Life Had Other Plans
May 19, 2021
5 Comments
So, I was going to write yet another pithy little piece on productivity, but life had other plans.
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Trailblazing Illustrator, Elizabeth Shippen Green
November 16, 2016
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Younger readers may not fully appreciate how difficult it was for women to break into the highly competitive field of illustration. For many years, men were routinely hired for advertising art, newspaper and magazine illustration, and children’s book illustration.
Elizabeth Shippen Green, born in 1871 and dying in 1954, was one of the earliest female illustrators to win high regard, helping to open the door a little wider for the women who followed her,
Her father was an artist-correspondent during the Civil War.… more
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A Story for the Ages
September 26, 2016
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For the past two years my husband and I have had the good fortune to spend the waning days of summer in Door County, Wisconsin. There we have discovered a vibrant arts community. A bounty of theatre, music, and fine arts is there for the picking.
This year, as I scanned the possibilities for our visit, I was particularly interested in the Peninsula Players’ Midwest première of a new play by Kenneth Jones called Alabama Story.… more
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Dear Poet: Notes to a Young Writer
May 18, 2016
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This month Charles Ghigna, well-known as the poet Father Goose, offers “Dear Poet: Notes to a Young Writer.” There is much to ponder here, no matter what your age might be, but young writers especially will find these words of encouragement to be useful and inspirational. For example:
Trust
your instincts
to write. Question
your reasons
not to.… more
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your instincts
to write. Question
your reasons
not to.… more
Theater: “The Story of Crow Boy”
February 20, 2016
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Take heed and take heart, those of you who are makers of books for the young. Your stories matter, these works of first Art you create for children through text and through pictures. Write and draw truth and joy and friendship and power and overcoming and the exquisite natural world and human experience.
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In Memoriam
December 30, 2015
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2015 saw the passing of several authors and illustrators of English-language children’s books. We share this in their honor and to say “thank-you” once again.… more
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USBBY Reflections
October 28, 2015
3 Comments
by Nancy Bo Flood
Books can help readers heal. Stories can create compassion. Every one needs to find “their story” in books.
The United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) is part of The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), a world-wide organization that works to build bridges of understanding through children’s and young adult books.… more
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Slideshow: Block Print Illustration
October 6, 2015
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Eric Rohmann’s wonderful illustrations for Bulldozer’s Big Day were made using block prints, also called relief prints. This technique has long been used to illustrate children’s books, especially early ABC books such as the The Ladder to Learning by Miss Lovechild, published in 1852 by the New York firm R.H. Pease.
The Bookologist has put together a slide show of some of our more recent print-illustrated books.… more
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More from the 1950s: Polio
August 20, 2015
1 Comment
Another threat besides communism terrified people in the 1950s, especially because it primarily affected children: polio. 1952 saw the largest epidemic in US history: 57,879 people contracted polio that summer, and more than 3000 of died. By the end of the decade the disease was nearly eradicated in the US thanks to two forms of vaccines developed by Drs.
… more 
Teaching K‑2 Science with Confidence
June 11, 2015
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Perfect Pairs: Using Fiction and Nonfiction Books to Teach Life Science, K‑2
Melissa Stewart and Nancy Chesley
Stenhouse Books, 2014 Authentic science always begins with a question, with a fleeting thought, with a curious person. That curious person has an idea, wonders if it is valid, and then tries to find out. Because wondering is at the heart of discovery, each Perfect Pairs lesson starts with a Wonder Statement that we’ve carefully crafted to address one Next Generation Science Standards Performance Expectation.… more
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Melissa Stewart and Nancy Chesley
Stenhouse Books, 2014 Authentic science always begins with a question, with a fleeting thought, with a curious person. That curious person has an idea, wonders if it is valid, and then tries to find out. Because wondering is at the heart of discovery, each Perfect Pairs lesson starts with a Wonder Statement that we’ve carefully crafted to address one Next Generation Science Standards Performance Expectation.… more