Language Arts Books

Ms. Wagstaff's book, Phonics That Work, takes an enlightening approach to teaching reading. Her ideas for making a classroom actively engaged in the literature they read and write are fabulous and realistic. She takes a researched-based look at how students learn to read and applies functional and creative ideas for making them work. I recommend this book to any one who wants to give their students the best opportunity for reading success.

Ms. Wagstaff's book, Phonics That Work, takes an enlightening approach to teaching reading. Her ideas for making a classroom actively engaged in the literature they read and write are fabulous and realistic. She takes a researched-based look at how students learn to read and applies functional and creative ideas for making them work. I recommend this book to any one who wants to give their students the best opportunity for reading success.

Ms. Wagstaff's book, Phonics That Work, takes an enlightening approach to teaching reading. Her ideas for making a classroom actively engaged in the literature they read and write are fabulous and realistic. She takes a researched-based look at how students learn to read and applies functional and creative ideas for making them work. I recommend this book to any one who wants to give their students the best opportunity for reading success.

WONDERFUL, PRACTICAL IDEAS FOR INCORPORATING MEANINGFUL, COMMON-SENSE PHONICS INSTRUCTION INTO A PROGRAM BASED ON READING AND WRITING!

If you teach children to read and are looking for ways to construct a meaningful language arts program, you need to read this book. Phonics That Work! is very user-friendly and full of practical ideas. Janiel Wagstaff does a great job! I truly enjoyed reading this book. It has changed the way I teach.

The Photo Scribe is a 'how-to-book' for any of us who are crazy about doing more than flip through snapshots. As decades(!) pass, pictures may accumulate while one's filing system deteriorates. We save articles about archival care & materials while trying to hide the fact that our favorite receptacles are shoe boxes.

Then like Superman, Denis Ledoux to the rescue! Your photographs, and snapshots for which "enhancement* is now available, deserve careful formatting with clever elegance. Experienced writer Denis Ledoux will answer your many questions and share his successes.

A reading of Ledoux' book should give you/me/us more than a subtle nudge in the direction of establishing order. Heaven knows the death of parents, aunts, uncles, even siblings give an unmistakable elbow to the ribs - - to reinforce the pleas from grown children who claim their mess of pottage in the form of orderly (chronological, date-marked) photo albums. And what will please your 'heirs' most are the stories you tell about *who?what?when?* the pictures were being taken.

When we finally acknowledge that the problem must be tackled, we opt to give it a Blue Ribbon treatment. And YES, today's county fairs DO award ribbons in a scrapbook category catering to the enthusiasm of those who are 'into' the scrapbooking craze. The cover & even the title page of "Photo Scribe" feature a perfectly replicated handwriting that gives a truly elegant touch because of the unreal evenness of the script. Although not mentioned in the glossary or index, this effect can be achieved by purchasing a FONT of your own writing or printing (or both). The book does include many sources for archival materials, although other proven suppliers (in Rochester & Syracuse NY) are not mentioned.

Reviewer mcHaiku stresses that *THE EMPHASIS IS ON THE WRITING*. It gives your pictures a liveliness, and brings a value & validity to your efforts that cannot otherwise be achieved.

I bought this book after seeing it at a scrapbook convention. I had been wanting to add more journaling to my scrapbooks but was stuck on just what to write and how to write it. The Photo Scribe answered all of my questions. It is a very helpful book. It helps you figure out what information to include and how to structure your journal entries. This book would be helpful for anyone creating a scrapbook or keeping a journal.

What made you take those photographs in the first place? Why do you spend so many hours preserving them? Just what are you trying to express?

At some point, you must have decided who your "audience" would be - guests in your home, for whom you write cute and clever quips as captions to your photos? You could create albums just for entertainment. A dry historical record of the names, dates and events you are preserving? Well at least you are helping the family genealogist at some future date. Or something deeper...perhaps a heritage for your descendants someday, in which you express your personal life's story?

