And Yet Still More Free Resources from Children's Publishers

This is my fourth, but probably not the last, post focusing on free resources from children's publishers. If you're just arriving, you'll want to check out the older posts to see parts one, two, and three. If you know of a publisher I've missed, drop me a line!

Salariya is the UK publisher of the immensely popular Scholastic "You Wouldn't Want..." series which I discussed in a previous blog. They've put four of their more popular titles online for direct viewing, with a little bit of interactivity and related links to boot. Check out the online versions of You Wouldn't Want to be a Roman Gladiator, You Wouldn't Want to be an Egyptian Mummy, You Wouldn't Want to be a Polar Explorer, and You Wouldn't Want to Sail on a 19th Century Whaling Ship. Some of the links which appear at the end of each book are equally worth exploring.

I don't know how I mentioned Candlewick in my previous post without noting their very cool Ology World site. While this is topic of a post on this site, I'll leave it to you if you wish to sneak a peek. Your boys especially will like the interactive approach to nonfiction.

I also mentioned the Walker US site and the Walker Australia site, only to find out that there's an equally impressive Walker UK site. The Kids Den presents the user with the option to explore several minisites devoted to specific titles and characters (such as Judy Moody, Alex Rider, and Anthony Horowitz's Power of Five). A page for grown-ups features short yet comprehensive articles on topics such as Learning at Home, Reading Aloud, and Rereading. One resource I highly recommend you download right now is a poster titled The Rights of the Reader (see thumbnail to the right), written by Daniel Pennac and illustrated by the quirky Quentin Blake. A must-have for any classroom or library. Other cool resources they offer directly (posters, teaching guides, podcasts, videos, etc.) are available from a single page where they're organized by age group. Additional literacy links which will take you off the Walker site are also provided at Links We Like.

Abrams' most famous titles for children come from their Amulet Books imprint. Leading the way is The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, now a best-selling series (visit the minisite here). Gaining ground, however, is the The Sisters Grimm, which appeals to a slightly different demographic. This title has its own minisite where teachers can download a teaching guide, allowing them to make natural connections to the fairy tale genre. Coming in third place is NERDS (National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society), also by Michael Buckley, author of The Sisters Grimm. This site, again, features its own minisite, author video, and first chapter online preview.




Abdo Publishing Group incorporates a number of imprints at its site, and it's worth a look. The printable activities change often, and offer seasonal connections to many of its titles. One handout which teachers might find useful is the Create Your Own Superhero Handout. This is a terrific page to accompany the Hero Factory online activity which appeared in one of my previous posts on heroes in picture books (you can also check out Marvel Comic's cool Create Your Own Superhero interactive site). Teachers interested in making a case for using comics and graphic novels in the classroom may also appreciate the two page pdf Comic Books and Literacy Studies (also required reading if you need some convincing yourself). In that document some notable folks, such as Bishop Desmond Tutu and Jim Trelease, make a case for reading comics as a part of their own character development.

While we're briefly on the topic of graphic novels, another terrific resource for librarians and teachers is a pdf created by Scholastic and Bone series author Jeff Smith. Using Graphic Novels in the Classroom is a straight forward guide written in Q and A format which answers many questions and counters many arguments about comics in school curriculum and libraries.

Kane/Miller Book Publishers shares ideas (teacher to teacher) in single page Teaching Tips sheets (they download as Word documents). You'll find a decent list here to many favorites, including one of mine: Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox (see my dedicated post for this book). The Fun Page features printable games, coloring pages, bookmarks, etc.

Nomad Press seems to specialize in nonfiction books, particularly those focused on history and the people who made it. Their Activity Pages contain crafts and explorations from their titles, and you'll find about four or five dozen to explore (all available as pdfs from Scribd). Each featured book also has a full-page layout, featuring not only a summary, list of references, and information about the authors and illustrators, but also web links, downloadable Facts and Q and A sheets, plus a link to the activity sheet for that title (see Tools of Ancient Romans for a sample). Pictured activity is Make Your Own Tabletop Victory Garden from Great World War II Projects You Can Build Yourself.

