Reading Ahead - Page 2 - Bookology Magazine

If Da Vinci Painted a Dinosaur

November 20, 2018 No Comments

At once ridiculous and sublime, If da Vinci Painted a Dinosaur is magnetic. Which dinosaur will be featured in whose painting? Quick, turn the page! Amy Newbold, author, and Greg Newbold, illustrator, follow up If Picasso Painted a Snowman with this volume combining a herd of historic and imaginary dinosaurs included in 19 famous artists’ familiar paintings: Degas’ ballerinas as dinosaurs en pointe in pink tutus, the immense claw of a Gigantosaurus for Edvard Munch’s Scream, and seven types of dinosaurs playing jazz in an Aaron Douglas painting (so appealing).… more

Storm

November 13, 2018 No Comments

That irresistible urge to jump into a cushioned pile of waist-high leaves, sinking into the vivid colors, the smell of earth and sky, the sounds of nature embracing you? Don’t miss Storm by Sam Usher (Templar Books). The glowing reds and golds of fall jump off the cover, inviting you to open the book and settle in for an autumn story.… more

History’s Mysteries

October 30, 2018 1 Comment

You pick up the brightly colored book lying on the table and open it near the middle. What’s this book about? In 1848, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror set out to find the link between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean by sailing into the Arctic waters. The ships and the crews disappeared in the Arctic.… more

A World of Cities

October 17, 2018 No Comments

A World of Cities
text by Lily Murray
illustrated by James Brown
Candlewick Studio, 2018
ISBN 978−0−7636−9879−9
Those kids in your life, your schoolroom, your library who are Fact Hunters? They collect facts to savor, share with others, and build their knowledge of the world around them. This is a book for them. Not every child can travel to the major cities of the world, but this book will leave an impression, a yearning for exploration.… more

Explorer Academy: The Nebula Secret

September 18, 2018 No Comments

Explorer Academy: The Nebula Secret
Trudi Truett
illustrated by Scott Plumbe (with a blend of photos)
National Geographic Partners, 2018
ISBN 978−1−4263−3159−6 Done with the Harry Potter series, maybe not quite ready for the Alex Rider series, what do you suggest? Explorer Academy. Emphatically. The book opens in Hawaii, where Cruz Coronado (not quite 13) is getting packed and saying goodbye before he heads to Washington, D.C.,… more

imagine

September 12, 2018 1 Comment

There are times when I open a new book that my pulse quickens and times when I need to be convinced. Sometimes I can sense myself sliding comfortably into the surroundings of a picture book, feeling welcomed, understanding everything about the book because it is so well crafted. That’s this book. First off, this is an autobiography … so as a mentor text it is ideal. … more

Anna and Johanna

July 18, 2018 No Comments

Anna and Johanna: a Children’s Book Inspired by Vermeer
Geraldine Elschner
illustrated by Florence Koenig
Prestel Publishing, 2018
published in French in 2016
ISBN 978−3−7913−7345−4 Delft. Delft blue. The book begins
with blue and yellow. 1666. Two friends born on the same day.
This day, their birthday.
They are each making gifts for the other.
Lace and chocolate.
One the daughter of the house,
the other the daughter of the maid.… more

Summer Reading

May 15, 2018 No Comments

When I say “summer reading,” you think about … a good novel, right? I have a couple of suggestions. Every kid should have these two books tucked in their beach bags, ready for a car trip, or packed for summer camp. Seriously. In between the reading out loud of those novels you’ve been saving up all year, or the listening to an audio book on the car radio, or the flashlight reading in the pitched tent in your backyard, I hope you will share these books.… more

What’s So Special about Shakespeare?

