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Read.gov Launches Today With Numerous Features
First publicly announced in this Library of Congress news release from September, Read.gov officially launches today.
The site comes by way of The Center for the Book at LC.
[You'll find] "resources from throughout the Library designed to encourage the reading of books and to interest users in learning about the authors and illustrators who create them."
What follows are some Read.gov features that we noticed while reviewing the site and reading this blog post.
+ Read Classic Books (in their Entirety) Online
Move through a book page-by-page (forward or backwards) by simply clicking on the page you're currently reading or looking at. The LC Book Reader also allows you to see facing pages, the option to go directly to a specific page, zoom (in and out), and the ability to view the book in "scroll" mode. At the moment books are available in two categories: Teens and Kids.
Some of the titles available today are: The Raven, A Christmas Carol, A Wonder-Book for Girls & Boys (Teens) and The Baby's Own Aesop, Baseball ABC, Denslow's Humpty Dumpty, Mother Goose Finger Plays, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, The Story of the Three Little Pigs, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and The Wonders of a Toy Shop (Kids).
+ Episodic Reading: The Exquisite Corps Adventure
Our "Exquisite Corpse Adventure" works this way: Jon Scieszka, the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, has written the first episode, which is "pieced together out of so many parts that it is not possible to describe them all here, so go ahead and just start reading!" He has passed it on to a cast of celebrated writers and illustrators, who must eventually bring the story to an end.
Every two weeks there will be a new episode [a total of 26] and a new illustration. The story will conclude a year from now…"This story starts with a train rushing through the night…." No one knows where or how it will end!
+ Author Webcasts
More than 20 webcasts are currently available including presentations by: Steven King (and Family), R.L. Stine, David Baldacci, Jan Brett, Jane Goodall, Kay Ryan, Neil Gaiman, and Sara Paretsky.
+ The Storybook Adventure Game
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