Good news for summer readers! StarWalk Kids is making their digital library free for the entire month of July with their Summer Pop-Up Library. StarWalk Kids is the brainchild of founders Seymour Simon and Liz Nealon. Seymour has written over 250 science books for kids and Liz’s extensive career in kids’ media includes being Executive Vice President of Sesame Workshop. And they’re lovely people. [Disclosure: I consulted on a couple of titles in the Starwalk Kids library.]
The StarWalk Kids library includes a vast array of nonfiction on high interest topics, including many of Seymour Simon’s books, with some fiction titles thrown in for good measure. The books can be accessed on the web, on interactive whiteboards, and on tablets and smartphones with the SWKids Reader app.
Within the StarWalk Kids Reader there are three different reading modes: Read to Me, Let Me Read, and Auto Play. In Read to Me and Auto Play modes, there is audio narration and the text is highlighted as it is read. Additionally, there is a suite of tools to zoom in and out, navigate the book, and highlight the text.
The library has books for kids from PreK through 8th grade. For educators, there’s also teacher information and correlation to the Common Core Standards.
Be sure to check out the Pop-Up Library during the month of July and get your kids excited about reading this summer.
