Customer Reviews

Read All About It!: Great Read-Aloud Stories, Poems, and Newspaper Pieces for Preteens and Teens

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My students really enjoyed the selections I read to them from the book. It is great resource to have on hand when you've finished your lesson and there is still five minutes left in class. It is also terrific to have for those studyhall kids who never seem to have any work ... toss it to them and say, "Have a look at this." In two minutes, they are silent, usually for the rest of the period.

I am a read aloud mom to 4th graders, and each and every story I have read from this book to the class has them CAPTIVATED! I was trying to decide on a favorite, but they are ALL so good!! The book has stories that truly touch your heart. It has fiction and nonfiction, humor, satire, tragedy, biography, short pieces; long pieces. Jim Trealease also does a great job introducing the authors which are stories within themselves. I can't say enough about this book. If you have anyone you wish would read more rather than watch TV, purchase this. It will definitely get their interest, and the students may purchase some of the books after reading one of the interesting chapters, and the life of the author Jim Trelease writes about. The 4th grade class I read to, are asking that very question (what is the name of that book and the author).

I ordered this book because I was looking for some short stories to prepare for a new curriculum we are going to have in HK and I am not disappointed. Not all the stories are "short stories" (some entries are excerpts from novels, poems, etc.) but I can still find a few which have potentials for my purpose. My favourites are "Aunt Millicent" (a comedy), "The Elevator" (a thriller), "An Object Lesson" (Detective story) and "Those 3 Wishes" (A modern fairy tale". If you're teaching in HK and are looking for some interesting short stories to prepare for the NSS Learning English through Short Stories elective, this is quite a good collection. It does not contain only stories of different genres, but every story begins with a short introduction of its author(s) or its background, which helps to boost the enjoyment in reading the stories.

I bought this book based on the great reviews, but most of the stories are about caucasians. That's fine, but I'm in an area where only 20% of the students are white.

However, the stories are good, and each is preceeded by information about the author.

What else can I say? Trelease is the master at the read aloud. The older kids get, the harder it is to find material to read to them. This collection, however, does the job nicely. It's a good mix of genres and subject matter as well as a variety of excerpts from longer pieces that will hopefully spark some interest in reading the full texts. And, for any middle school teacher craving a few minutes of worthwhile silence in class, here's a book guaranteed to do it.

Chris Bowen
Author of , "Our Kids: Building Relationships in the Classroom"

Reading "Read All About It" is a comprehensive course in literature. This impressive book provides classic American examples of well-written biography, history, poetry, short story, novella, and journalism and offers an interesting sketch of time, place, and writer's background with each piece. The samples are so delectible that one is compelled to seek out more of the works of the writers represented. If you have a rich literary background, are knowledgeable about the 20th Century history, or appreciate opportunities to increase and share your intellect, this book will stimulate questions, research, discussion, and pondering at home, in the classroom, at the office.

Preteens and teens need a great deal of support in order to connect with many of the writings because life experience is essential to appreciate the meaning. There are writings that do not require a high level of sophistication in order to enjoy them. If the instructor is selective about assignments then "Read All About It" will be an excellent experience.

I have been able to give this high quality book to two like-minded friends. They were impressed and delighted. Thank you, Amazon Books, for making this book available. I plan to continue sharing this thought-worthy tome.

This book is great to pick up and read when you have just a few minutes as well as a good sit down and read for an hour or two.
The book is made up of info and pieces of actual novels. It really does a great job of giving a little bit of info about a book and then allows you to read an excerpt from that book to make you want to get the actual book!

I think these stories are more appropriate for YOUNGER readers. I'd hardly say that I was captivated by many of them, so I think it'd be a hard sell for many of my 9th graders.