Kentucky

Children's Literature

This intriguing series, "My ReportLinks.com Book," meshes print and Internet to offer quick access to information to student readers who may or may not have to write a report. The text gives a brief but comprehensive overview of the state of Kentucky, often illustrated with reprints of Web pages. The list of Editor's Choice Web site links allows students to access information rapidly and efficiently. Particularly impressive are links to Web sites with oral history videos, for example, "Living the Story: The Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky." The chance to listen to Julian Bond relate how his grandmother was a wedding gift to a landowner brings home the power of slavery over the individual much more than a paragraph in a book. Will students access the links to fill out the text information? That probably depends on the enthusiasm of a teacher or librarian, but this idea, linking Web sites to text, opens a much richer variety of information for students. 2003, Enslow Publishers,
— Elisabeth Greenberg