For block courses in Children's Literature and Reading and/or Children's Literature and Language Arts.

Written by three former language arts classroom teachers, this is the ideal text to help prospective teachers improve children's reading and language arts skills and instill in them a genuine and lasting love of reading. Designed to teach students how to create "literature-centered" K-8 classrooms, the text demonstrates numerous ways to integrate literature into the daily fabric of classroom life. Following a solid grounding in the basics every reading teacher needs, individual chapters explore genres of children's literature and teaching strategies specific to each genre. Then, the authors examine currently accepted effective practices for engaging young readers in hands-on reading in a way that fosters a love of literature that will last a lifetime.