This book discusses in detail how children's trade books can be used to achieve the national standards in the content areas (math, science, and social studies). Freeman and Person begin with a concise discussion of the national standards and explain how they translate into usable teaching methods. Each of the new standards is discussed with a focus on how they correlate positively with the use of informational children's books. This book is a wonderful guide — not only to understanding the standards, but to finding practical, innovative ways of achieving them through the use of informational books.

Freeman and Person model methods of encouraging a problem-solving atmosphere of inquiry in the classroom by providing sample lesson plans for various grade levels. They describe how to link content area writing with the use of informational children's books, and how to use these books with integrated thematic units. As each sample unit is presented in detail, many outstanding informational children's books are discussed. This book provides excellent ideas for pre- and in-service teachers for implementing books in the content area curriculum, and most importantly, recommends actual titles that can be used to supplement traditional textbook learning.