Peachtree Publishers allows you to see all teacher's guides on a single page, and they're accessible by clicking on any book's cover (this one page includes picture books, middle school novels, and YA lit). I was pleased to see a teaching guide for The Yellow Star: The Legend of Christian X of Denmark, one of my favorite picture books for discussing the Holocaust (see others at a previous post). Peachtree is also creating a collection of story kits, meant for teachers of lower grades, which contain many more activities, templates, and picture resources than the above teaching guides.

Although I mentioned Harper Collins in the first installment of this Resources series, a reader suggested I also point teachers and students to the Harper Collins Children's Video Player, which offers snippets and full video versions of books from this publisher.

Are there more resources out there available from publishers? Absolutely! Let's find them together. Email me or leave a comment below if I've neglected to mention some great resources available from a publisher, not only here in the states but anywhere in the world!

Name to Know: Tracie Vaughn Zimmer

Under what rock have I been living? That's a question I asked recently over at my How to Teach a Novel blog. A couple readers emailed and suggested I repost here, since the reason for that rhetorical question would be of interest to teachers here as well.

I simply wondered how it took so long for me to discover Tracie Vaughn Zimmer. She's an author, and I do recognize a couple of her titles. But somehow I missed that she has also created this awesome site (absolutely no hyperbole intended) containing original teaching guides for picture books (over eighty of these!), YA books, and poetry. All for free! All Tracie asks in return, if you like what you see, is that you buy a copy of one of her recent books. Pretty good deal: free resources and one of her critically acclaimed titles for your library.

Personally I found teaching guides for many books I'm hoping to include in future blog posts including Abe's Honest Words, Daniel Boone's Great Escape, River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams, and Mama Went to Jail for the Vote.

So in a rare move, I'll shut up now. I'll let Tracie's web site speak for itself (and you can check out her blog as well). Thanks, Tracie, for your terrific resources!

Even More Free Resources from Children's Publishers

For those of you just joining us, this is Part III of an unofficial and unprecedented look at free online resources from children's publishers. I recommend you also check out Part I and Part II for some terrific links. A disclaimer: This is not meant in any way to be a list of the "Best Children's Publishers." Frankly, some exceptional presses are not mentioned in any of these three posts. Instead, this is a summary of those publishers offering teachers, parents, and students a little extra: teaching guides, reading group guides, printables, downloads, games, audio, video, or related links.

August House is a publisher best known for its storytelling and world folktales titles such as Storyteller's Start-Up Book, Ready-To-Tell Tales, and Wisdom Tales from Around the World. I've used these titles in summer camp settings with great success. What's most exciting on this publisher's site, however, is Story Cove. Story Cove is an interactive portal where students can either hear or view dozens of tales from around the world (which are also available in hard copy). Beneath the book covers on the index page you'll find links to Story Activities (such as Anansi and the Tug o' War) which typically include pdf teaching guides at four different levels (adaptable to higher levels as well). From August House's main site also check out the storytelling links for additional resources, information, and events.

Capstone Kids is a child-centered portal offering games and activities, mostly related to Capstone's graphic titles. But students can also check out chapter book characters such as Claudia Cristina Cortez from Capstone's numerous imprints. Downloads of stationery, stickers, wallpaper, journal pages, and a vacation packing list accompany a list of titles in that series. Other titles offer more generic downloads which could be used with titles of similar genre, such as How to Lift Fingerprints from the Field Trip Mysteries series. If you've ever considered using graphic novels, Capstone offers several resources on graphic novels that are safe for the classroom, including several downloads and the opportunity to receive a graphic novel teaching kit through the mail.

Stonearch, an imprint of Capstone, also offer a variety of resources including readers theater scripts and Ed-Libs, Stonearch's take on Madlibs. Also check out FactHound, another Capstone affiliated site, which allows students to search on topics of interest to find hand-picked results appropriate for children.

Holiday House is a fairly new publisher to me, but I recognized many of their titles as I further explored the site, especially those by David A. Adler and Russell Freedman. Teachers can access lots of free resources from a single page, including an educator's guide to Adler's popular picture book biographies and a guide to using picture books to teach Language Arts. Some popular titles from this publisher include Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and The Anne Frank Case: Simon Wiesenthal's Search for Truth.

Kids Can Press offers several resources through their US and Canadian sites. Both sites, for example, offer electronic advance copies of new titles on their homepage. From that same homepage you can access the Resource Room which requires free but instant registration, and offers organized access to all the "good stuff" on the site. Clicking on individual titles throughout the site will also provide links to teaching guide downloads, such as this one for No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure. Other popular books from this publisher include One Hen, Adventures in Ancient Greece (and other books from that series, which I blogged on previously), and If the World Were a Village.

