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It begins with a story start. A story start is the first chapter of the book. The rest of the story is up to you. The story start could be written by a professional writer, a teacher, you or your classmates, or maybe even a celebrity! You write your version of Chapter 2. Take the story where you like. The only limits are your imagination and a word count. At the same time, other BoomWriters will be writing their own version of what happens next. Submit your entry. When you're done (and before the deadline), you submit your entry for review. If it's accepted, you'll get points and BoomDollars. You'll use BoomDollars to purchase accessories for your Boomer avatar. Vote, Vote, Vote! You and the other BoomWriters vote on the entry you think is the best. Of course you can't vote for you own entry, and you won't know whose entry it is you're voting for. You may be able to vote more than once, which is good, as voting also earns you points and BoomDollars. Did you win? If so, then your entry becomes the official Chapter 2 of the book. If not, don't worry because there will be many more chances for you to win. It's a book! The competitions continue until the book is finished. Then, *Boom!* you're a published author! The end result? A real book that you, your friends, family, and the whole world can buy. Imagine that, a book with your name in it that you helped write.

"Parents often ask us to suggest good books for their kids -- ones that will engage, entertain, and maybe even enlighten them. So we've scoured our recommendation lists and consulted with teachers, librarians, and book critics to assemble what we consider essential titles for your home bookshelves or to download to your ereader, smartphone, or tablet. From the classics to more recent must-reads, fantasy to funny, we have more than 150 great book suggestions for your kids and teens, from bedtime stories to chapter books to true literature, and more. Just search our themed categories, and you'll find all of our picks arranged by age groups."

Bookwink's mission is to inspire kids to read. Through podcasting and web video, we hope to connect kids in Grades 3 through 8 with books that will make them excited about reading. The videos are approximately 3 minutes long and are updated monthly. Each video booktalk is about a different topic, and additional read-alikes can be found on the Bookwink website. You can look for books by subject, grade level, author or title. We are constantly updating the book lists with our newest favorite books.

Katie, who runs the site is one of the most helpful people I know. Titkatok is constantly offering free services to help teachers use their site and make it managable in the classroom. It is one of my favorite sites to recommend to elementary teachers for writing.

This is a great site for online writing/publishing of stories. The books created here cannot be printed out, but can be shared online.

Tikatok is a site where students can create their own books complete with illustrations. They can collaborate with other students while writing and editing and published their finished books on the web as well as sharing them with others. Parents who are interested can purchased printed books.

"The most dreaded word in school reading for students: book reports. Teachers assign them, viewing them as a necessary component of assessing reading comprehension. Book reports can be a contributing factor to 'readicide'. "Read-i-cide n: The systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools." http://stenhouse.com/html/readicide.htm. So, how can we as teachers continue to monitor our students understanding of reading material without killing the love of reading? Enter technology. Technology can help bring some excitement and creativity to the traditional book report while still displaying students understanding of reading."

"Book Drum's remarkable range of interactive content is particularly valuable to students and teachers, with over twenty A-level/GCSE set texts already profiled, including Wuthering Heights, The Bell Jar, Frankenstein, Wide Sargasso Sea, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Teachers can create new profiles as class projects, encouraging students to dig deeper into a book with Book Drum's fun, easy-to-use online interface."

ZooBurst is a digital storytelling tool that is designed to let anyone easily create their own customized 3D pop-up books. Click on some of the pictures below to check out books created by members of the ZooBurst community. If you have a username and password you can log in and create your own books using the 'Login' link at the top right side of the screen.

"Whilst looking at the some publishers websites I saw a few different book trailers. They were interesting but there was nothing there that I believed our students weren't capable of creating some just as good." This wiki gives suggestions, rationale, and resources for having students create their own book trailers.

School Library Journal's Battle of the (Kids') Books is a competition between 16 of the very best books for young people published in 2009, judged by some of the biggest names in children's books. There are some fantastic reviews of books that would be fun for our kids to read. It looks like the books are probably geared to our 3rd to 8th graders.

Students share books that they are enjoying via voicethread with the options for others to listen & comment. Great book sharing idea!!

Site used for students to read, listen to, or watch books online. It pairs fiction and non-fiction books of various topics and you can choose whether you want to watch the story or read the story. Some of the books even come in Spanish! All you need is your library card to use the site.

"Award winning children's story books, children's poems with music and song parodies that are illustrated, animated and read aloud. Books and stories are educator-approved, and ideal for summer reading programs."

The first online book rental site with a dedicated experience for children.

(Basically, Netflix for books & kids) A little pricey, but an interesting concept.

Start and manage your own book club. Invite your friends to join. Have discussions online or in person. Find other people with similiar book interest."

Use this site to create, read, and share engaging digital books that build reading skills for students. Your universally designed books will engage and support diverse learners according to their individual needs, interests, and skills.

As we seek to get kids doing more authentic persuasive writing, this is a great site to share book reviews for kids, by kids, and use them as a springboard to beginning our own!

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"When Alice Ozma was nine years old, her father made a promise: to read to her every night, without missing a night, for one-hundred nights. But once the pair met their goal, they couldn't stop. 100 became 1,000, and eventually, they decided to read as long as they possibly could. The Reading Streak, as they called it, ultimately lasted 3,218, finally ending on Alice's first day of college. The story of their amazing commitment to reading, and to each other, is chronicled in Alice Ozma's book The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared, available in stores in time for Father's Day 2011. "

Start a "streak" with someone you love!

"Popular children's literature is paired with historical primary sources from the Library of Congress to extend learning across the curriculum. Linking primary sources to literature, making books more relevant, and promoting inquiry based learning can create motivating and enriching learning experiences for student of all ages. Check out the newest ready-to-implement resources for your classroom or use these examples to create your own."

"Imagine your whole class in the pages of a book together...NOW IT'S POSSIBLE WITH SUBTEXT, A NEW IPAD READING APP FOR SCHOOLS. Subtext makes it easy to interact with your students in the pages of digital books. You can post and answer questions, link to relevant Web content and create assignments and quizzes-all right in the text. Better yet, your students can share ideas and work together to make connections as they read. Think of it as anywhere, anytime classroom reading guided by you."