Elementary students love series titles. They enjoy the comfort of familiar characters, settings, and structures. This is especially true for emergent and newly independent readers, whose reading success with these titles encourages them to seek similar books. (Me personally, I learned to read thanks to Matt Christopher’s sports books.)
Usually, it’s the character I think of first. I never see that character’s face—even when I’ve written for months and the book is finished. Rather, it’s almost as if the character is whispering in my ear, saying, “Hey, this is what I need. This is what I want.”
In this audio clip about his book (Ashley Bryan’s ABC of African American Poetry, S&S, 1997) Ashley Bryan presents the alphabet to introduce the contributions of Black American poets, including Henry Dumas and Langston Hughes. He hopes you…
We recently created original multimedia resources with author Ann Bausum for customers in Texas. In these original Book Readings you’ll hear Ann share her personal connection to writing Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of …
Customers in Indiana recently asked us to create original multimedia resources with author April Pulley Sayre. In these original Book Readings you’ll hear April explain her personal inspiration for writing some of her books and then read a short excerpt…
Graphic fiction and nonfiction books are increasingly being used in schools to hook reluctant readers or to present topics in a different format. The multimedia materials recommended in this month's column provide you with instructional support to integrate these graphic books into your lesson plans.