Examines the reasons why so many people have preconceptions about how much "truth" is in fiction. Notes the effects of believing that authors base their fiction primarily on personal, "true-to-life" experiences. (RL)

Describes the encounters with children experienced by a writer of children's books when she makes school visits. Reflects on how authors' visits to schools positively affect children's interest in reading and writing. (SR)

Describes the background to some books written by the author, and discusses her desire to motivate those adolescents who do not usually read to read her books. Expresses a desire to write quality books that will win adolescents over to reading. (MG)

Award-winning short-story writer talks about her own reading and writing, censorship, young adult novels, and ways teachers can increase students' interest in reading. (ARH)

Tells the story of Mario, a high school student who struggled with school and with anger, but who found a story (by Ray Bradbury) which engaged his interest, a connection which helped him, in a key moment, look to a hopeful future rather than a difficult past. (SR)

Describes how the attitudes toward textbooks of students enrolled in a study strategies class underwent change as they worked with a particular psychology textbook. Notes that the students wrote to the author, who in turn wrote back. Argues that students' affective responses to textbook reading may be the most undervalued dimension of content area…

Arguing that children are not taken seriously in the United States, this lecture states that basic education is not simply computing and decoding, but also dreaming and imagining. The lecture urges educators not only to stick to the reality of budget cutting and deficit spending but, for the children's sake, also to stick to a dream. In the…

Provides selected quotations about reading from great writers of the past (MKM)

Offers reflections (by Nicholasa Mohr, writer of children's, young adult, and adult literature) upon how she learned to read and how reading gave her a sense of freedom, as well as pride in her own Puerto Rican heritage, in spite of the nonacceptance and contempt she experienced in school. (SR)

Recounts an interview with the Kansas author of children's books, Bill Martin, Jr. Reveals details of his childhood in Hiawatha, Kansas, his family, his early difficulties reading and writing, his writing processes, and his collaboration with other writers. (PRA)

Metadiscourse, or an author's presence in a text, and its benefits for improving textbooks and children's learning and attitudes are explored in this paper. Through a historical review, the paper reveals that using the interpersonal voice and the author's commentary are legitimate rhetorical devices. Interviews with prominent contemporary…

Offers reasons why popular literature, such as the work of Judy Blume, and the literary "classics" do not keep adolescents interested in literature and reading. Suggests several authors and books that are especially suited to the reading needs of young adults. (RL)

Describes a teacher's method of motivating her sixth- and seventh-grade students to become interested in interview pieces with authors. Provides a worksheet that encourages student engagement with the interview questions. (TB)

Conceived as a twentieth anniversary tribute to the Reading Is Fundamental Program, this book contains a varied collection of stories, poems, and drawings by some of America's most famous authors and artists of books for children, relating real and imaginary childhood memories that celebrate the joys of reading and the magic of children's…

An author recommends that young children read good fiction rather than stories in basal readers. Recounts her dismay when one of her books was adapted for a basal reader and the language was changed and simplified. (NKA)