Ideas for Reading!

DIRECTORIES:

The Children's Literature Web Guide


GENERAL AUTHOR / ILLUSTRATOR SITES:

Learning About the Author and Illustrator - more than 600 author sites, arranged alphabetically.


AUTHORS / ILLUSTRATORS FOR YOUNG READERS :

Marc Brown - The Arthur Page - Games, stories and children's art

Joanna Cole and Bruce Degan - (Magic School Bus) What are Ms. Frizzle and the class up to next? 

Mem Fox - Mem's biography, likes and dislikes, and how she wrote many of her books.

The Audrey Wood Clubhouse - Meet Audrey Wood and five other award winning children's book creators (Don Wood, David Shannon, Bruce Robert Wood, Robert Florczak, Mark Teague).  Join in activities with Audrey Wood.  Discover how picture books are written and illustrated.

Author and Illustrator Dav Pilkey's Web Site O'Fun - Official Web site for Dav Pilkey.  Includes biographical information and tells about his books.  Includes fun activities as well.

Chucklebait.com - Jon met up with Lane Smith around 1986 or so, and nothing has been the same since.  Their first book, the wise guy fairy tale retelling The True Story of The Three Little Pigs! was initially rejected by most publishers as "to weird" and "too sophisticated".  Jon and Lane's Stinky Cheese Man took the world of the picture book a few steps further.  

Official Eric Carle Website - Answers to frequently asked questions about Eric Carle and his books, with a biography and list of his works.  For teachers, parents, and librarians there are also ideas for activities that revolve around Carle books.  Also news and previews of his upcoming titles.

Little Critter - "Hi! I'm Little Critter.  I live in Critterville.  I have a mom and dad and a little sister and a little brother."  Mercer Mayer: "After High School, I went to Honolulu Academy of Arts.  Then I moved to New York City.  Now I live in Connecticut.  My wife, Gina, and I write the Little Critter stories together.  We have four children."

Gail Gibbons Home Page

http://www.janbrett.com/


AUTHORS / ILLUSTRATORS FOR INTERMEDIATE READERS:

Learning about Ann McGovern - "This web site gives you the chance to get to now me, my travels, my scuba diving adventures, my school visits, my family, and of course, my books."

Learning about Gary Paulsen - Includes a biography, book list, links to interviews, awards, and reviews of Gary Paulsen's books.  Sources for further reading are also given.

AVI - Questions and answers about children's author Avi, with Avi's own notes about each one of his books, including the cover art from each.  Includes excerpts from his works-in-progress.

Barbara Park - "Of all the characters I have created, I have three favorites: Molly Vera Thompson in The Kid in the Red Jacket, Thomas Russo in My Mother Got Married (And Other Disasters), and of course, the wild and crazy Junie B. Jones.  The great fun in writing about the very young characters is that little kids will say and do almost anything!"

Betsy Byars - Betsy Byars has written over fifty books for young people.  She has won many awards.  Among them are the Newberry Medal in 1971 for her novel The Summer of the Swans,  the American Book Award in 1981 for The Night Swimmers, The Edgar (for the best mystery for young people) in 1992 for Wanted.. Mud Blossom.

Louis Sachar - I never talk about a book until I'm finished writing it.  (Lucky and Tippy are sworn to secrecy as well.)  It took me a year and a half to write Holes, and nobody knew anything about it, not even my wife or daughter.  I think that is helpful for writing, as well as for anything else that takes a lot of self-motivation.  The more you talk about something, the less you tend to do it.

The World of Robert Quackenbush - Meet the author, look at the list of his books, get the details about the workshops, school, and library visits available from Robert Quackenbush.  Book art samples and his AV catalog are also available.

Jean Craighead George is the winner of the 1973 Newbery Medal for Julie of the Wolves and recipient of twenty other awards including the Hans Christian Anderson Honor List for My Side of the Mountain. She has written over one hundred books about children interacting with nature and has illustrated many of her books.

http://www.janetstevens.com/

http://www.janeyolen.com/

http://www.patriciapolacco.com/

http://www.berenstainbears.com/

http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/magictreehouse/  Mary Pope Osborne

http://www.field-guides.com/  virtual field trips

Vicki Cobb is the well-known author of more than eighty highly entertaining nonfiction books for children.  www.vickicobb.com


RESEARCH AND REFERENCE

http://www.thesaurus.com/

http://www.eb.com/ encyclopedia britannica

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm  webster’s dictionary

http://k12.learningnetwork.com/infoplease

http://itools.com/research-it/

http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/

http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations currently available through Project Bartleby. Is such a tool still valuable? Of course, especially when it is wisely supplemented with several more modern Web databases.

Information Please
http://www.infoplease.com

Infoplease Kids' Almanac
http://kids.infoplease.com

Old Farmer's Almanac
http://www.almanac.com/

Biography.com. The Biographical Dictionary includes more than 27,000 "notable men and women who have shaped our world from ancient times to the present day." The database may be searched by name, birth and death years, positions held, professions, literary and artistic works, miscellaneous achievements, and other keywords.

CHOICES” Awards - Each year, 10,000 students and teachers across America vote on the best books published in a given year. Done under the auspices of the International Reading Association and the Children's Book Council, each year's tally is divided into three categories (Children; Young Adults; and Teachers) and can be found here.

America's Story - This is a more use-friendly site for the Library of Congress (see previous listing), extremely story- and entertainment-oriented, and sure to be a favorite of families. The images are right from the nation's archives, and the site includes a scavenger hunt.

www.homeworkspot.com is a free homework information portal that features the very best K-12 homework-related sites together with engaging editorial in one high-utility, educational spot. 

Among the solid choices for basic presidential information is the White House Executive Office of the President Page , which offers biographies of all the presidents and first ladies, as well as links to inaugural addresses. The site also provides substantial material on the current executive office. "41 Presidents, 41 weeks" is the motto of C-SPAN’s 20th anniversary celebration, American Presidents: Life Portraits . This new presidential resource is a companion site to the network’s expansive programming schedule on the presidents. In addition to its biographical resources, the site offers extensive media for download, program transcripts, travel and historic site information, and comprehensive leads for further study. Each week a new well-written American Presidents Teacher Guide is added to the archive.

All Fifty American States Home Pages http://www.globalcomputing.com/states.html

50 States & Capitals
http://www.50states.com/

National Atlas of the United States
http://www.nationalatlas.gov/atlasvue.html

National Parks
http://www.nps.gov/

Phil’s Place Tourism Page: All Fifty States
http://mav.net/phil/tourism.shtml

Postcards From America
http://www.postcardsfrom.com/


BOOKLISTS AND AWARDS:

The Caldecott Medal

The Newbery Medal

Sequoyah - Children's Book Award


LIBRARIES:

Metropolitan Library System ( Edmond Public Library)