Mustard Seed Books http://mustardseedbooks.org creating high quality low-cost books for beginning readers Tue, 28 Sep 2021 23:51:29 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Mustard Seed Books Project getting ready to close down http://mustardseedbooks.org/2021/02/mustard-seed-books-project-getting-ready-to-close-down/ http://mustardseedbooks.org/2021/02/mustard-seed-books-project-getting-ready-to-close-down/#comments Sat, 13 Feb 2021 06:34:20 +0000 admin http://mustardseedbooks.org/?p=326 It has been a long run with many good years, but little by little the project is closing down. We’ve sold off most of our printed books and unless something magical changes, we won’t be doing another print run to restock. The books would need an update, the project would need a cash infusion and I . . . → Read More: Mustard Seed Books Project getting ready to close down]]> It has been a long run with many good years, but little by little the project is closing down. We’ve sold off most of our printed books and unless something magical changes, we won’t be doing another print run to restock. The books would need an update, the project would need a cash infusion and I have been off teaching full-time and focusing more on high school technology instruction than early literacy development.

If you’re interested in any last sets of books, give us a yell. We’re happy to sell off what we have, throw in shipping, throw in extra books till they’re truly all gone.

Thanks to everyone who participated, writing, editing, sorting and packing, shipping, reading and buying. It’s been a pleasure to help make this happen, the digital versions of the books will be available for a while and if you’ve got any questions, feel free to contact me ( rick@mustardseedbooks.org )

 

If you’d like to access any of our books from a new google drive folder, try this ( Mustard Seed Books Google Drive Folder )

 

Me teaching at Oakland Tech before distance learning – Go Bulldogs!

]]> http://mustardseedbooks.org/2021/02/mustard-seed-books-project-getting-ready-to-close-down/feed/ 0 Mustard Seed Books partnering with Tom Prince to do professional development in Oakland schools http://mustardseedbooks.org/2019/04/mustard-seed-books-partnering-with-tom-prince-to-do-professional-development-in-oakland-schools/ http://mustardseedbooks.org/2019/04/mustard-seed-books-partnering-with-tom-prince-to-do-professional-development-in-oakland-schools/#comments Thu, 04 Apr 2019 01:39:19 +0000 admin http://mustardseedbooks.org/?p=320 Tom Prince and a team of literacy specialists have been working at Emerson Elementary School providing professional development and coaching to support early . . . → Read More: Mustard Seed Books partnering with Tom Prince to do professional development in Oakland schools]]> Tom Prince and a team of literacy specialists have been working at Emerson Elementary School providing professional development and coaching to support early literacy development.

]]> http://mustardseedbooks.org/2019/04/mustard-seed-books-partnering-with-tom-prince-to-do-professional-development-in-oakland-schools/feed/ 0 Libros en Español http://mustardseedbooks.org/2012/02/libros-en-espanol/ http://mustardseedbooks.org/2012/02/libros-en-espanol/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:54:13 +0000 admin http://mustardseedbooks.org/?p=245 They’re not perfect yet, but all the Mustard Seed books have been translated into Spanish. They are available on the website for immediate download. We’d love folks to try them out with kids, with adults, with anyone you know who might be interested in Spanish language reading materials so we can get some feedback, fine tune . . . → Read More: Libros en Español]]> They’re not perfect yet, but all the Mustard Seed books have been translated into Spanish. They are available on the website for immediate download. We’d love folks to try them out with kids, with adults, with anyone you know who might be interested in Spanish language reading materials so we can get some feedback, fine tune the language and word choices and get ready for a commercial print run.

If we’re going to be able to do a commercial print run, we’d need a fairly substantial amount of preorders or at least verbal commitments from folks saying they know they would like to buy some number of sets. If we print 250 books, each one costs around $1.38. If we print 500 copies, each book costs around .77–that’s a pretty major difference and the prices keep dropping from there.

So, if you know any folks interested in Spanish language early reading materials, tell them to check out the website to see what the books are like, and early next week, we should have the Spanish language versions either trickling onto the website or showing up in one big load.

