Listing 81 chapter books for children published between 1996-1999, this annotated bibliography gives interest level ratings, reading level ratings, a brief summary, and theme assignments. The 13 theme categories listed in alphabetical order include Adventure-Survival, Autobiography-Biography, Death, Divorce, Good Reading, Handicaps, Historical…

The great majority of the Founding Fathers were readers. In fact, the leading political figures of late eighteenth-century America were generally, and often intimately, acquainted with the output of the greatest European minds of the day--and of the minds of the ancient western world. Two factors above all placed an ineffaceable stamp on the…

A study employed a uses and gratifications approach to determine why people in different demographic groups read supermarket tabloids. One hundred thirty-three readers of the "National Enquirer," the "Star," or the "Globe" returned mail questionnaires distributed in three different demographic locations. The…

Research in visual communication suggests that relatively complex graphics stimulate viewer interest, while relatively simple graphics facilitate learning. A study was conducted to determine whether the graphics in two science publications ("Scientific American" and "Sciences 81") would be tailored to the ways in which their…

A review of the professional literature supports the position that abundant experience with literature has value for young readers. Teachers in the elementary grades stimulate appreciation of literature when (1) their own enthusiasm is evident as they read and discuss books, (2) they regard each pupil as an able reader of and responder about…

Developing life-long reading habits is a process that should begin in elementary school. Children should be encouraged not only to read what has been approved for classroom use but also to look beyond classroom walls to read for interest and enjoyment. "Looking beyond the walls" is a parable that suggests that school curriculum go beyond the…

A study was conducted to analyze and compare the reading interests of adults from three educational levels. Fourteen adults in a community college reading center, 20 adults from various professional occupations, and 23 adults from a reading education class were given a reading interest inventory concerned with their reading habits and preferences…

In an attempt to understand nonreader attitudes toward the daily newspaper, 576 non-newspaper reading adults were queried in three waves about their reasons for avoiding newspapers. In the first wave, the major findings were that nonreaders avoid newspapers because of lack of time, preference for another news medium, newspaper cost, and lack of…

This discussion of the necessity for promoting a vigourous, prosperous, and free press addresses several areas of journalistic concern: the growing tendency toward disinterest in reading in a population that is nearly 100% literate; the decline of reading habits and motivation to read as reading skills improve; and the inability of newspaper…

The sender of communication strives to deliver information in depth; receivers of that communication favor more, and shorter, bits of information. In this study, the coefficient of balance between depth and scope was correlated with measures of the popularity of a group of magazines published in Austin, Texas. A regression formula was used to…

This briefly annotated bibliography is designed to accommodate intermediate grade students' interests in the American Revolution. Books were included based on the following criteria: (1) appealing content (action, humor, in-depth accounts); (2) authenticated information; and (3) good literary style (vivid, realistic dialog and language). Of the 30…

This study investigated the relationship between a reader's attitude toward his instructional climate and his diversity of reading interests. The sample for the study consisted of three classes of fourth grade students chosen from a randomly selected elementary school in Greenwich, Connecticut. All subjects were administered (1) the Affective…

The effects on readers of direct quotations versus paraphrases, and reader comprehension of material from direct quotations versus paraphrases were examined in this experiment. Four reasonably short and clear stories--two speech stories and two interview stories--were selected from metropolitan daily newspapers. Two versions of each story were set…

Classroom interaction, both student-teacher and student-student, provides a stimulating atmosphere for literature and creative writing discussions. Various recent research studies support the thesis that literature is an important influence on children's creative writing. Thus, teacher directed discussions require special skills involving not only…

In an attempt to identify criteria used by readers to select science news, a homogeneous group of women in the Philadelphia area was asked to indicate which of 48 science-news statements they would be interested in reading in their newspapers. The statements were condensed from stories selected from Philadelphia newspapers over a…