Hardcover children's books are usually pricey, but inexpensive children's books are often sold in supermarkets and discount stores. Online booksellers offer astounding choice, many reviews, quick service, exceptionally convenient ordering, and attractive discounts. With certain limitations the shipping may be free. Whether you want to buy books or simply see reviews and descriptions, you may want to check out Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and half.com

For real bargains buy used books. For example, Amazon.com sells the hardcover The Cat in the Hat for $8.99. I clicked on "used and new," and found a very good used copy for $0.50. but the shipping is $3.49. Look for good used bookstores selling used books and look for charity book sales. See if you can get books from people whose children have outgrown them. The public libraries are still the best deal around, and the librarians can be very helpful in finding books on subjects of interest to the child.

Children's books fall into several genres beginning with durable "board books," which are great for toddlers. There are also flap books, pop-ups, and fold-outs, which may be fragile.

"Picture books" tell a story with both words and pictures, and they vary in reading level. An example is Dr. Seuss's wonderful The Cat in the Hat. You can search for other Dr. Seuss books such as The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, Green Eggs and Ham, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Dr. Seuss ABC, and The Cat in the Hat Song Book. Another modern classic picture book, which is more sophisticated and more difficult, is Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

"Predictable books" use repetition and other devices to make the story easier to read. A good representative of this genre is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin.

Schools often use "decodable books" that come in a series and present letters/sounds systematically. They give decoding practice, but the stories are often dull and may give a bad impression of books. The tutor can use real stories with less restricted vocabularies by reading to the learner and having him "help" with the reading, or the tutor can make the reading easier for the learner by using assisted reading techniques.

For children who enjoy them the classic fairy tales are great read-alouds, i.e., books which are read aloud for the child's pleasure, and they are widely available. These classics include such stories as The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Ugly Duckling, Puss in Boots, Cinderella, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstilskin, Beauty and Beast, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, and The Sleeping Beauty. These books add to our cultural literacy because they are often alluded to. After he has developed a sense of humor, he can enjoy fairy-tale parodies such as The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka. A delightful picture book based on verse, which you might try, is There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly adapted by Simms Taback.

The picture book genre also includes series books. They include such modern classics as A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories that can be purchased individually or in The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh. Another classic series consists of the tales by Beatrix Potter. All 23 tales including The Tale of Peter Rabbit and four unpublished works are in The Complete Tales. Another popular series is the Curious George books by H. A. Rey. Curious George Flies a Kite is an excellent one to start with because of its simple words in a real story. The complete Adventures of Curious George is an economical way to buy the stories. Another widely marketed series is the Berenstain Bear books by Stan and Jan Berenstain. Some of the books in this series are rhymed. Series books take advantage of a child's special interest in particular characters or story types.

The next level of children's books are "chapter books," which have chapters and few pictures and vary considerably in reading difficulty. Examples of popular chapter books on this list are Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little by E. B. White, who also wrote Trumpet of the Swan. There are also series chapter books such as the humorous, well-written Wayside School stories by Louis Sachar. Some kids simply won't read enough to become fluent readers because they find most children's books boring. For 9 to 12-year olds consider the extraordinarily popular Harry Potter series of books by J. K. Rowling. If the child likes scary stuff, respect his tastes and help him find stories that interest him. They may enjoy the very popular Goosebumps series of paperbacks by R. L. Stine or the Animorphs series by K. A. Applegate. At this point one should be most concerned about encouraging independent reading, developing reading skill, and fostering a love of reading. Literary appreciation can be developed gradually.

Verse is great for young readers, especially if it is rhymed. You can start Reading Activity 1 with Mother Goose rhymes, and there are hundreds of books of Mother Goose rhymes. One example is The Classic Mother Goose by Armand Eisen (Editor). Then when the child is older, you can move up to suitable anthologies of poetry for kids. Read-Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young compiled by Jack Prelutsky is a good collection of 200 poems.

