Picture Book Salute to Blue
Quirky Book Lists
Blue is beloved for the awesome beauty of its various shades on display in the natural world, and for the feelings of calmness, security, loyalty, and friendliness, it evokes. So, without further ado: a collection of ten lovely and compelling books, plus one, that celebrate blue.
Becoming a Purple Person
The Lamppost
I am excited to start year two of Bookology! I contemplated doing themes around COVID-19 and then I thought why not write about the importance of being a purple person? Some of you might be asking yourself the following questions: Does this relate to science? Do you become purple by eating eggplants or beets? Do [...]
The Next President
Reading Ahead
Who the next U.S.A. president will be is pre-occupying many minds around the world right now. This book takes a stance by telling us about the distinctive presidents of the past, a couple of sentences about every one of them, #1 through #45, and asks us to realize that the next ten presidents are probably [...]
Dead Ends on the Long Road of Nonfiction Research
Nonfictionary
Researching in nonfiction isn’t much different. You run into many dead ends. But the key may be in knowing when to find a different route and when to change up your purpose. Is the story important and viable? Then I believe there are ways to work around those dead ends and get the car moving [...]
Thanks for the Memories, Miss Rumphius!
Red Reading Boots
Today, the day I am writing this column, has been a long one. It started with a 4 a.m. alarm. It is the day Darling Daughter moves to college. In Boston. Which is far from Minnesota and so necessitates a plane ride. During a pandemic. Alone, as her university is not allowing parents on campus [...]
No Justice. [No Action.] No Peace.
Peace-ology
Caren: “No justice. No peace.” This summer, millions of people--young, old and from all backgrounds—protested police brutality and systemic racism, all during an historic pandemic. Ellie Roscher and I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota, not far from where George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer and close to the epicenter of marches and protests. [...]
Ann Angel and Her Reading Team
September 2020
Raising Star Readers
As our Raising Star Readers column kicks off another school year, educators and caregivers both continue to face the kind of challenges few of us could have imagined last fall. Here, Ann Angel describes how her Reading Team is countering the “pandemic bubble” by adding nonfiction books to their list of favorite reads: Hey there, [...]
Porch School
Big Green Pocketbook
As a kid, I couldn’t wait until the first day of school—a fresh beginning, when the heat and green of summer make way for red plaid bookbags and corduroy jumpers.
Girls Garage
Reading Ahead
Don't miss adding Girls Garage by Emily Pilloton to your bookshelves. It's a terrific book specifically written to help young women gain the confidence they need to build anything they want to build. Highly recommended.
The Very Amazing Eric Carle
Two for the Show
Phyllis: Spring is finally here, and the pollinators are buzzing in the blossoms, so we thought we’d write about bugs this month. Plus, we’ve just finished a book with our good friend and fellow writer Liza Ketchum about the rusty-patched bumblebee, the first bumblebee to be listed as endangered. Once we started looking for buggy [...]
Curiouser and Curiouser with Kao Kalia Yang
Curiouser and Curiouser
When A Map into the World found its way to my desk last year, I had to remind myself to breathe. This gem of a book captures feelings of love and friendship in a way that crosses generations and speaks to each of our hearts. What else had she written, I wondered? Her memoir for [...]