Good Sites for Kids logo

 

Childrens Literature

AND Young Adult Literature!

Facebook logo   Follow us on Facebook

Share/Save/Bookmark

This page is one small part of Good Sites for Kids!

 


New Site

 

 

The Ickabog This is the latest J. K. Rowling story.
It is not illustrated because J. K. Rowling wants YOU
to supply the pictures! "The most exciting part, for me,
at least, is that I’d like you to illustrate The Ickabog for me.
Every day, I’ll be making suggestions for what you might
like to draw. You can enter the official competition being
run by my publishers, for the chance to have your artwork
included in a printed version of the book due out later
this year. I’ll be giving suggestions as to what to draw as
we go along, but you should let your imagination run wild."

 

 

10 LESSONS I WANT MY KIDS TO LEARN AND BOOKS THAT HELP TEACH THEM
from No Time for Flash Cards. 10 important lessons and dozens of good picture books to help
teach/reinforce those lessons. This review deserves more time and space.
"Picture books are valuable tools not only to teach lessons but to break the ice for parents and
teachers to dive in further and get to the heart of the lesson more easily...
I have been thinking about the core lessons I want my children to take out into the world..."

 

A World of Myths - Mythology from Around the World
"Welcome to aworldofmyths.com - a collection of articles
devoted to the gods of the ancient world and the adventures
of its greatest heroes." Bios of Greek, Roman, and Norse gods
and myths associated with these cultures. Includes quite a
bit of art and some videos. Interesting fonts, too.
A good resource. From Viktor Andonov, who also gave us
A World of Tales which is also in this section.

 

spinng gold starA World of Tales "Stories for children, folktales, fairy tales and fables from around the world. Whether a student, a parent or a teacher, here you can take a magical journey, filled with adventure, or just remember what it feels like to be a kid again. There is a little something for everyone among these pages, starting with the classic fairy tales by The Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen and Charles Perrault, going on to the morally edifying fables of Aesop and Jean de La Fontaine, and ending with the wisdom, gathered by the people: the folktales from different parts of the world." These are broken down by continent (!) and there are a lot of them! Enjoy!

 

Authors Who Skype with Classes & Book Clubs (for free!) "Welcome to the Authors Who Skype with Classes & Book Clubs List! I’m Kate Messner, the children’s author and educator who maintains this site. I started it because I’ve found that virtual author visits are a great way to connect authors and readers, and I realize that many schools facing budget troubles don’t have the option of paid author visits. With that in mind, this is a list of authors who offer free 15-20-minute Q and A sessions with classes and book clubs that have finished reading one of their books." Long author lists (with links) for younger kids, middle school and high school, and adults. Learn much more at the site!

 

Baldwin Project  is a large collection of public domain literature for children.  This includes everything from about 1880 to 1922.  There is some pretty good stuff in here, all online. One example is the original Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Kipling, with the original illustrations, part of the Jungle Book (which is also in here).  Thousands of stories and hundreds of books are included.  A real treasury! Warning: Be aware that the world 120 years ago was quite different. Some people would now label some of these works as racist, violent, too religious, etc. You are the adult. Read them first. It's still a wonderful collection of "kid lit" and we are happy to include it here.

 

Downloads Children's Books Forever! "Free children's books that have become ...favorites around the world. You can use them on Smartboard, PowerPoint, or overhead projectors." Prometheans, too, we might add. All are in pdf format so you can download and save them.

 

Spinning gold star Children's Books Online: The Rosetta Project   Said to be the largest collection of illustrated antique books online!  Oodles of stories indexed by reading level.

 

Conversation Pieces: Building Bright Ideas "My site targets students in grades 2-8, and it includes almost 200 book recommendations, and some of those include online book quizzes (over 90), discussion questions, vocabulary lists, and writing activities. I offer writing contests for students, and am adding a new section with Daily Writing Prompts. The site also includes independent study project ideas, online vocabulary quizzes, and a math problem of the week. Students can earn virtual badges in the Hall of Fame for Book Quizzes, Math Problems, and Vocabulary Quizzes when they earn high scores in those areas. Teachers and homeschooling parents can incorporate many of these activities into existing literacy and math programs, or use them to facilitate book clubs or enrichment activities." Wow! Yes, all that and more is in here! What a treasure for teachers!

