Year: 2012

Posted in competitions, info

2012 Design-a-magazine-cover comp (tips!)

Posted on by Alphabet Soup

Alphabet soup runs a cover-design competition every year. The 2012 competition is now open and entries close 16 September 2012.

Here are the covers done by our 2009, 2010 and 2011 winners, K Larson, A Hatton and E Nolan:

"Issue 5 cover (winner of 2009 design-a-cover comp)"

"Alphabet Soup magazine issue 9 cover"

Issue 13 cover

Now we’re looking for a winning design for our summer 2012 issue!

Here are some tips for all you budding artists.

COMPETITION DETAILS

Using any materials you like, design a cover for Alphabet Soup magazine.

Important – your artwork must be on one side of a sheet of white A4 paper. Make sure the paper is portrait orientation. Do NOT include the Alphabet Soup logo. And we’d prefer it if the paper wasn’t folded (but if you’ve already folded it, that’s OK!)

Entry to the competition is free. You may enter as many times as you like, but each entry must have a competition entry form with the declaration signed by you and a parent. (Entry forms can be printed from the website, or contact us to have one sent to you.)

The winner’s artwork will be used on the cover of the summer 2012 issue of Alphabet Soup magazine (out in November 2012), and the winner will receive one copy of the summer 2012 issue and art supplies worth $20.

The theme for the cover is: AT THE CARNIVAL/FAIR.

You can interpret the theme any way you like. You could show a whole fairground scene or you could focus on one particular item/event/person/activity you would find at a carnival or fairground. Artwork can be realistic, or abstract, or collage, or cartoon-like, or any style you choose. It must be your own work and it must be original (no tracing pictures!). Remember that the magazine’s readers are aged 6 to 12.

Our covers don’t usually have a lot of unused white space. If you draw one item in the middle of the page and nothing else, it would be tricky for us to turn it into a cover for the magazine!

There will be one winner chosen. By entering the competition, you agree to us using your artwork on the cover of the summer 2012 issue of Alphabet Soup magazine. We cannot return entries.

Download an entry form from the Alphabet Soup website.

We can’t wait to see your artwork!

Posted in National Year of Reading, teachers' resources

Fabulous First Line Friday (10 August)

Posted on by Alphabet Soup

To celebrate the National Year of Reading, we are sharing some fabulous first lines from the books on our bookshelves. (Every Friday you’ll find another fabulous first line here on Soup Blog. Try to guess the book it’s from. Would you read on? Perhaps you can use it as a writing prompt … if it were your own first line, where would your story go from here?)

Now for today’s Fabulous First Line*:

 

It had been a long, hard three days.

 

Do you want to read on? The title of the book is at the end of this post …

 

*For the purposes of Fabulous First Line Friday, we’re counting the first line as the first line of chapter 1 in any book. So if there is an introduction or an author’s note or something before chapter 1, we don’t count that bit …
The book is Ranger’s Apprentice: The Lost Stories by John Flanagan.
Posted in Book reviews by kids, Yidarra Catholic Primary School

Book review: Ready, Freddy! Tooth Trouble

Posted on by Alphabet Soup

Ready, Freddy! Tooth Trouble by Abby Klein, ill. John McKinley ISBN 9780439555968, Scholastic

Reviewed by Lachlan, 9, Yidarra Catholic Primary School*, WA

Tooth Trouble

When I first got this book I was thinking it is a bit long, however—I took the book. I also got another book in case it was too hard. However, it wasn’t hard. It only took 3 nights to finish.

Freddy is the only one in his class who hasn’t lost a tooth yet. So he has a problem. He wants to write his name on the big tooth poster at school. It isn’t an ordinary tooth, it is a big poster tooth. Every time you lose a tooth, you write your name on the poster with a special pen with a tooth on the end. The next day Freddy gets into a fight with Ben. Freddy wanted Ben to hit his mouth so that his tooth falls out. Freddy gets a fist to his stomach instead.

Should I tell you the ending? No—what about you find out by reading the book.

–

"Undercover Readers Club logo"* Yidarra Catholic Primary School is a member of our Undercover Readers Club. The book reviewed here was Lachlan’s own copy.

Posted in National Year of Reading, teachers' resources

Fabulous First Line Friday (3 August)

Posted on by Alphabet Soup

To celebrate the National Year of Reading, we are sharing some fabulous first lines from the books on our bookshelves. (Every Friday you’ll find another fabulous first line here on Soup Blog. Try to guess the book it’s from. Would you read on? Perhaps you can use it as a writing prompt … if it were your own first line, where would your story go from here?)

Now for today’s Fabulous First Line*:

 

Wake up this morning and suddenly remember something absolutely BRILLIANT!

