| Heya <<First Name>>,
Last Thursday, Bob, Zoe, and I met for the first part of our virtual retreat. We wanted to check in on where we were as a company, and plan for 2021.
Our conversation centered around this question: What does 320 Sycamore Studios stand for?
The answer we settled on exhilarated us:
We believe that reading with kids can change the world for the better.
Whoa.
Here are some of the reasons we think reading with kids is so great:
- It’s the best way to help children learn to read.
- It’s the best way to help children learn to love reading.
- It fosters empathy.
- And family connection.
- And curiosity.
- Plus, it’s the best test-prep program around.
Now what?
Since we think reading with kids is so great, we’re going to keep on keeping on. We’ll:
- Write, illustrate, and publish the best stories we can.
- Make our stories freely available (e.g.: on our storyblog or as a PDF).
- Send those stories and chapters to you each week.
- Encourage you to share them with anyone you think may like them.
Shouldn’t every story everywhere be free, in some form?
We think so!
Speaking of … here are links to the free versions of the stories we’ve published so far.
Picture books
- “Messy Blessings”: A celebration of the uncute and underloved things in the world. Like morning breath and awkward hugs and laughing till you fart.
- “Ooh Odd Zoo”: An ABC book of irreverent rhymes about the oddballs of the animal kingdom.
- “Goodnight Tomb“: Our zombie parody of “Goodnight Moon.” One mom wrote to say her daughter likes this better than “Ghashlycrumb Tinies.” We were elated.
Chapter books
- “How Foxes Got Their Meander”: The untold story of the race between Tortoise and Hare.
- “Scar and the Wolf”: “Red Riding Hood” crossed with lovable zombies. It’s the first in our Plainfield Chronicles. The second (coming next year) is “Moldylocks and the Bear.”
- “The Island of Slippery Souls”: Imagine a kingdom where souls like to move around from body to body. Then imagine a king building a machine to suck them all up.
If you can afford to buy the books, great! Visit our library page and have fun shopping. 
But if money is tight right now, print them out, read ’em with a kid, or share them with a friend.
Who knew changing the world could be so much fun?
Happy reading.
With love this holiday season,
Jeff, Bob, and Zoe
Current reads: “Coyote Sunrise” and “Capital in the 21st Century” (Jeff); “Systematic: How Systems Biology Is Transforming Modern Medicine” (Bob); “The Library of Lost and Found” (Zoe). |
