Here are some wonderful blogs about getting kids interested in literature.

The Well-Read Child

ShelfTalker

Scrub-a-Dub Tub

Kid Lit Kit

There's a little sticker reading "Sci-fi/Fantasy" on the cover of my library copy of Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting. Well. I guess this novel, about the inadvertently-immortal family the Tucks, and their run-in with the mortal human world, is a fantasy, but only in the same way Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables are fantasies. For my beloved little Tuck creates and populates a world — in this case, a small town in the 1880s called "Treegap" — just as surely as those classics do, without aliens, space travel or weird people in trench coats lurking around. I hate to see this gem of a novel get brushed off to a genre audience, for it has much to teach classrooms of young adults.  Continue reading...

In my last column, I began an overview of how Thornton Wilder used language in his classic American play, Our Town. Teachers, you'll want to read that column before picking up here, which points out several more ways Wilder adeptly used words in his play. You'll be able to use these ideas in your classroom.  Continue reading...

Hi, faithful Visual Thesaurus subscribers! I'm back! Did you have a good summer? Did you miss me? I missed writing this column for you. One of the nice things about having some time off from full-time teaching (besides the long days spent in pajamas and sleeping past 6 a.m.) was that I had an opportunity to think about the next direction to take my contributions to the "Teachers at Work" feature.  Continue reading...

Public libraries are branching out online to encourage young readers this summer. Check out these reading club resources, or find programs through your own local library.

New York Summer Reading Program

California Summer Reading Program

Texas Reading Club Jubilee

Teen Summer Reading Club (Canada)

Books to inspire young writers to tell their own stories.

The Young Writer's Companion

Writing Magic

What's Your Story?

Live Writing