Jenny Robson's "Savannah 2216 AD", a dark, futuristic novel for young adults, provides a strong critique on much of the world's predilection for saving Africa's animals at the expense of those human communities who are perceived to be in the way of the preservation of the continent's remaining wild spaces. Using Robson's novel as…

Offers four reviews of readable and user-friendly handbooks or dictionaries of English usage, and ideas for their use in teaching. Includes handmade as well as published handbooks. (PRA)

Recommends eight books about literature, literary criticism, and the teaching of literature. (MG)

Describes "Writing!,""Challenge," and "International Readers' Newsletter," three new classroom magazines. Describes "Literary Cavalcade," a classroom magazine preferred by teachers in a 1988-89 survey of instructional materials. (RS)

Reviews the Prentice Hall Literature Series, focusing on: (1) the series' authors and editors; (2) textbook content; and (3) pedagogy suggested in the teacher's guide. (MM)

Reviews in detail "Mind Matters: Teaching for Thinking" by Dan Kirby and Carol Kuykendall, which offers a new approach to teaching thinking skills. Discusses the questions posed by the book, such as "What is thinking?" and elaborates on the theoretical groundings as well. (PRA)

Summarizes Riki Levinson's "Watch the Stars Come Out," and Ted Conover's "Coyotes," two novels which capture recent American immigrant experiences. (RS)

Advocates inclusion of Marianne Wiggins' novel "John Dollar" in high school reading lists and literature classes. Notes that the novel is an allegory rich in poetic suggestion, metaphorical language, and symbolic meaning. (RS)

Reviews two books by Ivan Doig: "This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind" and "English Creek." Notes that both books provide a picture of life in the American West that is not pervaded by Western stereotypes of cowboys and Indians. (MM)

Reviews a recently published picture book, "Beyond Words." Describes how the book might be used in the teaching of English to middle-school students. (HB)

Presents classroom teachers' recommendations for a variety of dictionaries that may heighten students' interest in language: a reverse dictionary, a visual dictionary, WEIGHTY WORD BOOK, a collegiate desk dictionary, OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY, DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN REGIONAL ENGLISH, and a dictionary of idioms. (ARH)

Reviews "The Elements of Literature," a high school literature anthology series. Concludes that the series is particularly strong in grades 9 and 10 although the selections for grades 11 and 12 are conservative. Recommends not purchasing the entire series with all its ancillary materials. (RS)

Reviews and critiques two current books on the function and role of teachers as researchers: Marilyn Cochran-Smith's and Susan L. Lytle's "Inside/Outside: Teacher Research and Knowledge" and Ruth Shagoury Hubbard's and Brenda Miller Power's "The Art of Classroom Inquiry: A Handbook for Teacher-Researchers. (HB)

Discusses a pair of books (Annie Dillard's "An American Childhood" and Maxine Hong Kingston's "The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts") that are well-written, discussion-worthy, and sufficiently alike in content that they can be taught in tandem for comparative purposes as part of a contemporary-literature unit. (RS)

Reviews two videocassettes focusing on modern American poetry: "Moyers: The Power of the Word" and "Voices and Visions." (MM)