]]> http://mustardseedbooks.org/2012/02/libros-en-espanol/feed/ 0 Set 2 Books back from the printer http://mustardseedbooks.org/2011/08/set-2-books-at-the-printer/ http://mustardseedbooks.org/2011/08/set-2-books-at-the-printer/#comments Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:47:58 +0000 admin http://mustardseedbooks.org/?p=201 After what seemed like forever, we’ve finally gotten the set 2 books (books harder than the beginner books but easier than the hard books) to the printer and they’re back. The order from on the ordering books page has been updated and we’re ready to ship. If you go to the website, the titles are available . . . → Read More: Set 2 Books back from the printer]]> After what seemed like forever, we’ve finally gotten the set 2 books (books harder than the beginner books but easier than the hard books) to the printer and they’re back. The order from on the ordering books page has been updated and we’re ready to ship. If you go to the website, the titles are available there and I’ll make sure to update the table by this Friday so all the set 2 books are available digitally. Because we purchased the books in sets of 1000 this time, our pricing has dropped, so prices for set 1 and set 2 will be $9/bundle. The more we order, the cheaper it gets and if you ever order the books directly for yourself, it can get as low as .30/book.

]]> http://mustardseedbooks.org/2011/08/set-2-books-at-the-printer/feed/ 0 New Book Format http://mustardseedbooks.org/2011/03/new-book-format/ http://mustardseedbooks.org/2011/03/new-book-format/#comments Sun, 20 Mar 2011 21:40:42 +0000 admin http://mustardseedbooks.org/?p=130 If you haven’t seen the latest version of a Mustard Seed Book, check out the books page (it’ll be updated by 3/21). We’ve uploaded all new versions of our books. As the books have been out being used by kids and teachers we’ve gotten some feedback and incorporated that into our redesign. The back page has . . . → Read More: New Book Format]]> If you haven’t seen the latest version of a Mustard Seed Book, check out the books page (it’ll be updated by 3/21). We’ve uploaded all new versions of our books. As the books have been out being used by kids and teachers we’ve gotten some feedback and incorporated that into our redesign. The back page has been completely redone, moving the leveling information to the back and adding a wider range of leveling information included Guided Reading level info. On the inside, we heard back from number of teachers that page numbers would be helpful, especially for small groups.

In addition, you’ll notice the book table has just one copy for downloading. While working with some books on a Mac, we realized there’s an easier way to print booklets from PDF’s than having to try to create a book layout template in the basic Mac word processor. We started using a program called booklet creator ( http://bookletcreator.com/ ). It takes a PDF in normal page order and turns it into a PDF in booklet order. This makes it a bit easier conceptually and a bit easier for anyone making a book. We haven’t played with it that much yet, but now any word processing software can make a book, as long as it can save it as a PDF and can structure the content on individual pages. We’ll post again as soon as we have more experience with this, but it worked great in Apple’s Pages, a basic page layout program that didn’t have internal support for booklet creation. We simply created the books like we’d read them and then used booklet creator to turn them into booklets.

]]> http://mustardseedbooks.org/2011/03/new-book-format/feed/ 0 If you’re new to the Mustard Seed Books site … http://mustardseedbooks.org/2010/07/if-youre-new-to-the-mustard-seed-books-site/ http://mustardseedbooks.org/2010/07/if-youre-new-to-the-mustard-seed-books-site/#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:18:39 +0000 admin http://mustardseedbooks.org/wordpress/?p=64 This website is set up as part of a project to design and distribute public domain books for early readers. If you’re here for the first time, feel free to browse around, check out the books on the books page, read about some ideas for working with the books, read about how you could become a . . . → Read More: If you’re new to the Mustard Seed Books site …]]> This website is set up as part of a project to design and distribute public domain books for early readers. If you’re here for the first time, feel free to browse around, check out the books on the books page, read about some ideas for working with the books, read about how you could become a world-famous author or photographer or check out anything else you find interesting.

If you like, register and send me a note about what drew you here and any ideas/suggestions about what you’d like to see that could help make this work better. This version of the website is a serious upgrade/revision of the previous version so I’m hoping we’ll do better on being able to talk back and forth with folks about design, use, production and distribution.

