Website Review: Fancy Nancy

FANCY NANCY is a website featuring the popular children’s book character.

Sponsored by HarperCollins Children’s Books, the website features information about the books, author, and illustrator along with activities. The party tips and activities section contains endless ideas for hosting library events. The reading tips articles focus on ways to build vocabulary and make reading fun. Dozens of printable activities are available for download. Five online games and three mobile apps are currently available.

Librarians will find lots of ideas for library events and promotions featuring Fancy Nancy. Build a display containing books, printouts, apps, and online games.

To visit the website, go to http://www.fancynancyworld.com/.

Tech Review: Twine

TWINE is an open source tool for writing and sharing interactive stories.

This easy-to-use tool allows users to create simple, non-linear stories. Users can either download the software or use the online version. Computer science students can extend the experience by applying simple programming skills. The stories are published to HTML so they are easy to share.

A Q&A area, live chat, cookbook of examples, and wiki reference documentation provide assistance for users.

Librarians will find that this tool allows students to the create choose-your-own-adventure stories, interactive fiction, and games across the curriculum. English teachers will find this to be a motivating tool for creative writing activities, while computer science teachers will discover many uses related to applying coding skills.

To visit the website, go to http://twinery.org/.