 

Do you want to read on? The title of the book is at the end of this post …

 

*For the purposes of Fabulous First Line Friday, we’re counting the first line as the first line of chapter 1 in any book. So if there is an introduction or an author’s note or something before chapter 1, we don’t count that bit …
The book is Tom Gates: Excellent Excuses (and other good stuff) by L Pichon.
Posted in authors

NSW author/illustrator event (11 August 2012)

Posted on by Alphabet Soup

If you’re in NSW, head over to The Children’s Bookshop in Beecroft on 11 August—there will be lots happening to celebrate National Bookshop Day.

The bookshop will have authors working in the shop window, an artist in residence will be creating some illustrations, there will be book busking, face-painting, a sausage sizzle and balloons.

Schedule for the Morning:

10–10.45am Special Story-Time!

Meet Ursula Dubosarsky who will be reading such books as Too Many Elephants in This House and The Terrible Plop.

Too Many Elephants in This House

11.30am Meet Duncan Ball, author of Selby and Emily Eyefinger. (Selby will also be there to meet the kids.)

selby

10am–12 noon Meet a range of authors in the Living Window—authors will be writing in the window! The Artist in Residence for the morning, Lisa Stewart, will also be working on illustrations in the shop.

Where: The Children’s Bookshop, 6 Hannah Street, Beecroft NSW

When: 11 August 2012

RSVP: for the 10am or 11.30am sessions. Ph. 9481 8811 staff@thechildrensbookshop.com.au

Posted in National Year of Reading, teachers' resources

Fabulous First Line Friday (27 July)

Posted on by Alphabet Soup

To celebrate the National Year of Reading, we are sharing some fabulous first lines from the books on our bookshelves. (Every Friday you’ll find another fabulous first line here on Soup Blog. Try to guess the book it’s from. Would you read on? Perhaps you can use it as a writing prompt … if it were your own first line, where would your story go from here?)

Now for today’s Fabulous First Line*:

 

Ellabeth stood in the centre of the pavilion whirling her fire stick high above her head.

 

Do you want to read on? The title of the book is at the end of this post …

 

*For the purposes of Fabulous First Line Friday, we’re counting the first line as the first line of chapter 1 in any book. So if there is an introduction or an author’s note or something before chapter 1, we don’t count that bit …
The book is Unicorn Riders: Ellabeth’s Test by Aleesah Darlison, ill. Jill Brailsford.
Posted in National Year of Reading, teachers' resources

Fabulous First Line Friday (20 July)

Posted on by Alphabet Soup

To celebrate the National Year of Reading, we are sharing some fabulous first lines from the books on our bookshelves. (Every Friday you’ll find another fabulous first line here on Soup Blog. Try to guess the book it’s from. Would you read on? Perhaps you can use it as a writing prompt … if it were your own first line, where would your story go from here?)

Now for today’s Fabulous First Line*:

 

There is something about this morning—a quiet in the hills, a shiver in the air—something that prickles the nose of the stockman’s horse.

 

Do you want to read on? The title of the book is at the end of this post …

 

*For the purposes of Fabulous First Line Friday, we’re counting the first line as the first line of chapter 1 in any book. So if there is an introduction or an author’s note or something before chapter 1, we don’t count that bit …
The book is Sam, Grace and the Shipwreck by Michelle Gillespie, ill. Sonia Martinez.
Posted in competitions

Writing comp (WA)

Posted on by Alphabet Soup

Warm up those typing fingers—here’s a competition for 8 to 12 year olds in WA.

720 ABC Perth are calling for entries of short stories of no more than 500 words with the trigger of RADIO. Radio must be incorporated somewhere in all stories—whether it is a major part of the story, or it is literally mentioned in the story, it must be featured in some way.

And there are some amazing prizes!

MAJOR PRIZE: Return flights and accommodation to Melbourne (ex-Perth) for the winner and a parent or guardian (includes transfers and meals), $50 spending money, a day of tours at Scienceworks, the National Sports Museum and Melbourne Zoo, special guest representing WA as the Young Reading Champion at the National Reading Hour in Federation Square.

2nd PRIZE: Your height in books!

3rd PRIZE: ABC Shop Gift Voucher

The competition closes on 5 August 2012.

Check out the 720 website for more details and info on how to enter.

Posted in National Year of Reading, teachers' resources

Fabulous First Line Friday (13 July)

Posted on by Alphabet Soup

To celebrate the National Year of Reading, we are sharing some fabulous first lines from the books on our bookshelves. (Every Friday you’ll find another fabulous first line here on Soup Blog. Try to guess the book it’s from. Would you read on? Perhaps you can use it as a writing prompt … if it were your own first line, where would your story go from here?)

Now for today’s Fabulous First Line*:

 

Keiran O’Grady loved the trams that rattled, day and night, past their tiny flat at Bondi.

 

Do you want to know what happens next? The title of the book is at the end of this post …

 

*For the purposes of Fabulous First Line Friday, we’re counting the first line as the first line of chapter 1 in any book. So if there is an introduction or an author’s note or something before chapter 1, we don’t count that bit …
The book is The Tram to Bondi Beach by Elizabeth Hathorn, ill. Julie Vivas.