• Installing the update will NOT remove your data.  All your books will be there after you install the update.
• If memory problems are causing the App to close, try closing some other Apps that are running at the same time.  Most people don’t realize they may be simultaneously running over 20 Apps.
• Questions about sharing:  your books are private unless YOU decide to add them to the public gallery, and we require parent approval for kids to add books.  We also keep an eye on the gallery to make sure that all the books up there are kid-friendly, original creations.  
• You can download and read your book on an iPad, Kindle, Nook or any other e-reader.  Our App only works on iPad but you can read the books you create on anything.
• For teachers: It’s great that so many classrooms are already using Scribble Press for iPad! we are working on a group accounts feature and invite you to join our educator community by emailing us at educators@scribblepress.com.  We want to hear your feedback.
• Updates: we are planning the next big release for April, so let us know what you think should be included.

great new book creation tool for iPad

Just in time for the holidays – Scribble Press for iPad is here!  Scribble Press for iPad is a free (for now!) App to create books with words, photos, stickers, stamps and drawings.  The best part – you can share them with whomever you like or download to iBooks – also free!

Just one of the great books created on Scribble Press for iPad

Launched two days ago and people are already creating some amazing things with this App.  We are seeing lots of books featuring aliens, ninjas, zombies, and cherubic two year olds who somehow get invited to join major league baseball teams.  Download the App here. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scribble-press/id487300076?mt=8

Check out this great review – the first one http://blog.famigo.com/2011/12/scribble-press-new-ipad-app-write-illustrate-your-own-books/?=TOM 

Happy Scribbling and let us know what you think!

Our guest judge this month is Gina Otto , author of Cassandra’s Angel.  Gina has worked in film production, advertising, and the fashion industry for the past fifteen years. In 1995, she began speaking with teenagers about the importance of self perception and how it is affected by popular culture. 

Although Gina was a fan of many of the eBooks written in November, she chose Anna’s book, saying she was “touched that she used her time and talent to write a story to encourage and uplift someone else.   She also noted the rhyming verse and thought that Anna’s “imaginative and colorful illustrations were beautiful.

Anna will be receiving $100 of art supplies from our friends at Faber-Castell, including a Young Artists Essentials Gift Set.  Congratulations, Anna!  Perhaps you can enjoy using your new art supplies with dear Ben?

To read other great books written by kids, and to learn how to enter the Faber-Castell Scribble Your Story contest, check out the Scribble Press eBookshelf.  Maybe the holidays will inspire you to write a story of your own!

Our guest judge this month is Gitty Daneshvari, author of one of Scribble Press’ favorite children’s book series, School of Fear.  She has a background in film development and is also the author of the adult novel The Makedown.  She lives in New York City, by way of LA– bicoastal just like Scribble Press!  You can learn more about Gitty and her fantastic series at www.enrollinschooloffear.com.

For her prize-winning book, Skylar will receive $100 of art supplies from our friends at Faber-Castell, including a Young Artists Essentials Gift Set. Here’s what Ms. Daneshvari wrote about Skylar’s book: “Choosing the winner for the Faber-Castell Book of the Month contest was incredibly difficult! All the books were original and impressive in different ways. …But ultimately, I had to choose ‘My Trip to Skylar Island’ as the winner. Skylar created an adventure filled story which kept the reader glued to the page, wondering what would happen to our protagonist on the high seas in the middle of a storm. I was especially impressed with Skylar’s descriptions and use of vocabulary. I look forward to reading more from Skylar and the rest of the talented authors soon!”

Congrats again to Skylar for writing such a fun story!  We’re hoping this turns out to be a recurring character… sequel, anyone?  To read other great books written by kids, and to learn how to enter the Faber-Castell Scribble Your Story contest, check out the Scribble Press eBookshelf.  We can’t wait to see what fun November brings!

Paint the entire shoebox black. (For a less messy option, cover the shoebox with black construction paper.)

Adhere one side of the shoebox to the lid. The lid will serve as the lawn of your haunted house.

For the roof of the haunted house, cut another shoebox lid in half and tape each end together. Adhere the triangle to the top off the shoebox. Cut a triangular shape out of a piece of construction paper and glue it to back of the roof.

Cut colored squares out of construction paper for the windows.

Fill your house with jack-o-lanterns, bats, vampires, witches, ghosts and whatever other scary Halloween characters you can think of! Use Halloween themed stickers, or draw, color, cut out and glue your pictures in the house.

Roll toilet paper around a popsicle stick to make a mummy. Or, crumple the end of a few squares of toilet paper into a ball and fasten with a rubber band or twist-tie and shred the ends to make a ghost. Or do both!

Repeat the process with boxes of all different shapes and sizes to create an entire haunted village!

We’ll be offering the shoebox haunted house project at all three Scribble Press locations this weekend (Friday-Sunday).  $10 for members, $20 for nonmembers. Join us for some Halloween fun!

Our guest judge this month is Laura Lee Gulledge, author of the beautiful and heartfelt graphic novel, Page by Paige, which was nominated for a YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) Award as a great graphic novel for teens. Gulledge’s illustrations are intricate and her main character is well-crafted. Gulledge shows perfectly how pictures can tell a wonderful story.

