Celebrate your family’s love of children’s books with the Children’s Book Week Writing Contest*. Have your child write and illustrate an original storybook. Submit your child’s story at www.tikatok.com by April 25, 2010 and he or she could be eligible to win:

• A $100 Tikatok Gift Card
• 25 free hardcover copies of the winning story to share with classmates, friends and family
• A poster signed by Jon Sciezska and Katherine Paterson, the inaugural and current National Ambassadors for Young People’s Literature and authors of “The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales” and “Bridge to Terabithia”

Visit www.tikatok.com/contests to learn more.

*No purchase necessary to enter or win.  See details and official rules.

Have you been inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland?  You’re not alone!  The eccentric children’s novel authored by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson – better known as Lewis Carroll – has entertained many generations of children and adults with its unpredictable story and crazy characters.  But what makes perhaps the biggest impression is the world of Wonderland itself – a dream-like realm where anything can happen.  This world has sparked the creativity of many authors, filmmakers, and even video game designers.

Here’s your chance to write and publish a book inspired by the world of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.  Create a book with Tikatok StorySparks inspired by the novel.  They are a perfect fit if you’re a fan of Carroll’s surreal world – there is even a way for you to write your own remix version of the book using the original illustrations by John Tenniel!

1. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: by You! – We’ve brought together the woodcut illustrations from the original novel into a StorySpark to help you create your own retelling of the story.  Put the story in your own words, retell the story from a minor character’s perspective, or tell an entirely new story to go along with these beautiful images.

2. The Fairy School – Wonderland is a place where the physical  laws of the real world have been turned upside down.  Cats disappear, babies turn into pigs, and playing cards are alive.  In this StorySpark you can imagine what going to school would be like in a topsy-turvy world of flying fairies.

3. The Shrinking Potion – Alice finds herself changing all the time on her trip through Wonderland.  She’s big, she’s small, she’s big again.  With this StorySpark, imagine what it would be like to shrink down to the size of a toy car.

We hope these StorySparks help ignite your imagination.  Of course, you can always start from scratch with a blank book and add your own original story and illustrations.  If so, I hope you’ll still take a page from Lewis Carroll, and really let your imagination run wild.

Happy writing!

Tikatok is happy to announce the launch of our new classroom program.  Teachers can now inspire their students to love reading and writing by using Tikatok in the classroom. With Tikatok’s Classroom Program, teachers can provide students with the unique opportunity to create and publish their own books, creating a rewarding classroom experience that encourages students to take pride in their written work.  Thousands of teachers have already begun using Tikatok for their classroom writing projects, and our new program makes it easier than ever for educators to join, add student accounts (no parent email addresses required), and manage classroom writing projects – all for free.  And best of all, the classroom program makes it possible for teachers to help their students become published authors.

Here are some of the benefits of a free teacher account:

• Option to purchase books created by you and your students in hardcover, softcover and pdf.
• Add author biographies to your students’ books, complete with picture and description.
• Personalized dashboard to view and track your students’ progress.
• Interactive story prompts to help your students develop their stories.

Click here to register for a free teacher account.

How it Works

After a teacher joins Tikatok by filling out our teacher registration form, he or she will be taken directly to their own Teacher Dashboard.  This is the command center for adding students and managing projects.

From the dashboard, getting started is a cinch.

1. Add Student Accounts – Create a Tikatok account for each student by entering his or her name, username and password via your Tikatok teacher dashboard.
2. Write and Illustrate – Use your own writing lesson plan or choose from hundreds of StorySparks to jumpstart your students’ imaginations. Students write their stories, upload their illustrations and photos and create their books online.
3. Publish and Share – Help your students take pride in their work by having their stories published as professional-quality books. Organize a publishing party in your school library or local Barnes & Noble store as a way to build your students’ pride in their work.  Hardcover books start at $18, paperbacks at $15, and PDFs are all $2.99.  Tikatok offers significant educational and volume discounts, so please contact us directly for a custom quote for your classroom.

Join Today, or Invite a Teacher

Teachers, we invite you to give Tikatok’s classroom program a try.  Registering for Tikatok is free, getting your classroom set up and ready to create is easy, and there is no obligation to buy.  Join today.

Parents, do you know a teacher who would be interested in Tikatok’s classroom program?  Would you like to see your child’s teacher incorporate creative writing and publishing into his or her curriculum?  Then let the teacher know, and help Tikatok spread the word.  Just forward the following link to your teacher friends:

http://www.tikatok.com/classroom

Thank you and happy writing!

Some months had passed since the birth of her second daughter, and entrepreneur Sharon Kan was looking ahead to her return to the working world.  She was intrigued by all of the cool “Web 2.0” startups that had been launched recently, but had noticed a significant gap.  Where were the sites that brought the advantages of the Web to children like her own?  It seemed like the only sites out there for kids were sites with lots of games.  “I believed it was important for children to have the opportunity to use their imaginations and create things,” says Sharon, “instead of always consuming products.”

A resident of the Boston area, Sharon had a chance to visit the MIT Media Lab, famous incubator for innovative technologies and forward-thinking talent.  It was there that she met graduate student Orit Zuckerman, who was working on new ways for people to communicate and express themselves.  One of her projects was a technology that allowed children to connect with grandparents who lived far away more intimately than by phone or email.  “For example,” describes Orit, “a grandmother would read a story to her grandchild on the other side of the world; and then the grandson would get that message when he went to bed. The system would know the right time to connect between the relatives and thus create a more meaningful connection between them.”  It was a project close to her heart as an Israeli mother of two studying abroad in the United States.  And she, too, was thinking about what lay ahead in her own future.  After her graduation, how could she continue her groundbreaking work in connecting families?

