April

Exciting news—the winner of Orca’s So You Think You Can Write? novel contest has been announced. Congratulations to Leanne Lieberman, whose young adult novel Gravity took the prize. Read more about it here.

This month, our featured author is Bev. Cooke, and Kelly Campbell of Stillwater won the teaching contest. Thanks to all of the teachers who have entered the contest—your ideas are fascinating! Keep ‘em coming!

Enjoy spring, everyone. At last, it’s here.

New: Student Projects

Take a look at the creative things students are doing with Orca books!

This week I posted the new Student Projects page. There are three projects there so far, and it’s already really interesting to see what students have come up with.

…and plus, if you send a project in, we’ll mail you a free book. What’s not to love?

February

We’re another month closer to new Spring ‘08 books—soon they’ll be cropping up all over the website.

In the meantime, check out this month’s Featured Illustrator, Ben Hodson. Chris Arnstead of Balfour Collegiate in Saskatchewan is our contest winner this month—read about the pirate-themed Soundings scavenger hunt she’s planning in the Teachers’ Section.

The Teachers’ Section is expanding, too—a space for displaying student projects about Orca books will be opening up later this month. If you’re a teacher or student and want to get in on the action, submit a student project! You’ll receive a free book in return!

Happy reading!

2008 Begins

It’s 2008—it’s time to start looking forward to the new and exciting books coming up in March.

The January Featured Author, K.V. Johansen, has a new book coming out in March: Treason in Eswy, the sequel to Nightwalker. You can also see videos of K.V. Johansen reading from some of her books on her website.

And this month’s top ten are bestselling Orca Currents.

Look for more new stuff thoughout the month and year!

November’s Teaching Idea

The winner for November is Dawn Brown, of the Rockefeller Alternative High School Program in Iowa. Dawn writes:

“Students in the Rockefeller Alternative High School Program have discovered my Contemporary Novels course, which consists of reading their choice of eight Orca books and completing work from the accompanying study guides. When they are done reading those books, they must then choose any two additional books to read. More often than not, they choose two more of the popular Orca books. They have the choice to complete the study guides I have provided or to develop their own. This course works! Students are reading willingly and relating to what they read. They identify life lessons. I and my classroom associate find out a lot about the students through their responses to the reading—what they have gone through, what they are thinking, and where they are headed. I am one of Orca Books biggest fans and promote these books among my alternative educator colleagues in Iowa. Thanks, Orca!”

Thanks, Dawn!

Check out the teaching idea contest here. And if you’re a teacher who uses Orca Soundings in a unique way, why not enter?