Sadie received $100 of art supplies from Faber-Castell including a Young Artists Essentials Gift Set. Here’s what Laura Lee wrote about Sadie’s book: I love tales with journeys and quests, so I was immediately drawn into “My Little Unicorn.”  The unicorn travels through different lands, picking up other animal friends along the way. They are all different and looking for where they fit in, which is something that I think everyone can relate to. Because everyone feels like they don’t belong sometimes! In the story the characters include a unicorn who has a rainbow tail, the skunk who is albino, and the redbird who is blue. Even though they see themselves as “wrong” because they are colored differently than everyone else, I think they are each more unique and beautiful because they are different. What could be more fun than a unicorn with a rainbow tail?? The drawings themselves were very colorful, vibrant, and fun to look at. My favorite drawing was on the second page with the green trees and flowers. The unicorn in the center of the page really pops! Sadie should be really proud; she did a great job with this book.”

Congrats again to Sadie! What a fun book with a great message. To read other great books written by kids, and to learn how to enter the Faber-Castell Scribble Your Story contest, check out the Scribble Press eBookshelf.

Keppie Coutts

I love teaching songwriting to kids! Most of the time, when I teach songwriting, I am teaching adults. By the time adults get around to taking a course in songwriting, they are full of doubts about their creativity and process. They are not sure if their ideas are original enough, good enough, unique enough… What I love about kids is that, for the most part, they don’t have that baggage! Every idea is fair game! And this is the beauty of songwriting: finding ways to show the world how you perceive something different to everybody else, and why it is exciting to you.

The cool thing is that in the end, the stuff I teach to adults is the same stuff I teach to kids:

• Decide what the central idea of your song is.
• Find unique images, word pictures, and sounds to describe your ideas.
• Structure your song like you would structure a story – with a beginning, middle, and an end, so that the ideas flow in logical order.

What is amazing about songwriting for kids is learning how to focus on one idea, find cool and interesting ways to explain or describe it, using melody, rhythm and rhyme to start understanding the structure of language, and seeing how music can create a powerful emotional backdrop to the lyrical ideas you have.

I am so excited to share my love for songs and songwriting with other budding young songwriters!

-Keppie Coutts, Scribble Press Santa Monica Songwriting teacher

Keppie’s Favorite Artists Whose Songs Tell Great Stories:
The Beatles
Leonard Cohen
Joni Mitchell
The Decembrists
Gillian Welch
Tom Waits
Ani DiFranco

We’re honored and excited to be a finalist in the Most Awesome Toy Shops and Book Stores category in Red Tricycle’s Totally Awesome awards.

We REALLY want to win, but we can’t do it without your help! If you love Scribble Press, please vote for us here (and tell your friends, too!). Voting ends October 14.

And, when you vote for Scribble Press, you’re automatically entered to win a $500 gift certificate from our friends and neighbors at giggle! Shop at giggle, and then come scribble!

Some reasons why Scribble Press is totally awesome:

“I like the people who help me and it is interesting to write a book and get to take it home.” – Aidan

“No one is telling you what to do – you just do it.” -Alex

“You can come up with anything, put it on paper, and then you have it forever.” – Spencer

Thank you to all our fans for your continued love and support! And for voting!

Simon creating an award winning story and having fun doing so!

Simon’s creative and colorful comic book, “The Adventure of Bob.”

Our guest judge this month is Sherri Duskey Rinker, author of one of the best picture books of 2011, GOODNIGHT, GOODNIGHT, CONSTRUCTION SITE. Why we love Rinker:  Her book is filled with surprising rhymes and creative uses of words.  Also, she wrote Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site in her free time – while juggling multiple full time jobs as the head of her own graphic design firm and mom of two. What a great inspiration for all our aspiring young authors. Scribble Press was lucky to be able to host Rinker for a reading during her book tour, and we’re thrilled she’s joined us here to help choose the first of 12 winners of the Faber-Castell Scribble Your Story Contest! Simon received $100 of art supplies from Faber-Castell including a Young Artists Essentials Gift Set and a Comic Illustrations Set. Simon also received a gift certificate to make more books at Scribble Press.

Here’s what Sherri wrote about Simon’s book:

“I love the creativity shown in Simon’s book (dare I say “graphic novel?!”), The Adventure of Bob!
Simon shows great maturity in his illustration style and his ability to aptly divide up his pages into strong graphic vignettes that move the story along and keep the reader interested. Additionally, Simon’s plot twists are lively and his dialog nicely fits the illustrations (and sometimes elicits a laugh from the reader!). Simon’s’ combination of text and graphics make him a sure winner with a promising future ahead! (Nicely done, Simon. I can’t believe you’re only almost-11 years old!)”

Congrats again to Simon! We can’t wait to read all the stories you’ll write!

To read other great books written by kids, to learn how to enter the Faber-Castell Scribble Your Story contest, check out the Scribble Press eBookshelf.

Here’s a little tour of what you’ll find at the Inspiration Station:

It's an elephant... in a dress!

Laminated photo cards – You’ll find hundreds of photos to help develop the who, what, where, when and why of a story, or just to help with illustrations. Elephant in a dress, anyone?

Story starters, twist ideas, and synonym cards – “And then, all of a sudden, I sprouted wings.”  Now you’ll never run out of interesting plot turns or get stuck thinking of the perfect word to describe something.

Inklings – These cards provide step by step drawing instructions for dozens of popular items, from spaceships to castles to dolphins.

Story stones – For the more tactile scribblers, each hand-painted stone contains a single word to help get those creative wheels turning!

What do you think of Inspiration Station? We’re always looking for new things to add, so please share your ideas!