Sharon and Orit – entrepreneur and innovator – became instant friends and, eventually, business partners.  But what could they work on together that would give kids an opportunity to create and families to connect?  That’s where the trip to the bookstore came in.

The two friends went on an afternoon visit to the local Barnes & Noble store.   They had been thinking about work too much, so that day they were just going to have a nice time and read some books at the store with their children.  While they were browsing the bookshelves, however, something clicked.  They looked at the children’s books on the shelves.  “We realized that all of the books were written and illustrated by adults,” says Sharon.  What if their children had a chance to tell their own stories, to create their own children’s books?

“Children clearly tell stories differently, but no one publishes them,” says Orit.  “This is what led us to think that creating a platform where kids can tell their stories, bind them into real books, and be active in a community of book lovers would be a great thing to build. Who knew better the kinds of stories that children would like to read than kids?”

And from that moment of inspiration came Tikatok: a website where kids and their parents could create and publish their own children’s books.

They gathered a team to help realize their vision, and put together a prototype.  Some early investors in the company realized the potential of the idea and enabled them to take it to the next level.  Tikatok was launched to the world in 2008.  The rest, as they say, is history.

So it was that one creative idea launched the potential for thousands of imaginative, original stories. As Orit puts it: “Tikatok’s goal is to give young children a stage to show their creativity, cultivate it, and create a continuum of creativity and creation into their adult life.”  We at Tikatok hope that you will take the opportunity to help your child tap into his or her creativity and create a book.  The time you spend writing and reading together, and the keepsake book that you create, will be treasured forever.

It’s easy to get your eBook.

1. Sign in to Tikatok and go to the book view page.

2. Click “Buy Now” and select the “eBook Download”

3. Checkout through Google Checkout and click on the link to return to the site and download your file. Follow the instructions to save and open the file.

4. If you need to download your file again, go to the book page and look for the “Download Now’ button.

Why Would I Buy an E-book?

Of course you will always be able to view and share your book on Tikatok, but unlocking your eBook download makes your Tikatok book even better. Here are some suggestions for how the eBook can come in handy.

1. Save wear and tear on your hardcover - Print out extra copies of your book for the beach, a long road trip, a cave exploration adventure, your skydiving lessons, or the rocket trip to Mars, and leave your professionally bound Tikatok hardcover book safe at home.
2. Print a copy for EVERYONE – We know Great Aunt Edna would love a copy.
3. Download ALL of your books – No more need to play favorites.  At this affordable price you can download each one of your books.
4. Share your book without an Internet connection – Open the saved file on your laptop when you can’t get a Web connection.  Or keep the file on a thumb drive and take it with you everywhere.
5. Revise and reprint – Do you prefer to do your editing and rewriting by hand?  Print your book out, mark it up with your red pen as much as you want, then go back online to make your changes and download a fresh new copy when you’re finished.

Those are just some ideas, but we’re sure you’ll come up with tons more!

With the holiday season approaching, we at Tikatok get the question all of the time: “I think Tikatok is a great idea but how do I give it as a gift?”  Or, “how can I encourage a child to publish a book who is not yet a member of the site?”  Well, the answer is finally here: a Tikatok Gift Card.

Now available, Tikatok Gift Cards can be used just like cash to order printed books of a child’s own making.

Gift cards are available in any denomination, but we have provided some suggested values based on the average prices of our books.  You have the option of sending the gift card claim code by email, for instant gratification, or of requesting a handsome plastic card for a more tangible gift.

You heard about Tikatok first.  Now here’s your chance to spread the word AND send a unique and thoughtful gift to the creative people on your list at the same time.

Tuesday July 29, 3:00 PM – Dudley Branch, 65 Warren St., Roxbury

Wednesday July 30, 11:00 AM – West Roxbury Branch, 1961 Centre St.

Thursday July 31, 1:00 PM – Codman Square Branch, 690 Washington St., Dorchester

Friday August 1, 2:30 PM – Main Branch, Copley Sq., 700 Boylston St.

Monday August 4, 6:30 PM – Connolly Branch, 433 Centre St., Jamaica Plain

Tuesday August 5, 11:15 AM – Charlestown Branch, 179 Main St.

Thursday, August 7, 6:30 PM – Hyde Park Branch, 35 Harvard Ave.

Monday, August 11, 3:00 PM – Washington Village Branch, 1226 Columbia Rd., South Boston

Tuesday, August 12, 2:00 PM – South End Branch, 685 Tremont St.

Wednesday August 13, 10:30 AM – 27 Richmond St., Dorchester

Thursday August 14, 10:30 AM – Faneuil Branch, 419 Faneuil St., Brighton

Friday, August 15, 10:30 AM – Roslindale Branch, 4238 Washington St.

Or, view the complete BPL calendar of events for more fun workshops and contact information.

I look at the bright gold leaf on my mom’s car window and I wonder where it has been,

what tree did it come from, and when?

It must have seen things going on down below that would be worth knowing had the branch not let go

these magical things that kids wonder as they pass through each day,

we often lose sight of as the clock ticks away

But when they get older and have needs of their own, we’ll wish we had left them to their magic alone.

Tikatok, Tickatok, see the kid’s reading

While one is absorbed in a wonderful story others are writing about glory, or fame, even sadness and pain.

No matter the subject, the idea is the same…let the imagination run wild, bring more kids to this game.

Tikatok, Tikatok, the time ticks along.

A place where the magic still plays its sweet song.

Where a mom or a dad can pretend, to think with their kid’s that there’s no beginning or end…just a story to dream and a book to record so that others may read it and share the reward.