April 17, 2018 No Comments

We celebrate William Shakespeare’s birthday on April 23rd (or thereabouts). Consider reading excerpts of this book to your classes. In What’s So Special about Shakespeare?, the author, Michael Rosen, walks into a house with us, peeking into rooms where Shakespeare’s plays are being enacted. Such variety! It’s an inspired way to place young readers among the people of Shakespeare’s time.… more

The Enchanting Boggarts

April 4, 2018 1 Comment

Whenever anyone asks the title of my favorite book, it’s a toss-up between two: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle and The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. A Wrinkle in Time because it opened the whole wide universe to my young mind and The Dark is Rising because I understood for the first time what a perfect story could be.… more

With My Hands

February 21, 2018 1 Comment

Sometimes, a book comes across my desk that sparkles like a gem, attracting my attention, insisting that I stop what I’m doing and read it. This happened when With My Hands: Poems about Making Things arrived last week. I thought I’d take a peek. Next thing you know, I was closing the last page of the book, sighing with contentment. And then I knew I had to read the book all over again.… more

The Magic Misfits

February 6, 2018 No Comments

I’m one of those people that often reads a celebrity-written book because I’d like to find one that defies the odds. How about you? Did you get over the wondering at a certain point? Or do you still give a new star-powered book a try? Sadly, I don’t often find a celebrity book I can recommend. This time, though, I’m practically shouting: Read this book!… more

The Secret Kingdom

February 1, 2018 8 Comments

This book is irresistible. For all kinds of reasons. Remember when you were a kid, or maybe you do this now, how you’d take whatever was at hand and create a house, a camp, an entire setting for you to play in? Where you could act out your stories? Did you do this with found items from nature? Or things your family was throwing away?… more

Mighty Jack

November 21, 2017 No Comments

We are thrust into the midst of the action, which never stops until the epilogue. This is how Ben Hatke tells a story. We don’t know what’s going on. There’s no setup. Instead, we quickly learn that Jack is climbing some vegetative matter to find the ogre who kidnapped his sister Maddy and take her home. His friend, Lilly, no sidekick, is climbing alongside him.… more

For The Beast in Us All

September 29, 2017 No Comments

The theme of being yourself is familiar. Many books, movies, and plays are devoted to this idea. When it’s done well, we all sit up a little straighter, laugh more confidently, and dream about all the things we’d like to do to be true to who we are. Children need to hear this message often so another book, one that tells the story in a different way, is welcome.… more

No Pigs in Space?

September 12, 2017 No Comments

Some of my readers know that the very first story I wrote (in second grade) was Pigs in Space. I still have it. I still wonder whatever prompted me to write it. This was before the Muppets launched their pigs into space. And it was definitely before Kim T. Griswell and Valeri Gorbachev launched their pig into space in Rufus Blasts Off!… more

Proof

August 29, 2017 No Comments

If you ever doubt that kids are affected by books, read any one of these letters. They will touch your heart deeply. You’ll remember each two- or three-page missive and the ardent connection to the book. If you haven’t already done so, you’ll more than likely be moved to read (or re-read!) the book that prompted the child to write a letter to the book’s author.… more

August Shorts

August 1, 2017 No Comments

Picture books you’ll want to add to your repertoire! Touch the Brightest Star
written and illustrated by Christie Matheson
Greenwillow Books, 2017. A night-time book, settling down for bed, quietly looking at the pages, hearing the story. An interactive book? Yes, because the author/illustrator wisely invites the reader and listener to touch the pages, to help the magic of the evening unfold.… more

Me, All Alone, Reading This Book

July 7, 2017 3 Comments

Sometimes, the illustrations are wonderful but the language is captivating. You know how you read a picture book and you can’t decide which part to focus on? Should you look at the picture first? Should you read the story because it’s the thread that’s pulling you through? Well, when you read “He was a long-leggedy man with a wide, wide hat and a beard in a circle around his head.… more

The Best Wish of All

June 22, 2017 1 Comment

Once in awhile I find a book on my reading pile that I’ve passed by a few times. It might be that the cover doesn’t make sense to me and I shuffle through to choose another title. Or the title might be silly (in my mind) and I don’t open the book because something else catches my interest. And then one day I open that book and I discover that I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.… more

