Attending college or entering college in the fall? These books will help you thrive in school, no matter how many research papers they throw at you!

The Ultimate College Survival Guide

Been There, Should've Done That

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers

Asking the Right Questions

How to Read a Book

Grammar Smart

We asked Shannon Reed, who contributed a recent "Teachers at Work" column on choosing colleges, to recommend books about the college admissions process. Here are her picks: (Thanks, Shannon!)

Fishing For a Major: What You Need to Know Before You Declare "I confess, I've never read this, but my students tell me it truly helped them. They like that it's written in a student-to-student style, which uses language they understand."

Profiles of American Colleges with CD-ROM "I do not believe the results of any survey, ever. And that includes all of those college ranking books. Plus, I don't need my students to mope through the rest of their senior year because their future university ranks only 38th on the "party schools" list. This guide suits my style far better, with detailed information on over 1600 schools in book and CD-ROM format. Hey, remember CD-ROMs? Never mind, we'll save that discussion for another day."

As every high school senior -- and parent of said senior -- knows all too well, now is crunch time for college applications. In her latest column, teacher Shannon Reed wrote an excellent guide to choosing the right college. Now we want to zero in on the big, hairy challenge to getting into that school: The personal essay. What should you write about? What should you not write about? To get the inside scoop, we called Richard Ries, AP English teacher and College Counseling Office essay advisor at Ben Lipson Hillel Community High School in North Miami Beach, FL. Here's our conversation:

Ah, summertime. Ah, summer reading time! But what books should your kids bury their noses into this vacation? Enter super librarian Nancy Pearl. A veteran bookophile, commentator on NPR, and the model for a Librarian Action Figure doll (really), Nancy has introduced thousands of kids to great reads. She's the author of the popular Book Lust and Book Crush, which recommends books for elementary to high school students. We talked to Nancy about this summer's reading:

The Paideia School in Atlanta, Georgia, runs an innovative program to help their middle school students become better writers, with an added bonus: it also helps them become better people. How? By focusing their writing on personal essays. One of the teachers who helps shape this course is Andrea Sarvady, a talented educator with a unique background -- she's also an accomplished author and trained therapist. We spoke to Andrea about the program:

When Miguel Guhlin isn't spearheading groundbreaking technology-in-the-classroom initiatives as Director of Instructional Technology Services for the San Antonio, Texas, school system, he publishes his views on 21st century learning on his respected blog, Around the Corner, read by thousands of educators around the world. We caught up with Miguel for a provocative, and inspiring, discussion.