That’s How I Roll
Writing Road Trip
As a kid I was the one who instigated a lot of the fun. It might be playing pirates in the tree house, or cops and robbers in my mom’s parked station wagon, or spies who wrote secret code in lemon juice (later revealing the message by holding it over the toaster). Often our make […]
Curiouser and Curiouser with Paul O. Zelinsky
Curiouser and Curiouser
Reading and admiring the books of Paul O. Zelinsky raises my curiosity. How does he work on the illustrations for his own books and those of other authors? What is he thinking about when he evolves his unforgettable characters? Of his newest book, All-of-a-Kind Family Hanukkah (written by Emily Jenkins), Mr. Zelinsky says, “Now that […]
Isolation
Page Break
Writing can be … well … isolating. … working alone all day–no companions but my own thoughts. No wonder writers tend to be just a little nuts.
Explorer Academy: The Nebula Secret
Reading Ahead
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) […]
Story Time for All
Red Reading Boots
A couple of weeks ago, Darling Daughter and I made our way to the Farmers Market. I’ve been recovering from a bit of surgery, and truth be told, I wasn’t feeling great that morning, but needed to get out and about. We wandered the stalls, got our veggies, our goat cheese, our sunflowers…then some coffee […]
imagine
Reading Ahead
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 […]
The Beauty of Imperfection
Teach It Forward
As I reflect on the start of my 27th year of teaching, I am struck by what an unusual first week of school it was. Room 212 was filled with a sense of calm that doesn’t usually accompany my first few days of a new school year. The fact that our school building was closed […]
The Need for Secret Places
Big Green Pocketbook
In the fifth grade, my best friend and I discovered a tangle of honeysuckle in the scrubby woods bordering our school playground. It would make the perfect recess refuge. All we had to do was pull the honeysuckle from inside the circle of saplings it was twined around, leaving a curtain of vines. The next […]
A Serious Question
Page Break
A serious author asks a serious question: what is the best use of computer games?
Tuned in to Talk Radio
Writing Road Trip
When I was a little girl and my Minnesota grandparents came to visit, we shared them around for sleeping purposes. One night I would share my double bed with Grandma, and the next night my brother and I would switch places, and I’d sleep on his top bunk while Grandpa settled into the bottom bunk. […]
Chasing Peace: Refugee Stories
Two for the Show
This summer, deeply troubling stories about migrants and refugees at the US-Mexican border have come to us in newspaper stories, recordings, photographs, and videos. In choosing to separate children from their parents, our government has shown a disturbing lack of empathy for people fleeing violence and turmoil in their home countries. It is our hope […]
That Time I Drove the Karma Bus
Writing Road Trip
All freshmen at my college had to wear beanies at the start of school. Besides the obvious fashion quandary, the problem was that students from the town’s rival college gloried in stealing beanies. And I knew if any of my upper classmates caught me sans beanie, they had the power to make me stand on […]
Skinny Dip with Kara LaReau
Skinny Dip
We’re pleased to connect you with author (and editor) Kara LaReau, whose two book series, The Infamous Ratsos and The Unintentional Adventures of the Bland Sisters, are tickling readers’ funnybones and stirring their sense of adventure. She was an editor for ten years, editing some of our most-loved books such as Because of Winn-Dixie and […]
Anna and Johanna
Reading Ahead
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. […]
Swimming in a Sea of Ideas
Nonfictionary
Where do successful nonfiction writers get their ideas? So many places! The topics a nonfiction writer can write about are limitless. Sure, some ideas have been written about before, but nonfiction writers take that as a challenge. They ask what unusual angle they might take or if there is a different (or better) format in […]
Skinny Dip with Phuoc Thi Minh Tran
Skinny Dip
We are pleased to Skinny Dip with Phuoc Thi Minh Tran this week. As a librarian, author, storyteller, and mother, she adds her perspective to the richly textured quilt of books for children. What’s the weirdest place you’ve ever read a book? In the hospital, I read my newly released book My First Book of […]