Standard: Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build understanding of those texts, themselves, the many dimensions of human experience, and of various cultures, and to acquire new information. Texts includes fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.

• The Kids on the Web: Children's Books
  This site draws on the resources of The Children's Literature Web Guide (described under the final standard) to feature a wide variety of the best children's books by both famous authors and young unknowns. Many of the selections are award-winning pieces, but some are unusual and perhaps unfamiliar. For instance, Labyrinth Conceptions specializes in personalized books that let children read about themselves. The site can also serve as a pointer to other reading resources, such as The Best Book Lists or Yahoo's list of children's authors or bilingual books.
  
  
• Kids Love a Mystery.com
  This website is perfect for children who relish mysteries and tales of intrigue. Children can join a contest to find out who stole Coach Wilson's grade book, and if they figure it out, they win a mystery book. Or, they can try to work out the story behind the case of the untruthful shark. There is a link to the Nancy Drew website for fans who are interested in following the dramas of that young detective heroine. If they are in a more playful mood, children can learn magic tricks such as how to push a coin right through their leg or make a quarter vanish from the table and reappear at the center of a knotted napkin.
  
  
• Candlelight Stories
  Here is a collection of favorite stories and fairy tales from all over the world. Students can do searches and visit various activity links at the site, and they can even publish their own stories by submitting them for posting at the site. Teachers who visit can exchange lessons and ideas, and opportunities to develop resource requests and donations for individual schools are offered.
  
  
• Story Hour at the Internet Public Library
  This site, part of the larger Internet Public Library, is an excellent resource for young children. You will find good stories to read and illustrations to view. Audio files can be downloaded so stories can also be heard as they are read aloud.
  
  
• The Global Classroom
  This site was developed at the Delmar Elementary School in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region. Visitors will appreciate the wonders of the electronic medium as they read, view, and listen to its many pages. For instance, with a simple mouse click, an illustrated story written by Delmar students and peers from Japan appears on the screen, a favorite book from Iceland pops up, and young authors can post their own writing and exchange messages.
  
  
• Wangaratta Primary School
  Wangaratta Primary School is located in a small Australian city. The school has 250 students, ranging in age from 5 to 12 years. The site provides information about Australia, its customs, and cultures. For example, students can learn how to make a land yacht, find out about Australian animals, and do numerous other “fun Aussie activities.”
  
  
• China: Dim Sum: A Connection to Chinese-American Culture
  Developed at Angier School in Massachusetts, USA, this site will help students gain knowledge and understanding of Chinese and Chinese-American culture while building basic academic skills. A wide variety of resources and lesson plans are organized by curricular area and presented in an intelligent and engaging format that makes this site a joy to navigate.
  
  
• Easter Island
  How and why did long-ago inhabitants of Easter Island carve and transport the famous statues? What remains of the islanders' culture today, and what lessons can we learn from their legacy? This page is a resource for information about Easter Island and includes images, audio, and numerous useful links to related sites.
  
  
• Kids Web Japan
  This wonderful multilingual site for students aged 10 to 14 and their teachers includes information about Japanese history, politics, and geography, Japanese folk legends, a children's cookbook, a language lab, a culture area, a kids gallery, games, monthly news, and a calendar.
  
  
• The Harlem Renaissance
  Encyclopedia Britannica created this site to celebrate the extraordinary decade of the 1920s in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. Photographs from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture are featured, and information about artists and leaders including Bessie Smith, Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Duke Ellington is presented. Peter Meyerhoff, senior producer of the site, brags, “We're pretty sure you won't find a cool Shockwave map showing all of Harlem's hot spots anywhere else.”
  
  
• Indian Pueblo Cultural Center
  Make an online visit to New Mexico in the American Southwest and learn about the region's native population. Students can find out about the culture, language, and history of the Pueblo peoples. Reproductions of murals created by Pueblo artists are featured.