Create a reading event, activity ideas,

"The "Rare Book Room" site has been constructed as an educational site intended to allow the visitor to examine and read some of the great books of the world. Over the last decade, a company called "Octavo" digitally photographed some of the world 's great books from some of the greatest libraries. These books were photographed at very high resolution (in some cases at over 200 megabytes per page). This site contains all of the books ( 558) that have been digitized to date. These range over a wide variety of topics and rarity. The books are presented so that the viewer can examine all the pages in medium to medium-high resolution. Some highlights of the site are: Shakespeare Benjamin Franklin Redouté Galileo Copernicus Louis Renard Some of the books are available for sale on CDs from This site will be updated regularly. If you have questions, comments, problems or are interested in high resolution images, then please contact: curator@rarebookroom.org "

online data bases

Library of Congress National Book Festival info, current and past

"Welcome to Nancy Keane's Children's Literature Webpage. This is the place to be when you are looking for ready-to-use booktalks, lists of recommended reading, book reviews by children or other information about children's literature. "

3 lists of 341 ways to do a book report

"Do you like fiction and mathematics? Are you looking for a book or story that might be useful for the students in your math class? Are you interested in what our society thinks about mathematicians? Then you've come to the right place... The Mathematical Fiction Homepage is my attempt to collect information about all significant references to mathematics in fiction. You can see the entire list (sorted by author, title or publication date). You can browse through the database to find your favorite genre, topic, motif or medium. If you've got more specific criteria in mind, try our search page. If you've been here before and just want to see what's been added recently, look at our listing of new/recently modified entries. "

"Here's a handy tutorial for using Microsoft's free Photo Story 3 to create "Book Trailers" - and other projects using photos to tell a story, with. Photos are a great tool for teaching in the classroom, but with moving pictures, narration and music, they are even better! Photo Story 3 is a free download from Microsoft that lets you easily create narrated "mini-movies" using photographs. It also has a built in music generator that allows you to put your story to music, copyright free! Think of Ken Burns's many wonderful documentaries. This program will allow anyone with a computer running Windows XP to do something similar. 1 The program gives students the ability to make their own 'Book Trailers' to help other students get interested in books they have read. Students can scan, draw or take pictures related to the book, import the pictures into Photo Story 3, arrange the pictures, add narration to the pictures, and choose the type of music used when the trailer plays. Photo Story 3 then generates a stand-alone movie based on all of the above. One of the ways I have used Photo Story 3 is with my "Integrating Technology into the Classroom" course at Dakota State University is by inviting a local fifth-grade class to visit our lab, then helping students build their own book trailer. Over the course of the hour, we help students scan or take digital pictures, import their pictures to Photo Story 3, add narration, motion and music. They take their movies back to show on morning announcements, to their friends, and to their parents. For example, one student, Brian, made a Photo Story of Sammy the Seal. It shows enough information to get other students interested in the book, but not so much that the ending is given away. Another example is "Zack's Alligator goes to School", a story of the (mis)adventures of a pet alligator named Bridgett. Making a Book Trailer is fairly simple. Just follow these steps: Quick Start Guide"

"LibriVox provides free audiobooks from the public domain. There are several options for listening. The first step is to get the mp3 or ogg files into your own computer. LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Our goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books.

JustFreeBooks search the content of more than 700 websites, including gutenberg.org, wikibooks.org and archive.org. With JustFreeBooks you can find public domain texts, open books, free audio books, ad-supported books and more. Just type in the search box the book, author or theme you want to find. Examples: * Guitar * Poetry * Ulysses by James Joyce * The War of the Worlds * Utopia * 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"

"In an attempt to increase book sales, HarperCollins Publishers will begin offering free electronic editions of some of its books on its Web site, including a novel by Paulo Coelho and a cookbook by the Food Network star Robert Irvine. The idea is to give readers the opportunity to sample the books online in the same way that prospective buyers can flip through books in a bookstore. "

Our program brings together enthusiastic young learners and distinguished college faculty to read and discuss Great Books and Big Ideas. Your student will discuss the likes of Plato, Jefferson, Tolstoy, Borges and Vonnegut with other young people who love literature just as much as they do! Join discussions on Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, or Henry Ward Beecher led by Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Doris Kearns Goodwin, Joseph Ellis, Debby Applegate or one of our other Guest Speakers. This summer Great Books welcomes authors Richard Reeves to Stanford University and Dennis Lehane to Amherst College. Great Books helps students find their voices in the classroom and gives them the opportunity to grow academically and socially as they prepare for high school and college. Open discussions encourage students to express themselves and give power to their ideas. Have your high school student go beyond Great Books and explore Great Films! We take our unique style of learning through discussion and apply it to the medium of film. Students learn to apply critical thinking to a visual medium and develop their listening skills through discussion. Experience a week or two away from home and spend it at a top liberal arts college - students can choose from two campus settings: Amherst College in Massachusetts and Stanford University in California. This is the perfect opportunity to preview life on a college campus! Flexible 1, 2, or 3-week programs fit nicely into any summer schedule. Students may come solo, with a friend, or better yet, with a group of classmates. Round out a summer of leisure and sports with some engaging, thought-provoking fun! Great Books has welcomed students from 43 states as well as Hong Kong, Singapore, Jordan, Korea, China, Switzerland, England, Canada, France, Mexico, Denmark, Croatia, Italy and more. This is the perfect opportunity for international students to come to the U.S. for summer learning and

"Your source for book reviews and recommendations on past, present, and future preteen, teen, and young adult books. "

"Hi! You've stumbled into a celebration of teenage angst and personal discovery. Here, you'll learn about great books for teens, meet interesting authors and other creative folks, and join me in honoring the joys and struggles of our teenage years. Welcome! "

"Welcome to BookCrossing, where 857,675 people in over 130 countries come to share their passion for books with the world. Where books take on a life of their own. How? It's easy. Simply click on the link below and sign up for free in less than 1 minute-- that's it! BookCrossing is earth-friendly, and gives you a way to share your books, clear your shelves, and conserve precious resources at the same time. Through our own unique method of recycling reads, BookCrossers give life to books. A book registered on BookCrossing is ready for adventure. Leave it on a park bench, a coffee shop, at a hotel on vacation. Share it with a friend or tuck it onto a bookshelf at the gym -- anywhere it might find a new reader! What happens next is up to fate, and we never know where our books might travel. Track the book's journey around the world as it is passed on from person to person. Join hundreds of thousands of active BookCrossers daily in our many forums to discuss your favorite authors, characters and books in every genre throughout history right up through current releases."