This paper argues that while hypermedia and multimedia contain great promise for supporting literacy learners engaged in reading children's literature, software in this area has generally failed to consider the potential of connecting reading and writing experiences within the same electronic environment; reading and writing software has generally been developed for separate instructional purposes. The paper begins by describing the advantages to using children's literature for supporting literacy development. It then describes the multiple advantages of literacy experiences that connect reading and writing around children's literature: cognitive, analytic, social, and pragmatic. It discusses how a passage from James and the Giant Peach was developed as hypermedia "think piece," allowing us the opportunity to consider how reading and writing connections might be developed that are grounded in research on literacy development within traditional, static texts. It show how design elements such as E-mail, a reader response journal, and an electronic bulletin board, used within the reading experience, can support literacy learners by connecting reading and writing with a hypermedia context. Examples of written communication from a fourth grade classroom are described to demonstrrate the power of this type of design to support children's literacy learning in areas such as comprehension, response, critical thinking, and communication. (Contains 23 references.) (Author)