Books in the Classroom
Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site: The Ghost Belonged to Me
This site on the book "The Ghost Belonged to Me," by Richard Peck, includes a review of the book, a listing of things to notice and talk about, activities related to the book, other related books, and links to other resources."
Books in the Classroom
Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site: The Castle in the Attic
This site provides a review of the book "The Castle in the Attic" by Elizabeth Winthrop. It also features ideas for activities and a list of related books.
Books in the Classroom
Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site: Bird Watch: A Book of Poetry
This site is on the book "Bird Watch" by Jane Yolen. It includes a review of the book, a listing of things to notice and talk about, activities related to the book, other related books, and links to other resources.
Books in the Classroom
Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site: Jumanji
This site on the book "Jumanji" by Chris Van Allsburg, includes a review of the book, a listing of things to notice and talk about, activities related to the book, other related books, and links to other resources.
Books in the Classroom
Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site: The Mud Flat Olympics
This site on the book "The Mud Flat Olympics" by James Stevenson, includes a review of the book, a listing of things to notice and talk about, activities related to the book, other related books, and links to other resources.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Literary Elements and Techniques Collection
These animated shorts introduce or review literary elements and techniques like theme, setting, figurative language, characterization, and conflict. They can be used when students are just learning how to identify the most commonly used...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Discussion Guide: The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary School
Candace Fleming writes contemporary stories built around Aesop's fables in The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary School. No one wants to teach the fourth graders until the amazing Mr. Jupiter comes along. He undertakes the task...
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; but in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: In My Hands by Irene Gut Opdyke
In the fall of 1939 the Nazis invaded Irene Gut's beloved Poland, ending her training as a nurse and thrusting the sixteen-year-old Catholic girl into a world of degradation that somehow gave her the strength to accomplish what amounted...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Now You See Her by Jacquelyn Mitchard
Hope Shay's life is about acting. Her parents have supported and promoted her talents since she was a little girl. From community theater, dinner theater, and commercials to auditions around the country and finally a place at a...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Discussion Guide: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by James Boyne
Bruno is only nine years old when his father, a commandant in Hitler's army, is transferred from Berlin to Auschwitz during the Holocaust. The house at "Out-With," as Bruno calls it, is small, dark, and strange. He spends long days...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Stargirl Caraway explores her new neighborhood with an eye for the unusual. She notices the agoraphobic neighbor, the seemingly homeless young boy, and others who do not fit in easily. Stargirl, never one with an inclination to conform,...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli
Young Misha Pilsudski lives on the streets of Warsaw, Poland and struggles with his identity. When he enters the Jewish ghetto and sees firsthand the evil acts of Hitler's Nazi soldiers, he realizes it's safest of all to be nobody.
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
One glance and students know that the new girl at Mica High School is not your ordinary high school student. Stargirl Caraway is a free spirit. She has a pet rat named Cinnamon, plays the ukulele in the cafeteria, and refuses to wear the...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Looking for Alaska by John Green
Everybody has a talent. Miles Halter's is knowing the last words of a lot of different people - people like the author Rabelais, whose enigmatic last words "I go to seek a Great Perhaps" inspire the sixteen-year-old to leave his family...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Paper Towns by John Green
Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life - dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Will Grayson, Will Grayson
In the suburbs of Chicago, two teens named Will Grayson - one gay, one straight - have lived their lives completely unaware of the other's existence. But that changes one fateful night when their worlds collide. Their lives begin to...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: The Sacrifice by Kathleen Benner Duble
In the year 1692, life changes forever for ten-year-old Abigail Faulkner and her family. In Salem, Massachusetts, witches have been found, and widespread fear and panic reign mere miles from Abigail's home of Andover. When two girls are...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
This historical fiction book, winner of a 2006 Newbery Honor for children's books, is perfect for girls graduating from the Little House on the Prairie series. Author Kirby Larson based this tale on her own great-grandmother's...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Under a War Torn Sky by l.m. Elliott
Just nineteen years old, Henry Forester is the youngest pilot in his Air Force squadron. Still, he's one of their best fliers, facing Hitler's Luftwaffe in the war-torn skies above France. But when his plane is shot down on a mission...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Ever since she called 911 from a teen party, Melinda has quieted her voice, literally and figuratively. She only finds it when its needed to prevent a reoccurrence of the same horror. This stunning look at sexual assault and peer...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Hello, America by Livia Bitton Jackson
Eighteen-year-old Elli has a number tattooed onto her arm. It is an indelible remnant of a terrifying past a life lived, for many years, in the death camp of Auschwitz. When Elli arrives in New York City, she can not speak English, and...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Set in 1943 when the Nazis occupied Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen is asked to carry out a heroic deed and aid her uncle in his efforts to smuggle Danish Jews across the sea to Sweden, where they will be safe. She has already...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Guide: Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam and the Science of Ocean Motion
Part of Houghton Mifflin's excellent Scientists in the Field series Tracking Trash introduces Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer, a "trash tracker", who studies where trash goes when it is "spilled" in the ocean, to determine the direction of ocean...