The Children's Literature Web Guide and Carol Hurst's site include lessons, and some publishers have teachers' notes for some of their books. Many of the featured books are in Australian school libraries, and you can adapt ideas for Australian alternatives for other lessons. There are excellent WWW-based activities and links for children here. I especially like The Inquirer's Guide which summarizes differences between 'space exploration fact' and 'space fiction'. Children can use this to discuss the extent of extrapolation or unfounded fantasy in 'science fiction' they have read or viewed.
Some resources now come with directions for accessing additional material online.
Using a novel as a 'launching pad' for finding out other things using theWorld Wide Web resources. First, choose your novels so that information from the WWW can contribute both to the students' depth of response to the books and to their view of the world. It goes without saying that you regard your selected novels as worthwhile on grounds of literary merit and appeal for your particular group of students. Students can use other sources of information as well as the Internet, and should be encouraged to do so. At some stage they should discuss the ease of retireval and the level of satisfaction with what they found from different sources.