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Listen to Us!

21/5/2019

II'm an "early adapter" of technology. Years ago, when I first started making videos from my book We Dare You!, I posted a bunch of podcasts as videos in the iTunes store. Amazingly, when I check the stats today, my video podcasts have thousands of hits a month, more than any other page. I have never published the link to them but, what the heck, I 'll give it to you now. I published them through iTunes. They're called Vicki Cobb's Amazing Action Science If you look at the dates, you'll see that I uploaded them about ten years ago. You'll also know that they're in "kids & family" and the "lyrics" are listed as "clean."

This year, iNK was adopted as a pro bono client of one of the most prestigious business consulting firms on the planet. They looked at us as a young company who has established itself on the web with the Nonfiction Minute. Our stats, according to them, are amazing and organic. We average about 50,000-70,000 page views a month, even in the summer without any advertising or promotion. Their initial goal for us is to increase our presence on the web. To this end, we are redoing our website, which will debut at the beginning of the next school year. They also asked us to create podcasts from our audio files.

Young companies are nimble so we acted right away and started creating podcasts. They are free on the web for your listening pleasure. We are partnering with KidLit TV as one platform and we also have them available in the iTunes store. We have introduced them with a "soft" launch as we feel our way. Take a listen and let us know what you think.

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Surviving an American Shameful Act with Dignity and Resilience

6/5/2019

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Award-winning iNK author, Andrea Warren writes American history as seen through the eyes of a child who is confronted with problems of historic proportions created by grown ups. Her latest book is Enemy Child: the Story of Norman Mineta, A Boy Imprisoned in a Japanese American Internment Camp During World War II. On December 7, 1941, the date President Roosevelt called "a day that will live in infamy," the Japanese allies of the Axis Powers bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Thus began American involvement in Word War II. Ten-year-old American boy, Norman Mineta, the youngest of five children, was suddenly confronted with hateful bullying at school. His classmates accused him of perpetrating this dastardly act because he looked like the enemy.

At first, Norm thought nothing would happen to his family because the Constitution says "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law." But gradually the discriminatory rhetoric and behavior towards Japanese Americans escalated, quickly culminating in Executive Order 9066 by President Roosevelt that led to the interment of 120,000 West Coast Japanese Americans, without a scintilla of "due process." The rationale, born of fear, was to make certain that they would not "collude" with the country of their ancestry. Warren is brilliant in interweaving this history with its impact on a boy who loved baseball and cub scouts and his family of seven, as they were ripped from their comfortable home in San Jose and herded on to long trains with covered windows. Their journey took them first to a single barrack's room in the middle of the Santa Anita Race Track until they could be dispatched to permanent barrack accommodations behind barbed wire and armed watch towers in the shadow Heart Mountain, Wyoming-- an austere, isolated landscape of high winds, frigid winters and baking summers. It was three years before they returned home to San Jose.

Norman Mineta survived, and in some ways thrived, during this unjust, punitive period, never losing his love for America. When he grew up, he ran for elected offices, first becoming the mayor of San Jose, then a congressman for 20 years. When he retired from congress he was a cabinet member for both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Through the Boy Scouts, Norm had made friends with Alan Simpson of Cody,Wyoming, during joint scouting activity at the internment camp. Years later they reconnected when Mineta was in the House of Representatives and Simpson was a Senator. Their friendship was renewed and together they worked to pass the Civil Liberties Act into law, 43 years after the war had ended. In it, America apologized to for the internment of Japanese American community and paid a reparation of $20,000 to each living survivor.

Enemy Child  is an initiation into a dark period of American History. As a book for young adults, Warren assumes little or no prior knowledge of these events from the reader. Thus, as the story of Norman Mineta unfolds, so does its historical background. It is a powerful, poignant page-turning narrative of an American boy who was treated as a prisoner and reviled as an enemy because of his ancestry. But it is also a story of patriotism, honor, dignity and resilience from a family of immigrants who never, for one second, was disloyal to our country.

This book is not just for young Americans but for all of us. It's another important reason for adults to mine the great literature that awaits in the children's room of the library.

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Million $ Jeopardy Winner Credits Children's Books

24/4/2019

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There's a lot of buzz about the latest record-breaking Jeopardy winner, James Holzhauer, who became the second contestant in the history of the game to win more than a million dollars. Yes, he has a strategy on how to win BIG. He goes for the high money clues-- the hardest hints-- because he has a real body of knowledge he can literally count on.

I am not a die-hard Jeopardy fan, but I've watched it a few times. How could I not? It's part of American lexicon. And I was pleased that I knew a few of the answers. ( Yet, I couldn't twist my brain around to phrase the answer as a question.) But the statement that caught my eye in the NY Times article of April 23, 2019, is Holzhauer's attribution about where his knowledge comes from:

"As for the sources of his knowledge, Holzhauer has said that an underrated strategy is reading children’s books, which he said are more effective than adult books because they cater to readers who might not be naturally interested in the subject matter."

I am presuming that he is referring to children's nonfiction because he is mentioning "subject matter," i.e. "content." He is not referring to "textbooks" or school books or even school. He's a reader who long ago discovered what we, who write children's nonfiction, hope that the education community and maybe even the patrons of school and public libraries would also discover. If you want to learn about something new, read a kid's book or two on the subject. You'll soon learn who the best nonfiction authors are. They are the ones who treat the reader as an intelligent person (not using over-simplified language or "dumbing down" a subject) but assume that their reader has little or no prior knowledge on the subject. We write for the uninitiated on content that captivates us as authors so that our writing will also captivate our readers. We use a lot of the techniques of the best fiction authors and have invented a few tricks of our own.

