I sat on a rust­ed swing hung from an I beam in our base­ment with a heavy book on my lap. I was ten and lone­ly because my only sis­ter had left home a year earlier.

In the sec­ond part of our Trans­porta­tion series, we look at Calde­cott Award books that con­sid­er trains from dif­fer­ent van­tage points, from the out­side or inside, from a real or fan­tas­ti­cal world. Climb aboard!

We explore the mean­ing of peace­build­ing and what the infra­struc­ture for peace can look like in one class­room and through­out a school. We also sug­gest a pic­ture book and a book for the “adult on the rug,” both of which explore the deep con­cept of peacebuilding,

The author unfolds the sto­ry in a way that young read­ers will find mes­mer­iz­ing, imag­in­ing her char­ac­ters in real life, turn­ing the page again and again to learn what will hap­pen next, both in mid-cen­tu­ry Korea and in the Unit­ed States today.

Spring is in the air, and we’re pulled out­doors to wan­der in our favorite city parks. Ducks are dab­bling; frogs are trilling; the apple trees are burst­ing into bloom. Every­where, it seems, chil­dren frol­ic and neigh­bors wave. It’s been a long win­ter, but our cities are alive.

Nev­er did I ever think I would do sto­ry­time on a screen. I want to see those sweet faces, get the high-fives and hugs, watch their delight in a story’s twists and turns. However…needs must!

Heard on the news: “No one wants to be a refugee.” Here’s a look at four pic­ture books that share the refugee expe­ri­ence with young readers.

We’re pub­lish­ing a list of some of the more recent books about peace and con­flict res­o­lu­tion, as anno­tat­ed by Car­ol Spiegel, a long-time K‑8 educator.

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.

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.

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.