Reading Zone Resources for Teachers & Parents

Materials to help children read, as well as classroom teaching activities.

Sub-headings:

Book Lists

Resources in this category:

Laurie's Bookshelf
http://www.writerlady.com/

The author of Speak and Fever 1793, Laurie Halse Anderson has created pages about her life, works and her own web site recommendations.

Andrew Lost Classroom Club
http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/andrewlost/

"Help implement your science curriculum objectives with the Andrew Lost books by J.C. Greenburg." Download the teacher’s guide, view the monthly featured experiments and read about specific Andrew Lost books.

Arthur: Parents & Teachers
http://pbskids.org/arthur/parentsteachers/

In the parent and teacher section of the Arthur website you can download lesson plans, read different activities related to the book series and television show as well as review lists of all the Arthur books.

Association for Library Service to Children
http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/alsc.cfm

A section of the American Library Association site that is dedicated to childrens' library issues. There are recommended books and web sites for kids and links to resources for kids, parents, teachers, and librarians.

The Author Corner
http://www.carr.org/authco/

This site, which focuses especially on authors who live in the mid-Atlantic states, has a wealth of information on several well-known childrens' authors. There are also links to many other authors' pages.

Haemi Balgassi
http://www.haemibalgassi.com/

Author of Peacebound Trains and Tao's Sonata, this website features a biography, links for book lovers, fun links for kids and recipes from children book writers.

Bedtime Stories
http://www.bedtime-story.com/bedtime-story/indexmain.htm

Do you like to hear or read a story before you go to bed? This site has lots of short stories about animals or adventures or make-believe. These stories are such fun, you might not want to wait until bedtime. Read them yourself or ask a grown-up to read to you.

John Bianchi and Frank B. Edwards
http://www.bungalobooks.com/

Here is a fun website of the author and illustrator of Bungalo Books. Coloring a picture, sending a card to a friend and drawing with John Bianchi are some of the fun things you can do here.

Book Adventure
http://www.bookadventure.com/

"Book Adventure is a FREE, reading incentive program dedicated to encouraging kids in grades K-8 to read." Kids can read their favorite books, take a quiz, and acquire points that are later used to receive prizes.

Karleen Bradford
http://www.makersgallery.com/bradford/

This is the web site for the Canadian author of Dragonfire and There Will Be Wolves. Read her biography, see what awards she's won, and read e-books online.

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/puboff/bccb/

" The homepage of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, one of the nation's leading children's book review journals for school and public librarians." The monthly features include a brief look at an author or artist, an editorial about specific books or a trend, and a list of children's book titles related to some theme. Previous months' features are archived and available for reviewing.

Nancy's Neighborhood
http://www.nancycarlson.com/

Here is the official website of Nancy Carlson, author of such picture books as It's Going to be Perfect! and How to Lose All Your Friends.

Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site
http://www.carolhurst.com/

Here you'll find reviews of great books for kids and collections of books and activities about particular subjects. You'll find reviews, activities and titles organized in an easy to use structure.

Celebrate the Poems of Shel Silverstein
http://www.harperchildrens.com/hch/fiction/features/poetry/s...

This site links to "A special classroom poetry kit to help readers of all ages, read, understand, and love poetry." There’s also a link to a never before published poem "Cuttin’ Kate"- download the activity book for this poem, including pages for children to draw their own illustrations and ways to turn the poem into a play!

Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents
http://www.csusm.edu/csb/

This is a teaching resource for Spanish language books containing recommendations and references. The site is in both English and Spanish.

Chateau Meddybemps
http://www.meddybemps.com/index.html

Have fun exploring the world of Meddybemps, where jellybeans grow on vines. This site lets you play word games, read funny stories, and visit a gallery of amazing beans. Teachers and parents can find resources, too, including recommended book lists on different subjects.

The Children's Book Council
http://www.CBCbooks.org

The Children's Book Council has put together a collection of bibliographies, tips for reading activities with kids, information about notable children's authors and illustrators, and a guide to choosing books for kids. Different sections of the site are devoted specifically to the interests of teachers, librarians, and parents.

The Children's Book Forum
http://faldo.atmos.uiuc.edu/BOOKREVIEW/

This site is described as an "Internet Community Project" which depends on parents, children, and teachers to submit their reviews of childrens' books. It was started by a father who had trouble finding reviews of books for his daughter.

Children's Books Online: the Rosetta Project
http://www.childrensbooksonline.org/

An extensive collection of antique children's books. Read these books online or download them! Books are translated into many languages: English, French, Spanish, Polish, Italian, Romanian, German, Dutch, Afrikaans, Chinese, Swedish, Croatian, Greek, Finnish and Farsi. Even more languages to come!