The Photo Scribe will teach you to do just that; to examine and organize your memories, building a file of "lifestory" experiences until you can journal the real stories behind your photographs. It is a process that you can't rush through quickly, which may be offputting at first to some who (like me) are used to speed scrapping or scrapping with the intent to display photos first and journal as an afterthought. You will learn that even those precious pictures are really just secondary players to the memories you are expressing in your journaling. Think of the lifestory you are writing as the cake and the photos as icing - mere illustrations. You could even journal and scrap a few pages of lifestory without photos at all, where necessary.

I will admit to having some problems with these concepts when I started reading The Photo Scribe. The implication that I had breezed through my journaling impatiently and missed the entire point of scrapbooking was a bit depressing. For example, I had never examined my underlying goals for my albums when I started them. If I had, I might have realized that "Jake and Eric, July 2002. My Watermelon Patch Kids!" didn't go far enough in conveying the kind of thoughts and emotions I had while taking that photo of my children among the melon vines. The real memory I wanted to preserve was in how precious and fleeting these early years are and the pure enjoyment of playing in the dirt and sunlight with ladybugs and butterflies alighting on our hair. After my older child had recovered from a serious viral illness just two months earlier, the vignette of them playing together robust and happy that afternoon was what had really inspired me to grab the camera in the first place. If I had planned my page to focus on that, rather than a fun quip, it would have been quite different, not to mention more meaningful to me and to my children.

Take heart, you don't have to redo all your old pages. There are ways to incorporate new journaling into existing areas, as the author explains later on. You can even create alternate albums to amuse and delight the casual onlooker and reserve the lifestory albums for your intimate circle of family and friends. The most important thing is that you are creating albums that satisfy not only your need to show off pictures, but the deeper need to share your thoughts and memories.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle.

I've looked at several books written to help the scrapbooker improve the journaling in photo albums, but this is by far the best. Mr. LeDoux covers the basics of journaling styles, but goes well beyond these to inspire readers to really give some meaningful thought to what they want others to know about the experiences displayed in the scrapbook. He provides food for thought, as in his caution that "cliches will never tell you or your children's children the story behind the photograph." It is easy to caption a picture with such phrases as "oh, where's the sunblock." Go beyond these lines, and really tell about the events, feelings or outcomes of that trip to the beach. Mr. LeDoux's book will help you move toward truly thoughtful and reflective photo-journaling.

I have also read numerous books and articles on how to improve your writing skills and telling your life's story. This one is simply the best. It takes you through exercises that are simple, yet effective. I read the book once, and without consciously trying, my writing effectively quadrupled. A few more reads, and I now routinely write 4-5 pages to describe a day's event. Not only that, but the writing style is much tighter, and I have learned not to focus on the obvious, but to focus on the thoughts and feelings of the participants as well.

Incidentally, I have also read Joanna Campbell Slan's book. It is different in focus, but if you must choose one, this is definitely the one. Everything else I've read is covered in this book, usually more thoroughly.

Note to scrapbookers: this book is definitely useful to scrappers. However, it is *not* a layout book. This is a book about how to write, not how to compose your writing into your scrapbooks. Don't let that turn you off, however.

This is easily one of the best purchases I've made.

I just finished teaching a two-week intensive playwriting course in which a combination of novices and former self-proclaimed failures at playwriting were asked to complete a ten-minute play. The course was a success, mostly because all of the students actually completed a draft of a ten-minute play. All were acceptable, many showed great potential, and at least two could be produced as they stood at the end of the session. The reason for success? All of the students were ultimately able to drop their artistic pretentions and expectations, and approach writing a play as a craft. Many of the exercises that helped those students do so can be found in Michael Wright's little gem of a book. You can't really teach playwriting, but you can learn to use a set of tools that will help you write a play, write a play that will work dramatically. And that is the place to start. That is the way you'll actually get your characters from the beginning to an eventual end of a play. That is the way you'll get a first draft that can actually be developed.If you want to develop the craft that will let that artist in you emerge, read Playwriting in Process, and do those wonderful etudes that Michael Wright offers up over and over again. Who knows - one day you might wake up, look at yourself in the mirror, and discover you're Tennesee Williams, or Sam Shepard, or David Ives, or Wendy Wasserstein, or Paula Vogel, or Marsha Norman, or Eugene O'Neill or...