Humor is a great way to hook a child on reading with comprehension. He has to think about it in order to "get it." For humorous poems for children beyond the nursery rhyme stage consider the extraordinarily imaginative Shel Silverstein books including, Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, and Falling Up. Also consider Jack Prelutsky's The New Kid on the Block, Something Big Has Been Here, and A Pizza the Size of the Sun. You should annotate his poems to give simple synonyms for some of the words. (See Broderbund below which has The New kid on the Block on an interactive CD-ROM.)

There are lots of good children's songbooks, which are not only fun but are good for teaching reading. Some of them come with tapes. Check out The Book of Kids Songs: A Holler-Along Handbook by Nancy and John Cassidy, which includes an audio cassette. A wonderful Web site for children's song lyrics is KIDiddles' site, Complete Song List. Another great site is Becky's Campfire Songbook.

In Part 2, Writing Activity 2, you will find out about having a learner dictate his own reading material. When the learner reads his own material, there is no comprehension or vocabulary problem. He can concentrate on word recognition using both context and word analysis. This activity is an important part of Tutoring for Mastery.

A child should have his own bookshelf, and in due course his books should include an age-appropriate dictionary, thesaurus, and atlas. It would be nice for him to have a suitable encyclopedia, but if a computer is available to him, check out Wikipedia. For a wider choice go to Online Encyclopedias. It includes several valuable reference works in addition to encyclopedias. Back to the Beginning

You may be surprised by how many children's stories are available online. Use a fairly large font on your browser to make the print easy to read. (On Microsoft Internet Explorer click View, Text Size, Larger or Largest.) If the child likes a story, you may want to print it and put it in a binder for ease of use. Since old story sites often disappear and new ones are constantly being added, try searching for "children's online stories." Also check out the following sites:

Interactive Storybooks

Children's Storybooks Online. For a short interactive story click The Farm Animals. Click on a word, and it is read.

The Little Animals Activity Centre Stories shown in print are read aloud.

Children's Classics, for younger and older children

Fairrosa Cyber Library of Children's Literature, Fairy and Folk Tales

Classic Books and Literature for Children and Teenagers

Online Children's Stories

Parents and Children Together, online magazine

KidSpace@The Internet Public Library

Also check out the Project Gutenberg for online books that are in the public domain. They have some young children's stories such as The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter and many stories suitable for older learners such as The Red Badge of Courage. Since the format is a bit drab, you may wish to copy the text to your word processor and use the formatting and font of your choice.

Take a look at Children's Literature Web Guide, which has links to a lot of good literature sites.

There are some interactive storybooks on CD-ROMs. In most cases the story is read by a narrator or a character, and the words or phrases being read are highlighted. In addition there are some interactive activities. Since the quality is uneven, it is desirable to read software reviews before you buy. A good online CD review site is Superkids. Another such site is The School House Review.

Since CD programs are a bit pricey, around $30, it is a good idea to shop around for the best price after checking the prices charged by an online vendor such as Edutainment.

Later, suggestions on how interactive storybooks on CDs, such as Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, and The Tortoise and the Hare produced by Living Books (Broderbund), may be used beneficially with Tutoring for Mastery. In addition to whatever educational value they have your child may find them to be very entertaining.

In order to motivate independent reading and learning, it is important for children to have constructive personal interests that turn them on. The schools are usually not good at helping children find personal interests, so this is something that parents should do.

After a child has learned to read, he needs to be exposed to a wide variety of subjects from dinosaurs to space exploration. This will help him find a special interest that he can pursue in depth and experience the satisfaction of learning and improving his reading.

One way to investigate nature independently is simply to "ask the authorities," i.e., go to an encyclopedia and other books, magazines, journals, or the Internet for the answer. Children need to learn to consider the reliability and objectivity of an authority, and this is especially important in the case of the Internet. They need to become critical and independent thinkers who do not uncritically accept whatever they read or are told.

Children should also learn how to "ask nature" for the answer to their questions, and this is doing science. A key part of scientific investigation is observation. Carefully observing things in nature leads to raising questions about them and seeking answers.

Parents should call children's attention to things in nature that are fun to explore. Here are three examples of realms to consider.

