Book Buddies, First Edition: Guidelines for Volunteer Tutors of Emergent and Early Readers

Volunteer tutors can make a tremendous difference in the reading skills and the lives of young children. This comprehensive tutorial manual has been developed from the Book Buddies program of Charlottesville, Virginia, the first large-scale model to mobilize hundreds of community volunteers in an alternative one-on-one intervention for children at risk for reading failure. A complete how-to resource for both trainers and tutors in one accessible volume, the book provides guidelines for setting up a successful tutorial program in the early grades and presents a field-tested lesson format for individualized instruction in reading, writing, and phonics. The authors clearly describe how to conduct a wealth of enjoyable reading activities and exercises with students, illustrating each chapter with real-life examples and lively line drawings. Appendices feature reproducible assessment and lesson planning forms, alphabet cards and charts, recommendations and sources for children's books and other materials, and a helpful glossary.

Francine Johnston, EdD, is Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she teaches courses in reading, language arts, and children's literature. Tutoring is a key part of her curriculum, as she believes that there is no better way to help preservice teachers learn how to teach beginning readers.

Marcia Invernizzi, PhD, is Associate Professor of Reading Education at the Curry School of Education, University of Virginia, where she also serves as Clinical Director of the McGuffey Reading Center. With Connie Juel, she cofounded the Book Buddies community volunteer tutorial program, which has served over 700 children since 1992. Dr. Invernizzi's research on the effectiveness of Book Buddies has been published in The Reading Teacher and Scientific Studies of Reading.

Connie Juel, PhD, is the Thomas G. Jewell Professor of Education at the Curry School of Education, University of Virginia, where she also serves as the Director of Studies in Learning to Read. She is codirector of the Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement and a former Associate Editor of Reading Research Quarterly. Cofounder with Marcia Invernizzi of the Book Buddies tutorial program, Dr. Juel has published numerous research articles, chapters, and books on literacy acquisition.