the success of using Paul Fleischman's Seedfolks and Bull Run for student theatre.  As well, there are terrific ideas for using Seedfolks to generate some exciting classroom projects.  Our Curriculum Connections for both titles on our website at audiobookshelf.com will give you even more classroom projects.  Teachers tell me the audios for both of these titles really raise the interest level of students because they HEAR the different accents and ages of the characters Fleischman so ably writes about.  Seedfolks is the perfect vehicle for motivating your students to understand each other's differences and find common ground.

 In SLJ's new Curriculum Connections (Oct.03) there is an entire article about state and federal grants for books and classroom materials.  Much of this money would be available for audiobooks if the right approach is used - disabled children (visually impaired), family literacy (probably the biggest catchword and the easiest way to build your audiobook collection), ESL, gender-equity programs and underserved student populations.  Check out The Foundation Center at fdncenter.org to keep up-to-date.  From Starbucks to the US Government, the money is there waiting for you to ask for it.  Get ahold of a copy of this new  Curriculum Connections 10/03 issue and put it to work!
 
 
SNEAK PREVIEW:

I'm excited to give you a sneak preview to our five new releases due in January 2004:  As a newsletter subscriber I'm giving you a gift of 15% off any and all of the following - please let us know when you call
or note it on your PO - thanks!
  • BLACK LIKE ME
    Author - John Howard Griffin
    Reader - Ray Childs
    Publisher - Audio Bookshelf
    Unabridged
    Length: 7 hours
    ISBN - 0-9741711-0-7 - Cass     Price:  $39.95
    ISBN - 0-9741711-1-5 - CD        Price:  $49.95
    Release Date - January, 2004
    Subject - Autobiography/Race Issues (Adult)

  • THE FIFTH OF MARCH
    Author - Ann Rinaldi
    Reader - Melissa Hughes
    Publisher - Audio Bookshelf
    Unabridged
    Length: 8 hours
    ISBN - 1-883332-97-4 - Cass     Price:  $39.95
    ISBN - 1-883332-98-2 - CD        Price:  $49.95
    Release Date - January, 2004
    Subject - Historical Fiction/Juvenile Ages 12 and up.
     
  • THE THREE DOCUMENTS THAT MADE AMERICA
    The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the USA and The Bill of Rights
    Introduced by Sam Fink
    Reader - Terry Bregy
    Publisher - Audio Bookshelf
    Unabridged
    Length: 90 minutes
    ISBN - 0-9741711-2-3 - CD  only      Price:  $21.95
    Release Date - January, 2004
    Subject - American History.
     
  • ASHLEY BRYAN'S BEAUTIFUL BLACKBIRD and Other Folktales
    Author/Performer:  Ashley Bryan
    Publisher - Audio Bookshelf
    Unabridged
    Length:  80 minutes
    ISBN - 1-883332-99-0 - CD   only    Price:  $21.95
    Release Date - January, 2004
    Subject - Folktales/Juvenile
     
  • PADDLE-TO-THE-SEA
    Author - Holling Clancy Holling
    Reader - Terry Bregy
    Publisher - Audio Bookshelf
    Unabridged
    Length:  60 minutes
    ISBN - 0-9741711-3-1 - Cass     Price:  $14.95
    ISBN - 0-9741711-4-X - CD        Price:  $16.95
    Release Date - January, 2004
    Subject - Fiction/Geography/Juvenile.

That's all the news that's fit to print - I hope you have enjoyed and benefited from this newsletter!
 
Keep listening!


DAVE DITTMANN
AUDIO BOOKSHELF
1-800-234-1713
401-842-0440 (FAX)
info@audiobookshelf.com
 
Audio Bookshelf
44 Ocean View Drive
Middletown, Rhode Island 02842 


Awarding-winning unabridged audiobooks for listeners of all ages...!
 

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 This section was last modified on Thursday, 11-Feb-2010 18:39:11 EST.