An author and teacher strives to raise awareness about the Islamic holidays

When I visit public libraries and peruse resources on children’s holiday literature, I am always confronted with a glaring absence. The two major celebrations in the Muslim world, Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha (see explanation boxes), seem remarkably obscure in American libraries. If I am fortunate, I may find one or two nonfiction titles addressing the topic. While informational books on the Islamic holidays are few, fictional tales are even more […]

Social bookmarking offers a new way to store and share Web sites

We’ve all heard about wikis, blogs, and RSS feeds. Now there’s another hot Web-based tool for classroom use. It’s called social bookmarking. Don’t worry, it’s not like MySpace, Friendster, or other social networking sites that have come under fire for exposing kids to unsafe Internet practices.

Social bookmarking allows multiple users to save their favorite sites, articles, and even podcasts on the Web—instead of inside your browser—making them accessible […]

Making a case for vibrant, well-stocked poetry collections

Just 10 years ago the Academy of American Poets initiated the observance of National Poetry Month to celebrate poetry and its place in American culture. Since then, the movement has continued to gain momentum with the emergence of Young People's Poetry Week in 1999 sponsored by the Children's Book Council, a focus on poetry slams as the centerpiece for Teen Read Week in 2003 sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA), and the […]

A professor links children’s literature to religious imagination

From the very first pages of David Almond's Skellig (Delacorte, 1999), the narrator, Michael, tells of trying to see the beat-up, broken-down, junk heap of the family garage with his "mind's eye." He learns quite quickly, alongside his friend Mina, that their ability to see with this unusual lens will be challenged by something far more heartbreaking than an old warehouse, by the strange being that inhabits the space. As Michael's extraordinary tale […]