Children's Picture Book Database
http://www.lib.muohio.edu/pictbks/

"A bibliography for designing literature-based thematic units for alldisciplines. Search abstracts of over 4000 picture books using 900keywords. Keywords are also linked to content websites, so teachers cangain professional development when designing lessons by topics, concepts, and skills for children, preK-grade 3."

Childrens' Books Central
http://www.eleanorsbooks.com/

"A place to start for the writers, readers, collectors, illustrators, librarians, teachers, parents, publishers, printers, storytellers and kids." Provides references online to stories, books, discussion groups, and many other links.

Clifford Parents & Teachers
http://www.scholastic.com/clifford/parentsteachers/index.htm

For parents, "Everything you need to help your child learn and grow with Clifford!" For teachers, "Find out how you can use Clifford as a teaching tool! Includes tips, lesson plans, and other resources for the Pre-K and Kindergarten classroom."

Colorin Colorado!
http://www.colorincolorado.org/

A bilingual website for parents and educators who wish to help children become successful life-long readers.

ContinYou Reading Clubs
http://www.continyou.org.uk/readingclubs

Focused on reading for lifelong pleasure, this site includes information on how to create your own book club, resources for book club organizers, and activities to do in your book club.

Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature
http://www.dawcl.com/

An interactive resource for parents, teachers, and librarians to create reading lists of childrens' books. All of the books in the collection are award winners.

Tomie DePaola
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/depaola.htm

Information and links about the popular childrens' author Tomie DePaola.

ePALS Classroom Exchange
http://www.epals.com/

At ePALS Classroom Exchange, teachers can connect to a database of classrooms in 80 countries who are interested in possibly corresponding with their class. "ePALS gives K-12 students and teachers a sense of what every-day life is like in a foreign country."

Eric Carle: Teacher Resource Unit
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/carle.htm

This site includes links to lesson plans for The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Grouchy Lady Bug, Little Cloud, Have You Seen My Cat?, and other Eric Carle books. There are also links to biographical information and a list of articles on education.

Fairrosa Cyber Library of Children's Literature
http://www.fairrosa.info/

A site geared towards adults interested in children's literature with reviews and articles, links to author pages, and a reading room with on-line books and stories for kids.

Fifty Famous People
http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=baldwin&book=pe...

Part of the Baldwin Project, a volunteer-run online library that provides the texts and illustrations of out-of-print children's books at no charge, this collection is a companion to "Fifty Famous Tales Retold". It is a collection of not strictly factual stories about real people in history, retold by James Baldwin at the beginning of the last century for children ages 6-9.

Mem Fox
http://www.memfox.net/welcome.html

Here is the web site belonging to the popular picture book author of titles like Possom Magic, Time for Bed, Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge and Koala Lou.

Fractured Fairy Tales Activity
http://www.eduplace.com/activity/fairy.html

"In this creative writing activity, students will use familiar characters, plots and settings from traditional fairy tales to create ‘fractured’ versions. By altering the story line, adding an unexpected twist, or creating a contemporary ‘spin,’ students will experiment with satire, irony and parody."

Fun With Spot - Grownups
http://www.funwithspot.com/mainGU.asp

This section of the Fun With Spot site has information especially for parents and teachers. There is a biography for author Eric Hill, information about the series and links to other sites. You can switch between territories: United States, United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

Funorama
http://www.funorama.com/

Fold a paper airplane, make paper dolls, color pictures, and do other fun things at this site. For adults, there are reviews of children's books.

Charles Ghigna "Father Goose"
http://www.CharlesGhigna.com/

Learn all about the work of Father Goose- poems and stories and other fun stuff. For parents and teachers, there are recommended teaching plans.

Ghost Forest
http://www.ghostforest.com/

Enter the "Ghost Forest" website to learn all about the prize-winning adventure tale, "Ghost Forest" a story for children. Written by Zlatko Enev, a Bulgarian-born writer living in Berlin, Germany, "Ghost Forest" tells about the adventures of a small girl who enters an enchanted game world. You can read the site in English, French, German, Chinese, and Bulgarian and download a copy of the book here as well. Look into book-related animations, a message board, book summary, pictures, teaching tools, and downloads like wallpapers and screen savers.

Grandpa Tucker's Rhymes and Tales
http://www.grandpatucker.com/

Grandpa Tucker has written silly songs, poems, and stories. There's even a Java JukeBox: you can choose songs and listen to them while you check out the rest of the site.

Valiska Gregory - Children's Book Author
http://www.valiskagregory.com/

Valiska Gregory is an award-winning poet and author of children's books. This site has areas for kids, teachers, parents and librarians.

Helping Your Child Learn to Read
http://www.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/reader/index.html

This publication, by the U.S. Department of Education offers hints, tips, and "activities for children from infancy through age 6." It includes information on how to get kids started reading, and what to do to help them to keep reading. The activities that this page describes are about both reading and spendingtime together.

Helping your Child Use the Library
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/Library/index.html

This site gives great ideas about getting your child acquainted with the library. Also talks about different services libraries provide for children.

