I just heard about In2Books from Dr. Stein Brunvard's site.  From ePal's In2Books site, they describe In2Books as a program that  "promotes literacy across the curriculum by matching students with adult pen pals who read the same books and correspond online about the important issues in the books. The books are carefully selected to align with literacy, social studies and science standards."

Teachers and schools can apply to be part of the program, and Title I schools can participate for free.  Yep, that's right!  For free!!  Other schools and teachers can participate and use some of the resources for free but they must also provide some resources, too, such as the books and the pen pals.

Now, we're talking about some content area reading with focus on social studies and science but with fiction, too.  So, there definitely is a variety across the narrative, fiction and expository texts.  Woohoo!  Dr. Brunvard says, he can "can imagine senior citizens, retired educators, preservice teachers and even responsible high school students participating as pen pals. What a great way to tap into a population of volunteers that might not be able to come into the classroom to help out but could be very helpful as 'virtual volunteers' ."

If you're using it or going to find out about using it, let me know.

 
 

Tony DiTerlizzi, bestselling author of The Spiderwick  Chronicles, will be at Barnes & Noble Wolfchase (2774 N Germantown Parkway) on Sunday, August 24 at 2:00 pm to sign his new book Kenny and the Dragon.  This is in conjunction with a Bookfair for
Make a Wish Foundation

 
 

If you like the patterns in If You Give a Pig a Pancake or ...a Mouse a Cookie, then you're about in time for the new If You Give a Cat a Cupcake. Author Laura Numeroff has a new book coming out September 30.  You can find out a little more about the story and preorder online at Barnes & Noble.