ONLINE STORIES

What can sharpen your mind like a good puzzle, tickle your funny bone like a silly joke, and let you explore places around the world without moving an inch? Stories are important sources of learning and fun and the Internet offers an astounding selection. Explore the assortment of stories available to you online through these direct links on The Times’ Launch Point Web site: https://www.latimes.com/launchpoint/.

Here are the best sites for getting your schoolwork done or for just having fun.

Level 1

Internet Public Library Youth Reading Zone: Marvel at the amazing adventures of June the Prune, Herman the Hippo and others through this extensive collection of online picture books, poetry, fables, magazines, comics and other material. Learn about your favorite authors and read stories written by story-loving kids.

https://www.ipl.org/cgi-bin/youth/youth.out.pl?sub=rzn0000

International Kids Space Storybook 2000: What happens to a boy with a magic pencil whose pictures come to life? And why is it that the kiwi birds in New Zealand cannot fly? Find out through this selection of folktales and original stories submitted from children all over the world.

https://www.kids-space.org/story/story.html

Yahoo: Children’s Web Published Fiction: Keep reading all summer long with this assortment of online illustrated (and sometimes animated or interactive) stories with such titles as “Racoons from Mars,” “Doomore the Flying Dinosaur” and “Sophie’s Monster Symphony.”

https://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/Literature/ Genres/Children_s/Web_Published_Fiction/

Level 2

The Young Writers Club: Read stories and poems written by children. Kids can submit their work to be published online. Check out the book reviews for suggestions of new books to read.

https://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~david/derya/ywc.html

Classics at the Online Literature Library: Seen the movie? Now read the book. Find out what was left out of the movie versions of such great stories as “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Three Musketeers,” and “Frankenstein” by exploring a range of online classics that include such famous characters as Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, Jane Eyre and Alice in Wonderland.

https://www.literature.org/authors/

The Moonlit Road: Read (or listen) to three new ghost stories and folktales from the American South each month. Learn about the historical context and background information for each story. https://www.themoonlitroad.com

Level 3

Classic Short Stories: Choose from a selection of more than 80 short literary masterpieces, ranging from the spooky works of Edgar Allen Poe or Shirley Jackson, to the poignant tales of O. Henry or Guy de Maupassant to the hilarious works of Mark Twain.

https://www.bnl.com/shorts/

IPL New Media Fiction Collection: Explore stories that take advantage of the multimedia possibilities of the Internet and that range from an animated encounter with Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman to detective stories and science-fiction tales with great special effects.

https://www.ipl.org/reading/nmf/

Teen Ink: A Magazine Written for and by Teens: “Score tied, 11 seconds left, fourth and goal at the one-foot line.” Enjoy fiction written by students as well as a range of articles, book reviews, interviews, essays and even firsthand accounts of the college experience at different campuses.

https://www.teenpaper.org/

Launch Point is produced by the UC Irvine department of education, which reviews each site for appropriateness and quality. Even so, parents should supervise their children’s use of the Internet. This column was designed by Jennifer Mendoza, Kelly Sunderman, Heather Temple and Anna Manring.

EXPLORER’S QUEST

The answer to this Internet quiz can be found in the sites at right.

What kind of bird was the Bird Without a Song?

CLUE: See Yahoo: Children’s Web Published Fiction

Find What You Need to Know: Have a project on California history? Need help doing a math problem? Launch Point now covers more than 100 topics for getting your schoolwork done. Go to https://www.latimes.com/launchpoint/ for the full list of subjects and direct links to the best Internet sites.

Answer to last week’s Quest: An adverb can answer the questions: How? Where? When? Condition? Reason?