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Colorway Color Wheel

For Kickstarter backers who chose a reward with a shirt, hat, or hoodie, please choose from the following colorway options:

A (blue headphones with pink ears)

B (pink headphones with blue ears)

C (black headphones with pink ears)

D (black headphones with blue ears)

(Please note that due to embroidery size limitations, hats do not have the cross-sticks portion of the design.)

🎉 THANK YOU for helping Silly Songbooks take flight!!! 🎉

We did it!!! 🚀 I'm overwhelmed with gratitude as I announce the end of the Silly Songbooks Kickstarter campaign. The overwhelming support received has brought Silly Songbooks to life, and I couldn't have done it without each and every one of the backers.

A shared belief in the mission to support children's literacy through music, laughter, and academic research has been the driving force behind this incredible journey. Together, we've not only funded a project but ignited a movement to make reading practice fun and accessible for children everywhere. 

I'll post more info in the coming days and weeks regarding reward surveys and fulfillment updates. In the meantime, I cannot thank my backers enough for their incredible support! This belief in Silly Songbooks validates our shared mission and inspires me to continue working to make a difference in the lives of children everywhere.

With heartfelt gratitude,

Mike ❤️❤️❤️

An open letter from the creator of Silly Songbooks:

Dear All:

I’ll skip the long-winded statistical breakdown, but here's the deal: Post-pandemic literacy rates have plummeted, and I'm trying to do something about it.

Banboo Silly Songbooks™ is a children's literacy project which utilizes the knowledge and lessons of the Turn on the Subtitles movement (“TOTS”) which advises that the simple act of turning on subtitles while children are watching television can double the chances of a child becoming good at reading. In fact, an academic study of 2,350 children found that exposure to subtitled film songs for 30 minutes a week caused a huge jump in literacy rates. In short, when it comes to reading education, subtitled music videos turbocharge children’s learning, and it can happen without any extra effort at all. (Here's a compilation of supporting research.)

This knowledge is the foundation of Silly Songbooks, which are fun kid-themed, sing-along music video parodies of popular rap songs in a physical book format. Just think of it like “Weird Al” Yankovic, but for kids and with all the lyrics contained in fun little books you can take with you anywhere. There’s even a cool character, "Banboo," to go along with it who you can see in the debut music video - check it out! (There’s also a “Read Along” version which is much easier to follow, and Banboo is already on a bunch of popular music streaming services, as well.)

After over a year of working on the project, I’m preparing the first Silly Songbook for launch as part of a Kickstarter campaign beginning Wednesday, February 21, 2024. Now, I certainly don’t expect everyone to buy something (though the merch is pretty sweet), but I am asking that you all please spread word of the campaign to anyone and everyone you know who might be interested in supporting children’s literacy. If you have a social media presence, please post or otherwise mention Banboo Silly Songbooks as soon as you can after the campaign launches since this project could be a gamechanger in children's literacy, but only if it reaches enough kids.

I’m starting from absolute ground zero and really do need your help to give the project its first big push. Please help me get it off the ground by heading over to the Kickstarter pre-launch page and clicking the button to be notified on project launch. Also, start thinking about ways that you could help share this project!

TL;DR: To help reverse declining post-pandemic literacy rates, I put parody rap lyrics into educational children’s books called, “Silly Songbooks,” and am releasing the first book as part of a Kickstarter campaign which launches this Wednesday, 2/21/24. Please spread the word!

THANK YOU SO MUCH, and see you at launch!

Mike, Creator of Silly Songbooks