books and reading

Miss Lotta Scales is a dragon who believes her job is to protect the school's library books from the children, but when she finally realizes that books are meant to be read, the dragon turns into Miss Lotty, librarian and storyteller.

In speeches, essays, and book reviews, the novelist Katherine Paterson discusses why she writes children's books, where her ideas come from, how she develops her characters and realistic plots, and her experiences growing up in China.

Thirteen-year-old Nita, tormented by a gang of bullies because she won't fight back, finds the help she needs in a library book on wizardry which guides her into another dimension.

Kate receives an old book about dolls from her uncle and is very surprised when someone tries to steal it from her.

Fourth-grader Katie forgets to read the new book of her favorite author, Nellie Farrow, who comes to class for a discussion, but when Katie turns into Nellie, the presentation seems doomed! Includes a recipe for S"More Bananas.

Tells how to find books, magazines, newspapers, bookstores, and libraries on the Internet, as well as resources of special interest to readers and writers, with a discussion of the history of the Internet, advice on how to use the system, and a catalog of sites.

A girl who finds books to be quite boring changes her opinion after following her brother into a book where he becomes the star of several nursery rhymes and tales that feature a character named Jack.

Steve Leveen draws on his own quest for a well-read life to offer book lovers a variety of successful and time-tested strategies for finding time to read and getting more from written materials.