Easybook Deluxe
By Sunburst

Easybook Deluxe is a publishing program that is easy enough for second graders to use without my assistance. It is by far the most used in our classroom and creates an inexpensive product. It has many positive attributes that keep the children interested. I have used it for creative storytelling and report writing. This program fosters pride in young authors when they see their own writing in print.

The book cover, copyright, and title pages are created automatically by the software. The student just types in the title and the program proceed to the next step.

The teacher customizes the copyright page once a year.
Example:
Published by:
Bohemia School Publishing
Room 1, Copyright 2003

I usually reserve page one for the Table of Contents. It works well for short story chapter headings or reports.

Next, students determine the format of the book. The pictured instructions give many different formatting ideas of where to place text and picture windows. The picture window is adjustable and is the fonts and size of text. Importing images as jpegs is a great feature for report writing. It will automatically resize a picture to fit the graphic box on a book page. Everything in the original picture remains visible, though the proportions may change to accommodate the size and shape of the graphic box. This is a trouble-free option for younger students.

Easybook Deluxe is designed for easy text entry. Each new page is blank and a graphic box for illustrations may appear in one section, depending upon the selected writing format. A flashing cursor signals where to begin text entry. The words automatically wrap around the picture at the end of the line. Students explore the text styling components of the program. The text tool bar provides options in font, font color and size, boldface, italic, underline, text justification and page design. I also find the writing tools useful, including find/replace, a spellchecker, and a thesaurus to help students as they write their text.

It has a great art studio for illustrations and supplies backgrounds for story settings. Although in color, I usually only printed in grayscale to save on color ink. Students can decorate the cover of their books with stamps and decorative borders by clicking a Picture Edit icon. It has a limited number of clip-art but fantastic to kick start the imagination.

When you are ready to print from the file menu, select if you want page numbers. The book option window appears with a choice of four book formats. 1) Big Book option prints one book page on four sheets of paper that can be taped together to create on large page. This is good for posters, murals, or banners. 2) Full-Page Book prints text and graphics on both sides of a sheet of paper like a published book. 3) Easybook prints like a greeting card to create a simple fold-over book. 4) Mini Book prints four book pages on one side of a sheet of paper to create a multi-fold book.

Finally, the best feature is the "read it back." Students love to hear their writing read back to them in different voices, such as a Frankenstein, a Princess, Toll Bells, Robot, about ten different choices.