A Down-home Visit with Kids' Book Creators

Students, teachers, and librarians looking for biographies and other materials about children's book authors and illustrators have a new online resource. TeachingBooks.net (www.teachingbooks.net) is a portal to 800 personal Web sites, teachers' guides, video files in QuickTime and Windows Media Player formats, activity ideas, and sessions with many of the best known creators of children's literature. Nicholas Glass, a former educator and bookseller, provides interviews with Bryan Collier, Jack Gantos, Betsy Lewin, and David Wiesner.

"The original short films showing children's authors and illustrators at work in their home settings may be the draw for first-time visitors to the site," says K. T. Horning, the acting director of the Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin, "but the wealth of up-to-date, easily accessible information about children's and young adult literature will keep them coming back."

Much of the site is currently free, but users must register. Value-added features, such as an e-mail service that offers additional information on authors and illustrators, are also available to subscribers.