Anna Grossnickle Hines
http://www.aghines.com/

A website from the versatile author/illustrator of picture books for young children.

Deborah Hopkinson
http://www.deborahhopkinson.com/

Best known as a writer of picture books, Deborah Hopkinson has also written non-fiction and short stories for kids.

Houghton Miffin Teachers' Center
http://www.eduplace.com/

Math, reading/language arts, and social studies resources and classroom projects.

Inkless Tales
http://www.inklesstales.com/

Listen to cool stories online, build a beast in the game section, read poems, and have lots of fun at this amazing website. Games, stories, poems, and music - Inkless Tales has it all. Check it out! Awarded an American Library Association "Great Web Sites" Recommendation.

International Children's Digital Library (ICDL)
http://www.icdlbooks.org/

Read over 2600 kid's books online in 48 different languages! Here you can find books from over 45 different countries!

Junie B. Jones Classroom Club
http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/junieb/

Use Junie B. Jones books in the classroom. There are lesson plans and activities as well as information about the books and printable worksheets.

Kid's Domain Language Builders
http://www.kidsdomain.com/brain/read/

"Reading, writing, and language skills, you'll find it here ..." A great resource for kids, parents, and teachers with games, word puzzles, worsheet creators and more!

KidBibs
http://www.kidbibs.com/

Reading, writing, learning, and parenting information for parents and teachers. Includes learning tips and SuperSItes for educational materials on the Internet.

Kids Connect @ the Library: Tips for Parents
http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/alscresources/summerreading/tips...

Here is useful advice about reading, libraries and the Internet from the American Library Association.

Jackie French Koller
http://www.geocities.com/~jackiekoller/

Jackie French Koller is the author of children's novels, chapter books and picture books. She provides a biography and a photo gallery.

Learning Centre - Library and Archives Canada
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/education/index-e.html

This site for Canadian teachers and students features primary material culled from the holdings of Library and Archives Canada. Resources include lesson plans, tools for improving research skills, and book and website recommendations.

Leo Lionni Resources for Teachers
http://www.shrewsbury-ma.gov/schools/Beal/Curriculum/media/L...

This site includes websites on the author/illustrator, names of articles and links to lesson plans for some of his books.

Literacy Connections
http://www.literacyconnections.com/

Here is a resource for parents or teachers offering information about reading and tutoring as well as resources on children’s literature, English as a second language and adult literacy.

Literary Center.Net
http://www.literacycenter.net/

This site "provides safe learning activities for parents and teachers to share with young children. All online lessons are free of advertising and free of charge." The activities include recognizing upper and lower case letters, numbers, shapes and colors as well as some basic spelling. The activities are available in English, Dutch, French and Spanish.

Magic Tree House Classroom Club
http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/magicth/

Use Magic Tree House books in the classroom. Download lesson plan ideas and print activity sheets from this site from Random House.

Nancy McArthur
http://junior.apk.net/~mcarthur/

If you're a fan of the Plant That Ate Dirty Socks series, this site is for you! Read the author's biography, check out Frequently Asked Questions, and get ideas in Fun Stuff to Do. Teachers, the author has shared some favorite ideas for using these books in your classroom.

Suse McDonald- Children's Book Creator
http://www.susemacdonald.com/

Learn about the author and do some fun activities like making a kite!

Monstrously Fun Activities! (Bailey School Kids)
http://www.baileykids.com/fun.htm

Here are some ideas on fun activities for some of the books in the Bailey School Kids series and other books by Marcia Thornton Jones and Debbie Dadey.

The North Star
http://www.fablevision.com/northstar/read.html

"Get ready for a very special story." Choose a character and follow him/her through a journey. You can choose to have the book read to you as well.

Laura Numeroff
http://lauranumeroff.com/

Visit the website of the author of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Find out about her life, pets and books. You can also find fun games and activities relating to her books.

Online Activities for Kids
http://www.syvum.com/online/games.html

Wow! These online books are great for working on math & English! "Test and enhance your vocabulary, spelling and grammar skills." In the Math books you can "Build skills in addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, algebra and general arithmetic through fun activities."

Parents and Children Together Online
http://reading.indiana.edu/www/indexfr.html

"A Magazine for Parents and Children on the Worldwide Web."

Planet Esme
http://pages.ripco.net/~esme/

Topically arranged reading lists for teachers of children in grades K-3.

Poetry for Kids
http://www.poetry4kids.com/

Funny, original poems by Ken Nesbitt. Some poems are illustrated.

Patricia Polacco
http://www.patriciapolacco.com/

Learn all about childrens' author Patricia Polacco.

Shoo Rayner
http://www.shoo-rayner.co.uk/

A neat website from the author/illustrator of The Ginger Ninja. Send an e-card and learn to draw his characters.

Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), UK
http://www.rif.org.uk

Reading is fun at this site filled with interviews, book reviews, competitions, on-line stories by top children's authors, and more. This site is for both Kids and Parents.

Reading Rainbow: Kids
http://gpn.unl.edu/rainbow/

The official site for Reading Rainbow is filled with fun activities and trivia based on the books from yesterday's, today's, and tomorrow's shows. Also, find out about the latest contests. There are fun ideas for teachers and parents too!

Resources for Tolkienian Linguistics
http://www.elvish.org/resources.html

This site gives detailed instructions for finding more information about the languages invented by Tolkien and used in his famous books. Resources for information on the formation, grammer, and meaning of the Quenya and Sindarin Languages.

Michael Elsohn Ross
http://www.bugauthor.com/

"The Bug Author," Michael Elsohn Ross has written over twenty science and nature books. This site offers science activities and a biography.

Sample Book Ideas fromYoung Readers Choice Awards Handbook
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/yrca_samp.html

Suggestions for teachers and librarians about introducing recent novels.

Scholastic Central
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/home.jsp

A great site for educators. Scholastic offers teaching ideas for grades PreK-12, online activites and teaching strategies.

SCORE Language Arts
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/SCORE/cla.html

SCORE is the Schools of California Online Resources for Education. This site has lesson plans for grades K-12 on specific books and language arts concepts such as journaling and graphic organizations. There are also descriptions of California Language Arts Standards.

Maurice Sendak
http://web.archive.org/web/20000421162533/http://www.homeart...

This is a report of an interview with Maurice Sendak, creator of Where the Wild Things Are and over 80 other books. He talks about how he started writing, suggests books for kids, and offers some ideas for getting kids interested in reading.

Starting Out Right: A Guide to Promoting Children's Success in Reading
http://newton.nap.edu/books/0309064104/html/1.html

"Starting Out Right" is the popular version of the authoritative book"Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children" that captured somuch media attention in 1998--from the New York Times to the LATimes--as it heralded the end of the 'reading wars'.

Tanya Lee Stone - Official Site
http://www.tanyastone.com/

"Visit the web site of children's author Tanya Lee Stone." This web site has information on the author, her fiction and non-fiction books, links to articles about Tanya and more.

Stories To Tell Children
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new?id=BryStor&t...

Fifty-one stories by Sara Cone Bryant with some suggestions for telling stories. A good selection of traditional tales and old favorites.

Teachers@Random
http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/

This is a great site for teacher resources. Get lesson plans and worksheets for hundreds of Random House books for all grades K-12. There are also biographies for authors and indexes of award winning books and authors. Books are indexed by grade, theme and curriculum subject.

Teachers' Guide for the Professional Cartoonists Index
http://cagle.msnbc.com/teacher/

This site is the companion to the Professional Cartoonists Index which has a large collection of newspaper editorial cartoons. It contains "lesson plans for using the editorial cartoons as a teaching tool in Social Sciences, Art, Journalism and English at all levels."

The Textmapping Project
http://www.textmapping.org/

Provides resources to help teachers use paper scrolls and colored markers to teach reading comprehension skills and classroom content.

The Book Read Project and BR_Match
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/bookread.txt

The Book Read Project links students and teachers with partner classrooms, and with the authors of books they are reading in the classroom. BR_Match is an Internet mailing list that was formed to help teachers and students find partner classes with which they can discuss the books they are currently reading.

Thirty More Famous Stories Retold
http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=baldwin&book=th...

Part of the Baldwin Project, a volunteer-run online library that provides the texts and illustrations of out-of-print children's books at no charge, this collection of thirty stories is for children ages 7 to 9, offering a more advanced vocabulary and extensive plot than the other two books in the series. These not strictly factual tales were retold by James Baldwin at the beginning of the last century.

Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Review
http://www.lookingglassreview.com/

An online children's book review magazine.

Timeline-The Media History Project
http://www.mediahistory.umn.edu/timeline/

Images of devices and documents throughout time along with discussion articles on the history and devices in media. Also Also contains media timelines, courseware, bibliographies.

Vocabulary.com
http://syndicate.com/

This site for teachers offers word games to build vocabulary skills, grade level puzzles,and theme activities.

Weekly Reader for Teachers
http://www.weeklyreader.com/teachers/

"News and views to share with your students: View this week’s feature article and word of the day." There are activities and articles for all grade levels pre-K to high school.

Rosemary Wells
http://www.rosemarywells.com/

This website offers activities, coloring pages, and the author's biography.

World of Reading
http://www.worldreading.org/

On this site, you can read book reviews written by other kids and submit your own too. There are also links to resources about authors and online books.

Young Writer's Clubhouse
http://realkids.com/home4.htm

This website was created by Deborah Morris, author of the Real Kids, Real Adventures series. It's a great place for information and opportunities for creative writing.