New Briefs

Staff -- School Library Journal, 6/1/2000

Carey On

Why Girls Don't Compute

The Key to Reading
The most effective way to teach children to read is through a combination of three methods--phonics, reading skills practice, and reading comprehension strategies. This is the conclusion of a report by the 14-member, congressionally created National Reading Panel. The panel's review concluded that the greatest improvements in reading were seen from systematic phonics instruction. The panel also suggested that "oral guided reading," in which students are corrected as they read aloud, is important for developing reading fluency. The report can be found at www.nationalreadingpanel.org.

Major Acquisitions
The publishing world has seen yet another merger in the form of Scholastic's purchase of Grolier, for $400 million. "The acquisition will strengthen our position in U.S. school and public libraries--a growing $5.5 billion market where Grolier has a strong print and online presence, including leading encyclopedias such as Encyclopedia Americana, the New Book of Knowledge, and Spanish language encyclopedias," explains Richard Robinson, Scholastic's chairman, president, and CEO. In another consolidation, the British media conglomerate Pearson has purchased the children's book publisher Dorling Kindersley for approximately $470 million.

Martha the Librarian

If you thought that the doyen of domesticity, Martha Stewart, catered only to those with a yearning to make pom-pom animals, think again. Aprilâ?Ts issue of Martha Stewart Living features a two-page spread on reference books as a basic household tool. The article outlines the origins of reference books in the 13th century and recommends that thorough home libraries include a dictionary, an encyclopedia, an almanac, a desk reference, an atlas, a thesaurus, a guide to grammar, and a book of quotations. The piece suggests buying more than one copy of a good reference book so that, like Martha, readers can give them as gifts.