Lobster Press is a small independent publishing house with a number of quality titles. Their Kids' Zone has a number of activities for print out, as well as a handful of kid-friendly links. From a single page you'll find free teachers' guides, quizzes, and lesson plans to use with Lobster Press books.

Another small publisher is Turtle Books in Connecticut. Choose Lesson Plans from their homepage to find teaching guide pdfs to several books including the award winning Prairie Dog Pioneers (Willa Cather Literary Award for the Best Children’s Book of 1999).

NorthSouth's most popular title is The Rainbow Fish, but you'll see more diverse titles as well, along with the resources to support them. One popular download is Once Upon a Time: A teacher’s guide for using fairy tales in the classroom.

Harcourt Trade Publishers has a number of free resources for teachers, including downloadable kits for Pirates, Chet Gecko, and National Poetry Month. On a different page you'll find a jumping off point called Teacher Tools, which provides access to numerous teaching guides, reading guides, theme lists, and related sites. Some features are presently off-line, but keep the page bookmarked and check back! I saw some guides before they went AWOL, and they're pretty good (such as the download for How I Became a Pirate.

Pelican Publishing Company lists a number of teaching guides for their picture books titles. Most promising is a series of original tales by Virginia Walton Pilegard which blend Chinese history and customs with mathematics. The Warlord's Beads (see the study guide), The Warlord's Kites, and The Warlord's Fish are three of the five titles in this series.

Most readers know Andersen Press from their Elmer the Elephant books. The publisher boasts many other popular characters as well, and many are featured in kid-friendly microsites full of cool activities. The Grown Ups Section features Teachers' Guides, Activity Downloads, and Book Discussions (essentially, a thematic grouping of their books).

Oxford University Press (UK) sounded a little too uptight and stuffy for me to even bother investigating, but I'm really glad I did. The Dinosaur Cove minisite and the The Death Defying Pepper Roux minisite are worth the visit, and would help to get students psyched about these titles. Many individual titles on this site contain excerpts and related links.

Bloomsbury Children's Books (UK) is one of those publishers whose books you'll recognize before the publisher's name. Their site features a very cool Historical Fiction Timeline, which organizes their titles in that genre by historical period (some of my homeschooling friends would find this to be very cool). You can also find their titles organized by theme as well. Their kids' site features videos, online games, and a few coloring sheets. If you're looking for teaching and readers' guides, you'll find them at the Bloomsbury US site.

Ladybird Books (UK) resources page is misleading; it seems to offer just a few resources. But after checking out the two primary games (bottom), you'll notice that there's also a link at the top of the page to Things to Do, and there you'll find more: activity sheets, downloads, and some cool "Madabout" posters for downloading (whales, sharks, space, knights, and more). There's not a lot for the over-primary crowd, but what's here is very good (and if you dig the titles, most are available in the US).

Little Tiger Press likewise is created with the younger crowd in mind. From the main page, click on For Parents, For Teachers, or Free Stuff from menu bar on left. Beautiful illustrations (screensavers, wallpapers) and activity sheets for downloads.

Puffin Books (UK) features activity downloads and teachers' notes for many popular Roald Dahl books, as well as links to book related websites and author sites. You'll also find a helpful resource called Ask the Teacher, where the publisher has listed many questions commonly asked of reading teachers, along with the answers.

But wait, there's more...

Really. This list represents only half of the newly uncovered resource sites I've found to share. So follow me on Twitter and be on the lookout for Part IV! And as always, let me know if I missed some!

More Free Resources from Children's Publishers

In a previous post I shared about a dozen links to children's publishers who provided extensive resources for teachers (teaching guides, reading group guides, printable activities, and audio and video links).

Susan Stephenson, aka The Book Chook, blogs regularly about books and literacy. Susan replied:

Loved your post! It brought me some new publisher sites, and reminded me of great ones I'd forgotten.

However... I couldn't help but notice, your list did tend to concentrate on the northern hemisphere! Check out these Australian publishers and see what you think. Most are much smaller than their US counterparts, so you won't find bells and whistles like flash games etc, but you will find solid support.