One realm of nature that I especially recommend for observation and investigation is the night sky. Here are some reasons for choosing skywatching for nature study:

• The first reason is that the night sky is incredibly awe-inspiring.
  
• Although some astronomic phenomena are very complicated, skywatching can be approached at a simple, enjoyable level, and it is a good way for a child to develop his observation skills.
  
• You don't have a problem in finding specimens. All you have to do is to step outside on any clear night anywhere, even in light-polluted cities, and look up. You may only see a couple of naked-eye stars in the sky, but what stars are they? What makes them interesting?
  
• By comparing writings on astronomy with writings on astrology one can appreciate the difference between scientific thinking based on evidence and unscientific thinking grounded in mythology.
  
• It can be a very good family activity.
  
• It can enhance vacation trips by providing a great night-time activity. For example, national parks are usually located in secluded places where the night sky is unusually dark, revealing, and beautiful.
  
• It may become a rewarding and wholesome life-time hobby.

Go out under the night sky with your child and encourage him to observe, ask questions, and seek the answers. In addition to his questions challenge him to figure out the answers to these questions:

• Why does the appearance of the Moon change night after night, and how long does it take to complete the cycle? Scientists like to build models to help them understand their subjects. Ask the child how he might make and use a Moon phase model with two balls and a flashlight in a dark room to explain the Moon's cycle.

• From what general direction does the Moon always appear to rise either during the day or at night, and in what direction and how fast does it appear to travel across the sky? See if he can figure out how to observe the apparent movement of the Moon by lining it up with the corner of a rooftop or treetop and observing the change over time.

• In what direction and how fast does the Moon actually travel across the sky in its orbit around Earth? Why can't you use things such as trees for points of reference? You can let him know that for observation purposes stars don't move enough to matter. How can he use stars as points of reference to determine the direction and speed that the Moon moves? He may be able to figure out that he can observe the Moon when it is close to a star or in between two stars and check their relative positions exactly 24 hours later. He will need to know how to measure angular distance with his hand and fingers.

• What is your favorite feature on the Moon and what caused it? This will require some reading.

• What planets can you find in the sky? He could look up what planets are visible at the time, and then he can have the fun of finding them.

• How can you tell planets from stars? With binoculars he might observe that Jupiter, for example, is a disk rather than a glaring point of light. Have him compare Jupiter or Venus with the brightest star. He may see that the planets do not twinkle.

• How do the five naked-eye planets differ in apparent size and color?

• How many moons visible in good binoculars does Jupiter have and how can you be sure? With only one observation there is a chance that one or more are hidden on the far side.

• Are stars other suns, and if so, why do they look so different than our Sun?

• How do the stars differ in appearance? What might explain those difference? He should observe that there are obvious differences in brightness, and he may be able to infer that two reasons for that are difference in distance and in luminosity due to difference in size and temperature. There are also obvious differences in color, which he should speculate on and then check out the literature to see if one of his speculations is right.

• In what direction and at what speed in degrees per hour do stars appear to move across the sky?

• Are stars that appear to be close together really necessarily close together?

• Does the North Star appear to move during the course of the evening? If not, why not?

• Why is the sky blue in the daytime and black at night? This is a more advanced question for speculation and reading.

Encourage your child to tell you about and write about what he discovers. Also share with him things that you read about astronomic findings.

In the other parts of this program the child has not had much opportunity to work independently. In this part he should become an independent investigator and learner.

A great second area of nature study for a child who finds it interesting is birding. This too may also lead to a wonderful lifetime hobby. To get an eye-opening glimpse of how many people are interested in birding go to Birding Clubs and Associations. A child doesn't have to go far to find several species of birds. He can find them in the back yard and can attract more by feeding.

Birding combines well with skywatching. When you go to national or state parks, you can look for birds and other wildlife in the daytime and look at the sky at night. You can use your binoculars to aid in both pursuits. I recall with delight one evening at dusk when we were waiting at a star party for the stars to appear when I spotted a Red-tailed Hawk hovering above us as if it were suspended on a string. In my binoculars I could see his eyes and his head moving from one side to the other. This experience heightened my interest in raptors.

