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Finding Materials for the Classroom
- NovelistReader's advisory content for fiction books, including author read-alikes, book discussion guides, and recommended reading lists.
- NoveList K-8Book discussion guides (also read-alikes, suggested thematic lists, etc.) for Kindergarten-Eighth Grade books
- TeachingBooks.NetBook guides and lesson plans, as well as author audio/video interviews that can be shown to students as elements of a lesson.
- Lexile Text AnalyzerThe Lexile Analyzer measures the complexity of the text by breaking down the entire piece and studying its characteristics, such as sentence length and word frequency, which represent the syntactic and semantic challenges that the text presents to a reader. The outcome is the text complexity, expressed as a Lexile measure, along with information on the word count, mean sentence length and mean log frequency.
- MAS Ultra - School Edition (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowArticles from popular magazines useful at the high school level, plus entries from reference books.
- StackedStacked provides a list of popular YA books divided by genre. They also provide book recommendations for more popular books.
- GoodReads"Discover and share books you love on Goodreads, the world's largest site for readers and book recommendations! "
- Reading RantsSpunky reviews in teen friendly categories.
- Teen Book Finder AppAn app for your mobile device that helps you find YA books!
- YALSA's Best of the BestFind the best YA books written for each year.
Checking Text Readability
Most of the above tools will report readability for formally printed texts -- NoveList and TeachingBooks are both very consistent at providing that kind of support for both fiction and non-fiction. When needing to check the readability of other kinds of texts -- a newspaper article, a website, etc. -- consider trying the free tool below:
- Automatic Readability CheckerCopy and paste a sample text of 200-3000 words, and receive seven immediate readability checks using tools designed for different purposes (each tool is described on the page).
Where to Get the Books
- EWU Library CatalogSearch for books, videos, articles and more at EWU Libraries, Summit Libraries and beyond. While not required, if you want the full functionality (save or request items, etc.), please sign in with your NetID.
- Spokane County Library DistrictFree card to all in the county (except cities of Spangle and Liberty Lake)
Cheney Branch - Spokane Public LibraryIf you have a Spokane Public card, you may download their audiobooks too.
Background Information
- Gale Literature This link opens in a new windowSearches across several Gale literary databases, including Literature Criticism, Gale eBooks - Biography & Literature collections, Dictionary of Literary Biography, and Something About the Author (biographical and critical information on children's and YA authors). Formerly named Gale Literary Sources, Artemis Literary.
- Encyclopedia of Children's Literature This link opens in a new windowEntries on all aspects of children's literature; biographical sketches on authors and illustrators, as well as articles on genres, trends and themes from an international perspective.
- Literature LaddersAnnette Lamb shares methods to infuse literature.