| Heya <<First Name>>,
Last Thursday, Bob, Zoe, and I met for the first part of our virtual retreat. We wanted to check in on where we were as a company, and plan for 2021.
Our conversation centered around this question: What does 320 Sycamore Studios stand for?
The answer we settled on exhilarated us:
We believe that reading with kids can change the world for the better.
Whoa.
Here are some of the reasons we think reading with kids is so great:
- It’s the best way to help children learn to read.
- It’s the best way to help children learn to love reading.
- It fosters empathy.
- And family connection.
- And curiosity.
- Plus, it’s the best test-prep program around.
Now what?
Since we think reading with kids is so great, we’re going to keep on keeping on. We’ll:
- Write, illustrate, and publish the best stories we can.
- Make our stories freely available (e.g.: on our storyblog or as a PDF).
- Send those stories and chapters to you each week.
- Encourage you to share them with anyone you think may like them.
Shouldn’t every story everywhere be free, in some form?
We think so!
Speaking of … here are links to the free versions of the stories we’ve published so far.
Picture books
- “Messy Blessings”: A celebration of the uncute and underloved things in the world. Like morning breath and awkward hugs and laughing till you fart.
- “Ooh Odd Zoo”: An ABC book of irreverent rhymes about the oddballs of the animal kingdom.
- “Goodnight Tomb“: Our zombie parody of “Goodnight Moon.” One mom wrote to say her daughter likes this better than “Ghashlycrumb Tinies.” We were elated.
Chapter books
- “How Foxes Got Their Meander”: The untold story of the race between Tortoise and Hare.
- “Scar and the Wolf”: “Red Riding Hood” crossed with lovable zombies. It’s the first in our Plainfield Chronicles. The second (coming next year) is “Moldylocks and the Bear.”
- “The Island of Slippery Souls”: Imagine a kingdom where souls like to move around from body to body. Then imagine a king building a machine to suck them all up.
If you can afford to buy the books, great! Visit our library page and have fun shopping. 🙂
But if money is tight right now, print them out, read ’em with a kid, or share them with a friend.
Who knew changing the world could be so much fun?
Happy reading.
With love this holiday season,
Jeff, Bob, and Zoe
Current reads: “Coyote Sunrise” and “Capital in the 21st Century” (Jeff); “Systematic: How Systems Biology Is Transforming Modern Medicine” (Bob); “The Library of Lost and Found” (Zoe). |
