Discusses how students benefit from a book fair. (DD)

Examines a young girl's abridgment of Mara Kay's novel "Masha," focusing on the selection processes she used. Suggests that text selected for the abridgment had personal significance, while less significant or negative text was omitted. Concludes that the experience gave shape and meaning to the girl's own growing up. (MM)

Advocates stories, poems, and other fictional forms as healing agents, using the distinctive configuration of "The Physicians' Desk Reference" (a comprehensive description of the drugs physicians prescribe). (SR)

Presents the fourth annual annotated bibliography of adult mysteries to recommend to teen readers. Includes titles under the headings of private eyes, reference sources, amateur sleuths, historical sleuths, suspense and thrillers, police procedurals, and anthologies. (LRW)

In this article, the author reminisces about the pleasure she derived from growing up in a "book-rich" home, and how that developed into a lifelong love of reading. Today, one-third of all children do not have books in their homes, and, even though they may have access to books over the Internet or at a library, the author contends that this is…

When the National Endowment for the Arts released its "Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America" this past summer, marshaling statistics gathered over a 10-year period, the report confirmed what many educators, librarians, and booksellers have long suspected: that our energies are increasingly focused elsewhere, and that the shift…

Computer-based technologies offer promise as a means to assess students and provide teachers with better understandings of their students' achievement. This article describes recent developments in computer-based and web-based reading and literacy assessment, focusing on assessment administration, information management, and report creation. In…

The activities and self-direction allowed after school provide children in different countries with distinct developmental opportunities that promote culturally valued orientations and outcomes. Fourth-grade children in Bulgaria, Taiwan, and the United States (countries with contrasting social values and expectations) reported their usual…

Intended as a survey of the children's short story and aimed especially at parents and education professionals, this anthology provides insight into the historical development of the short story for children, showing how the perception of childhood and changing attitudes have influenced writers of different periods. The anthology is…

The most powerful determinants of children's reading seem to be 1) accessibility, 2) readability, and 3) interest. (Author/PF)

In an effort to demonstrate the influence of reading, a reading and skills improvement instructor asked college students what book made the greatest difference in their lives and what that difference was. The instructor polled 120 students and listed 20 of those responses and their emotional reactions. Book titles ranged from "The Bible" and "A…

A study examined the roles of reading in a community by describing the reading activities of individuals and demographic subgroups of individuals. After the preliminary, trial phase to determine the feasibility of the survey, 109 adult wage earners from 4 occupation groups, in a community of 6,000 households, responded to an inventory designed to…

A study of formula fiction books was conducted to determine how these books fit into women's lives, what images they bring to mind, and what uses they serve. Seventy-two women from the ages of 18 to 70 read a Harlequin Romance novel by Sue Byfield. Then the group participated in several focus group discussions, a qualitative indepth technique that…

The interaction between the individual and his reading was analyzed according to four major points, and the contributions that reading can make to his total development were discussed. The first major point discussed was purpose for reading. It was pointed out that teachers need to help each pupil see the need for reading in terms of his own…