Encourage a child to keep a journal for recording his bird watching experiences. This leads to reading about the species he has seen to find out about their migration habits, range, voice, and preferred habitat and food. He can determine what species make up the residents and the migrants. Before long he will be classifying birds by families such as the Corvidae including crows, ravens, jays, and magpies.

Check out the reviews of Back yard Bird Watching for Kids: How to Attract Feed & Provide Homes for Birds by George H. Harrison. It is also necessary to have a field guide that is appropriate for ones region. For the western states including the Rockies see The National Audubon Society Field Guide to North America: Western Region by Miklos D. F. Udvardy and revised by John Farrand. The guide for the eastern region is by John L. Bull and John Farrand.

A third area of nature study that some children may find interesting is microscopy, looking at itty-bitty things. There are two levels of microscopy, and they require different types of microscopes. One level is low power microscopy, 20x to 40X. The projects include examining insects, plant parts, fibers and fabric, hair, skin, fingerprints, wood, and minerals. An interesting but alarming project is to look for dust mites on your mattresses and fleas on your pets. Low power microscopy is quite suitable for middle school kids.

The subjects of high power microscopy are things that you put on a slide such as molds and protozoa. The moderately priced microscopes commonly go up to 400X. This is a field better suited for teenagers, especially those who are studying or have studied some biology. To check out microscopes, you might go to this commercial site: Microscope Finder. For a beginner's book you might check out Microscopes and Magnifying Glasses by Janice Pratt Van Cleave. Another book to consider is The Microscope book by Shar Levine and Leslie Johnstone. Finally, a more advanced book to check out is Exploring with Microscopes: A Book of Discovery by Werner Nachtigal.

Low power microscopy combines very well with rock and mineral collecting, which is a great hobby. However, a small 10-power hand lens is quite sufficient; see the Sina 10X Doublet.

To find out more about rock and mineral collecting, check out Collecting Rocks. To learn about minerals go to Mineral Matters, Kids' Habitat.

In order to identify rocks and minerals one needs a field guide such as the National Audubon Society First Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals.

Rock and mineral collectors are called rock hounds. To see a young Casey's collection go to Casey's Rockhound Page. Check out the Rocks and Minerals Slide Show.

Collecting rocks can lead to an interest in roadside geology, which is also a good hobby subject.

Observing and collecting bugs also combines well with low-power microscopy. To find out how someone made "bugging" a hobby go to Kids Can Have a Bugs Life.

Some kids are intrigued by bugs and can make a good hobby out of collecting them. For a good site on bugs go to Bugbios.

For a good field guide to bugs go to National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders.

Finding reading materials that appeal to an adult beginning reader is not easy. For this reason the diary reading and writing activity in Part 2 is particularly effective because the stories are his.

Poems the adult learner can relate to are good for beginning reading instruction. Stanzas are particularly suitable units for repeated reading. Although Shell Silverstein's books of light verse are children's books, many of the poems are also suitable for adults because adults probably find some of them even funnier than children do. For a good online poetry site go to Poems that Rhyme. Another great poetry site is A Little Archive of Poetry.

Song lyrics are great reading material for adults who like to sing. Many of them tell a good story and have enough repetition to make them easy to read. As in the case of poems, the verses are good units to work on for mastery. If the words are printed along with the music, you may want to copy the words in the format of poems. You may also do some judicious editing to simplify things.

I used songs with one adult learner and was pleasantly surprised by what a good voice he had. I transcribed some songs that he knew but could not read. I also used some folk songs. After a while he started singing for the literacy group.

You should also check out the Project Gutenberg for online books.

An adult often has things he would like to read such as a letter, a driver's license manual, Bible passages, instruction manuals, etc. Some of these things may be too difficult for a beginner. If he wants to read the Bible, suggest starting with some easy to read Bible stories. Later you may suggest using a revised version of the Bible rather than the formidable King James version.

New Readers Press, Publishing Division of Laubach Literacy International, is a good source of easy to read books for teenagers and adults. Cambridge Adult Education, A Division of Globe Fearon, is another good source.