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Each morn­ing, when I can, I walk two and a half miles.  I walk for exer­cise because I write most of the day.  But main­ly I walk to lis­ten for stories. 

Books have been a part of Vaun­da Micheaux Nelson’s life since the day she was born. “My moth­er found my name in a nov­el she was read­ing,” Nel­son says. Books and fam­i­ly and his­to­ry form a thread through many of Nelson’s award-win­ning pic­ture books.

In pic­ture books, the illus­tra­tions often car­ry half, or more than half, of the nar­ra­tive. Increased under­stand­ing of illus­tra­tion tech­niques can enhance your appre­ci­a­tion and plea­sure when read­ing and shar­ing pic­ture books.

One of my favorite non­fic­tion pic­ture books so far this year is Odd Bods: the World’s Unusu­al Ani­mals by Julie Mur­phy. Here’s a brief descrip­tion: Long snouts, bright-red lips, pointy heads … the ani­mal king­dom is full of crit­ters with unique fea­tures. Learn about the incred­i­ble adap­ta­tions that help these ani­mals – and their odd […]

When we pub­lished our first issue of Bookol­o­gy back in April of 2015, Karen Cush­man was our first fea­tured author. With the pub­li­ca­tion of her 10th book, War and Mil­lie McGo­nigle, we knew it was time to check in, curi­ous about the way Karen orga­nizes and writes her novels.

In this lat­est post, con­trib­u­tor Con­stance Van Hov­en shares the ways that books helped her recon­nect with her Read­ing Team now that they are able to be togeth­er in per­son once again.

So, I was going to write yet anoth­er pithy lit­tle piece on pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, but life had oth­er plans.

We Are the Future: Poems with a Voice for Peace is impos­si­ble to read with­out being deeply moved by the open hearts and minds of refugee and immi­grant youth in the Seat­tle area, guid­ed by poets and teach­ers Mer­na Hecht and Car­rie Stradley.

I’ve been read­ing gar­den­ing books these last few weeks. They’ve kept me enter­tained and inspired while the tem­per­a­tures warm in my own gar­den so that I can begin plant­i­ng the flats of flow­ers I have under lights in my laun­dry room.

Why do I love this expos­i­to­ry lit­er­a­ture book so much? Because it clev­er­ly com­bines envi­ron­men­tal sci­ence and engi­neer­ing in a way that’s bound to engage a broad audi­ence of young readers.

It can be easy to dis­miss the wor­ries of a child, but to that child, they may feel con­sum­ing. When we do not name and talk about our anx­i­eties, or when we do share them and they are dis­count­ed, shame around them can grow.

We wel­come Robert Topp, own­er of The Her­mitage Book­shop in Den­ver, Col­orado, and read­er-aloud extra­or­di­naire, vol­un­teer­ing in the pub­lic schools for more than 28 years.

Day­light sav­ings time makes me grum­ble at hav­ing to get up ear­li­er. But, it also means that spring is com­ing. I start think­ing about what seeds I will plant for my gar­den, and which books I will read to my stu­dents, to give them hope when they still see snow on the ground. To encourage […]

Patience and per­se­ver­ance are among the hard­est things for chil­dren to learn. How can we make press­ing on in the face of dis­cour­age­ment inter­est­ing to kids? By read­ing them amaz­ing sto­ries of cre­ativ­i­ty and resilience! Pic­ture book biogra­phies show the sat­is­fy­ing results of per­se­ver­ing over a life­time. All ages will be inspired by the true […]

As a child, I was shy and scared — of oth­er kids, dogs, almost any­thing out­side my fence. My par­ents enrolled me in preschool, hop­ing I’d blos­som. I refused to get out of the car. I had every­thing I need­ed at home, includ­ing a mom who loved read­ing to me. My first book mem­o­ry is Three Bedtime […]

I’ve known Mike Wohnout­ka for many years, from his first SCBWI meet­ing when he intro­duced him­self and showed sam­ples from his port­fo­lio. His adorable char­ac­ter in Cow­boy Sam and Those Con­found­ed Secrets (Kit­ty Grif­fin, Kathy Combs), an ear­ly book, cap­tured my atten­tion. Here was an illus­tra­tor who infused humor into the visu­al sto­ry. Han­nukah Bear […]