Summer Travel

May 30, 2017 No Comments

Here are three words that may be looming large in your mind: Long. Car. Trip. You’re packing games, snacks, an audio book or two, several books to take turns reading out loud, and … The Kids’ Book of Questions. I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid and we went on long car trips (nearly every weekend), I read a lot (which must have been boring for my mom), but the two of us also sang songs, talked over the week we had just explored, and, if we were heading to family, expectations for behavior.… more

Superheroes and Bad Days

May 11, 2017 1 Comment

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been wishing for an honest-to-goodness superhero to save the day. If adults are feeling that way, kids, who pick up all of our emotions, are wishing for the same thing. Batman and Wonder Woman led the list of most popular Halloween costumes in 2016. The proliferation of superhero movies is hard to ignore.… more

Judge Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix

Chef Roy Choi’s Story

April 18, 2017 No Comments

Every time I re-read this book, it makes me happier. I’ve grown quite fond of the books being published by Readers to Eaters and I eagerly anticipate each new book. Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix is another food artisan biography from Jacqueline Briggs Martin, this time co-written with June Jo Lee. Jackie writes the flavorful essence of the artist in an irresistible recipe of words.… more

March Shorts

March 31, 2017 2 Comments

Oooo! Here in Minnesota, shorts in March mean chills. These books will give you chills – in a good way! Cat Goes Fiddle-I-Fee
Adapted and illustrated by Paul Galdone
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1985
(reissued in April 2017) I recognized the title immediately as I song I know well, sung as “I Had a Rooster” by Pete Seeger on Birds, Beasts, Bugs & Little Fishes in 1968.… more

I’ve Been Enchanted

March 14, 2017 6 Comments

This is a rare admission from me because it’s about a book whose main characters are animals. I’ve stated before in this column that animal books have never been a favorite of mine, even as a child. Surely there are others of you out there who are too shy to admit the same thing? In my determination to read older children’s books that I haven’t read before, I’ve just finished a book that has shown me I can adore books about animals: The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill, a Jenny’s Cat Club book.… more

Those Kennedys

February 17, 2017 No Comments

America has a fine tradition of elected officials who care deeply about the people, places, and policies of the United States of America. Two recent books highlight the good works of, and respect for, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis and John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the First Lady and President from 1961 to 1963. Although President Kennedy was assassinated just two short years into his term as President, the First Lady continued her work for the benefit of the people throughout her life.… more

Graphic Storytelling

February 3, 2017 No Comments

A good graphic novel should pose a mystery. As it opens (last possible minute), the reader often has no clue what’s going on. It’s often an unknown world, even if it looks like our world. This isn’t that different than the opening of a conventional print book but, for some reason, people often react to graphic novels by telling me, “I can’t read them!… more

The Delight of Reading Older Books

January 18, 2017 3 Comments

One of my favorite types of reading is to go back and read books I’ve missed from years ago. I once spent an entire summer reading books that were published in the 1950s. I had such a strong feeling of the decade after reading those books that I felt more connected to people who lived then. That feeling of connection is very satisfying to me.… more

Irresistible Reading: How Things Work

December 6, 2016 No Comments

Now, if that Science Encyclopedia wasn’t cool enough, here’s another sure-fire hit for kids who love to read facts, true stories, and know how things work. In fact, the book is called How Things Work and it’s another powerhouse from National Geographic. As the book admonishes, “PUT THIS BOOK DOWN NOW. It’s dangerous. It might make you think you can do impossible things.”… more

Feeding the Naturally Curious Brain

November 29, 2016 No Comments

“You’ll discover mouthless worms and walking ferns … ” (pg. 13) And with those words, I’m charged up for the hunt. Along the way, I can’t help being distracted by a satisfying amount of irresistible information in National Geographic’s Science Encyclopedia. If you learn best visually, there is a surfeit of images to stimulate a curious mind. If you learn best verbally, then this book is chock full of words arranged in the most interesting ways.… more

