Teach Brightly
Growing Reader
A Printable Educator’s Guide to Using Picture Books in the Classroom
This free Educator’s Guide contains picture book recommendations and activities that are aligned to Common Core standards and explore themes like family, friendship, history, and folklore.
Pre-K
Growing Reader
Tween
Books To Teach Kids About Cause and Effect
Teaching kids cause and effect develops critical thinking skills important for all ages of children. We hope these books guide kids into many thoughtful conversations that spill over into decision-making in their daily lives.
Growing Reader
Tween
Strategies to Improve Kids’ Nonfiction Reading Comprehension
Since nonfiction comprises a large bulk of middle school and high school reading, it’s essential we help them learn specific nonfiction reading comprehension strategies.
Tween
An Educator’s Guide To Building Empathy With Books
Download and print this free Educator’s Guide filled with discussion questions and activities that help students explore themes like empathy, compassion, and inclusion through middle grade stories.
Pre-K
Growing Reader
Beginning Reader Books To Keep on Your Library’s Shelves
With short sentence repetition and picture clues, these books are accessible for new readers and also have big shelf appeal for a range of ages.
Pre-K
Growing Reader
A Printable Educator’s Guide to the Llama Llama Books
Use these Llama Llama-inspired strategies and activities to dive deeper into Anna Dewdney’s series and expand your students’ reading comprehension, critical thinking skills, and emotional development.
Pre-K
Growing Reader
8 Books to Teach Children About the Habits of Scientists
Use these books in the classroom to help explain and give compelling examples of how real (and fictional!) scientists ask questions, hypothesize, design experiments, overcome obstacles, and communicate their findings.
Tween
Teen
Brightly’s Book Club for Kids: Hoot
Our new book club selection is an environmental adventure story that shows kids the power of standing up for what you believe in.
Tween
A Printable Educator’s Guide to Graphic Novels
This free Educator’s Guide contains easy-to-apply discussion questions (and a “make your own graphic novel” activity) to enrich your curriculum and help students get the most out of any graphic novel.
Tips & Advice
This Is What Being an Elementary School Librarian Means to Me Today
In one way or another, I have worked in the world of kids’ books for more than two decades now — yet, it wasn’t until I began my job as a librarian four years ago that I truly realized how much books connect and create community.
Tween
Why Kids Need the Freedom To Choose the Books They Read
If we want to pass a love of reading to the next generation, we have to allow them to have joy when they read. This sometimes means reading books with fart jokes, books with wizards that defeat evil, graphic novels, series, and books that speak truths that resonate with kids. Unfortunately, these books are often banned.
Pre-K
Growing Reader
Tween
Picture Book Mentor Texts for Persuasive Writing
Persuasive writing is an increasingly common requirement for the primary grades, but many kids don’t have much experience with it. If your students are stuck on the same formats or could use a wider set of stylistic moves to be more convincing, check out these useful titles.