If you don't have Playwriting in Process in your library, then you're missing out on an incredible companion. Whether you're a playwright, a screenwriter, or even a novelist, this book is essential for creating strong story foundations in your writing, overcoming writer's block blues, and crafting characters that actually live and breathe! This book doesn't presume to tell you HOW to write--it challenges you to write better by focusing on process rather than product and providing constructive methods and exercises to help you answer your own questions.

Anyone can put together a by-the-numbers, weekend-writer type book. Wright has given playwrights (and other writers) a resource many thousand times more valuable.

Michael Wright's book offers you a jillion different exercises to stoke your creative furnace. It is a manual that I use for my intermediate-level playwrights to work their playwriting chops. He breaks down the playwriting exercises or "etudes" into several areas including Technique Etudes, Character Etudes, Plot Etudes, Etudes for Structure, Collaboration Etudes, and Unblocking Etudes. Most importantly however, his guiding principal is based on theatricality or "why must this story be told on the stage?" In the field of American playwriting, so many manuals on this process focus on realistic technique. Michael's book is one of the first that addresses ways to stretch your technique in new directions.

I've put Michael's ideas to work in my classes and more importantly in my own work as a playwright, and it has had profound effects on the quality and output of my writing. He makes you look at your characters, plot, and structure in so many different ways. My writing has become richer, more theatrical, and more inventive having experimented with etudes such as the "Age Exploration," "Imperatives Only," "Spoken Subtext," or "Secret Past."

If you're serious about playwriting, and want to really challenge yourself as a writer, buy this book, do the etudes, and watch your work take flight. You need to workout constantly as a writer, and Michael's book provides the way to do this.

while books on the craft and science of playwriting are a dime a dozen in the market, this is probably the one and only book that teaches the ART of playwriting. forget all about those books that teaches you the formulas to write or compose a play, because playwriting is not a science but an art.

Writers who invest themselves in the art for the long term are always looking for ways to improve their skill. And playwrights are always seeking the best way to express their material for performance, rather than literary, purposes. This book combines both pursuits.

Using the games format familiar to any of us who have spent any time onstage, Michael Wright gives writers an opportunity to find what works for them, a chance to devise their own style. Much more free than the prescriptivist style favored by most writing texts, this approach allows an individual writer to discover what works best for the self, what the writer's personal style is, even what kinds of characters a particular playwright works best with.

Nor is the book solely intended for novice writers. There are games intended to work out stuck scripts in progress, teach experienced writers new techniques, and more. There are even games intended to teach experienced playwrights how to collaborate, which is difficult even for the best. As with common theatrical games, different approaches to the same old game can unlock unexpected potential, and even using the same old game over again on a new play can teach volumes.

This book isn't a magic bullet to make you a better writer. However, it offers you the tools to build up your own writing ability. Even prose writers and screenwriters can make use of many of these games. Invest yourself in what the games have to offer, and see if you don't come out a better writer in the end

Poetry Everywhere is a great book to use inside the classroom at all levels. The book provides examples of student poetry and instructions to adapt poetry to your own classroom.

"Poetry Everywhere" by Jack Collom and Sheryl Noethe, offers insights into poetry in terms of the various forms, how to teach poetry, and examples of childrens work is provided for each form. I am a pre-service teacher and used this book in a writing workshop I headed for second graders (seven-year-olds). The essays at the end range from how to revise, to writing quickies that can be utilized to get the class started and thinking. This is a wonderful resource for anyone working with children and can be used not only for the writing lessons, but for any subject. Quickies are great and my students loved them! They were very creative and new. Get this book!

