How to be a Pirate Questions

19 05 2010

How do you think this book helps you teach your kids some good lessons?  I thought of a few ways.

  • You can’t always trust who people say they are, which is a good reason not to talk to strangers.  Alvin the Poor-but-honest-farmer turned out not to be who he said he was, and had very different motives than everybody thought.
  • You should trust your instincts.  Toothless thought something wasn’t right with Alvin, but Hiccup didn’t listen to him.
  • You don’t have to be the biggest, strongest, or most popular to be who you were made to be, and to be a hero.

Did you find any good lessons in the book?


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Categories : Uncategorized

Favorite Quotes from How to Be a Pirate

18 05 2010

What a great opening line “Thor was SERIOUSLY annoyed.”

I loved this book, it made me want to listen every second until I was done.  It also made the laundry I was folding while listening to it go way faster, and made me laugh out loud.

One hilarious quote was when they were all about to descend on the Isle of Skullions, and Stoick says, “Once we reach the island, there will be absolutely NO farting, is that understood?”  I guess it was a bit adolescent to giggle at the joke on flatulence, but I definitely cracked up.

Did anybody else have a favorite part?


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Categories : Quote

How to Be a Pirate Review

17 05 2010

Can’t get enough adventures of the clumsy yet heroic Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III and his dragon Toothless?  Listen to the How to Train your Dragon sequel, How to be a Pirate! This charming book follows the Hairy Hooligans, whose fearless leader Stoick the Vast, sets out to help Alvin the Poor-but-honest-Farmer find the hidden treasure of the Hairy Hooligans legendary ancestor Grimbeard the Ghastly!

Hiccup and his best friend Fishlegs aren’t so sure this is a good idea, but they go along on the perilous adventure to the Isle of Skullions.  According to the riddle, the true heir of Grimbeard the Ghastly is the only one able to find the treasure.  Will it be Hiccup, the son of Stoick, or Snotlout, the self-proclaimed heir to the throne?  You better listen to find out!


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Categories : Review

What do you like about the Audiobooks update?

14 05 2010

We want to know how you like the new features of Audiobooks 4.0.  We just released it this week, and would love to hear about what you love.  If you haven’t downloaded the new version, check out the free version, which now supports download.  If ads aren’t your thing, you can get the ad-free version.

Are you happy to see we have some new titles in the app for purchase, and you’ve already listened to How to Train your Dragon?  Do you like the new buttons, or the search by duration feature?  Or are you excited the free version now supports downloading?

Leave us a comment and let us know which new feature is your favorite.


Comments : 38 Comments »

Categories : Discussion Questions

Charles Dickens

14 05 2010

If you loved Charles Dickens – here are a few more books he wrote:

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby

A Christmas Carol

David Copperfield

A Tale of Two Cities

Great Expectations


Comments : 1 Comment »

Categories : Reader Profile

Oliver Twist Activities

13 05 2010

If reading Oliver Twist reminded you about the plight of orphans, you can support orphans worldwide by giving to World Vision’s Widow and Orphan Fund.

Here is the trailer for a 2005 version of Oliver Twist – you can watch it while you make yourself some gruel, I found this recipe here.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon of groats or oatmeal
2 tablespoons of cold water
1 pint of boiling water

Cooking Instructions
First put the oats, together with the cold water, into a saucepan and mix together until smooth. Then, over this, stirring all the time, pour one pint of boiling water. Now stirring frequently boil for 10 minutes. Serve.


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Categories : Get into the Story

Audiobooks 4.0 Walkthrough

12 05 2010

Audiobooks 4.0 includes a host of new features and content offerings.  We put together a video walking through the highlights of what’s new to help you get up and running.


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Categories : Video

FAQs for Audiobooks 4.0

12 05 2010

Where are all of the free books?

They are still there! We’ve just added additional premium titles as well. Better still, every time you open the app, it will check for new books.  Look in “recently added” to see the new books in the catalog.

Note: If you see a book that is listed as Plus and is colored green (e.g. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), click on the title to see both the plus option AND the several free versions available. You may choose whichever version suits your preference.

Why are you selling books inside the app?

In an effort to increase the size of our catalog (per many users’ request), we have begun selling professionally recorded, modern titles (e.g. How to Train Your Dragon).  The prices of these books are set by publishers.

Furthermore, in an effort to improve your listening experience, we have also created Plus titles – hand-selected and trimmed for optimum quality. Again, this is just an additional option we are offering our users. All of the free content is still available for download.


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Categories : Posts

Audiobooks 4.0 QuickStart

12 05 2010

To help you get a better sense of what’s new in Audiobooks 4.0, we put together this 60 second quick start guide.


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Categories : Video

Audiobooks 4.0 is here!

12 05 2010

We are so excited to announce Audiobooks 4.0!  We have added some great features, and we know you will love them.

We still have over 2,800 FREE classic book recordings by librivox for you to enjoy.  You can find your favorite titles searching for the most popular, recently added books, look through the whole list, or find them by genre, duration, author, narrator or language.  We also have a new featured book button, where you can see the book we are currently featuring.  If you’re feeling daring, you can play book roulette and hit the Surprise Me! button to listen to a randomly selected book.

We have also added Plus titles that are hand-selected and trimmed and offer a seamless listening experience.

The most exciting addition to the Audiobooks library are professionally recorded best-selling titles like How to Train your Dragon and My Sister’s Keeper for purchase right inside the app.

The free version now supports the DOWNLOAD of books for offline playback!  You can upgrade to the paid version to remove the ads and support Audiobooks.

We still have our great features like automatic bookmarking, sleep timer, advanced search, and your “My Books” library that stores all the books you have downloaded.

We have updated the player screen which now includes a scroll bar to show you where you are in the story, as well as a FAQ button.  We have also provide a short preview of each book that you can listen to before deciding whether or not you want to download the book.

We hope you enjoy all the new features, and would love to hear what you think!


Comments : 1 Comment »

Categories : Uncategorized

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