Today the Visual Thesaurus launches an exciting new feature for you, our fine subscribers: Our very own -- original -- Visual Thesaurus crossword puzzles! And not just any puzzles, but crosswords conjured up by Brendan Quigley, a veteran puzzlemaster who contributes regularly to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Onion. We're very excited to have Brendan create custom puzzles for the Visual Thesaurus community. How does he do it? In our conversation below, Brendan cracks the mystery. Well, sort of...  Continue reading...

"If you think you smell something at work, there's probably good reason," the folks behind Bullfighter software say. "Bull has become the official language of business. Every day, we get bombarded by an endless stream of filtered, jargon-filled corporate speak, all of which makes it harder to get heard, harder to be authentic, and definitely harder to have fun. But it doesn't have to be that way." How can you fight this? Download free software here, and Bullfighter will help you rid the you-know-what from your writing forever.

Teachers from across the country write us about how the Visual Thesaurus helps their students increase reading comprehension. Now a federally-funded study is taking a closer look at the connection between the Visual Thesaurus and reading. Developed by researchers at the prestigious Education Development Center, Inc. in Boston, the study is following eighth grade students with learning disabilities who've been introduced to the Visual Thesaurus. The lead investigator, EDC Senior Director Dr. Judith Zorfass, emailed us recently about her observations:  Continue reading...

When we came across a terrific blog written by a pair of elementary school teachers named Mary Lee and Franki, we emailed them about it, and asked them to suggest others, too. Here's Mary Lee's gracious reply:

"Our blog, A Year of Reading, is an elementary education blog (we're both teachers) that focuses on children's literature and how we use books in our classrooms. We also keep our eye out for blogs that are more like us. Here are a couple: Educating Alice is written by a teacher and is an elementary education blog that focuses (but not exclusively) on children's literature. Mentor Texts is also written by a teacher and is an elementary education blog that focuses on children's literature in the writing workshop."

Thanks, Mary Lee!

Say you're a journalist or a copywriter. Or you write novels or screenplays. Or you're an expert in your field who's working on a book. You've got deadlines to meet and bills to pay. So why would you add to your to-do list a blog -- an online journal no one pays you to write? For some very good reasons.  Continue reading...

Mary Lee and Frankie, elementary school teachers who write the blog A Year of Reading, are also the authors of three books between them: Reconsidering Read-Aloud , Beyond Leveled Books and Still Learning to Read. They graciously recommended these books for "read alouds" with elementary schoolers:

Scaredy Squirrel and Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend by Melanie Watt ("fun picture books even for 5th graders")

An Egg Is Quiet and A Seed Is Sleepy by Dianna Aston ("gorgeous literary/poetic science books")

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo ("great story, fabulous conversation-starter")

Gossamer by Lois Lowry ("another great story and conversation-starter")

Blood on the River: James Town 1607 by Elisa Lynn Carbone ("historical fiction with primary source material included")

When I wrote Confessions of Super Mom, I wrote it as a stand alone book. Meaning I had no thought of continuing the story further. I was not a reader of series books; women's fiction, at least at that time, didn't really put out many series. They were mainly single titles, and that was what I read, and it was what I thought I'd written.  Continue reading...