Walk into any first-grade classroom during reading workshop, and you're likely to see a child carrying "The Book" - the one that made them realize they know how to read. "The Book" is often a different book for each child, but you know it when you see it - dragged all over the classroom, opened again and again to read aloud proudly to friends, teachers, or family.

These are the books readers cherish, no matter how resistant they may become later or discouraged about their abilities. No wonder some youngsters will cling to those books till they are as bedraggled as a security blanket. For me 40 years ago, the book was Hop on Pop. Can you remember the book that got you hooked on reading?

In the past few years we've been talking more about "mentor texts" in literacy education. The concept builds upon the natural inclination of any reader to hold onto a few books as touchstones in their learning. Teachers anchor learning and build community through certain books they know will hook students in unique ways, and stay strong in their memory throughout the school year.

Beyond children's books, educators also have professional reading that anchors their year. There are just a few books on our shelves that are truly well-worn and dog-eared, riffled through repeatedly when we need a little inspiration and practical advice.

What is "The Book" for you professionally? When you need a bit of comfort and security at the start of the year, what text do you pull off the shelf?

This week, we've got a round-up of favorite mentor texts from our contributors and a wide range of resources on books that hook. Plus more as always. Enjoy!

Brenda Power

Editor, Choice Literacy

www.choiceliteracy.com

Free for All

A question for you - if you had room in your book bag for only one children's book to use in the first weeks of school, and only one professional book to offer to a colleague, what would you pick? Our contributors answer the question in this Resource Round-Up:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/427.cfm

What a fun idea for a contest - the First Book organization did a national survey of the question, "What was the book that got you hooked?" You can read the top 50 picks nationally here. See if your book made the list, as well as the choices of thousands of readers of all ages. The top 50 list has lots of possibilities for class discussions or an interactive wall display in a classroom or teacher work area:

http://www2.firstbook.org/whatbook/

Read Write Think, a joint venture of IRA and NCTE, has a nifty short series of lessons based on sharing favorite books as a way to build class community:

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=1065

"Your Turn" Lessons are an innovative format for helping students explore writer's craft in different mentor texts. Lynne Dorfman and Rose Cappelli present the concept and many examples of these lessons in their book, Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children's Literature K-6 (Stenhouse, 2007). The full text of the book is posted online for a limited time at this link:

www.stenhouse.com/0433.asp

Join Choice Literacy this fall for weekend workshops in Maine on topics including literacy coaching, reading assessment, the 4th grade slump, and young English language learners. Details are at this link:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/department22.cfm

For Members Only

Franki Sibberson wants to become a little more systematic this year in organizing and highlighting mentor texts. In this article, she explains how she created her new mentor text notebook, and how she is using it as a teaching tool with students in the early days of school:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/407.cfm

Shari Frost noticed students in classrooms always seemed to enjoy the writing center - playing with different colors of pens, stapling and gluing drafts together...There was only one problem. Very little writing seemed to be happening in the writing centers. Shari and her team of literacy coaches are beginning the year by talking through the problem of not enough writing in writing centers. This first article explores beginning steps for tackling the issue, with updates planned on progress later this fall:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/425.cfm

Teachers launch their fall with assessments of students to determine reading levels. We target struggling readers for extra support. But what about the students who are reading far above grade level? Amanda is a second grader at the start of the year who is reading at a 4th grade level. In this five-minute video of a conference with Gail Boushey during reading workshop, Gail helps Amanda set a goal of identifying main ideas in books. In the debrief, Gail and Joan Moser talk about why Amanda is ready for this goal.

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/426.cfm

That's all for this week!

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