Literacy Center.net - This site "provides safe learning activities for parents and teachers to share with young children. All online lessons are free of advertising and free of charge." The activities include recognizing upper and lower case letters, numbers, shapes and colors as well as some basic spelling. The activities are available in English, Dutch, French and Spanish.
The publisher DK has created a kids page with links to a variety of materials including internet games kids can play, lesson plans, DK books related to school topics, etc.
Sylvan Dell Publishing is a small and relatively new press out of South Carolina producing high quality books for younger children. Their tag line is "science and math through literature". Unlike many efforts in this vein, these are good stories that happen to impart knowledge through good writing and superior illustration. The noble intention of imparting knowledge fortunately does not suffocate the story telling.
They have twenty-five titles in print and if you are teaching kindergarten through third graders anything to do with the environment, ecology, animals and marine life, and related topics, it is probably worth visiting their site. They have lesson plans, activity guides and links to related websites, all arranged by title. They also have their titles aligned to various state and federal standards. Finally they also have them measured according to the Lexile, Accelerated Reader and Reading Count measures. We carry their full range of books.
Slightly Foxed is a delightful British quarterly publication launched in 2004. As they describe their mission:
Eclectic, elegant and entertaining, Slightly Foxed unearths books of lasting interest, old and new, all of them in print. Each issue contains 96 pages of personal recommendations from contributors who write with passion and wit. Slightly Foxed aims to strike a blow for lasting quality - for the small and individual against the corporate and the mass produced.
Their remit is all literature, not just children's, however, probably 20-30% of their articles either are about children's books or touch on them.
I like the fact that they focus on sustaining attention on lasting quality, and the fact that they often cover children's books. However, their strength is simply excellent and compelling writing. The quality of the essays reflects their choice of contributors and the value of what those contributor's have to say.
Of the many thousands of books I have purchased in my life, I doubt I have ever purchased a book on cooking. And yet I found myself reading an essay some months ago by a contributor recollecting and elaborating on a cooking book from the 50's or 60's. And not just reading the essay but thinking to myself, "I need to keep my eyes open for that book".
If you want great writing about neglected books I highly recommend Slightly Foxed to you.
August House is an independent publisher based in Atlanta, Georgia. They have a strong focus on the storytelling aspect of reading, i.e. not only the quality of the story as literature but the story as spoken.
The August House homepage has links to their Learning Center which includes Lesson Plans for many of their books, Story Cove (a collection of animated stories), and other resources.
Just One More Book!! is a wonderful site with podcast interviews with authors, illustrators and others involved in the book industry.
It is so delightful when you find someone who has written a piece on an issue which you might have been mulling over and find that they have written about it much better than you ever could have.
One of the issues motivating the establishment of Through the Magic Door has been to try and counteract the very large volume of unremittingly negative children's books that have come out in the past couple of decades. Some of these are wonderfully well written. Many have been award winners. But there are so many and they are so dark.
It makes you want to take up arms - Optimists of the World Unite!
I have just discovered an author, Barbara Feinberg, who has written a delightful piece which is an exploration of why our children are being burdened with all these negative novels. Please take a look at her article, Reflections on the "Problem Novel" which is adapted from her book, Welcome to Lizard Motel.
With her delightful essay, I can safely point to her words and restrain myself from ranting.
Mathematica Policy Research Inc. is a contractor that conducts a good deal of research on behalf of the Federal government on the efficacy of various health and educational programs. As such, they have a lot of research on many related childhood programs funded by the government.
The Florida Center for Reading Research was established by Governor Jeb Bush in January, 2002. It is jointly administered at Florida State University by the Learning Systems Institute and the College of Arts and Sciences.
The Florida Center for Reading Research Mission:
1. To conduct basic research on reading, reading growth, reading assessment, and reading instruction that will contribute to the scientific knowledge of reading and benefit students in Florida and throughout the nation.
2. To disseminate information about research-based practices related to literacy instruction and assessment for children in pre-school through 12th grade.
3. To conduct applied research that will have an immediate impact on policy and practices related to literacy instruction in Florida.
4. To provide technical assistance to Florida's schools and to the State Department of Education for the improvement of literacy outcomes in students from pre-K through 12th grade.
The National Center for Eduction Statistics is great place to start any project where you are trying to wade through the often contradictory research.
The US Census Bureau can be a fascinating font of information about this incredibly diverse country and it is amazing what nooks and crannies they have statistics on, including books and reading.