 

CyberGuides From the site: " CyberGuides are supplementary, standards-based, web-delivered units of instruction centered on core works of literature. Each CyberGuide contains a student and teacher edition, standards, a task and a process by which it may be completed, teacher-selected web sites and a rubric, based on California Language Arts Content Standards."

 

Ramona Quimby DEAR

D.E.A.R. Day is Thursday, April 12! Ramona Quimby and Beverley Cleary encourage you to Drop Everything and Read! Curriki's April update included D.E.A.R. and many other useful things.

 

 

 

 

Folk Legends of Japan Here are 19 illustrated folk tales. "Read the stories from 'once upon a time in Japan' that every Japanese kid grows up listening to. FOLK LEGENDS OF JAPAN takes you on a journey to a fairy-tale world of boy heroes, terrible ogres, animal antics, and more."

 

Free Children Stories "The goal of our site is to provide original stories, to promote free reading for children." This site features original, illustrated short stories, with new stories regularly added. New front page now breaks down stories by grade level. If you haven't seen this site lately, they now have over 50 stories.

 

Giggle Poetry Poetry for kids from author and poet Bruce Lansky. Five sections:
  • Poetry Class - Learn everything you need to know to become a "Giggle Poet!" The easy-to-follow instructions on this page will have you up and writing funny poems in no time at all. Dozens of easy poems to learn on.
  • Poetry Fun - Here are some of our most entertaining poetry activities. Do them alone or with a friend!
  • Poetry Theatre - You and your friends can perform poetry plays with these (34) popular and funny poems.
  • Word Games - 14 interactive online games (may be slow to load). Fun and colorful, with music.
  • Read & Rate - rate hundreds of silly poems using the Giggle Meter!
  •  

     

    Grandmother Spider Brings the Sun
    Navajo actress and author Geri Keams narrates from her book
    "Grandmother Spider Brings the Sun".

     

    Grimm's Fairy Tales from A World of Tales This is the Hunt unabridged translation from 1884. Note that Project Gutenberg also has this same 1884 text. "This (etext) book contains 209 tales collected by the brothers Grimm. Note that these tales are presented more or less as the Grimms collected and edited them (and as Hunt saw fit to translate them). Readers of these versions may find more violence and crudity (and occasional anti-Semitism) than in the retellings that are more familiar to most modern readers." Northern Europe in Medieval times WAS crude and violent. People were familiar with personal violence, animal butchering, etc. In times of famine, poor kids WERE often taken out in the woods and abandoned. (As in Hansel and Gretel.) Some collections are different - abridged/cleaned up/Bowdlerized. Not this one.

     

    Island of the Blue Dolphins "A thematic exploration of the historical fiction novel--Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell." A really thorough interactive online thematic unit, with activities about the island, the Native people, their village, sea life. Includes a good teacher's unit with a nice page of lesson ideas. Well done, good art. Created by elementary teachers in California. Part of the HUGE SCORE History/Social Science sites. "Over 5000 websites aligned to California's History/Social Science Curriculum."

     

    J.R.R. Tolkien Reads a Lengthy Excerpt from The Hobbit Hear the master read from his work, in his old West Midlands accent. This is the part where Bilbo meets Gollum under the mountain. Get copies of The Hobbit and have the students read along!

     

    J.R.R. Tolkien Reads From The Two Towers Frodo, Gollum, and Sam eating supper in the wilderness. Another wonderful reading aloud by the master.

     

    Johnnie's Story Page  has plenty of links to web stories for grades K - 8, including a Spanish section.

     

    spinning gold star Josie's Poems It's fair to call this site "the biggest poetry website on the internet". "...knowing how very important rhyming and rhythmic poetry is for helping children develop phonological awareness, a key literacy tool, I’ve just written almost 900 poems for children of all ages." These are GOOD poems to read or to read aloud. The sort of poems that develop language skills, because they emphasize rhyming, rhythm, the way words sound in the head, mouth, and ear, and demonstrate the use of parts of speech! The haiku, cinquains, adverb poems, similes page is a shining example of how to teach poetry structure and grammar all at once! Read Apostrophe - Mr Blob and see what we're so happy about. There are ebooks, audios, and videos, too, and the chance to buy books (the rest of the site is FREE). This site is used by ESL students in Europe. The English speaking world badly needs this sort of place on the web - so much of what is in here is no longer covered well (or at all) in many educational environments. We should have posted this site a long time ago. A big THANK YOU to Josie Whitehead, the teacher who created the site and most of the poems!