This book is a Poetry 101: A-Z for the novice teacher, or one like me wanting to incorporate poetry into my art classroom. This book is structured so that whatever you are looking for you will be able to find it easily. Though an easy read, this book fully engaged and inspired me to go forth into unchartered territory. There are NUMEROUS poetic styles to fit into just about any teacher's curriculum at ANY grade level. The ideas and exercises that the authors suggest to get you going are simple but extremely effective. The exercises work as a springboard to which you use your creativity to jump from and expand. I benefited from this book professionally as well as personally and my students (basically the entire student population) took to it from the first day of introduction. Many of them got so into it that they would write at home and bring what they had done in the next day to my class, eventhough they didn't do their "homework" for their homeroom teacher. Poetry has struck a chord in my students and that wouldn't have been possible without the Poetry Everywhere book to inspire me and get me majorly enthusiastic about the subject. I highly recommend this book for any teacher wanting to inject something new yet so beneficial into their daily routine.

Although I am a student of creative writing, I found this book a great help. It is indespensible for beginning writers and teachers of beginners. The book provides both detailed instruction and examples from famed poets to first graders. The authors show the practicality of the exercises by sharing personal teaching experience and even give alternatives for different skill levels. By teaching how creativity can work within a given form, they help students to eliminate the sterility often found in beginners' poems. For those who want to write poetry but don't know where to begin, Collom and Noethe not only give you the tools, but show you how to use them.

In her preface, Sheryle Noethe writes that the genesis of "Poetry Everywhere" was the year she spent as a resident poet in Salmon, Idaho, visiting school "in an effort to make creative writing full of opportunity." This mission was synonymous with mine when I entered the DC public school system two years ago to lead poetry workshops for inner city middle school children. I had little teaching experience and embarked on my journey with only my enthusiasm and my copy of "Poetry Everywhere." Luckily, these two things were all I needed to launch a successful series of classes. "Poetry Everywhere" turned out to be a phenomenal resource, a stew of delicious ideas meant to inspire-but not to instruct. This is not a manual for lazy teachers. There are no pages to be photocopied and filled with blank lines for students to "finish the story" or "imagine a very bad day and describe." Instead, as co-author Jack Collom writes, "This is a how-to book. It is also a big many-gated entrance to pleasure and excitement in learning . . . The writing exercises in this book allow for the possibility of poetry." In this sense, the book is entirely honest in its assessment of itself. It does not ensure success in the classroom, but it does provide creative teachers willing to put in a little extra effort an elaborate list of writing exercises. These include everything from acrostics to pantoums to William Carlos Williams imitations. In my experience these exercises are great launching pads, but in order for them to resonate with students both willing and hesitant to write, a teacher must be able to expand on the suggested courses of actions. For instance, as the book itself suggests, most children like to brainstorm in a group before they sit down to write. Also it is invaluable for them to see their work in print, or at least on the board, and also to have the opportunity to share what they write in an open and positive environment.
Although it seems the authors have tried all these exercises with age groups varying from first graders to high schoolers, I found that it is important to assess for oneself which activities are age appropriate for whom. Still, the examples given in each chapter of actual poems written by students are great to read out loud to the class. This way, students can be inspired by the potential of each exercise. Also, I found it encourages students to see their teacher trying the exercises along with them. And teachers, don't worry. Most of the activities are fun and sometimes challenging even for adults. Fortunately, once teachers have run the gamut of these exercises "Poetry Everywhere" provides supplementary chapters on enlivening standard English instruction, activities for more advanced students, revision, and inventing more exercises.
In the past two years I have read through a variety of books claiming to be manuals for the teaching of creative writing to children. But in essence these types of curriculums should be organic to the classroom, and "Poetry Everywhere" seems to be the only book out there that truly understands this idea. Nowadays, as creativity is is increasing squashed by the restrictions of hardened syllabi, I can only hope that teachers everywhere will realize the importance of doing exactly what this book recommends, encouraging students to discover not only that it's fun to write poems but also that the art of writing is central to the process of learning in general.