So I perused Susan's suggestions, and sure enough, she's right! Lots of gems here.

Black Dog Books was recommended highly by Susan because their teachers notes are "perfect to add value for both classes and homeschoolers, or just for parents who want to immerse their kids in all sorts of literacy activities." While each title features a splash page with a link to the teaching pdf, you can view all teachers notes on a single page as well. Some really fascinating titles!

New Frontier is another excellent publisher, mostly of picture books and children's titles, some educational. They have great support in their teacher notes, which include discrete learning objectives for each title.

Walker Books Australia has a useful entrance page for teachers, and from there you'll find pdfs of great literacy-based ideas centered around their books. I noticed that this includes novels as well as picture books (for example, a great teaching guide on Octavian Nothing).

As an important aside, I noticed that Walker Books logo, a bear carrying a candle, looked very familiar. Sure enough, there's a Walker USA site, although you'll find their materials for kids and teachers at BloomsburyKids.com. That site features lots of teachers guides as well as reading group guides. Some titles you might know? Daniel Boone's Great Escape, Princess Academy, Prowling the Seas,(which I blogged on recently) and Two Bobbies.

Susan also shared that Ford St. is another excellent publisher that concentrates more on YA. According to Susan, "This is a small independent publisher with top class books, and again there are excellent teacher notes that promote literacy, and give young people points to think about." I'll definitely include that link when I create a similar post for teaching resources for novels at my How to Teach a Novel blog at a future date.

Thanks, Susan, for supporting your fellow Aussies and their fine work in the publishing field. Perhaps this will encourage others to represent their own countries!
When you get the opportunity, be sure to check out Susan's excellent blog at http://thebookchook.blogspot.com/. Book reviews, giveaways, and lots of other "good stuff" for teachers, parents, and lovers of children's books.

Free Teachers' Resources from Children's Book Publishers

I'm not lazy, and I'm not cheap. But I really appreciate it when publishers back up their titles with solid, easily accessible teaching resources. With that in mind, I've listed some publishers which I feel really "knock it out of the park" with their online resources for teachers. Have I forgotten your favorite? Are you a publisher that feels you should be on this list? Email me and let me know. I'd love to give credit where credit is due.

Annick Press is a Canadian Publisher with a wide variety of titles. Although most titles in this list have a lesson plan link below them, be sure to click on each title to access additional resources including teachers guides, printable activities, and related links. Made You Look How Advertising Works and Why You Should Know is one title that I would personally and highly recommend for anyone teaching media literacy (see my post on Dollars and Sense, which features picture books and ideas for teaching about financial literacy).

Big Guy Books is a small press specializing in titles for boys. Their time traveling Time Soldiers books are perfect for those reluctant readers in your class, and the professionally written teaching guides are a definite incentive for further exploring these titles. You can even preview the first title of that series (Rex) via a free ebook.

Candlewick Press is one of those presses that flies under the radar, but you've probably read and loved many of their titles. Their resource page features tons of links, including reading levels, teachers guides, reproducible activity sheets, audio and video links, and more. An easier way to see the quality of resources made available to teachers is to click on a single title, such as the landing page for Kate DiCamillo's The Magician's Elephant. There you'll find a separate discussion guide, teacher's guide, and activity kit, as well as the book's first chapter, an additional excerpt, audio and video links, and a whole lot more. A truly exemplary site from a publisher that supports its teachers.

Charlesbridge features a page of free materials correlated to many of their picture book titles. You can also view by title on their web site; clicking on any title gives you a pretty decent summary of the book, as well as a note from the author, reviews, a sample page spread, and links to related free materials. A pdf of Curriculum Connections provides exactly that, but also some thematic details as well as a convenient look at all the book covers. (Participants from my workshops will recognize Galileo's Leaning Tower Experiment and What's Your Angle, Pythagoras? from among the titles).

Children's Book Press is a small, nonprofit independent publisher specializing in multicultural books. While their titles may not be familiar to you yet, they're worth a look; this single page of resources is a good jumping off point to get started.

Crabtree Publishing has a series of high quality, curriculum aligned teaching guides that provide lesson plan ideas as well as blackline masters. While there, also check out the printable graphic organizers. If you like what you see, you can create an online wish list for parents and friends.

