Joining Forces
The Lamppost
Creating a Library Exchange Network Last year, I had the distinct honor to attend a professional development opportunity at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). As part of the training, we were given a chance to see some of the projects students and professors are working on in fields such as education, fashion, and healthcare. I […]
The Animals in The Stuff of Stars
Quirky Book Lists
When I first read The Stuff of Stars by Marion Dane Bauer and Ekua Holmes, I was captivated by the beauty of the book and its lyrical thoughts about the earth and our environment. Ms. Holmes’ illustrations invite us to look closer, to discern the creatures she’s so artfully included. Ms. Bauer’s text includes a […]
Waiting for My Editor, part 2
Page Break
Another good thing about waiting is … um … it BUILDS CHARACTER.
Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding
Cookology
Just Like Rube Goldberg author Sarah Aronson shares her recipe for a yummy, sugary treat, one that she believes Rube Goldberg would have loved because he was a fan of Cool Whip.
Bookstorm™: Just Like Rube Goldberg
Bookstorms
Educators across the country have been inspired by Rube Goldberg’s intricate, clever, engineering-based, but unlikely-to-be-made-in-real-life cartoons. Students are gathering to create their own Rube Goldberg machines, using everyday objects in fun and innovative ways to accomplish simple tasks with fun results. Just Like Rube Goldberg inspires all its readers with the details about Rube’s childhood […]
Weathering Weather
Two for the Show
Phyllis: Minnesota has had a winter full of weather this year. We’ve just finished the snowiest February on record, and now March is blowing down on us with the promised of wind and rain and (most likely) still more snow. An anonymous British poet wrote of the weather, “We’ll weather the weather whatever the weather.” […]
Emergency Car Kit
Writing Road Trip
When I was a kid growing up in the north woods of Minnesota, a group of my neighborhood friends had a “Chipmunk Fort.” It was constructed out of a pile of old fencing materials in my friend Paul’s backyard; each kid had their own “house” in the fort. We spent some time collecting pretty rocks […]
Watching for the Brown Truck
Writing Road Trip
A few years back, I had one frightening week. I had my head down, working hard, when I heard a commotion outside. I got up to look out my front window and saw the SWAT team marching towards my house, carrying guns and wearing bullet-proof vests. Once the sound of the news helicopters alerted me […]
The Arrow of Time
Big Green Pocketbook
When you walk into our house, you know immediately my husband and I are readers. The dining room is designated as the library, but there are bookcases and books in every single room, including the bathrooms. We subscribe to The Wall Street Journal and the Sunday New York Times, as well as Smithsonian, Audubon, and […]
The Writing Process as a Living Story
Nonfictionary
In some ways, it’s too bad that the curriculum in most schools calls for writing personal narratives at the beginning of the school year because I think students could learn a lot by crafting a personal narrative about the process of researching, writing, and revising an informational writing assignment. What do I mean by that? […]
Blue Dot Press | KO Kids Books
Small Press Medley
Meet Kathryn Otoshi, artist, author, educator, and the creator of two award-winning indie publishing companies, KO Kids Books and Blue Dot Press. In 2016, SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) recognized Blue Dot Press with their SPARK Award for excellence in independent publishing. Kathryn O’s books are bright, colorful, delightful, creative, and just […]
Make This!
Reading Ahead
Make This! Building, Thinking, and Tinkering Projects for the Amazing Maker in You Ella Schwartz, photographs by Matthew Rakola National Geographic Kids, 2019 When presented with this book, wheels start turning, ideas begin popping, and your temperature rises! This is going to be fun. And a carefully thought-through learning experience … but who needs to […]
Books Are Our Emissaries
Knock Knock
As authors, we send our books out into the world and, if we’re lucky, they connect us to good people whose paths we wouldn’t otherwise cross. For 28 years, Dinner at the Panda Palace has been my excellent emissary. Dinner at the Panda Palace started as a simple counting and sorting book with lots of animals and […]
The BEARdecotts
Quirky Book Lists
The ALA/ALSC recently announced their Youth Media Awards, resulting in much excitement. The teacher librarians at a Minnesota private school with three campuses help their students look for excellence in children’s books by holding their own award process each year. Called The BEARdecotts, after their school mascot, the educators select books for a short list […]
The Season Of Styx Malone
Red Reading Boots
Our Books & Bagels book group met a couple of weeks ago to discuss The Season of Styx Malone by Kekla Magoon. When I pick the books for this parent-child bookclub, I’ve usually read them in advance and know they will be good for discussion. This one I picked before I’d read it. I’d read reviews […]
Fake ID
Writing Road Trip
Ask your young writers to imagine a social media profile for their main character. What games do they play? Do they win? Do they cheat? What would their online profile say? Do they lie when they’re online, and if so, what about?
