Maryville, U.S.A. — Just in time for summer fun, the creative team of Valarie Budayr and Roscoe Welply have written an entertaining and educational new children’s book, The Ultimate Guide to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, that will provide hours of fun for kids and parents alike.

Based on the beloved story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the boy who wins the golden ticket and enters the magical world of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, this beautifully illustrated and well-written book entices kids to enter that same magical world and join along in the adventure.

The Ultimate Guide to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is an interactive, adventure-filled delight through the Chocolate Factory. It reawakens the passion and idea of “jumping” inside the pages of this book with the knowledge that each chapter is a gateway into a magical world. Now available on iTunes, it’s your opportunity to truly experience where art, literature and technology meet, allowing you to feel the story like never before.

With over 20 crafts and activities, one can experience the wonder and amazement that Charlie experienced during his trip through Willy Wonka’s world of magic and chocolate. While meandering through the factory on the Chocolate River, readers stop to learn where chocolate comes from or how gum is made. They work their way through mazes, puzzles and games, and so much more.

By sparking the imagination and helping to develop creative thinking, it’s learning without really trying with education intertwined with entertainment.

Valarie Budayr states, “When we weave collaborative play into the fabric of our everyday life, we open the door to transform our relationships, our viewpoints and perspectives on creating happiness, and the joy of innovating with our children. I am thrilled to be able to provide a book that brings families together reading and enjoying their imaginations.”

The Ultimate Guide to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is published by Audrey Press in affiliation with Kite Reader and available on iTunes now. For media interviews or to join in our blog tour adventure, please contact publicist, Diana Ennen at diana@bizeasesupport.com. This book is not affiliated or associated with the author, publisher, or distributors of Roald Dahl’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

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New York, U.S.A. – Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, announced on July 31, 2012 a live webcast with worldwide bestselling author J.K. Rowling on October 11, 2012 and the launch of the Harry Potter Reading Club, an online destination created to share the magical world of Harry Potter with a generation of new readers. The live webcast is presented by the new Harry Potter Reading Club from Scholastic at www.scholastic.com/hpreadingclub.

At 12:00 noon ET on Thursday, October 11, 2012, J.K. Rowling will participate in a live virtual author visit to classrooms across America to discuss the world of Harry Potter including Pottermore (www.pottermore.com), an exciting, free online experience that offers Harry Potter fans the chance to explore and discover exclusive new writing by J.K. Rowling as well as immerse themselves in other interactive content and community activities.

The October 11 webcast will be broadcast live from J.K. Rowling’s hometown of Edinburgh, Scotland, and is the first time she has had the opportunity to answer questions from kids live since 2007. Educators can sign up to join the webcast beginning July 31, 2012 at www.scholastic.com/hpreadingclub.

The new Harry Potter Reading Club website provides educators, librarians, after school program coordinators and parents who want to organize a book club with access to all the tools they need to host a Harry Potter Reading Club and celebrate the joy of reading. The first 10,000 registrants for the Club will receive a welcome kit including bookmarks, stickers and nametags. Printable versions of these items will also be available for download from the website.

“Scholastic has been in conversation with educators, librarians, and other book lovers about ideas for bringing the Harry Potter books to new readers in exciting and different ways,” said Ellie Berger, President, Scholastic Trade. “The Harry Potter Reading Club is a direct response to that feedback and provides an entry point through which the thrill of these books can be shared with new generations of Harry Potter fans both within and beyond the classroom.”

The Harry Potter Reading Club website includes a comprehensive discussion guide for each of the seven Harry Potter novels. The guides provide questions to help club members start an insightful conversation about the themes and events in the books and, in certain instances, how the books may relate to readers’ own lives and the world today. Each month Scholastic will add new themed activities to complement the Reading Club discussions that will often relate to experiences on the Pottermore website.

“I have run my own Harry Potter Reading Club with my students for two years and seen them grow into better readers while having a great shared reading experience,” said Donalyn Miller, sixth grade teacher, Trinity Meadows Intermediate School in Kellor, TX.   ”I am delighted to be an advisor for Scholastic on the new Reading Club so that many more children will discover and become deeply engaged in the series in their own clubs all across the country.”

The Harry Potter Reading Club will also feature a live feed at Twitter #hpREADS providing a community for club leaders as well as “Teacher Tips” from educators already running Harry Potter Reading Clubs. The site will also include a series overview, a glossary of terms and a pronunciation guide as well as information about author J.K. Rowling and illustrator Mary GrandPre. Harry Potter Reading Club members can also expect invitations to additional special events and contests.

About Scholastic

Scholastic Corporation is the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books and a leader in educational technology and related services and children’s media. Scholastic creates quality books, print and technology-based learning materials and programs, magazines, multi-media and other products that help children learn both at school and at home. The Company distributes its products and services worldwide through a variety of channels, including school-based book clubs and book fairs, retail stores, schools, libraries, on-air, and online at www.scholastic.com.

About Pottermore

Pottermore.com is a free-to-use website, partnered by Sony, that can be enjoyed alongside the Harry Potter books. It is the only place to read new Harry Potter content by J.K. Rowling, and is the exclusive retailer of the Harry Potter eBooks.

Image Courtesy of  bibicall

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Mount Vernon, NewYork, U.S.A. – Every summer, kids who do not read during their school vacations suffer from the “summer slide,” a loss of some of the academic skills they learned during the school year. To tackle this serious problem and help students keep their reading skills sharp, the Mount Vernon City School District in Mount Vernon New York is providing every student in grades K-6 with a Scholastic Summer Reading Book Pack with eight books to take home as part of their new initiative READ – Reading Enriches Academic Development.

This distribution of books is part of a larger community-supported effort to make the summer of 2012 a time for the students of Mount Vernon to read. Along with the book packs, parents will receive a letter from Superintendent of Schools Dr. Waveline Bennett-Conroy emphasizing the importance of summer reading, along with a list of tips for parents for getting children excited about reading. Community members and organizations have shown support through sponsorship and volunteering, including Mayor Ernest D. Davis, Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson, and the Mount Vernon Recreation Department. Mondays through Fridays during the summer, the JCY-Westchester organization will have senior citizens volunteering at the Mount Vernon Library to read with students. The school will also be making weekly phone calls during the summer to students and parents to encourage them to keep reading.

“Author Elizabeth Hardwick famously said, ‘The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination,” said Superintendent Bennett-Conroy. “It is my hope through this initiative we are able to instill this PASSION in the students of Mount Vernon.”

Combating the loss of skills in the summer with books is backed up by the research of Richard Allington and Anne McGill-Franzen of the University of Tennessee, who have documented that students who receive books to read during the summer showed significantly higher levels of achievement. That research found that students from low-income households lose more ground over the summer than their peers who have books at home and often experience learning gains from enriching activities during the summer like museum visits or family trips. Allington says the cumulative effects of the “summer slide” year after year can account for as much as 85 percent of the achievement gap between students from low-income and high-income families.

“Mount Vernon is one of many school districts from across the country that realize the critical importance of ensuring kids read and keep their skills sharp during the summer – and they have access to books at home too,” said Greg Worrell, President of Scholastic Classroom and Community Group. “Ensuring that kids have books to read over the summer can help close the achievement gap between the rich and the poor, and give children an even better chance at succeeding in school and in life.”
The Mount Vernon school district kicked off its summer reading initiative on June 21st with a visit from Clifford the Big Red Dog, who went to school to help hand out book packs to students and get them excited about reading. The event was attended by Westchester County (NY) District Attorney Janet DiFiore, Grimes Elementary School Principal Frances Lightsy, N.Y. State Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson and other community leaders.

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