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Dragons Out as audiobook and more conferences

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Did you notice that Dragons Out! has now reached new frontiers? Not the final frontier, where no one has gone before, but an important one, where many others have gone before. : ) Audiobook! Yes, Austin Macauley has now published Dragons Out! as an audiobook. It is available at many audio services, including the most extensive audiobook service in the world, Audible - you can get the book from here . I was very happy listening to some narrator examples months ago. The audiobook project was progressing! The narrator candidates all read a 2-minute section of some toddler book, so I had to imagine what they would sound like when they read something more adventurous. The fantasy story in Dragons Out is really an adventure story -  the children look for dragons and get into difficult situations where sometimes it is them and not the adults who get them out of trouble! Anyway, I thought the tone of one of the narrators would fit my book perfectly. So I chose him! Many months later I was happ
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Dragons Out Second Edition in Finnish available as Softcover and eBook

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In this post, I discuss some recent and near-future events and places where Dragons Out is featured, and also I present the 2nd edition of the Finnish book! I'm extremely happy to have cooperated with my illustrator Adrienn Széll again - this time we made a few tweaks to the Finnish Dragons Out book and published the second edition at the same time as a softback and ebook. The publisher for these books is BoD. The second edition includes the same attractive cover as the English version. There are some layout changes and a few typo-fixes, too. Publishing books is like testing; no matter how many reviews or tests you do, there's always some bug slipping through : ). Nothing major, though. The second edition, as a paperback, is affordable for schools to be used as a textbook to accompany math or coding books. Please see the introduction on how the free presentation and the book can work as course material  here , recording in Finnish and in English . The eBook has a discounted 4,
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On the best testing books ever list! and more!

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This summer, probably the greatest success in the Dragons Out! software testing book for children and adults matters is the fact that the Book Authority listed the Dragons Out! book as one of the Best Software Testing Books of All Time. And place 8 , currently. Wow, I'm humbled and honoured. This is very good news. I hope you can share the news with testers and teachers worldwide! I can also tell you that during the summer, the Dragons Out! audiobook production in English has taken enormous steps. I prooflistened through all recordings, asked for some changes, and listened through the corrections. It sounds good and works out very well as an audiobook. Now the next production steps on the way to publishing the audiobook are taking place. I'll update more once I hear more. And then we have the Polish edition of the Dragons Out! book. It was translated by SJSI (The Polish Testing Board) with Lucjan Stapp in the lead. The publisher is PWN, which has a wide offering of books for sc
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Happy conference visits and good conversations

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The last few months have been a barrage of conference visits, some online, some physically. I was extremely happy to discuss with the audience during and after the talks. In some, I was a speaker, in some an exhibitor and in one a volunteer! Anyway, Dragons Out fantasy theme to teach children some software testing works. People like it and recommend it to others. I'll have to buy some more books for my conference talk book sales. You can always check where to buy the books here , or just google Dragons Out. The success of the conferences is great but I'm actually even happier that the free Creative Commons presentation Dragon Lesson in Software Testing attracts many volunteers to translate it into local languages for the joy and use of local teachers. To date, the presentation https://www.dragonsout.com/p/presentation-for-teachers.html has been published in 18 languages. It exists in Finnish and English written by me, and there are Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, Georgian, Germ
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Tester of the Year Kari Kakkonen and softcover campaign

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I'm most pleased about finally winning Finland's Tester of the Year Award . Thank you to all who voted! This award especially looks back to the previous year, so it took a specific look into what happened in 2021. It also observes the careers of the candidates. And I did a lot: the Dragons Out book was rolled out in Finnish (Dragons Out! - lohikäärmeistä, ritareista ja ohjelmistotestauksesta), published and rolled out in English (Dragons Out! - a book about dragons, knights and software testing), and the donation campaign to schools was brought to a conclusion and handed to the Minister of Education in Finland. Obviously, my long career in software testing paid its part. But I do think that finally, the Dragons Out book project gave enough reasons for people to vote for me! Thanks again. Dragons Out initiative to teach software testing to children with such a unique approach has definitely been proven sound. EuroSTAR Testing Excellence Award last year and now the Tester of the
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School coursebook use, voting Tester of the Year, and other news

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First of all, it would be great if you could support me in winning the Tester of the Year 2021 award in Finland. I think the rollout of Finnish and English Dragons Out software testing books greatly justifies the win : ). I already won the EuroSTAR Testing Excellence Award last year, but I'd very much like this Finnish award, too. You can help by voting - just click here , find my name (Kari Kakkonen) and select it, and then scroll down to click "lähetä" (send). Then, I'd like to give you an update about how schools use the Dragons Out book and its free support material  to teach software testing. It is primarily used in math and coding classes but also in other classes. Listen to the recordings of the webinar on how the book and free resources work in schools in Finnish  or in English . The webinars detail my advice and the best practices gathered from teachers who've already used the book as teaching material. The time to think about the Dragons Out book as a
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Publishing in English done, new ventures starting

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The year 2021 is over, and 2022 is starting! For Dragons Out Oy, 2021 was the "English publishing year".  Dragons Out! book English Edition was launched on July 30th, 2021 and delivered to those who preordered the book over the next few months. Next in line, there are translation projects, other interesting Dragons Out initiatives, and of course, lots of marketing and school cooperation. So, after many reviews, the English edition of Dragons Out! - the book about dragons, knights and software testing, was published on July 30th, 2021. It was a soft launch due to the holiday season. The deliveries rolled out to all those who preordered in the next few months. Covid-19 pandemic played its role making the delivery times extremely unpredictable. It didn't help that the EU treatment of UK deliveries due to Brexit changed on July 1st. Some shipments would go through in a few days, and some would take a few months. To my understanding everyone, who preordered the book through me
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