7 books to help kids learn about belonging Every child knows the feeling of being on the outside. The right story can help them find their way back in.

Books to help children feel connected
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Opinion | Time to Say Goodbye

America has a home crisis. When people do not believe they have a secure emotional, physical and spiritual home, they become risk averse, stagnant, cynical, anxious and aggressive. - David Brooks www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/o...

I love Candace Fleming's books. So exciting to see her recognized with the Margaret A. Edwards award!

What Kind of Lover Are You? This William Blake Poem Might Have the Answer. (Gift Article) William Blake’s “The Clod & the Pebble” is a dialogue on tenderness and cruelty in three short stanzas. Read it with our critic A.O. Scott, and then play a game to memorize it.

A perfect example of just how lively a close reading of a poem can be.(Literary analysis shouldn't be painful.) And a lovely introduction to William Blake! www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

At the Rikers Jail, the Women Have No Library. But They Have a Book Club.

Books can and do save lives. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/10/n...

Opinion | The Sins of the Moderates

A call to action from David Brooks. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/o...

Opinion | Before You Toss That Book …

"Yet every book you have is a story of who you are and who you were when you acquired it. And who you became when you read it. It’s part of you, your present and your history. We may think we finish with books, but they don’t finish with us" Roger Rosenblatt. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/28/o...

Beyond Excerpts

I agree 100% - whole books, please. Thank you, Natalie Wexler! Beyond Excerpts www.aft.org/ae/winter202...

Why Parents Aren’t Reading to Kids, and What It Means for Young Students A recent study found less than half of children are read to daily. The consequences are serious for early learners who enter school unprepared.

Parents aren't reading to their children partly because of their own experiences with reading that focused on test prep. www.the74million.org/zero2eight/w...

The Language of Tom Stoppard, Ablaze With Energy and Urgency

Teaching Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was always such a delight. And Leopoldstadt would be an excellent addition to any AP Lit curriculum. What a huge contribution Stoppard made to theatre arts.. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/29/t...

Opinion | Do Audiobooks Count as Reading?

Does listening to a book count as reading? www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...

The Secret to Getting Through Big, Dense, Difficult Books

Next stop, War and Peace. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/m...

The Sound of ‘Ophelia’

Teach Hamlet? Here's a text for exploring the evergreen nature of Shakespeare. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/a...

Arthur Sze Will Be the Next U.S. Poet Laureate

An extraordinary poet. I need to read more of his work. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/b...

English Teachers Work to Instill the Joy of Reading. Testing Gets in the Way Perrillo and Newman: The top-down pressure to measure up on test scores saps the time and energy needed to promote reading for pleasure.

"Withholding books from students is inhumane. The best tool for improved academic performance is engagement – students learn more when they become engrossed in stories. Many students master test-taking skills but lose the window for learning to enjoy reading." www.the74million.org/article/engl...

Opinion | The Fever Dream of Imminent Superintelligence Is Finally Breaking

The Fever Dream of Imminent Superintelligence Is Finally Breaking www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/o...

Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for Fiction winner Percival Everett (James, Erasure, The Trees) is coming to the NCTE Annual Convention in Denver. Don’t miss your chance to hear him speak and get your book signed at #NCTE25 in November! Register now: https://convention.ncte.org/registration/

Why Are So Few Kids Reading for Pleasure? Doomscrolling. Poor literacy instruction. Overscheduling. These are some of the reasons cited for a generational decline in students reading for fun.

Why Are So Few Kids Reading for Pleasure? www.the74million.org/article/why-...

Fewer People Are Reading for Fun, Study Finds

Fewer People Are Reading for Fun, Study Finds www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/w...
"Discussing and reflecting on fiction was linked to better mental health and social capabilities, including the ability to perceive nuances in interpersonal relationships." Time for book clubs!

Opinion | Thinking Is Becoming a Luxury Good

"Long-form literacy is not innate but learned, sometimes laboriously." www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/o...

AI Can Make Reading Books Feel Obsolete Artificial intelligence is dramatically changing how people engage with books or other kinds of writing.

A perfect storm is brewing for reading.

AI Can Make Reading Books Feel Obsolete – And Students Have A Lot To Lose www.civilbeat.org/2025/08/ai-c...

Goodbye, $165,000 Tech Jobs. Student Coders Seek Work at Chipotle.

A degree in English is evergreen. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/10/t...

Summer Reading Can Help Boost Literacy. Why Don’t High Schools Require It? Cohen: Survey of D.C.-area high schools shows few assign books to incoming 9th graders to read during vacation. That's a lost opportunity.

Summer Reading Can Help Boost Literacy. Why Don’t High Schools Require It? www.the74million.org/article/summ...

California English call for manuscripts: Contemporary Culture in the Classroom. Deadline April 1. We welcome manuscripts from everywhere.

Artwork by Elena Megalos

TEACHER VOICE: Instead of  assuming that kids won't read novels, give them skills to defend their analysis  - The Hechinger Report Reading novels puts students in community with complex ideas they can explore across weeks. Novels are powerful pedagogy because they are hard and time-consuming to teach. A good curriculum rises to t...

"The success of novel instruction hinges not just on the quality of the books we teach but on the intellectual culture we surround them with."

hechingerreport.org/teacher-voic...

The Power and Paradox of a Sonnet by Gwendolyn Brooks Our critic A.O. Scott marvels at the power and paradox of a sonnet by Gwendolyn Brooks.

I Would Follow This Poem to Hell and Back www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Opinion | Let Students Finish the Whole Book. It Could Change Their Lives. Had they merely read the summary, my students would have seen many of the same words, but they’d have lacked the feeling part.

I will never stop advocating for reading whole books. Lots of them.

Let Students Finish the Whole Book. It Could Change Their Lives. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/16/o...

Katherine Rundell · Why children’s books? Children’s books, to a great extent because they are written for those who cannot participate in the market, can offer...

A case for the power of children's literature to save us all.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Feeling the same at WSRA in Milwaukee listening to the amazing Reyna Grande.

Join me, @caroljago.bsky.social, David Steiner & Carey Wright for a discussion of the latest NAEP reading results, presented by the National Assessment Governing Board, in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy. Feb. 4, 10 a.m. Eastern US
education.jhu.edu/events/the-n...