     

     

    Wow! Kids on the Net  "10+ Years Online!" A fine literacy site for kids and their teachers from all parts of the English speaking world. Site includes: Writing With a Difference, with online stories written by elementary and middle school classes, story starters, and ways to contribute; also a teacher section and more. Authors and Reading has links to children's lit authors for kids to check out as well as teacher links. Good, practical advice for beginning authors here. Tell Us About It lets kids give input. Teachers shows teachers the various parts of the site. All these sections have Activities, too. There are some wonderful things in this site, go investigate!

     

    KidZone Poetry has lots of poems for kids, including printables, and even a section of how-to haiku. Check it out if you need help with poems or just like to read them. Thanks to Martin Dejnicki for the email about this site.

     

    Launch Pad: "Where Young Authors and Illustrators Take Off! is a new literary & arts magazine devoted to publishing fiction, nonfiction, poetry, book reviews and artwork by children ages 6-12." This looks pretty good. A place where young artists and writers can show off their work!

     

    New Site

     

    LearnEnglish Kids "LearnEnglish Kids is for children who are learning English. Find games, songs, stories and lots of activities - and learn English too." Games, printables, online songs, stories to read, more. There's also a good section for Teachers of English as a Second Language with lesson suggestions using this site.


    For a fun, empowering picture book written by an 11-year-old Mighty Girl encouraging other girls to 'be bold and brave' and speak up, we highly recommend "Raise Your Hand" for ages 4 to 8 at https://www.amightygirl.com/raise-your-hand

    There's also a wonderful new illustrated book that pays tribute to all of the powerful girls and women of the Wizarding World, including Hermione, "Calling All Witches!" for ages 8 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/calling-all-witches

    To discover books of fantasy, magic, and adventure starring Mighty Girls, check out our blog post, "Beyond Harry Potter: 40 Fantasy Adventure Series Starring Mighty Girls" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=12247

     

    Myths, Stories, and Art from Windows to the Universe. "Objects in the sky and other natural phenomena have inspired people throughout the ages. Browse our collection of myths, folk tales, and stories of many types about the Earth and sky. Check out artwork, poetry, books, and movies that portray the natural world. Or take a guided tour that tells the tale of a particular scientific topic." Has three levels: elementary, intermediate, and advanced.

     

    Nassau Library Kids Section Tons of information. Site has very many links, just click on a section and look.

     

    NewzMash "Providing young minds with today's headline news." Kid safe news in an attractive format. "Our site contains global news that is interesting, informative, and is "completely" free of any news that we, as parents or adults, would not be comfortable exposing to our kids...We created this site as a safe haven for our children, and children of other parents who have the same safety concerns as we do. This site allows pre-teens and young adults view current news and information, without parents worrying about their safety on the internet." There has long been a need for a site like this.

     

    The Old Man and the Grandson - Intermediate Level Reading Comprehension from About.com. Suitable for ESL or for enlarging the vocabulary of native English speakers. One of several Grimm's tales used for reading comprehension in this section, scroll to the bottom to see more.

     

    Quizzes.cc - Online Quizzes, Tests, Trivia, Worksheets, and Free Games "... provides math quizzes for teachers and students. You can create a quiz and select the range of numbers you'd like to use. Students can grade the quiz online and generate new problems for more practice." Quizzes for all four elementary operations, plus times table quizzes and a nice metric conversion chart. There are also children's literature, science, and geography quizzes. Secondary students can practice metric conversions, some middle school science, and world geography. Thanks to John @ Quizzes.cc for the email!

     

    Reading Indeed.

