The Reading Environment - Softcover

Aidan Chambers' best known books are the children's novel The Present Takers and his young adult fiction that includes Breaktime, Dance on My Grave, and The Toll Bridge. He lectures on children's literature for teachers and for several years wrote the "Letter from England" column for The Horn Book.

With his wife Nancy he founded The Thimble Press in 1969, which has published professional books in education as well as the critical journal Signal: Approaches to Children's Books. A recipient of numerous awards, in 1986 he gave the May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture, sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children. Aidan and Nancy Chambers live in the Cotswold region of England.

...an 88-page handbook for all adults who want to help children enjoy books. Although dealing with many strategies experienced teachers already employ, this small book provides and expanded checklist of practices we may have forgotten and/or, more importantly, a reminder of why we're doing something in the first place. For less experienced teachers, the book is a definitive statement on how to create and nurture a reading environment.

The book is a short, easy read which engenders lots of thinking about reading and provides many put-right-to-use ideas to help make reading come alive for kids. -- Teaching K-8, January 1997