Coming Together, Reaching Out, Giving Back, and Walking the Talk

As the week has progressed, there has been a lot of talk about two things I have grown to love in my years in the Kidlitosphere: the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers Literary Awards (aka Cybils); and KidlitCon 2009 (also known as the Third Annual Kidlitosphere Conference).  At this year’s event, Jen Robinson will be moderating a panel called Coming Together, Reaching Out, Giving Back: Building Community, Literacy and the Reading Message.  You can reed the full skinny about Jen’s goals, the topics, and the panelists here. Yes, I am one of them.

I discovered Jen’s post on my way over to the browser after reading (and getting ready to write) about  Susan Taylor Brown’s new project.  It is S-O-O-O cool. Susan has partnered with FreshBrain – The Technology Exploration Platform for Teens – to sponsor a contest where teens 13-18 can create a book trailer for my book, Hugging the Rock. The prize is a $1000 scholarship! AND the trailer featured on the Random House website  How cool is that? They get to read, they get to play with technology, AND they can win a scholarship. Yep, walking the talk!  To make it easy for you, I’m pasting in the info Susan sent to the Kidlitosphere. Here’s the pitch.

Create a video book trailer for the novel “Hugging the Rock” by Susan Taylor Brown.

Put together a cast and act it out, create an animation, or use photos with text set to music – it’s up to you. Be creative. Have fun. Make people want to read the book. More details can be found at the Freshbrain.org website:
http://tinyurl.com/rocktrailer

FreshBrain is an educational non-profit so the use of the website for teens, teachers, homeschoolers, is completely free! So teachers, if you haven’t already checked it out, I highly recommend it. Here’s a bit about FreshBrain from their website:

FreshBrain provides teens with the opportunity to explore, engage, and create through activities and projects. FreshBrain takes advantage of the latest technologies, such as web conferencing and social networking, to provide a very progressive environment where teens can complete activities and work together on projects. This experience is enhanced with Advisors, available to support and mentor teens who are working on projects, with the intention of increasing the likelihood of success. In addition, FreshBrain provides teens with tools and training in the latest technologies to complete these projects.

This is the first time the company has combined literature and technology. Susan says there will be many more events like this. To learn more and get all the rules, see how the contest is judged, etc. then visit this Video Tour Book Trailer Scholarship link.