PBS
Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises: “Talking” with Authors and Scholars
Film clips from the documentary Hemingway Ken Burns and Lynn Novick provide readers of The Sun Also Rises with the opportunity to hear what other writers and critics have to say about Hemingway's portrayal of the post-World War I Lost...
PBS
The Hunger Games
The odds will be in your favor that young statisticians will volunteer to participate in this experiment. After watching a short video that is part of the PBS Math at the Core middle school collection, scholars engage in a lottery and...
PBS
Falling in Love with Reading and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
At first glance, it doesn't seem like Betty Smith's story of 11-year old Francie Nolan, a poor Irish girl living in the 1920's Brooklyn, should remain a best-seller for almost 100 years. But A Tree Grows in Brooklyn has remained a...
TED-Ed
Why should you read “The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan?
Amy Tan was surprised by the reception of her story of four Chinese families that immigrated to the San Francisco Bay area. The vignettes about the mothers who make up the Joy Luck Club, and their daughters, models the experiences of...
PBS
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams' hysterical send-up of bureaucratic thinking, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is the focus of a Great American Read video that urges viewers to vote for one of the greatest satires since Gulliver's Travels.
PBS
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Rather than windmills, Ignatius J. Reilly, the hero of John Kennedy Toole's Pulitzer Prize-winning A Confederacy of Dunces, battles against modernity. Find out why Professor Walter Isaacson thinks Toole's novel should get viewers' votes...
PBS
Bill T. Jones Discusses James Baldwin's Another Country
Bill T. Jones, Artistic Director of New York Line Arts describes why he picked James Baldwin's novel, Another Country as his favorite novel.
PBS
The Handmaid's Tale | The Great American Read
Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is the focus of a Great American Read video that urges viewers to read this dystopian novel about a villainous society that oppresses women and minority groups.
PBS
Margaret Mitchell
Far from being a proper Southern Belle, Margaret Mitchell was a rebel, willing to take on the benefactors of the debutante ball, to support unpopular causes, and finance promising students. A short video details the life of the author of...
PBS
A Black Writer in the South | American Masters: Alice Walker
Alice Walker discusses the influence the strong women in her family and her experiences growing up on a plantation in Eatonton, Georgia had on her writing. Part of the American Masters series, the short video includes images of her...
PBS
The Color Purple
A clip from the documentary Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth features Walker discussing her writing process and why she chose to write The Color Purple as an epistolary novel. The resource is part of PBS' American Masters...
PBS
A Separate Peace
Jenna and Barbara Bush, daughters of former President George W. Bush, and author Armistead Maupin share with viewers their reasons for selecting John Knowles' A Separate Peace as one of their favorite books.
PBS
The Symbolism of Sunflower Seeds in Ghost
Ghost by Jason Reynolds is a coming-of-age book that resonates with teenagers who have experienced childhood trauma. Explore the novel with an interactive resource that focuses on the author's use of symbolism, particularly with...
PBS
Character Study: Scout Finch
Scout Finch, the rough-and-tumble protagonist of Harper Lee's iconic To Kill a Mockingbird, learns quite a bit about how the world works as she observes her father's defense of Tom Robinson. Learn more about Scout and her distinctive...
PBS
Chosen Family and The Outsiders
Can you choose your family after all? The greasers in S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders are as close as family, even though only Pony Boy and his brothers are related. A short video features commentary by hip-hop artist Danny Boy O'Connor...
PBS
S. E. Hinton, Danny Boy O'Connor, and The Outsiders
Could your 16-year-old students write a novel? S.E. Hinton did! An engaging video reviews the setting and themes of Hinton's breakout novel The Outsiders through the perspective of hip-hop artist Danny Boy O'Connor, as well as the author...
TED-Ed
Notes of a Native Son: The World According to James Baldwin
Why would the FBI have perceived James Baldwin as a threat to national security? Why did they consider this preacher, writer, thinker, expat, activist so dangerous while Robert Kennedy and other government officials considered him an...
Crash Course
Little Theater and American Avant Garde: Crash Course Theater #40
When it comes to quality theater, Americans were tardy to the party. A video on early American theater, number 40 on the Crash Course Drama and Theater playlist, shares information about plays during the early 20th century. ...
TED-Ed
Why Should You Read Flannery O’Connor?
There is more to literature of the American South than Civil War battles and Scarlett O'Hara. A short video introduces viewers to the works of Flannery O'Connor and her world of unique characters that causes readers to consider the dark...
Lit2Go
The Call of the Wild
When the wild calls, answer. Jack London's classic novel The Call of the Wild gets a digital upgrade with an e-text and audiobook version of the story. Each chapter of the online version is labeled with the Flesch-Kincaid level and...
Other
Wired for Books: Art Buchwald
Great interview audio of Art Buchwald and Don Swain. Among other things the two discuss politics, NYC and the media. Includes portrait photo.
Learn Out Loud
Learn Out Loud: Free American Classics
Over 150 audio texts from writers like Mark Twain, Jack London, Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and many others. The list includes many classics that are taught in middle school or high school.
Favorite Poem Project
The Favorite Poem Project: "I'm Nobody! Who Are You?" by Emily Dickinson
In this video episode [5:32] from Favorite Poem Project, Yina Liang, a 16 year-old girl, describes her life and explains why Emily Dickinson's poem entitled "I'm Nobody! Who Are You?" is an inspiration to her life. Liang reads aloud "I'm...
National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts: The Big Read: The Grapes for Wrath
Resource provides a description and a guide to John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, with historical information, author biography, discussion questions, and a ten-lesson unit of study including activities, homework assignments, project...