Curtis's labor of love was compiled with the WWI trench soldier in mind, but we are all the beneficiaries. The idea was to bring together all the most important ideas and writings into one small volume that could fit into a coat pocket; to be included, a passage must be worthy of multiple readings, and be the best that Curtis could find on its topic. I discovered many little-known writers, thinkers, and scientists in this astonishing book. In addition to the mind-expanding coverage of philosophical topics, there are sections on the processes of science

I first purchased this book in the Yale University bookstore as an enlisted sailor in the mid-'70s, hoping to someday go to college and looking for inspiration. This book has been with me ever since. The section entitled "He Lives With His Fellows" taught me more than any other single source about how to develop into an adult in the midst of conflict and indecision.

This book led me into the Great Books Program at St John's College, and then two further degrees from Stanford. Now, as director of an Intensive Care Unit in an academic medical center, I recognize that this book is a measurable part of my success. I still have my original and well-worn copy, with milestones in my career noted inside the front cover. I've known how influential this book has been.

This book went with me to Iraq for ten months, to central African refugee camps, to Bosnia three times, to the Katrina response in the floodwaters of New Orleans, to Korea and Columbia, and I'm here buying two more copies for my daughters. This small volume can change lives.

No other volume on my shelf has been taken down as often as this little gem of an anthology. It is full of stuff not found in any familiar collection to get one thinking, from an epigram of Archie the cockroach to three pages of a dissent by Justice Holmes. One can let it season on the shelf for years at a time, then stuff it into your carryon or backpack, open it at any page and become absorbed with the wit and wisdom of the ages. Buy it!

Pearls of wisdom wrapped in nuggets of gold--the best thoughts from the best of minds--find their home in this "must-have" collection of forward thinking and introspective thought.

I read this as an adolescent, and it had a profound impact on the course of my life. I understood knowledge was power, and direction.

This volume gives you plenty of both.

The only question I have, is WHY hasn't anyone updated this volume since 1983?!! The computer revolution, and the many lessons learned from the 80's and 90's are but a few of the notably absent realities not finding a home in this priceless collection of history's mirror on humanity.

Even without, to walk through Life without having read this book is like taking a journey with a patch over one eye.

One of the editors of this anthology, Charles Curtis, had commanded a US Navy destroyer during WWI. Observing that soldiers are nearly always idle in war, Curtis conceived of an anthology of passages from the nonfiction of recent centuries, that soldiers could read while marking time between rare battles. Throughout his busy professional life, Curtis continued to read widely, copying passages he loved into notebooks by hand. He also wrote several books on the law and public affairs.

When WWII broke out, Curtis approached Houghton Mifflin, which agreed to publish such an anthology; thus the Practical Cogitator was born. One of HM's editors, Ferris Greenslet, became a coeditor. The Practical Cogitator did not appear until the last months of WWII. A second edition came out just as the Korean War broke out. Greenslet's son-in-law prepared the 1962 third edition.

The PC is the fruit of an awesome collaboration between two equally brilliant persons whose differences nicely complemented each other. Greenslet was a humanist and connoisseur educated at Columbia, rather the introvert. Curtis was a Harvard-educated lawyer who read in several languages, and who knew something about science and business; he was the more extroverted of the two. This book is no highbrow Bartlett's Quotations, and is not suited as an anthology for university instruction. But I would not hesitate to include on a course reading list essays that happen to be excerpted in the PC.

Were a foreigner to ask me "What is American civilization and why might it be valuable?" I would reply: read the Practical Cogitator. If I were forced to spend the rest of my life with but one book, this would be it.

I used (an earlier edition of) this book in an English composition class at the University of Kansas in the late 70's and have kept it with me ever since.

This book has so much to recommend it, it's hard to pick out one thing to emphasize, but the best advise I came away from the book with was Baker's admonition to give your writing the "Argumentative Edge." Like so many students, I found writing exceedingly painful: to sit down with a blank sheet of paper and begin writing inspired me not at all. I thought that I had to sound like Encyclopedia Britannica to write well.

Sheridan Baker slaps you around good to get that notion out of your head. To make your writing interesting (and as a bonus easier), he insists that your writing take a position, express an opinion, argue a point of view. Ditch "fairness" and objectivity--at least to get you started--and all of a sudden, writing becomes pleasurable.