Essential Holiday Giving: Books

November 29, 2016 14 Comments

Hands down, there is no better gift for holidays or birthdays than a book. You can find a book to suit every interest, every taste, and your budget. You can always feel good about giving a book (unless you’re giving a gift to someone who lives in a Tiny House … ask first). Here’s my list of suggestions for the holidays. It’s filled with books that are informative, beautifully illustrated or photographed, useful, well-written, but mostly books that can be savored or cherished, with uplifting stories.… more

Orbiting Kindergarten

November 22, 2016 No Comments

That lively, quirky-thinking duo from Planet Kindergarten have teamed up once again for Planet Kindergarten: 100 Days in Orbit. Many schools use the 100-day marker to reflect on how far they’ve come since the first day of kindergarten. Social graces, etiquette, mindfulness, assignments, singing, pledges … they’re all included in this new book. But the extra-fun twist is that our hero recounts the entire story as a trip into space aboard a starship filled with aliens and a thoughtful commander. … more

Tucked In for the Winter

November 8, 2016 2 Comments

Every detail in this book is heartwarming. You know that the author and the illustrator and the book’s publishing team put a lot of love and respect into bringing this story to readers. From the moment you see the opening end papers, a forest and pasture ablaze with fall color, until you discover the closing end papers, that same forest with the snowy skeletons of those trees, you sense the care within.… more

Women Can Be Magicians, Too!

October 25, 2016 2 Comments

In a sumptuous picture book biography, author Mara Rockliff and illustrator Iacopo Bruno give us the life of Adelaide Scarcez Herrmann, a real person who lived from 1853 to 1932. During her 79 years, she was an actress, a dancer, a vaudevillian, and she was shot out of a cannon. As the title says, she was Anything but Ordinary Addie.… more

Everything You Need to Ace Science in One Big Fat Notebook

Everything You Need to Ace Five Subjects

October 11, 2016 No Comments

I’ve had this TBR pile of five very attractive, come-hither-looking books begging to be recommended for weeks now. The spines are bright primary colors so I know that even when I shelve them they will be calling to me. And I think they’ll be calling to your students as well. I open what are for me the two scariest volumes (eat your vegetables first — oops, as an adult, I find I LOVE vegetables), Everything You Need to Know to Ace Science in One Fat Notebook: Notes Borrowed from the Smartest Kid in Class (Double-Checked by Award-Winning Teacher) and Everything You Need to Ace Math in One Big Fat Notebook: Notes Borrowed from the Smartest Kid in Class (Double-Checked by Award-Winning Teacher).… more

Those Alluring Comics Storytellers

September 29, 2016 2 Comments

When I began working as, and thinking of myself as, a graphic designer, I assumed that all of my ideas would have to spring out of my mind … and that was terrifying. (Think of the oft-asked question, “Where do your ideas come from?”) I didn’t think I was creative enough or widely traveled enough or even educated enough as a graphic designer to come up with ideas that would translate into smart, pleasing designs on paper or a computer screen.… more

Bring Me Some Apples and I'll Make You a Pie

Apples, Well-Being, and Family

September 13, 2016 2 Comments

Bring Me Some Apples and I’ll Make You a Pie: A Story about Edna Lewis is a memorable book about growing food throughout the seasons and living off the land in Virginia. Wild strawberry, purslane, dandelions, sassafras, honey. As spring rides the breeze into summer, this extended family tends to their larder, taking full advantage of the fruits, nuts, and vegetables growing around them.… more

Welcome to Roy’s House

August 30, 2016 No Comments

What better way to familiarize one’s self with the work of pop culture artist Roy Lichtenstein than to walk through his house from living room to snack bar, from bathroom to bedroom, and finally into his studio, where we can try our hand at painting? Susan Goldman Rubin and her team at Chronicle have created a book illustrated by Roy Lichtenstein’s paintings, Roy’s House, which lets us see up close his style of art, the colors he used, and the technique of shading color in dots.… more

