Recent Articles
Listening for Stories
Big Green Pocketbook
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.
Vaunda Micheaux Nelson: Voices from History
Two for the Show
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.
Picture Book Illustration
Caldecott Lines of Connection
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.
Odd Bods
Why We Love Nonfiction
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 [...]
Curiouser and Curiouser with Karen Cushman
Curiouser and Curiouser
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.
Constance Van Hoven and Her Reading Team
Raising Star Readers
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.
Life Had Other Plans
Page Break
So, I was going to write yet another pithy little piece on productivity, but life had other plans.
We Are the Future
When We Reach Them
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.
Mrs. Spitzer’s Garden
Red Reading Boots
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.
Crossings
Why We Love Nonfiction
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.
Big Worries in Little Bodies
Peace-ology
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.
Robert Topp
Skinny Dip
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.
Gardening and Community
Quirky Book Lists
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 [...]
Kids in Business
Quirky Book Lists
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 [...]
Catherine Urdahl
Self on the Shelf
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 [...]
Curiouser and Curiouser with Mike Wohnoutka
Curiouser and Curiouser
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 [...]