I've never read this advice anywhere else (not even in Stunk and White), and it, along with many other jewels of wisdom have stuck with me for 20 years, making my writing life so much more fun than it otherwise would have been.

Goog work, Sheridan.

This is an excellent volume for teaching quality literary
criticism to collegiate-level students. In primary and
secondary school, the emphasis is on sentence construct.
i.e. A good sentence must have a subject, verb and object.
Although students may learn the mechanics of writing,
they do not pick up fine nuances in literary expression.
This work forces the student to develop a basic idea or theme.
Once developed the point of view must be defended persuasively.
The thesis of the work is contained somewhere in the first
paragraph. Sentences should be simple and stated actively.
Finally, each work should be developed in successive drafts
from the first to the final draft. I've found that students
have a problem differentiating literary criticism from a
simple regurgitation of what they read. The Practical Stylist
helps to focus each student's attention on enunciating
criticism of a person nature or within the experiential
domain of a first hand knowledge. It's painful to learn to
develop quality literary criticism because the primary and
secondary education simply does not focus on this aspect
in any meaningful depth.

This is an excellent volume for teaching quality literary
criticism to collegiate-level students.In primary and secondary
school, the emphasis is on sentence construction.
i.e. A good sentence must have a subject, verb and an object.
Although students may learn the mechanics of writing, they
do not pick up the fine nuances in literary expression.
This work forces the student to develop a basic idea or
theme. Once developed, the point of view must be defended
persuasively. The thesis of the work should be contained
somewhere in the first paragraph. Sentences should be simple
and stated actively. Finally, each work should be developed
in successive drafts from the first to the final drafts.
I've found that students have a problem differentiating
literary criticism from a simple regurgitation of what they
read. The Practical Stylist helps to focus each student's
attention on enunciating criticism of a personal nature or
within the experiential domain of first-hand knowledge.
It's painful to learn to develop quality literary criticism
because the primary and secondary education simply does not
focus on this aspect in any meaningful depth.

I first encountered this book as an undergraduate in Australia in 1981. When I taught mathematics in Zimbabwe I gave my copy to the English Department. I have owned and given away (one stolen) several copies since. So I must think it's the best book in its genre.

I first used this book in 1967 when I was aboard ship taking a course in Expository English offered by The Harvard-M.I.T. Commission on Extension Courses. It has everything one needs to know to become a clear, concise writer. Easy to understand and enjoyable. I used it for many years, then it was stolen. I have been looking for another copy ever since and was afraid it was out of print. I'm about to order my second copy.

Michael liked the part when the rainbow came out. It was colorful. Casey liked the same part. I like rainbows.

This little book is beautifully illustrated and colorful. The "rain" falls as words and each color, object and word is graphically illustrated as part of the landscape on which the rain falls. It's a lovely introduction to reading for a small child. I'd recommend it for toddlers who are beginning to recognize visuals and wanting to start to read. Very imaginative piece of work.

Michael liked the part when the rainbow came out. It was colorful. Casey liked the same part. I like rainbows.

My daughter is using this book now to learn how to read. She enjoys it very much... especially because the coloration of the text to match the images in the picture gives her clues about what the words are.

I think the book is neat from its style (using the word "rain" written on an angle to be the rain) and its vibrant use of colour.

This easy to read book has predictable and repetitive language. It teaches colors as well as everyday objects. It is a great book for young readers!

This book is very comprehensive..... I highly recommend it for those who are studying English.

I found this book to be the perfect reference guide for basic English grammar, style, and writing skills. Its concise presentation and well organized approach to the rules of English grammar make this book a pleasure to use. The numerous written examples used in the book to illustrate the various grammatical and stylistic rules were very straightforward and clear, allowing readers to immediately incorporate these rules into their own writing. I recommend this handbook to anyone seeking to learn the important fundamentals or refresh their knowledge of English grammar and writing style.

This book was very informative and helpful.

I liked the book, all of the lessons were easy and acceptable including exams - I'm very happy to have found this book - thank you for the refresher course!

