Brandi Beneke

Dr. Burke
ENGL 414A
27 February 2014

Major Course Assignments: Resources for Childrens Literature

Identify at least five useful websites with useful information about reading and/or
teaching childrens books.

1. Bookwink
http://bookwink.com/
Sonja Cole is the host and book reviewer. Paul Kim is the art director and producer.

Bookwink was selected by the Association of Library Service to Children (ALSC) to
be included on their list of great websites for kids. Through podcasting and web
video, Bookwink hopes to inspire kids to read by connecting kids in Grades 3 through
8 with books that will make them excited about reading. Each video is about a
different genre/topic and is approximately three minutes long. On Bookwink, one can
search for books by subject, grade level, author or title, as well as view lists of read-
alikes organized by author, title, and subject.

2. Random House Kids
http://www.randomhousekids.com/
Random House Childrens Books, a division of Random House, Inc. whose parent
company is Bertelsmann AG, a leading international media company.

Random House Kids is a hub for literature for children from toddlers to young adults.
The site includes books from award-winning authors and illustrators in all formats
from board books to activity books to picture books, novels, ebooks, and apps. The
website also offers an array of activities, games, and resources for children, teens,
parents, and educators.

3. Kidsreads
http://www.kidsreads.com/
Carol Fitzgerald | Founder/President

Kidsreads is designed for children aged 6-12 and offers information about childrens
books, series, and authors, as well as reviews of the newest titles, excerpts from the
newest releases, and literary games. It features a vast book database, contests, articles,
in-depth author profiles and interviews, and many lists including newly published
books.

4. Reading Rockets
http://www.readingrockets.org/
WETA Public Broadcasting

Reading Rockets is a national multimedia project that offers information and
resources on how young kids learn to read, why so many struggle, and how caring
adults can help. It offers a wealth of research-based reading strategies, lessons, and
activities designed to help young children learn how to read and read better. These
resources assist parents, teachers, and other educators in helping struggling readers
build fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills.

5. BookHive
http://www.cmlibrary.org/bookhive/
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library | A team of Childrens Librarians, Specialists,
and Web Page Developers

BookHive is designed for children ages birth through twelve, their parents, teachers,
or anyone else interested in reading about childrens books. The site contains
hundreds of recommended book reviews in a variety of reading levels and interest
areas. Users can search for books by author, title, reading level, interest area, number
of pages, and even illustrator. In addition, users will find a number of fun activities
and features designed to help kids enjoy and appreciate books and reading, which
include a selection of bookplates that can be printed, quizzes, coloring pages, and
childrens own personal booklists. There are also regularly featured stories that
children can listen to and some book reviews may even include parental notes that
provide additional information about the book.

Identify at least three non-web sources that can help you learn more about reading
and/or teaching childrens literature.

1. Teaching Childrens Literature: Its Critical! by Christine Leland
New York: Routledge, 2012.
256 pages

This text offers a perspective on how to implement childrens literature into and
across the curriculum in ways that are both effective and purposeful. It invites
multiple ways of engaging with literature that extend beyond the genre and elements
approach and also addresses potential problems or issues that teachers may confront.

2. Childrens Literature in the Classroom: Engaging Lifelong Readers (Solving
Problems in the Teaching of Literacy) by Diane M. Barone
New York: The Guilford Press, 2010.
242 pages

This text provides a wealth of ideas for incorporating high-quality childrens books of
all kinds into K-6 classrooms. Numerous practical strategies are presented for
engaging students with picture books, fiction, nonfiction, and nontraditional texts. In
addition, there are descriptions of recommended books and activities that are essential
for providing authentic reading experiences to students, as well as reflection questions
and suggestions for further reading.

3. Childrens Literature: A Developmental Perspective by Barbara and John Travers
New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2008.
440 pages

This text takes a developmental approach to childrens literature, offering a
perspective on combining childrens literature with developmental psychology. This
text will help teachers and librarians gain a better understanding of the appropriate
book for a child at a certain stage of their life. Each genre in the text is covered within
a chapter devoted to a certain developmental stage.

Identify at least five characteristics of or ways of distinguishing reliable websites.

1. Observe the URL.
The suffix on the domain name is usually descriptive of what type of entity hosts the
website.
.edu = educational
.com = commercial
.mil = military
.gov = government
.org = nonprofit
.net = network infrastructures

2. Who authored the site?
A reliable author will typically provide information about him/herself, such as his/her
credentials, expertise on the subject s/he is writing about, education level, and
relevant experience on an about or more about the author page that can be
accessed by a link at the top, bottom, or sidebar of the homepage. However, users
should also research the author online to see if there is any information that makes the
website questionable.

3. Online journals and magazines.
A reputable journal or magazine should contain a bibliography for every article. The
list of sources within that bibliography should be quite extensive and should include
scholarly, non-Internet sources. The author should provide evidence, such as statistics
and data, within the article that back up his/her claims.

4. What is the purpose of the website?
Websites can be created for a variety of purposes: to provide information, sell
products, persuade, etc. Discovering the purpose of a web page can help determine
the reliability of the site and the information it provides.

5. Who is publishing or sponsoring the page?

It is important to evaluate web sources for credibility due to the overwhelming array of
content that can be accessed on the Internet.

http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/web-eval-sites.htm
http://www.edb.utexas.edu/petrosino/Legacy_Cycle/mf_jm/Challenge%201/website%20r
eliable.pdf
http://www.ala.org/rusa/sections/history/resources/pubs/usingprimarysources