About TeachingBooks

Our mission is to equitably give all readers insights and opportunities that deepen their understanding and joy of the books they are reading.

Enjoy learning about us below, and contact us anytime if we can be of assistance.

Empower every reader to...

  • Connect deeply with a book
  • Gain new insights and understanding from the author
  • Thoroughly experience the joy of reading.

From our exclusive, ever-growing, vetted collection of instructional materials about children's and young adult books and authors, everyone can easily...

  • Identify exceptional books that reflect diverse cultural experiences, interests, and ability levels
  • Obtain resources paired with your book titles that further reading enjoyment, contextual knowledge, and educational relevance
  • Share resources with everyone in your community via easy-to-use flyers, emails, texts, embeddable links, and social media

TeachingBooks offers every reader the power to enrich their relationship to the books they are reading.

TeachingBooks is for anyone who reads, teaches, or enjoys books for children and teens. This service is primarily used in the PreK–12, public library, and academic settings.

To best support the varying needs of our audience, we have created...

  • TeachingBooks for Schools: designed to serve everyone in your PreK–12 school community—teachers, library staff, students, and families.
  • TeachingBooks for Libraries: designed to meet the needs of public library staff and patrons.

Both utilize the same program, infrastructure, and content, and are supported by the same team of people.

We are a small, dedicated team working to enrich every reader's experience with books. Get to know us and learn some of our favorite PreK–12 books!

TeachingBooks was founded upon the premise that educators find enjoyment and professional value in seeing and hearing authors talk about their work. Nick Glass, the Founder of TeachingBooks, had hosted many author presentations in his previous work—bringing authors to bookstores, schools, libraries, and conferences—and even arranged live author programs for educators over a distance-learning video network during the 1990s. Each author interaction with educators inspired new insights for teaching and sharing books with children—and Nick wanted to give this opportunity to everyone.

In November 2000, the genesis for TeachingBooks took form. It debuted at the American Library Association convention in San Francisco in June 2001, and was launched on the Internet September 1, 2001. TeachingBooks began selling licenses in November 2003.

TeachingBooks is thankful and fortunate to be inspired by many. Occasionally, a few of these wonderful people pass on, but their love, energy, and guidance remain. With perpetual thanks, we honor:

  • Aarick Beher, TeachingBooks
  • Dr. Ernie Bond, Salisbury University
  • Dorsey Chambers-Malewig, Chicago Public Schools
  • Dr. Yvonne Chandler, University of North Texas
  • Loni Donlan, MLS, Library of Congress
  • Dr. Eliza Dresang, University of Washington
  • eva effron, MLS, Nassau County BOCES School Library System
  • Dr. Richard Glass, founder's father
  • Susan Glass, founder's mother
  • Dr. Bill Hammond, DeKalb County Public Schools
  • Sharon Hancock, Candlewick Press
  • Anne Irish, Pooh Corner Bookstore
  • Walter Dean Myers, Jersey City, New Jersey
  • Al Rosen, founder's mentor, San Francisco Giants
  • Dr. Henrietta Smith, University of South Florida
  • Dr. William Teale, University of Illinois at Chicago
  • Rose Treviño, MLS, Houston Public Library

I started TeachingBooks in November, 2000 with a simple goal in mind: to let every reader — no matter who they are or where they live — have the opportunity to learn directly from the author of the book they are reading, at that very moment of impact.

I decided to use the World Wide Web as the foundational equalizing tool, and started inviting myself into homes of amazing authors and illustrators to film them so that everyone could have Christopher Paul Curtis, Jack Gantos, Denise Fleming, and others in their classrooms, anytime.

As we continue to record authors and add more digital resources almost every day to the TeachingBooks collection, we do so to perpetuate joyful, thoughtful reading for all. And simultaneously, we strive to remove every possible barrier of access so that everyone can feel connected and inspired with reading.

I'm proud to say it's now grown into a literacy service used daily to instill a love of reading by students, educators, and families in over 33,000 schools, thousands of public library branches, and hundreds of teacher education institutions.

Thanks for your exploration of this service. Please enjoy, and reach out to me anytime.


nick@TeachingBooks.net
216-573-6886 (Press 2)