Critiques the trend to publish trade books that incorporate mathematical concepts. Offers criteria for evaluating children's books with mathematical dimensions, arguing that they should provide a pleasurable and authentic literary experience and the opportunity to use math for authentic purposes. Highlights several books that are examples of good…

Defines a range of visual impairments that affect some adolescents. Examines the currently available young adult literature with characters who have vision disabilities. Provides a list of questions and criteria for evaluating and selecting young adult books that feature such characters, and includes a 13-item annotated bibliography of such books.…

Describes the Batchelder Award (presented since 1968 to the U.S. publisher of the most outstanding children's book originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country and subsequently published in English in the United States), and lists all of these award-winning books. (SR)

Presents resources for secondary school reading teachers. Looks in depth at two books: "Into Focus: Understanding and Creating Middle School Readers," and "Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Reading Comprehension in a Reader's Workshop." Discusses three online resources about teaching reading and selecting materials (READPRO,…

Offers brief annotations of 44 children's books (published in 1997). Organizes them in groups according to intriguing topics, appealing illustrations, relevant themes, engaging language, and pleasing humor. (SR)

Discussion of adolescent readers and adolescent literature focuses on adult books for adolescent readers. Topics include historical views; promoting free reading for teenagers; nonfiction, biographies, and interviews with real teens; and the need for lists of appropriate and popular adult books for teenagers. (LRW)

Presents a set of questions that are offered as suggestions to help students think and define themselves as readers. Notes that to encourage thoughtful, well developed responses, the questions should be spread out over a number of days or weeks. (RS)

Provides brief descriptions of 27 picture books and chapter books for children, from many genres, which all feature characters on journeys, often momentous ones. (SR)

Presents brief annotations of 100 children's and young adults' trade books (published in 1999) chosen by 10,000 school children across the United States as the books that they like best. Groups books by reading levels: for beginning, young, intermediate, and advanced readers. Offers tips for parents, primary caregivers, and educators. (SR)

Describes some activities from the authors' fourth/fifth-grade classroom exploring "identity." Offers brief descriptions of 26 children's books that invite critical conversations about identity around topics of: making a choice and changing your life; gaining control and overcoming obstacles; judging and being judged; and relationships…

Offers short descriptions of 10 books for children in which a famous writer appears as an essential character and a catalyst for the plot or content (while another character tells the story). Includes such famous writers as Benjamin Franklin, Emily Dickinson, and William Shakespeare. (SR)

Encourages the idea of cross-generational shared reading experiences. Presents annotations (written by students) of 12 titles. Notes that almost half of the books that are featured have been around for a while, and yet they are still fresh for new readers. (SG)

Introduces two books about magic, one a collection of essays "Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader," which describes the author's inherited lifelong passion for books and reading; and the other a novel, "Mangos, Bananas and Coconuts: A Cuban Love Story," which tells a story of love and magic that seems both real and…

Presents annotations of 99 articles (most published between 1980 and 2001) about young adult literature. Describes the criteria used to select the articles. (SG)

Offers brief descriptions of 17 books of nonfiction that will inform and entertain, and that middle schoolers will enjoy when they want some information and want to know about the workings and wonders of the world and the people in it. (SR)