The Tumblr blog of Literary Safari. We create kids apps focused on play, literacy, learning, diversity, and storytelling. Follow us for news about our work and for a curated take on our favorite content for kids.
It is a “GOOD” day. Happy Chinese New Year from HangArt, the new literacy app where you can play visual hangman with 200 K-3 sight words like “GOOD”, then create and save your own drawings and record digital stories with them. www.hangart.co. “Editor’s Choice Award” from Children’s Technology Review and “Top Pick” by Teachers with Apps
We are looking for children ages 5-8 to send us videos about their experiences with this classic word game.
Your child’s story will be featured as part of a marketing social media campaign to launch Literary Safari’s new app HangArt- www.hangart.co.
If you have a cutiepatootie who loves Hangman, email [email protected] and we will send you simple guidelines for filming a home video using your mobile phone.
We are looking for children ages 5-8 to send us videos about their experiences with this classic word game.
Your child's story will be featured as part of a marketing social media campaign to launch Literary Safari's new app HangArt- www.hangart.co.
If you have a cutiepatootie who loves Hangman, email [email protected] and we will send you simple guidelines for filming a home video using your mobile phone.
Are you infuriated by the lack of diverse characters and stories in children's apps? Well, you're right to be. Though 37% of the US population identify as people of color, only one in ten kids' books published in the last two decades are multicultural in nature. And this trend isn't limited to book publishing.
Crocodile, Turtle, and I have spent the last month culling apps that promote compassion and multiculturalism by adhering to certain standards of diversity. We defined and applied these standards to a whole host of kids' apps, and wound up with this list. We documented the process and our experience exploring diversity in this Cooney Center editorial. Check out an excerpt below!
So, what makes an app truly diverse? In July 2014, #storyappchat focused their weekly Twitter meeting on the topic of “Diversity in eBooks, Apps, and Self-Publishing.” Such conversations set a valuable baseline for defining and evaluate the diversity in the world of children’s apps. So do the resources that are being shared amongst communities of librarians, academics, and children’s media producers and reviewers such as Common Sense Media and Digital Storytime.
All of these advocates for diversity and multiculturalism agree that:
Diverse apps should allow kids to see characters different from themselves and different from each other interacting.
Diverse apps should feature stories and characters that are multicultural.
Diverse apps should share ideas, stories and information about cultures, race, religion, language and traditions.
Diverse apps should offer kids new ways to connect to a diverse and richer world.
Diverse apps can help kids learn to read and learn in their home language.
Diverse apps should be created by a diverse team.
Diverse apps should feature characters who represent the diversity in a classroom or community.
Diverse apps should educate kids about how different families and ethnicities live.
Diverse apps can also mean the inclusion of atypical kids , i.e. children with with physical, emotional, intellectual disabilities.
Diverse apps should not demonstrate “token” diversity; kids of different cultures should not just be placed in a story for the sake of checking off the “diversity” box.
Diverse apps allow for race, ethnicity, gender to be the secondary story.
Wow, it is blustery outside! Interested in keeping your kid entertained while learning about multiculturalism and diversity? Check out these twelve multicultural book apps every parent should know!
In today's world, it's wildly important to emphasize the ability of apps to harness the power of storytelling and inculcate values of tolerance and acceptance in the next generation. The apps on this list are interactive and tell beautiful stories and present a real pleasure for parent and child alike, all while showcases diversity and cultures that otherwise go ignored in kids' technology.
If you're tired of frolicking in the snow, meander on over to Buzzfeed to check out this fun and informative guide!
Do you ever feel disconnected from your children and grandchildren? Technology may be part of their childhood, but it wasn't necessarily for you. Check out this cool video about bridging the intergenerational gap in technology by using teenagers to teach senior citizens about Facebook and YouTube!
It's fascinating as well that this gap doesn't just pertain to social media platforms. In our game Dentist Bird: Mission of Mercy, a lot of kids understand the cues and prompts intuitively, while parents often require my wise tips and advice.
One way to combat this technological divide is through playing Mission of Mercy with your children, using our handy-dandy parents guide.
Play with your children or your grandchildren and both of you will likely learn something new!
Today from the rainforest I bring you "Books to Breed Tolerance: What Children Can Read After the Terrorist Attacks in Paris," an article that recommends many excellent books you can read to better understand the recent violence in France.
Diversity and compassion are always incredibly important, and though our story originated in Liberia, the truths it contains can and should be spread worldwide. Now more than ever, it's critical to read your world and learn about the incredible cultures around you. Additionally, 100% of profits go directly to spreading literacy across the globe, allowing you to participate in global citizenship from your bright young age.
Want more diversity in kids' lit? Check out these recommendations.
Urban Teacher Center resident Cheyandria Monks, left, talks with her host teacher, Angela Guidera. The program is built on the idea that, like doctors and chefs, teachers should train side-by-side with pros before they take charge of their own classrooms.
It's your good friend Crocodile! Plover Bird has been keeping me nice and healthy, so I've had a lot of spare time here in the rainforest. To keep myself nice and occupied, I've been exploring the jungle of the app store! There are a surprising amount of apps that are fun and educational, and in fact, I've been finding other stories as interesting as my own, if I do say so myself.
Today, I'm going to tell you about Tiny Bop, a developer that makes apps like Homes, Plants, and the Human Body. They're all beautifully designed, educational apps that let kids like you learn about the wonderful world around you! Homes, in particular, speaks to the diverse and multicultural focus of Dentist Bird, and showcases different homes around the world.
It is I, your sage Turtle. I've come to this "Tumblr" place to further your knowledge. The rainforest has been positively teeming with fascinating tidbits of information about the sparkling world around you.
Have you heard about #ReadYourWorld? On January 29th, millions of your people will celebrate Multicultural Children's Book Day. Diversity and multicultural awareness is vital, and the role they play in children's books is of particular importance.
In that vein, Teachers with Apps recently called Dentist Bird "a must-have app for teaching diversity, compassion, and empathy." Read the full review here.
Plover Bird here. I've decided I'm going to keep a blog of my life in the rainforest -- with some help from my handy-dandy animal friends, of course!
Hopefully your holidays have been going well. Here in the rainforest, things are crazy busy. Crocodile has been celebrating with all sorts of rare fish, so we plover birds have been kept on our toes constantly.
While I've got you here, check out our promo video! It features some of the best talent from the forest, if I do say so myself.
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