Presents an appreciation of "Charlotte's Web," a children's literary classic which portrays clearly and simply the themes of love, death, friendship, and salvation. Discusses E.B. White's life and background, his attention to writing style, and the beginnings of "Charlotte's Web." Provides a capsule of classic elements in the…

Offers a close look at two novels by Chris Crutcher (whose work is classified as Young Adult literature), revealing complex teenage and adult characters in stories in which love, loyalty, and risk triumph over brutality and weakness. (SR)

Examines (1) what authors of historical fiction have said in writing about the teaching function of historical fiction; (2) perspectives on history; (3) issues of authenticity; and (4) the sociopolitical implications of this genre. (SR)

Online copyright problems may be resolvable by a simple permission method. Describes Project Xanadu, a system of hypermedia publishing servers, designed to preserve integrity, copyright, and royalty for digital materials, yet allow reuse. Discusses permission doctrine; aspects of supporting software; legal status of transcopyright; variations not…

Award-winning science author and Harvard professor Stephen Jay Gould shares some views on education and contemporary American culture. Gould's most enthusiastic school memory is singing in an all-city chorus. Harvard students are bright and motivated but have no shared culture, historical perspective, or foreign language proficiency. Gould favors…

Presents the development of a five-month on-line collaboration between Jenny Davis, a published writer, and eight junior high school girls at a Covington, Kentucky school. Describes the process of establishing rapport between author and students as she helped them with their writing. Provides excerpts of e-mail exchanges between the participants,…

Describes the scope of the Kentucky Authors Project, which involved 4th through 11th graders and 7 teachers at 5 Kentucky schools. Names the participating authors and schools. Presents lessons learned from the project and guidelines for assembling similar projects. (PA)

Discusses the work of children's author Alma Flor Ada, a Cuban native who has won awards honoring Latino writers and illustrators. Includes part of an interview that explores her background, describes activity ideas, and presents a bibliography of works written by her (several title published in both English and Spanish) as well as sources of…

This paper reports on analysis of three published texts attributed to a Finnish man with mental retardation and cerebral palsy using facilitated communication. Evaluation of the level of independence in writing, eye focus, reading ability, and controlled message passing concluded he was not the author of the texts. Discussion examines validation…

Discusses bibliometrics and its relationship to historical studies in order to examine community formation of scientific and scholarly communication through institutional affiliation. A history journal is investigated and reveals an institutional and geographical mapping of the contributors. (Author/LRW)

Summarizes Brock Cole's novel for young adolescents: "The Goats." Provides discussion questions and classroom activities in language arts, drama, research; mathematics, creative writing, similes; and presents an annotated bibliography of fiction for young adolescents dealing with runaways, self-reliance, family, friendship, courage, overweight,…

Queries Kingston about her fiction and nonfiction writing--her influences, how being Chinese American has shaped her, her thoughts about history, and her ideas on the writing process and on teaching. (PA)

Every two years, members of the Children's Libraries Section of the Greater St. Louis (Missouri) chapter of the Catholic Library Association publish a list of recommended books for young readers (K-8). Because it is a regional activity, special attention is given to St. Louis authors and Regina Medalists. Lists 36 titles and provides a brief…

Proposes a method for the comparative analysis of concentration in author productivity distributions; selects suitable measures, Gini's index and number of authors, for two viewpoints regarding productivity; discusses statistical peculiarities of author productivity data; and explains developmental profiles which take into account sample size…

Discusses Eric Lomax's autobiographical book "The Railway Man." Notes how it chronicles his boyhood obsession with train-spotting and the subsequent ways in which his life has been freaked by railway co-incidences. Describes how the author invited Eric Lomax to come and discuss this work with his students. (SG)