Early childhood and special educators are under growing demands to develop children's language and literacy skills through evidence-based practices. One promising research-based strategy for vocabulary and language development is dialogic reading (DR), which is an interactive picture book reading technique developed in the late 1980's by…

Picture books for older readers present challenges for libraries in terms of how best to provide access to them. These books often have an "E" on the spine to indicate that they are "easy" or for "everybody," and share lower shelves with a far greater number of picture books geared for the preschool and primary grade audience. However, this…

Today, it is a challenge for teachers to convince resistant readers that literature holds secrets, adventures, and revelations worthy of their time and attention. When teachers demonstrate how to explore literature and guide students in doing so, teachers help break down barriers that are common among middle school students. Unfortunately, when…

Interesting texts, defined as texts about which students possess background knowledge relevant to their lives, have an impact on both motivation to read and comprehension. The purpose of this study was to determine if there were texts that represented Appalachia. Content analysis was used in this study to examine fifty-two children's realistic…

The picture book is a simple yet profound tool for teaching peace. Picture books are nearly pieces of art--with rich text accompanied by illustrations, paintings, and photographs that speak to the spirit of the child. They are an ideal peace resource, in part because they are readily accessible for all age levels. Books can be borrowed through…

Academic inquiry has focused recently on how to create caring classrooms and school communities--that is, classrooms and school communities that encourage children to continue to develop caring feelings, thoughts, and behaviors, or to feel, think, and practice them anew. After reviewing research on caring and attachment, this article discusses how…

In his book "To Be a Boy, To Be a Reader: Engaging Teen and Preteen Boys in Active Literacy," William Brozo suggested that many adolescent boys have become mentally and academically detached from school. While Brozo acknowledges that a solution to these problems is multifaceted, he asserts that engaging boys in literature that makes use of…

Grounded in feminist notions of valuing lived experiences and constructing knowledge about the wider world from material realities, this article uses autobiographical narratives and poststructural and critical theories to argue for change in children's literature. The author presents two simultaneous streams of shifting, representations and…

In this article, the author provides one solution for librarians on how to choose what books to share with primary students when there are more than 15,000 children's books published each year and only 185 days of school. At Mt. Lebanon School, they devote the month of March to sharing some of the best books ever printed for children: Caldecott…

As multicultural education is becoming integral to the core curriculum, teachers often implement this aspect into their courses through literature. However, standards and criteria to teach and promote active discussion about this literature are sparse. This book introduces pre-service and experienced teachers to the use of literature to promote…

In this article, the author recommends a certain criteria for selecting Spanish-language books for elementary students such as cultural factors, setting, time, age, language and visuals. She also enumerates some authors and a listing of their many bilingual texts, which can be used to enrich a school or classroom library.

No classroom teacher needs convincing of the benefits of using children's picture books in his or her math program. As Marilyn Burns, the creator and founder of Math Solutions Professional Development, and the author of "The Greedy Triangle" (Scholastic, 1996), says, "Evidence shows that teaching math through children's books motivates children to…

Presents brief annotations of 28 highly recommended children's picture books. (SR)

Examines some of the issues related to evaluating and selecting picture books, informational books, and multicultural literature. Discusses historical trends in each of the three genres from before the 1950s through the 1990s. (RS)

Provides annotations of 35 easy-to-read picture books, informational books, easy-to-read chapter books, and poetry collections that serve as bridges from one type of reading to another. (RS)