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New York, NY...July 30, 2009 - NBC's Today show announced this morning that Ingrid Law's Newbery Honor winner and New York Times bestseller SAVVY will be Al Roker's next Book Club Pick this fall. The TV host and young fans will have a chance to interview the author in the studio on Friday, August 28^th during a live show.  SAVVY was published under the joint venture between Dial Books for Young Readers, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, and Walden Media and will soon be a major motion picture from Walden Media.

Al's Book Club for Kids has become synonymous with outstanding children's literature. The club began in 2007 as a way to get kids to keep reading and not experience the "summer slide". Roker chooses books for kids between the ages of 9-11 and then gives them the opportunity to discuss what they are reading. Past selections have included The Golden Compass, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and The Tale of Despereaux, in addition to other acclaimed titles.

Ingrid Law is thrilled to be part of this growing institution and said, "It's wonderful to have the opportunity to share SAVVY with Al's Book Club. After all, the only ‘summer slide' we should aim for in children's reading is the one kids can find in the playgrounds of their imagination."

Lauri Hornik, President and Publisher of Dial Books for Young Readers commented, "Al Roker has such perfect taste!  All of our hopes for the fabulous SAVVY have now come true with exciting news, and we couldn't be happier." 

Francis X Flaherty, EVP Publisher of Walden Media said, "Walden Media has always worked to bring classic stories to a wide audience through our films and publishing division. We are so glad that through Mr. Roker's book club SAVVY can continue in that tradition"

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A lot of people ask me what it is I mean by "The World in Six Songs." The idea is that music is crucial to the human identity and that music set the stage for the evolution of complex behaviours such as language, the transmission of information between generations and large-scale cooperative undertakings.  Below I give a brief explanation of each kind of song, and why they are beneficial to human fitness.

Friendship: Friendship songs centre around group cohesion, whether it be for war, or the bonding of different cliques in high school. For example, in prehistoric warfare, attackers would sometimes ambush another tribe using loud instruments (especially drums) to surprise the targets while they were still sleeping. Countertactics employing the use of singing may also have been used as a signal that the group was awake.  These songs serve to protect a tribe/group or succeed in the takeover of another. In the context of social groups, they provide a sense of community and belonging, bringing people together.  Two songs from our era that can be considered "friendship" songs are:

"Know Your Enemy" - Green Day

"Volunteers" - Jefferson Airplane (or if you still want to keep it modern, you could use "Megalomaniac" by Incubus. It isn't as much of a war song as a political song, but it's in the same vein).