Starring Sally & Dave

Sally and Dave, the slimy and silly slugs from Australia are now featured in their very own cartoon blog - Starring Sally and Dave - courtesy of author / illustrator Felice Arena.

Be one of the first to sign up for the RSS feed. I guarantee that these two will make your day complete. Don't believe me? Check out the 4th of July post which seriously made me LOL.

Happy Birthday Felice!

Felice Arena - Australian author and illustrator of Sally and Dave, A Slug Story - celebrates his birthday today! Felice (pronounced Fe-LEE-chay), will be visiting the East Coast of the U.S. during the next week. If you haven't already seen the video where he reads aloud from this great tongue-twister of a picture book, don't miss it. You can view it on his biography page found on the Kane/Miller author's pages. Cheers!

Updates & Modifications

We've been making some minor changes to our website over the last few weeks - some of which may go unnoticed - such as changing the Conference Schedule to a more comprehensive and - we think - more useful Calendar.

We've changed the content on the What's New page to include the full text of the latest Kane/Miller book mentioned - Sally & Dave is featured this week - and we will continue to update this page with the latest reviews.

We have added photos to a few of the biography pages of our authors and illustrators, including Anette Bley and Bine Brändle.

You'll also see that many authors and illustrators have allowed us to include their birth dates on the Calendar, giving us more reasons to celebrate - and promote their work!

As always, feedback, comments and suggestions are welcome. If you find a feature on our website that could use a little tweaking, we'd like to know about it. We want our site to be as helpful and user-friendly as possible so please let me know what might not be working for you.

Speaking of updates, you'll see that there's a new Kane/Miller widget on our blog which lists the most recent posts. We're always looking for more creative ways to reach our readers and we hope you enjoy the modifications.

Thinking Outside the Book

I'm pleased to announce that two of the four new Play Pages for our Spring 2008 titles are now available on line.

Word searches for both Jukebox and Sally and Dave can now be printed from your computer to create a more interactive way to use these two books, either in the classroom, or at home.

More Play Pages can be found on our website for Benny, Bobbie Dazzler, Half of an Elephant, Jack Russell: Dog Detective, Kali and the Rat Snake, Singing Shijimi Clams, and The Story of Cherry the Pig.

The Story of Cherry the Pig

by Utako Yamada

Over the next few weeks, we'll also be updating the site to include Play Pages for Hannah Duck and No! That's Wrong!

Teacher Tips

Teacher Tips can now be found on line for Ziba Came on a Boat, recently reviewed at Jen Robinson's Book Page.

Teacher Tips for our Spring 2008 titles, Sally and Dave: A Slug Story and CAT are also available. Word documents open for you to print out directly from your computer.

If you have created, or would like to create Teacher Tips for any Kane/Miller title that you do not see listed, please send a copy to Jenna Ellis. If your Teacher Tips are selected to be included on our website, you will earn new books for your classroom!

Hot Men of Children's Literature

Over a year ago, our German author / illustrator Sebastian Meschenmoser appeared on A Fuse #8 Production blog as one of the Hot Men of Children's Literature that Betsy so generously shares with the kidlit world.

Our spring 2008 books are finally visible on line, which means our authors and illustrators appear now as well. Don't miss the video featuring Felice Arena reading from his new book: Sally and Dave, A Slug Story. Felice Arena is a very talented - not to mention handsome - author and illustrator from Australia. I'd say he'd make a great addition to the HMOCL collection! (Are nominations still open?)

Did I mention that he was once an actor on the Australian soap opera, Neighbours, of which Russell Crowe was once a cast member?

Stunning & Sensational Slugs

Sally and Dave, A Slug Story

Our publisher read this aloud to us when she first brought it back from Bologna this past April. I fell in love with it right away - who wouldn't? Sally and Dave are slugs with nothing in common, except for their slimy and slippery slug bottoms.

Felice Arena created this alliterative tongue-twister of a tale with spectacularly superb results. This paperback original will have readers and listeners smiling and wanting more (and with Rick James' Super Freak running through their head).

We suggest you practice reading this one out loud before attempting to share this with your silly and slug-happy students.

Sally and Dave, a Slug Story
by Felice Arena
978-1-933605-71-5
Paperback original
$7.95
March 1, 2008