Rick

]]> http://mustardseedbooks.org/2010/07/if-youre-new-to-the-mustard-seed-books-site/feed/ 0 Welcome to Mustard Seed Books http://mustardseedbooks.org/2010/05/hello-world/ http://mustardseedbooks.org/2010/05/hello-world/#comments Wed, 26 May 2010 17:24:09 +0000 admin http:/?p=1 Mustard Seed Books is no longer selling books

All of our books are still available for download and you’re free to print them individually or get them printed in bulk. But we’re no longer selling printed books

Here’s the original post that started this project way back when

The Problem: As a specialist working with struggling readers, I . . . → Read More: Welcome to Mustard Seed Books]]> Mustard Seed Books is no longer selling books

All of our books are still available for download and you’re free to print them individually or get them printed in bulk. But we’re no longer selling printed books

Here’s the original post that started this project way back when :-)

The Problem:
As a specialist working with struggling readers, I often use a system of leveled texts (books of gradually increasing difficulty) to fine tune instruction to an individual child’s reading level and interests. However, most of the books of this type are expensive, not related to urban settings and often contain language and content that cause unnecessary problems for struggling early readers.

The Solution:
Using publicly available pictures from the web, standard software and a basic printer, I created a template for easily designing, editing, printing and assembling, surprisingly nice looking books. Each one ends up costing about 75 cents to print and uses materials that can be obtained at any office supply store.

Expanding the Project:
This began as my own personal quest for books for two specific students, one who would only read books about “cool looking motor stuff” and a second Yemeni girl who simply didn’t recognize most of the pictures in many of my books. After creating the system and seeing how well the first dozen books turned out, I realized how few of the kindergarteners in the school I worked at had books where they lived. This led to a trial run of summer book distribution, ideas for this website and the broader vision of Mustard Seed Books.

The vision of Mustard Seed Books

* Create high quality, easily modifiable, culturally accessible, affordable texts.
* Enable any K-2 classroom, tutoring center, pre-school/child care center or family to have access to a broad library of appropriate and interesting books.
* Create a powerful application for existing classroom/site technology that is easy to use and emphasizes best practices in literacy instruction.
* Foster a model of public domain book creation, refinement and distribution.

The Wikipedia Model Underlying Mustard Seed Books

Wikipedia is an amazing creation that allows for a world-wide community of resources to work together through the web to build a knowledge base that gets refined, improved and extended over time. People volunteer their time and expertise, much like what happens with open source software, the expert’s exchange computer information forum and other web based resources. The Wikipedia/Open Source strategy is a model for this site and project in a number of ways.

1. First, the goal here is to create a similar venue where an extended community can pool resources to design and improve books for kids, systems for producing these books and strategies for using them. Authors, photographers, illustrators, editors, educational researchers, teachers, printers, high school english classes — there are abundant resources for creating and fine tuning an impressive library of books to be made available on-line.

2. Second, Wikipedia and open source software are free — the goal is dissemination. This is especially important for this project given the financial state of most public schools, child development centers and the high correlation of families with struggling readers and limited income. Wikipedia and open source aren’t about ownership of the final product, they are about creating high quality products and sharing them freely.

3. Last, Wikipedia brain surgerey wouldn’t make sense, Wikipedia car repair wouldn’t work, but using this model to create and refine a library of books for children is exactly the type of project that fits this model. There is an extensive collection of little books available for starting ideas, web based public domain photos are widely available and the current state of digital photography turns just about anyone into a candidate for photographer.

The immediate goals are:

1. Continue distribution, field testing and refinement of existing books through the internet

* Make books available for download in a variety of formats (PDF’s & Publisher)
* Offer strategies and models of book production: in-house, copy center and large quantity printing
* Gather data on book use to refine the educational quality and production quality of books
* Create an internet forum to discuss theory and data on book design/refinement

2. Develop working partners

* Teachers/parents/educational programs where books are used for feedback/suggestions
* Professional educators for design theory and usage strategies
* Education schools, masters programs, to design/test/refine books as instructional activity
* Photographers/artists/authors for material for new books
* Technical help for book production, distribution strategies, web-site design/upkeep
* Potential link to printing company for professional production at reduced price

3. Expand current collection of books

* Extend adaptations of existing quality little book titles (i.e. copy good books :-)
* Generate story series of books to support contextual reading strategies
* Generate science titles to support science learning and vocabulary development
* Translation of existing titles into variety of languages
* Model and foster the strategy of public domain book creation, testing and refinement

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