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TopClicks
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Education
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English & Languages
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Literature & Reading
Bibliomania - Free education library that contains hundreds of works of classic fiction, short stories, drama and poetry and dictionaries, research and religious texts. Includes the works of Shakespeare and James Joyce.
Book Adventure - Lots of kids like to read books because it's fun. Other kids need a little incentive to read. A free reading club-with prizes!-might be a good summer activity for families. Here's the deal. Your child registers a user name and picks a password. Giving a parent's e-mail address at the time of registration is an option, but you can always go back and add it in later. Your child then goes into the Facemaker section to create a silly face to adorn her new reading "account." After that, use the Book Finder section to select some books to read. Choose grade, reading level, and preferred types of books to generate a reading list. There are over 3,000 books in the database; many have one-sentence annotations, too. Print it out, take the resulting list to the library, and grab some books! After your child has read them, she can log on to her account at Book Adventure and try a short multiple-choice quiz on each book. If she doesn't do well at first, she can go back to the book to check out the answers, then take the quiz again. But beware, she can take each quiz only twice. She will rack up points for each correct answer. Points may be traded for prizes, which range from "instant win" printable things (like bookmarks), to gift certificates at Barnes & Noble bookstores. Other prizes include movie passes, a free game of miniature golf, and even shoe discounts at Kmart, among other things. Parental permission is required before these gift certificates are sent to kids, that's why the parent's e-mail address is needed. I signed up, took a quick quiz on a familiar book, and won a quick 100 points. That was good enough to allow me to print out a very cool paper airplane. But if I want the $5 Barnes & Noble certificate, I'll need a total of 1,500 points. Oh, and I have to be in kindergarten through eighth grade!
BookHive: Your Guide to Children's Literature & Books - BookHive was created by librarians at the Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenburg County in North Carolina. You'll discover age-level-recommended books for ages birth through age 12. Or, choose a category like Mystery, Folklore, or Biography and you'll get brief reviews and pictures of the book covers.
Children's Literature Web Guide - Here you will find online children's stories, information about authors and illustrators, children's book awards, and lots of lists.
Children's Literature--Fairrosa Cyber Library - Online books, book reviews, info on authors and illustrators, and a featured author.
Domenic and Josh's World of Shakespeare - Did Shakespeare really write all those plays? Or was it someone else--or maybe several someone elses! Learn about the controversy here as you explore this most interesting site. Did you know many of our everyday expressions come from Shakespeare's plays? Read about some of them here. The real fun is in the Games section, where you play Hamlet or experiment with online magnetic poetry. This site was created by students for the ThinkQuest competition.
Literacy Resources Online - What can parents do to help their kids become readers? This Web site offers pointers to several pamphlets and articles on how to prevent reading difficulties in young children as well as how to encourage reading in older kids. For example, there is a link to the Department of Education's Web page, "Simple Things You Can Do to Help All Children Read Well And Independently By The End of Third Grade." It's divided into things parents, schools, grandparents, caregivers, and community groups can do to promote literacy. One of these tips is the following: "Ask your children to describe events in their lives. Talking about their experiences makes children think about them. Giving detailed descriptions and telling complete stories also helps children learn about how stories are written and what the stories they read mean."
Poetry Pals Internet Poetry Publishing Project for K-12 Students - Do you like to write poetry? If the answer is "Yes!" then by all means visit this site and share your poems with other kids from all over the world. If you've never written a poem in your life and you'd like to give it a try, click on Magnetic and take a peek at an online version of "magnetic poetry." Click on the words you like and drag them around to make a poem on your computer screen. There are several of these types of games on the Net, but this one is created especially for kids.
Shakespeare - Ah, the Bard himself comes to the Net! Visit this site for the complete works of Shakespeare. You can search the texts, find lists of his plays (chronologically and alphabetically), read Bartlett's familiar Shakespearean quotations, as well as find a picture of William himself. The list of Shakespeare's works is divided into comedy, history, tragedy, and poetry. After you choose a play, you will move to a Web page where you can read one scene per page. The text includes hyperlinks to the glossary, making it easy to understand what Shakespeare was writing. This is a don't-miss destination for all drama students.
Shakespeare Illustrated - This site is dedicated to providing background information on Shakespearean performance in original conditions. Centred around the construction of a replica of the Globe playhouse in London, it includes pages devoted to the original Globe and other playhouses in Early Modern London, reports and photographic documentaries on reconstruction and performances at the New Globe, and also some practical information.
The UVic Writer's Guide - Your teacher assigns you a choice: you can write either an expository essay or a persuasive one. Huh? She explained it, but you still don't understand. This Web site introduces various types of essays, then gives advice on how to get started writing an essay, how to proofread it, and how to solve common writing problems. If you're not up to writing a whole essay yet, there's a section on how to write paragraphs. Can't write a whole paragraph? Stick to the part about how to write a good topic sentence. There is something here for everyone! You'll also find a huge glossary of literary terms and grammar basics.
World of Peter Rabbit and His Friends - Beatrix Potter really did own a pet rabbit called Peter. After she published the book in 1902, she was surprised at its overnight success. Peter has appeared in several of her books besides the original. At this site you can meet all the characters, hear some stories, play some very nice games, send animated greeting cards, and enjoy the many colorful bees and butterflies that flutter throughout the pages. And do you think the "click" sound on this site is Peter crunching a carrot? We do!
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