     

    Reading Rockets "is a national multimedia literacy initiative offering information and resources on how young kids learn to read, why so many struggle, and how caring adults can help. We bring the best research-based strategies to anyone helping a young child become a strong, confident reader. The project includes PBS television programs (also available online and on DVD); online services (ReadingRockets.org and ColorinColorado.org); professional development opportunities; and a robust social community on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Tumblr." Big sections on: teaching reading (lots of tips & ideas), helping strugglers (ditto), A-Z list of topics ("a rich library of classroom strategies" 44 topics!), children's books and authors (including booklists and how to choose books), fun things to order, and more.

     

    SlimeKids logo SlimeKids is primarily for Children's and Young Adult Literature. We like it intensely. They have book listings - very many of them, about all the "kid lit" and YA books you ever heard about, and more. This section has Book Trailers, which include a video about the book with a written description beneath.

    There's a page of child-safe search engines. There's a long list of the children's and YA authors, from Adler to Yolen, with brief lists of their works and links to their web homes. The Reference section has lists of well-known online dictionaries, encyclopedias, even atlases (impressive). There's a page of sites that do book reviews, an excellent resource. Finally, there is a section of educational games for kids, from all over the web. SlimeKids is a remarkable site! Thank you to Mr. Andy Fine of SlimeKids. Without his email we may not have found this excellent site.

     

     

    DownloadsBreaking Down Story Steps handoutStorytelling Arc, FREE Handout to Use With ANY Short Story, Novel, or Play. "This 2-page PDF file includes a blank form and a completed sample to serve as a model for students. The sample is from my students’ study of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story 'The Cask of Amontillado,' but you could use the blank worksheet with ANY book or short story. This activity is designed to work with fifth graders through high school seniors." To see a BIG version of this graphic, click on this little one. This free download is from Laura Randazzo's TPT site and is rated 4 out of 4 by 57 teacher reviewers.

     

     

     

    Divergent cover #2Teaching Divergent: YA Lit Ideas and Research Projects A high school English unit by K. Ashley Dickson-Ellison, who "is a high school English teacher interested in exploring the integration of trending young adult literature into the English classroom experience." This blog page is from an experienced high school English teacher who taught a Divergent unit to 9th grade English students (14 y.o.). This page is a breakdown of how she did it, with examples. Great discussion here. To find out about obtaining the materials for this unit, contact her using the button at the top right corner of her site, or here. "Above all else, I judge teen lit by how much excitement it generates in my students."

     

     

     

     

    Teenreads reviews latest literature for adolescents. Author sketches and a blog, too.

     

    To Build a Fire by Jack London Shmoop's lists of questions to use with this story, for different grade levels.

     

    UT Literature Center: Great Books for Kids to Read during Holiday Season from the University of Tennessee - Knoxville. Reviews of 23 children's and young adult (YA) books for holiday season reading. Selections are reviewed and sorted into age-appropriate groups. Educators looking for good "kid lit" should examine this listing.

     

     

    Bone series logo Using Graphic Novels in the Classroom A Guide for Teachers and Librarians
    "... graphic novels have emerged as a growing segment of book publishing, and have become accepted by librarians and educators as mainstream literature for children and young adults — literature that powerfully motivates kids to read. How might graphic novels fit into your curriculum and your classroom? What are some specific ideas for how to do this, using Scholastic’s new editions of Bone by Jeff Smith?
    Want to know more? If so, this guide — co-written by a school librarian and a public librarian who are both well-known experts in the field — is for you!"
    thcipstupidratcreatures.jpg

    The Bone series is wonderful. "Problem" kids read them. Kids keep coming back to the series. They'll discuss them if prompted. This pdf gives guidance and example questions.

     

    Web English Teacher Project based learning K-12. Language arts only. Very many, perhaps hundreds, of lesson plans and related ideas for the entire language arts spectrum.

     

    Wizard of Alderley Edge Excellent video poem from students of Bradford University, wonderful rhyming poem, good animation and music, the narrator is great! Covers some good ancient English mythic themes (sacred mounds and sacred wells, white horses, armies asleep underground). Good stuff! Thanks to Josie Whitehead, who listed this video on her stupendous site - Josie's Poems.

     

    back to page top to top of page Back to Good Sites to Good SitesBack to Good Sites to Literacy

    Powered by 1&1 logo The World's #1 Web Host

    Sites for Teachers link