August Shorts

August 17, 2016 No Comments

Warning: There’s a lot of enthusiasm ahead for these books! Where Do Pants Go?
Written by Rebecca Van Slyke, illustrated by Chris Robertson
Sterling Children’s Books, 2016 Well, this is just adorable … and I can already hear households throughout the English-speaking world chanting: “Where do pants go? On your arms? No. On your neck? No. No, no, no. Pants go on your legs, that’s where pants go.”… more

Books Like This Are Convincing

August 5, 2016 No Comments

I’m more comfortable with magic than I am with science. Married to a science guy, I work harder to be interested in science. It gives us something to talk about. When I find narrative nonfiction that tells a compelling story, I’m thankful … and intrigued. I’m particularly happy to find books that feature lesser-known aspects of science, thereby taunting my curiosity.… more

Dear Peacemakers

July 19, 2016 No Comments

In recent weeks, we’ve had many requests for books about anger and fear and conflict resolution. I was immediately reminded of an excellent resource published in 2010 called Book by Book: an Annotated Guide to Young People’s Literature with Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution Themes (Carol Spiegel, published by Educators for Social Responsibility, now called Engaging Schools).… more

Reading Memories

July 5, 2016 6 Comments

Memories of my childhood are imperfect. Yours, too? I don’t remember having a lot of books as a child. I remember The Poky Little Puppy and another dog book (title unknown) and Three Little Kittens (perhaps a reminder to me to keep track of my mittens). I remember using the school library voraciously to read books. I had no access to the public library (too far away) so that school library was my lifeline.… more

Visiting Brigadoon

June 21, 2016 10 Comments

Steve and I returned earlier this week from Montpelier, Vermont, where we spoke at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, specifically to the alumni of their Writing for Children and Young Adults MFA program. We were there to talk about “Marketing as Storytelling,” with the goal of making these typically introverted writers feel more comfortable about touting their books.… more

Going to Camp

May 24, 2016 2 Comments

As summer begins, it’s possible there is no more ubiquitous experience for American children than summer camp. Whether it’s a day camp or a sleepaway camp, an art or music camp, a Girl Scout or church camp, there are some things that most camps have in common: the outdoors, getting along with other kids and counselors, and new experiences.… more

Adventures in Cartooning: Characters in Action

Summer Adventures

May 10, 2016 No Comments

The other day, a public librarian asked on social media for graphic novel recommendations for readers aged 6 to 12. I immediately recommended the Adventures in Cartooning series by James Sturm, Andrew Arnold, and Alexis Frederick-Frost. The first book was Adventures in Cartooning: How to Turn Your Doodles into Comics, introducing us to The Knight, Edward the chubby horse, and the Magic Cartooning Elf.… more

Light vs Dark

April 6, 2016 No Comments

Do you have a book that you re-read periodically? At least every few years? Sometimes more often? For me, it’s The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. I have read thousands of books in my lifetime, but this book stands out as the one that captured my full heart, mind, and imagination. When I think of it, a hush falls over me.… more

The Jungle Book

March 22, 2016 No Comments

The word exquisite once won the game for me while playing Password. I have been fond of that word since that time and look for instances where it applies. That is surely the illustrated edition of The Jungle Book, written by Rudyard Kipling all of those years ago, and newly illustrated by Nicola Bayley. Candlewick published this edition of the classic stories and their classics are worth collecting, reading, and treasuring.… more

Fashion Studio

March 8, 2016 No Comments

Oh. my goodness. When I opened up this box, I was immediately transported to my grandparents’ back yard, on the blue blanket under the elm tree, when a gaggle of friends brought their Barbies and Kens together and we sewed clothes out of fabric scraps and held fashion shows. Those days are some of my best memories of childhood.… more

Perspective

February 23, 2016 No Comments

At Bookology, we believe the adage about “the right book for the right reader.” Those are not necessarily the books that we see in advertisements, in the bloggers’ buzz, or on award lists. Only by listening to each other, and especially to kids, talk about books do we find those gems our hearts were looking for but didn’t know existed.… more

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