Sketching Stories, Stretching Minds captures the power of young people's visual responses to literature. Working in a community of learners, Phyllis Whitin encouraged her students to respond to their readings through sketched interpretations. Like pieces of writing, the sketches became a vital part of the curriculum as vehicles for discussion and reflective tools for understanding. Her book shows how she implemented the strategy - how she discovered, came to understand, and refined it to fit the needs of her seventh-grade classroom.