Suggests that Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most important figures in American Literature, yet his writing can be too "lofty" for many modern students to grasp. Offers some examples of ways to bring Emerson down to earth, grounding his spiritualist musings in material illustrations and making him more accessible to students. (NB)

Discusses the work of children's author and illustrator Chris Van Allsburg and includes an annotated bibliography of his works, including books, audiocassettes, videocassettes, and CD-ROM. Also lists sources of biographical information including books, journal articles, and Web sites. (LRW)

States that participants in a qualitative case study of nonacademic R&D authors thought their reports were more informative than persuasive. Describes how three definitions of "persuasion" emerged. Concludes that most of the participants felt they owed a greater debt to their subject matter rather than the audience; some participants…

Discusses two recently published books and a multimedia kit that all deal with technology and the English class. Notes that an interest in artistic, creative approaches and in using multimedia to convey stories and ideas permeates all three works. (SR)

Proposes a mining process to automate author co-citation analysis based on the Web Citation Database, a data warehouse for storing citation indices of Web publications. Describes the use of agglomerative hierarchical clustering for author clustering and multidimensional scaling for displaying author cluster maps, and explains PubSearch, a…

Presents 54 thank you letters written by authors (of children's literature, young adult literature, and professional texts) to classroom teachers, from the shadow of the events of September 11th, 2001, offering their thanks for teachers' efforts to face those events with children, offering their personal thoughts about the events, or their…

The author of "1,000 Years Ago on Planet Earth" shares his reasons for taking a backward glance at civilizations all over the globe at the start of the last millennium. He also considers several other new books in various genres and the context such books offer children in approaching both history and the future. Includes books for the millennium…

Presents ideas for extending activities focusing on Paul Goble's books and Native Americans. Provides an annotated bibliography of Goble's books and lists audio recordings, video recordings, and biographical information. (PEN)

Reports on an interview with Angela Johnson, winner of the Coretta Scott King Author Award, whose work centers on the themes of family love and the connections between generations, especially in African American families. Suggests activities related to her books and includes a selected bibliography. (LRW)

Two major research streams of information science, bibliometric mapping and document retrieval combined in the literature visualization movement with the implementation of VIRI (visual information retrieval interface). The capability now exists to quickly map the citation images of thousands of persons through AuthorLink, to map displays of…

Provides descriptions of two books written by Alexander Sutherland Neill: "A Dominie's Log" and "Dominie Dismissed." Considers the nature of the Dominie books as fact or fiction, looking at rhetoric and the controversy of the nature of Scottish schooling. Explores the influence Neill had on Scottish historians' writings. (CMK)

Analyzes three novels by three authors and conducted interviews to gain insights about their work. Explores with the authors their perceptions of their protagonists as role models or heroes. Discusses with the authors whether or not they would describe their protagonists as conformists or non-conformists. Gains insights from the authors regarding…

Literary festivals offer a unique proposition to libraries: host one, bring the reading public up-close and personal with writers of all kinds, and they will bask in the glory of that connection. Indeed, festivals can be the pathway for libraries to "own" the literary niche in their community. Bob Cannon, executive director of the Broward County…

Auseon likens getting to know his characters to a rowdy party to which the "weirdos off the street" have been invited. He comes to believe they're real and then spills them onto a page so we can get to know them, as well. Many boys will identify with Auseon's insecure and awkward protagonist in "Funny Little Monkey," an excerpt of which follows…

In academic life, writing for publication is a significant responsibility. It can also be a rewarding private pleasure. This article reports on the effects of attending week-long writing retreats for a group of academic women in Aotearoa New Zealand. The residential retreats have been held twice a year since 1997, and attract women from different…