New Video Booktalks for Catching Fire, Malice, & More

We've just finished producing another round of video booktalks for 12 fantastic books, including Malice, Hannah and How to Say Goodbye in Robot. We also filmed the awesome follow-up to Hunger Games called Catching Fire (it has been making a big splash, in case you haven't already heard.)

As always, the Scholastic staffers who volunteer to sit in front of the bright lights and intimidating camera did a great job. We hope you find these booktalks useful in the new year -- and we'd love to hear how you use them in your classroom.

Watch more booktalks.

Video Wednesday: New Video Booktalks

Here at Scholastic, we dig video booktalks.They're a fun, easy way to get kids interested in good books without having to read the jacket or skim through the first few chapters. I've been inspired to read books after watching a booktalk (including Chasing Vermeer). We just published 12 new booktalks, bringing our grand total to 75 videos. Whew!

My favorite of the bunch is for Carlos is Gonna Get It by Kevin Emerson. It's performed by Scholastic staffer Jonathan Valuckas, who is just as hilarious and gregarious in person as he is in his video clips.

Watch all of the video booktalks and find a new book to read or recommend.

Video Wednesday: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Booktalk

The adorable and lovable Sammi Hanratty, a Hollywood actress whose credits include "Pushing Daisies," "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" and the new American Girl movie, stopped by the Scholastic offices a few weeks ago. While here, we asked her to talk about her favorite books. She couldn't wait to tell us all about Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney -- which she had recently finished and had recommended to all her friends ... even her Dad!

Here's her booktalk:

Watch the Diary of a Wimpy Kid video book trailer and check out more video booktalks here!

CBC Book Awards Finalists 2009

The 2009 CBC Children's Choice Book Award finalists have been announced. Nearly 15,000 children and teens cast votes to determine the list -- and thousands more will weigh in on who should win.

Kid Lit Kit applauds all the fantastic nominated books, authors, and illustrators. The Scholastic finalists are:

Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade Book of the Year
100 Most Dangerous Things On the Planet by Anna Claybourne 
Amulet, Book One: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi (watch an interview with Kibuishi and the Amulet book trailer)

Teen Choice Book Award
Airhead by Meg Cabot (see the Airhead video booktalk)
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (read Hunger Games chapter one (PDF), watch an interview with Collins, find The Hunger Games discussion guide)

Illustrator of the Year
Jon J Muth, Zen Ties

Encourage your students to vote at www.BookWeekOnline.com from March 16 through May 3. 

Video Wednesday: Jackie's Nine

The adorable actor/ singer Mishon Ratcliff came to the Scholastic offices to do a booktalk of Jackie's Nine: Jackie Robinson's Values to Live By, a nonfiction book about the values that helped the legendary baseball player succeed, written by daughter Sharon Robinson.

Video Wednesday: Cirque du Freak

When I found out that Jake T. Austin, the 13-year-old star of Disney Channel's Wizards of Waverly Place, would be visiting Scholastic, my first question was "What is his favorite book?" Turns out it's the Cirque du Freak series by Darren Shan, those creepy gross horror books full of the disgusting details that boys love to read about. Motivate the boys to read with Jake's video booktalk for Book 1 in the series, A Living Nightmare.

For more video booktalks, visit Scholastic Videos.

And to hear more kids' reviews of books or to submit your own, visit Kids' Picks at 5 Minutes for Books.

Video Wednesday: Teen Read Week

American Idol contestant Blake Lewis stopped by at Scholastic to do his part to get kids excited about reading. He is so absolutely charming and adorable in person! Check out his PSA for Teen Read Week!

Blake also performed a video booktalk for All Shook Up: The Life and Death of Elvis Presley, which tells the tragic story story of an extremely talented young Elvis who was very badly misused by the music industry. I definitely recommend it for teen music fans.

Video Wednesday: Hispanic Heritage

Last June I was lucky enough to visit Ecuador and while I was there I shot a video booktalk for Bookwink, because, yeah, I never stop thinking about books and ways to get kids excited about reading. Aren't we all like that? Wouldn't we go to the ends of the earth to get kids hooked on reading?

So here it is, my booktalk of Lost Treasure of the Inca, the fascinating story about Pizarro and the Incans and a very large hidden treasure in the Andes Mountains.

Video Wednesday: New Video Booktalks

We scoured the New York City Scholastic offices for the best booktalkers and we found a whole crop of hidden talent among our editors, marketing experts and summer interns! Here are the most recent Scholastic video booktalks featuring our new breakout stars, Carrie, Jonathan, and Jessica.

Here is Carrie booktalking Airhead the newest YA title by Meg Cabot.

This booktalk for Amulet: The Stonekeeper a new graphic novel series for grades 4-7, features Jessica.

And last but definitely not least, Jonathan booktalks Magic Pickle and the Planet of the Grapes, a silly story for grades 2-5.

To see the complete archive of all our video booktalks, visit Scholastic Videos.