A study in 1988 showed that good writing is memorable. That concept has paid off very well for James Holzhauer. Maybe those who marvel at the depth of his knowledge will be inspired to follow Holzhauer's course of study. He read for pleasure about the real world, he followed his interests when he read, and he studied Jeopardy from childhood to master the moves of the game. He learned that he could play the game and play it well before he became a contestant.

I'm betting that he's still reading children's nonfiction.

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The True Joy of Bird Watching

16/4/2019

Ever glimpse a flash of brilliant red fly by your window? It sure got my attention. Its name is cardinal, which means "brilliant red" and it's brightness is a measure of its superior health, as read by the much less red female. She's looking for the reddest, i.e. strongest, mate for her chicks. None of the dazzling birds in iNK author, Sneed B. Collard III's latest book of natural wonders Birds of Every Color,  lose their intensity. The sparkling photographs, taken by Sneed and his son, Braden, that jump off every page have been carefully curated to amaze and stun the reader.
It's no surprise that this slim, spectacular volume, to be shared and savored by children and adults, can release the inner bird-watcher in the most uninitiated folk, who previously looked at nature -lovers, with their binoculars and over-sized cameras, as strange birds of the human variety.

Did you know that some birds of a color eat food with the same pigments as their feathers? That makes sense. But I'll bet you didn't know that the colors of some other birds are caused by the refractive structure of their feathers and how light passes through them and have no pigment in their feathers what-so-ever. Then there are some nondescript brown birds with feathers containing melanin, the same pigment that colors human skin. And in the strange-but-true department, the Blue-footed Boobies have webbed feet that contain the pigment carotenoid, which makes some squash yellow and carrots orange but gives a blue hue to the skin of their feet.

In bird-world, it's mostly the males that sport the fancy feathers, even if it's just a small dash of color most noticeable to the wandering eye of a female. I have a back-deck in the northeast that overlooks a pond with Canada geese, mallard ducks (love that green head), and a lonely white egret. The same robins revisit every year and have even built a nest in the wreath near my front door and some soft gray doves, once nested in my garage. They got used to our rhythms and were safely ensconced every evening before we closed the garage door for the night. So I'm a lazy bird-watcher, and wait for the birds to come to me. But Sneed and Braden's Bird's of Every Color may just have the power to lead me astray, at least as far as the nearest aviary.

Teachers: Can We Bring More Joy of Learning to Your Classroom?

4/4/2019

If you're a teacher, are you frantically grading papers these days as the third marking period comes to a close? Are you finding that your students and their parents are more concerned with grades than with learning? Are you finding that teaching is more stressful than ever and you are not now the teacher you always dreamed you could be?

Here's an audacious idea: Why not try using children's nonfiction literature as primary reading material on curriculum subjects? Here's how you can find some suitable books that are likely to be in your school library. They are already aligned by their authors to meet your curriculum standards.  Go to our free iNK Database and register. (Your information is safe with us. We use it from time to time to let you know what's happening with iNK that might interest you.) Once in the database, click on the subject and grade level you have to teach and then search. Like magic, you will get a list of books that are fun to read and discuss. Take it to your school and public librarians. Bring in your treasures and share with your students. Everyone doesn't have to read the same book on the subject. They can read different books and discuss the issues from different points of view. We first published our database in 2009 and have been adding to it steadily. Last time I checked, for the month of December, 2018, we had 57,000 page views from all over the world from people looking for books.

Think of us nonfiction authors as "professors-at-large" for children. We know content and speak "child." You can invite some of us into your classroom via our Zoom Room, an extremely robust technology that only requires, on your part, wifi and a webcam. You can interact with us live at a price much lower than a school visit where you also have to feed and house us. If you want to see our array of programs, we work through the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration. Here's a link to our dozens of programs.

But I have an even more interesting idea. What if we worked together over a period of time, using curriculum that fits with your school's, built around an author's book? Your teachers and curriculum personnel could help plan it in a face-to-face strategy session with the author. Together we could use Google Classroom to create a communal document where the author, teachers, and students contribute their thoughts and exhibit their work as the program unfolds. We could create a classroom writing project using the author's book as a mentor text. We could build some STEM activities that show how doing science makes the scientist their own primary source. The Nonfiction Minute is a way for you and your students to get to know each author as a "Brand." But there is so much more to us than 400-word essays.

Our program, called Class ACTS (Authors Collaborating with Teachers and Students) would take between three and five weeks and is like having an author-in-residence, as the author is available through email and interactive video conferencing (ivc) on an ad hoc basis. We include classroom sets of books.   The more kids read our books and think, the better they will do on the standardized tests because the reading passages on the tests are excerpted from our books. So, let go of the training wheels that the standardized texts and mind-dulling worksheets represent. Watch what happens to you and your students. Discover how the passion for learning is contagious. Since iNK is a nonprofit, we can apply for grants jointly at no cost to your school.  Let's start thinking and planning for next year.

If you are intrigued, please contact me, vicki@inkthinktank.org and put "Class ACTS" in the subject area.

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Listen to Us!

Surviving an American Shameful Act with Dignity and Resilience

Million $ Jeopardy Winner Credits Children's Books

The True Joy of Bird Watching

Teachers: Can We Bring More Joy of Learning to Your Classroom?

Vicki Cobb

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Listen to Us!

Surviving an American Shameful Act with Dignity and Resilience

Million $ Jeopardy Winner Credits Children's Books

The True Joy of Bird Watching

Teachers: Can We Bring More Joy of Learning to Your Classroom?

Vicki Cobb

​Archives

Categories

Links

Company

Contact

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