This book provides an excellent working knowledge and overall understanding of the figures of speech, sentence/paragraph construction, and punctuation. The only area in which the book fails to address sufficiently is spelling. On the other hand, the figures of speech and punctuation sections provide an individual with the tools needed to assimilate these often misunderstood and maligned topics. This book will likely appeal to individuals looking to gain a greater familiarity with the English language, most notably in the aforementioned areas.

Read Anything Good Lately by Susan Allen and Jane Lindaman is a cheerful concept book for young readers (or pre-readers). As it walks children through the alphabet, it works to stir up their interest in reading. Each letter of the alphabet is connected with words representing materials children can read and interesting places they can read. This list includes everything from "an atlas at the airport" to "the zodiac at the zoo".

Each page provides bright, colorful illustrations which stimulate discussions about the variety of situations where people can read. The fun use of alliteration (whoever would have thought of reading "joke books in a jacuzzi"?) make it a creative way to teach children the true enjoyment of reading--wherever and whenever they choose.

I connected with this book because I like to carry books with me wherever I go: the doctor's office, when I have to stand in a long line at the grocery store, or waiting in the car. It's important to show children that reading is not always a chore and I think this fun, colorful book does a fantastic job of that!

I really enjoyed reading this book to my kids. The pictures were terrific and really captured my son's imagination. There's so much to talk about from the text and pictures. Frankly, it's one of those books I don't mind reading over and over and over.

Great book for children starting to read and those learning the alphabet! Illustrations are fantastic!

Just finished reading this book and found it entertaining and my niece loved it. It gave her lots of ideas for other places to enjoy reading and other ideas of things to read. They did a tremendous job on this book and I think it will motivate kids to read more. And also help parents to get their kids to read more as well. Should be mandatory reading for every kindergarden and first grade student. What a great way for them to learn the alphabet and learn sounds at the same time. Super job!!! I hope to see more books by these talented authors and teachers. Don

The busy bookworm in "Read Anything Good Lately?" reminds us of all the various ways and locations that reading is a part of our life. Allen and Lindaman work their way creatively through the alphabet, accompanied by Enright's entertaining illustrations. Guaranteed to get you thinking of how much, and where, you read every day. A lovely, fun book all around.

An indispensable book for teachers K-8 useful every day. I wouldn't be without this one in my planning center. It has lesson plans in chapters pertaining to the type of writing being assigned. Cute graphics and inspirational quotes mingle with teaching tips and helpful suggestions. If you teach at any level, this one must be in your writing library!

I fell in love with Barry Lane after I read After the End and knew I had to read more. I found the Reviser's Toolbox and couldn't believe how many great lessons were in there. The children loved the lessons and became better writers. I highly recommend this book and if you ever get a chance go see him live or check out his videos.

This book is a strong compliment to Lane's earlier book, AFTER THE END. I highly recomend both, but this title will be less useful to those who have not read the earlier book. While AFTER THE END contained theory, activity suggestions, and limited samples, the Tool Box is largely activities. It contains many useful ideas, most applicable accross grade levels 2-12, addressing the difficult problem of teaching genuine REVISION , rather than simply re-typing or editing for conventions.

As a Middle School Language Arts teacher, I use several of the activities suggested in this volume to expand my kids work and our vocabulary for talking about writing. I hope to use more activities next year, as there are too many to take on all at once. Some are so simple that my students could teach them.

This is not a 'work sheet' book. These are activities that you will need to do with your kids as part of your writing program.

As a teacher of elementary writing, I find this to be a bible of writing. Kudos to Barry Lane

I absolutely LOVE this book. While it is helpful to read After the End to get the theory etc, if you are a teacher who loves writing with your children and is looking for new ways to help your children truly REVISE their work, this book is for you.

The book is full of wonderful mini-lessons which can be adapted to many different levels. I teach 6th grade, but have recommended it to many younger grade teachers in my building and they love it too. These teachers have not read After the End, but they still able to use the activities with their children and see progress.