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Writing Consumer Book Reviews
What is the function of consumer reviews? Should we feel bad for posting negative takes on other people’s books? Do consumer reviews have a real impact on sales? To what extent? Is a review a work of art in its own right?
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How to Read an Animal Encyclopedia Together
If your animal loving kid wants to read an animal encyclopedia together, how to approach it? Here are some fun and light-hearted questions.
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How to get out of a reading slump
Much has already been said about our waning attention spans. I won’t get into that here. Instead, I simply offer some tips, tricks and thoughts about being the reader you want to be: Someone who wants to read long things like books, but struggles with it. Although I’ve been writing this book blog for more […]
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The Empathy Gap and Authorial Intent
As much as possible, I try to avoid talking about what the author intends by doing such-and-such in a work of literature. Today I’d like to clarify why I personally think this is not a helpful way to approach a text. I’m hardly the first to criticise this approach, though I suspect some of my […]
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Songs To Help You Concentrate
Some people need silence to concentrate. Other people need some kind of noise. People know what they need, and brains are very different in this way. Such is neurodiversity.
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Pirates in Art and Storytelling
It is absolutely bizarre that we romanticise criminals the way we romanticise pirates but there we have it.
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Drawing While Listening To Audiobooks After Dinner
Highly recommended for young fidgeters.
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What Is ‘Ludic Reading’?
‘Ludic’ or ‘absorbed’ reading is a virtually trance-like state in which readers willingly become oblivious to the world around them. The term as used here comes from Hugh Crago and Victor Nell. This is by no means a universal phenomenon — some readers read like this, others can’t. I have always felt that the art […]
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The Size and Format of Picturebooks
How does the binding of a book affect reader expectations? What about the size? The actual individual appearance of of individual books is just as obvious an example of how prior expectations control our responses to stories; it influences our attitude to the stories the books contain before we even begin to read them. We […]
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What is dialogic reading?
‘Dialogic’ is related to the word ‘dialogue’ and describes ‘having a conversation’. In education, dialogic reading refers the conversation adults have with students around the text they are reading together. Adults typically ask questions and make comments to help young readers explore the shared story at a deeper level. Because it is the dialogue that happens […]
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The Importance of Picture book Endpapers and Other Peritext
Peritext is especially important in picture books, and refers to the physical features and design elements that surround the story. When readers take note of this information, their experience of the story will be enhanced, or possibly change. Peritext includes information on: Part of me thinks that a reader’s preference for a physical book isn’t […]
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The False Dichotomy of Reading Versus Screentime
The Childwise Monitor Report 2013-14, which surveys the media consumption of children and teens, said tablets are increasingly the device of choice and that ownership has almost doubled for the second year running. Two in five who took part in the survey said they have their own tablet. One In Five Children Read On A Tablet […]
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Picturebook Study: Colour Analysis
Colour is a language.
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The Science and Pleasure of Reading
Many people who read silently do so by imagining a voice speaking the words they are reading…This could be because when we learn to read, we associate symbols with verbal sounds until the association is effortless…What’s particularly new about this study is that it not only shows that silent reading causes high-frequency electrical activity in […]
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What makes a picturebook re-readable?
“We’re not trying to make stories that are going to be read, we’re trying to make stories that are going to be read a milliondy billiondy times.” Mo Willems While children’s books need to be re-readable, books aimed at an adult audience do not: As anyone who has ever read books to a child knows, young […]
