literacy | Liam O'Donnell

My YA Picks now available in Best Books for Kids & Teens 2013

by liam | May 7, 2013 | comics, education, literacy, media, writing news

A few months ago, I was honoured to be asked to be one of the judges picking the YA Best Books for 2013 on behalf of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre. I blogged about getting all the books and then making the decision about would make the cut with a team of...

From the Vault: My interview with James Paul Gee from 2004

by liam | Apr 19, 2013 | comics, education, gaming, literacy, media, Teacher's Guide, video games, virtual worlds

Back in 2003, I was a struggling freelance writer with a few graphic novels for kids under my belt. I was pitching articles to magazines, playing a lot of video games and wondering if a career in teaching was for me. That was also when I stumbled upon a newly released...

Writing Comics Workshop for Kids Session 1: Brainstorming & Story Seeds

by liam | Apr 14, 2013 | appearances, comics, education, Teacher's Guide, writing news

Last week, I ran the first session of my four week Writing Comics Workshop for Kids aged 8 – 12 years, at the Toronto Public Library. It was a lot of fun meeting the kids and discovering all the great ideas they had for comics. As I promised in previous blog...

Introducing Tech Tales

by liam | Apr 2, 2013 | education, literacy, media, video games, writing news

Digital Stories for Digital Readers I’m excited to announce the arrival of Tech Tales, a brand new series of short stories for middle grade readers available exclusively as digital downloads. Written for Reluctant Readers, Designed for Teachers Reluctant readers...

Five Questions with Arthur Slade about Crowdsourcing Modo: Ember’s End

by liam | Mar 27, 2013 | comics, literacy, media, Uncategorized, writing news

Earlier this month, I wrote about some Canadian authors mixing it up with traditional publishing and independent, or self publishing. If you missed it, check out Five Canadian Kids Authors Rocking it as Hybrids, to get caught up. One author mentioned was Arthur Slade,...