Illustrating "Beloved" by Toni Morrison

An illustrated version of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel Beloved  has recently been published by The Folio Society. The illustrations done by Joe Morse bring the brutality and hardships of living in the post civil war south to life.

Morse,who was hand picked by Morrison, was interviewed by Flavor Wire and the two talk about how he began the creative process.

"When I work with a text, I look for the visual images embedded in the words that will support the narrative. I try to build a thread from image to image so that they belong together with the text, rather than appear dropped in like candy."

The full interview can be read here.

To purchase the paperback version of Beloved visit Prestwickhouse.com.

A simple plan to make Summer Reading more effective

"Both classes were given literacy test before and after summer vacation. Sure enough, the students who chose their books did better, improving from the previous summer. Those in the community program showed no improvement" 

Above is a quote form a study done by Dr. Erin Kelly at the University of Rochester Medical Center. In her work she tried to negate the "summer slide" problem that plagues many teachers.  

In her study she allowed small groups of students to pick the type of books that they wanted to read over the summer, and she saw immediate improvement. Give the full article a read here. 

Shakes-bear...