Storyline Online

Storyline Online is a fun and engaging site where kids can listen to and watch a story. All stories are read by actors from the Screen Actors Guild Foundation. While not an overly large selection of picture books, the ones selected are high interest and are quality literature by well-known authors. Each book has related activities that a teacher could use to extend the story along with being excellent additions to many classroom units of study. If you've never seen this site in action, try it!

ATN Reading Lists

Have you ever looked for pre-made book lists on a particular theme, genre or reading skill? ATN (All Together Now) Reading Lists has all this and more. It originally started in 1996 as a simple website created and maintained by one person, but recently has evolved into a wiki where anyone can add to it. ATN has exhaustive book lists on any topic imaginable. It seems to be more elementary focused, but does have lists for middle and high school. This is a tool that I turn to often when searching for and creating specialized book lists. And the best part is that this resource is alive and growing everyday. Anyone can join the wiki to add their expertise.

Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature

Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature (or DAWCL) is designed to help select titles of children's books based on certain criteria. This database enables you to search by items such as genre, setting, ethinicity/nationality of protagonist, gender of protagonist, keyword, awards, format, and more. Why is this helpful? While you can search a library's catalog by keyword, it is also somewhat limited to the assigned subject-terms. The creator of DAWCL, Lisa R. Bartle, is a librarian and has read many of the books that are included in the database. This means that she is able to create a robust index far more complete and searchable than a library's online catalog. This database has amazing detail and will be very helpful for anyone looking to create an exciting reading list.

Series Books

Do your students ever wonder which book is the next in a series? The Mid-Continent Public Library does an amazing job of organizing and tracking juvenile series and sequels. It allows you to search by series title, series subject, book title, and author. MCPL manages to stay really current with this database which is no easy feat! If you're ever looking for "what's next" in a chilren's series, this is the site to bookmark.

Mid-Continent Public Library Juvenile Series and Sequels

Scholastic's Book Wizard

Have you ever been asked to make a reading list for a student? With all of the millions of books out there, it can be a daunting challenge. Scholastic's Book Wizard is a great tool that can help with creating reading lists, in addition to just finding out the level of a particular book.

Go to Scholastic's Book Wizard. There are different ways to search this tool. You can search by grade level equivalency, Lexile, Guided Reading, and DRA. Next, you can refine your search by selecting certain genres, interest levels, subjects and more. You can also perform a Quick Search and search by title, author, or keyword. Each search brings up a list of books. These books are not just published by Scholastic but are by most publishers. If you have created an account, you are able to save your book lists. There are also pre-made books lists that you can access. For example, there is a book list of realistic fiction for K-2 students, or a list called, "If you liked The Hunger Games..." for grades 6-12.

Scholastic's Book Wizard has a lot to offer and can be a great help when you need it. Check it out!

Summer Reading

Before the kids skedaddle into the summer haze, why not send them off with some great reading suggestions? I'm always impressed with the summer reading lists compiled by the HAISLN (Houston Area Independent Schools Library Network). These books are for children and young adults and are both fiction and non-fiction. You can print the lists in PDF format, or view the lists on Issu where you can see pictures of the books' front covers with their descriptions. These are some of the best summer reading lists out there. Thank you, HAISLN!

HAISLN Summer Reading Book Suggestions

OSLIS Citation Maker

Citing sources is a critical step in the research process, even for elementary students. But rather than have students try to copy the confusing format of individual citations, Citation Maker does it for them. After all, the important thing about citing sources is understanding WHY we cite, not having to memorize the oft-difficult HOW we do it.

When students are ready to create a citation, have them choose what type of resource it is (book, magazine, encyclopedia, website, online database, etc.). Citation Maker provides fields in which the students input the important information found in citations. Lastly, the students click Create Citation, and voila! The citation is created and ready for copy/paste into a Word document.

Citation Maker
http://www.oslis.org/resources/cm/mlacitationse