Poetry Books That Celebrate
African American History and Culture
Quirky Book Lists
Poetry and the spoken word have prominent places in African American culture, due at least in part to a strong oral tradition that has been passed down through generations. Consider including poems from the books below in your read-alouds this month, and the year ahead, as a way to highlight the contributions of African Americans […]
Paws and Read
The Lamppost
Celebrating Our Furry Friends with a Pet Reading Program “Animals are such agreeable friends—they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.” —George Elliott In October 2011, I was in a state of transition. I had just returned from interning at the Library of Congress to a full-time job as head of a children’s department. I […]
Putting Emotion into Nonfiction Books
Nonfictionary
Many people think writing nonfiction is just stringing together a bunch of random facts. Nothing could be further from the truth. While writing nonfiction, I use every single fiction technique a novelist uses. I feel strongly that I need to write my text in a way that will lead my readers to invest emotionally with […]
Constance Van Hoven and Her Reading Team
February 2019
Raising Star Readers
For this addition to our Raising Star Readers feature, we’re delighted to be showcasing another new Star Reader: Baby Nikhil was just 2 months old when he joined the Reading Team that also includes his grandmother Constance Van Hoven (Connie) and his big sister Priya (2). The team was celebrating Connie’s first opportunity to meet […]
Book Memories
Teach It Forward
My first memory of falling in love with books takes me way back to the tender age of five. The little “Golden Book Golden Hours Library Clock House” that I received for Christmas that year helped me become the passionate reader I am today. I cherished the collection of twelve little books and one in […]
Skinny Dip with Carla McClafferty
Skinny Dip
We’re pleased to welcome author Carla Killough McClafferty to our Skinny Dip column. She is known for her fine and carefully researched nonfiction books, such as The Many Faces of George Washington: Remaking a Presidential Icon; Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium; Fourth Down and Inches: Concussions and Football’s Make-or-Break Moment and her most recent […]
When a Map Is a Journey
Big Green Pocketbook
The first map I remember was flashed briefly on TV, part of a commercial for Story Book Land. It aired on “Captain Tugg,” a local kiddie program. I adored Captain Tugg, so anything he endorsed must be gold. Like the home-movie type kid shows of the 50s and 60s, Story Book Land was a family-owned […]
Bim, Bam, Bop … and Oona, an Interview
Red Reading Boots
Poor Oona—she’s always the last duck to the pond…. But then her frog friend Roy reminds her: you’re good with gizmos… And so Oona the duck goes to work in the barn on her gizmos, pouring her creative and determined self into getting to the pond before the faster ducks. Along the way, she learns there […]
Bridging the Gap Between My Writing and Reading Selves:
an Author’s Experience of Recording an Audiobook
Knock Knock
“The woman who read Climbing the Stairs aloud did a great job,” my friend said. She was telling me, with delight, how her children and their friends—two girls and two boys—listened with rapt attention to the audio book version of my debut novel, refusing to get out of the car when the trip ended but […]
Perfect Pairs
Articles
Bookology is delighted to feature a sample lesson from Perfect Pairs: Using Fiction & Nonfiction Picture Books to Teach Life Science, K-2 by children’s book author Melissa Stewart and master educator Nancy Chesley (Stenhouse Publishers). When this book (and its companion for grades 3–5) first came across our desk, we were blown away by its […]
Curiouser and Curiouser with Lee Bennett Hopkins
Curiouser and Curiouser
As I read each of Lee Bennett Hopkins’ collections of poetry, I find my curiosity piqued: “How does he do this?” When I was a grad student, I came across Mr. Hopkins’ book, Books Are by People: interviews with 104 authors and illustrators of books for young children. Those interviews provoked my imagination and propelled my […]