How to use this Page

A big part of my job at Stone Arch Books is to get reviews and awards for our books. We get excited about reviews that are in magazines, but we REALLY like hearing directly from kids. That’s why we need your help.

Have your students read any books from Stone Arch Books? We would love it if they would write about the books they’ve read. What was their favorite part of the story? Did they like the illustrations? Would they recommend this book to a friend? Why?

After they have written the reviews, they can either email them to me at [email protected] or they can mail them to:

Krista Monyhan
Stone Arch Books
7825 Telegraph Rd.
Bloomington, MN 55438.

Once I get the reviews, I will post them on our website. (We won’t use the students’ names, but will identify their grade and city with their review.)

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I hope this will be a good way to get your students writing after they read books!


--Krista Monyhan
Sales and Marketing Coordinator, Stone Arch Books

We know it’s hard to gauge a student’s reaction and comprehension after reading a book. And book reports, while useful for you, can be boring and frustrating for the student. That’s why we created our handy book report form (opens PDF). It’s a simple handout, with areas for students to fill in the information they need to show that they understood a book. But with its fun design and clear areas for information, it doesn’t feel like an assignment.

Try it out in your classroom, library, or home, and let us know what you think! If the student agrees, send us a copy of any book report on one of our books—we love to hear what kids think, too.

For a great final project, you can combine the book report form and the blank graphic novel page we’ve created. Ask the student to read a graphic novel, write a book report on it, and then draw a graphic novel page of their own, using our create-your-own-graphic-novel page (opens PDF).

If you don’t work in publishing, there are many mysteries about how books are made. Who picks the cover? Who decides on chapter titles? Who writes the stuff on the back of the book?

Here at Stone Arch Books, and at most publishing companies, the editor of each book writes its cover copy (the words on the back). It seems like a pretty easy job, but it’s actually harder than it sounds. It’s difficult to condense an entire book down to 50 – 100 words (that’s how long our back cover copy is here). The cover copy can’t give away what happens in a book, but it has to be exciting enough to make readers want to pick it up. It can’t tell too much, but it can’t tell too little, either! We are working on the cover copy for our Fall 2008 list now.

You can use cover copy for a fun project for a classroom, library, or book group. Ask each student to read a book (or even a chapter of a book). Then, without reading the book’s cover copy, ask them to write their own. Compare the student’s cover copy to the book’s. What are their differences? What are their similarities? Which one most makes the student want to read the book?

Not such a crazy idea anymore!

In an editorial today, the New York Times championed something that’s very near and dear to our hearts: Comic books in the classroom. Buoyed by a recent article about the Comic Book Project and the Maryland Comics in the Classroom initiative, the editorial posits that comic books (and by extension, graphic novels) have an important place in education. In fact, the editorial states, “The pairing of visual and written plotlines that [comic books] rely on appear to be especially helpful to struggling readers.” We’ve been saying this since our first graphic novels hit shelves in Spring 2006, so it’s nice of the Times to catch up! We’ve got a make-your-own-graphic-novel page (opens PDF) that students love, which is a great supplement to any of our graphic novels and a fabulous learning tool for the classroom.

There are sure to be many more articles like the two in the Times--here's to getting kids to read with the kinds of books they love.