Dawn Publications specializes in science and nature picture books for the younger crowd, although I would still highly recommend their titles for classroom use through the upper elementary grades. Several of their titles would be a great way to prepare students for field trips, and I've also see their applications in summer camp settings. As Nature Director at a summer camp, I put Joseph Cornell's books to use on an almost daily basis. Sharing Nature with Children and Sharing Nature with Children II are classics which belong on every nature lover's bookshelf.

Harpers Collins Children's boasts a huge list of titles with Reading Guides or Teaching Guides. Note that at the top of the page, another tab reads Book Activities; this contains printable activities (mostly for picture books) which may or may not appear in the Teaching Guides for each title. This site allows you to preview most books online before purchasing.

Houghton Mifflin Publishers (which includes Clarion) features a teacher/librarian section, with questions and extensions for many of their titles.

Hyperion Books for Children (now affiliated with Disney) features a variegated collection of picture books and graphic novels as well as novels, and all teacher resources are linked from a single page. You'll find resources there for contemporary favorites such as Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and John, Paul, George & Ben.

Lee and Low Books (About Everyone, For Everyone) specializes in high quality, multicultural titles. Their teachers' page gives an idea of the resources they provide, and by choosing a category (such as African American, Middle Eastern) you're directed to a list of Active Learner Classroom Guides, "designed to help you, the teacher, deliver useful and practical information to your students." Their titles are highly recommended for teachers and librarians looking to round out the scope and perspectives of their libraries. I've blogged about some of their titles including Heroes and Baseball Saved Us, and George Crum and the Saratoga Chip will be featured in an upcoming post on Invention.

MacMillan (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux) allows teachers to search teaching guides by title, author, or grade level. On this resource page you'll also find a calendar of ideas, as well as a guide for preparing for an author's visit. The calendar is pretty neat, as it names monthly observations (mostly secular) and recommended books for those observations.

Orca Book Publishers (out of Canada) is a new name to many, but their books can be seen increasingly in U.S. collections. The U.S. website includes a number of teaching guides, as well as books by themes, and teaching tools and free books.

Penguin Books lists all of its titles in a single page, which is fine with me. I found myself clicking mostly on books I hadn't read yet, which for the publisher is a pretty good reason to format teaching guides in this way (versus hunting for individual titles). Lovers of the Miss Bindergarten books will find a teaching guide here, as will fans of the new Astro Boy movie.

Random House's Teachers at Random site is a well-designed resources for teachers at all levels. In addition to teaching guides for the various titles (see the pdf for one of my all-time favorite tall tales New York's Bravest by Mary Pope Osborne), teachers will also find Classroom Cast, which features videos starring popular children's authors and illustrators discussing their work. For those elementary teachers who teach with themes, you'll find a theme list searchable not only by theme name but also grade range. Lots of other resources here for reading teachers at all levels.

Scholastic is the undisputed champ of children's publishing, its heavyweight belt earned monthly with school book club orders and book fairs. Its site, however, is a bit daunting; there's an awful lot there, and it's not real easy to search. Sometimes even when you know what you want, and you know it's there, you can't find it! So while I would recommend an unguided browse, there are two features you shouldn't miss. The first is the Teacher's Book Wizard, which you can read about in an earlier post. A second feature is the collection of sixty-five Book Videos. These were created to serve as mini-commercials for book fairs, but they're also a pretty cool way to get kids excited about books.

Simon and Schuster's site isn't the prettiest or friendliest around (I think they use too many serious fonts that are too often capitalized for no reason), but don't be scared off. The resources are worth the visit. Books can be searched according by several categories, and many resources are available including group discussion guides, printable activities, and audio and video links. The resource page for Andrew Clements' No Talking will give you a pretty good idea of what's typically available.

Sylvan Dell is a small publisher of science and nature titles, but what they lack in quantity of titles they absolutely make up for in quality. I blogged about the company in general, and then later about a stand-out title called One Wolf Howls. For teachers in the lower grades looking to bring some life and depth into their scinec programs, I can't recommend these books enough. You'll be amazed at the supporting resources provided at their site.

I've blogged about many Sleeping Bear Press books; not only are they impressive as picture books, but they're backed by a well-organized site of resources. I mentioned their huge variety of content area ABC books, and also individual titles such as The Listeners and America's White Table.

Thanks to all of these publishers for going above and beyond the call of duty.