Bookology Magazine
Candice Ransom

Pterodactyls and Dragons

December 5, 2019 No Comments
“The Boy chiefly dab­bled in nat­ur­al his­to­ry and fairy-tales, and he just took them as they came, in a sand­wichy sort of way, with­out mak­ing any dis­tinc­tions; and real­ly his course of read­ing strikes one as rather sen­si­ble.” The Reluc­tant Drag­on Ken­neth Gra­hame wrote “The Reluc­tant Drag­on” as a chap­ter in his book Dream Days, in 1898, ten years before pub­lish­ing The Wind in the Wil­lows.… more
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100 Mighty Dragons All Named Broccoli

Math for the Young Set

February 20, 2024 1 Comment
There are all kinds of ways to bring math into a young child's life. Count birds outside the window. Talk about shapes and give them names. Discuss measurements while cooking. Our favorite way is to read stories and look at picture books, absorbing math concepts easily.
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Granny Rex

Granny Rex

September 21, 2023 No Comments
Kurtis Scaletta is an experienced writer of middle grade and chapter books. Now his first picture book is out and we're curious about his experience of writing in this format. 
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King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender

Mental Health: Grief

August 11, 2023 No Comments
Ann Jacobus and Nancy Bo Flood, authors and educators, developed this list of middle grade novels and picture books with grief and loss as a focus.
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More More More Said the Baby by Vera B. Williams

Books for Baby Gifts

June 21, 2023 1 Comment
Books are a wonderful way to encourage families to start the read-aloud habit early and often. Here are suggestions from people who work with children, families, and books.
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Sitting Shiva

Death and Grief

December 1, 2022 12 Comments
For those who are mourning the loss of a relative, a pet, a friend, a teacher, these books for young and old are recommended by our subscribers.
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Ashanti to Zulu

Abecedaria, Part 2

October 19, 2022 No Comments
Not all alphabet books are for the purpose of early literacy, nor do they meet the criteria for traditional alphabet books ... Still others are thematically connected, as are the following Caldecott Honor ABC books.
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Waiting for Mr. Tumnus

Waiting for Mr. Tumnus

March 5, 2022 No Comments
Long ago, on windy, wintry nights, I’d look out the window by my bed as trees shifted for a glimpse of a light deep in the woods.  The yellow light—on and off as the wind tossed—kept me up late, wondering.  We had no neighbors on the other side of our woods.
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Mrs. Spitzer's Garden

Mrs. Spitzer’s Garden

May 13, 2021 1 Comment
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.
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Big Worries in Little Bodies

May 12, 2021 No Comments
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.
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Candice Ransom

Finding Wonder

March 4, 2021 No Comments
When fairy tale characters step into the woods, they are beset by tests, yet are stronger by the time they find their way out. At the beginning of 2021, I wandered in a deep, dark woods because, as Bruno Bettelheim warns in The Uses of Enchantment, it’s where you go after losing the framework which gives structure to your life.
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Tracy Sue Walker

Tracy Sue Walker

January 26, 2021 No Comments
This month we wel­come Tra­cy Sue Walk­er, author, pub­lic librar­i­an, and pro­fes­sion­al storyteller. She’s recent­ly been reveal­ing “the truth about” a series of mys­ti­cal crea­tures, so far includ­ing drag­ons, Big­foot, and uni­corns, for Scholas­tic Book Clubs. Tra­cy describes her­self this way, “A booklover, day­dream­er, and goof­ball, I’m pret­ty qui­et unless I’m telling a sto­ry, then I’m pret­ty loud.”
… more
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Poetry Teatime

November 12, 2020 4 Comments
On Halloween morning, Pooh Bear came for a visit on our porch. There was coffee for her parents and hot chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles for her, as well as a round of pastries for all. A lovely morning, however distanced and masked we had to remain.
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Hurrah! Winter 2020

October 8, 2020 No Comments
We cel­e­brate these books, pub­lished from August through Octo­ber, 2020!  Click on a book cov­er to watch a short video by one or two of the book’s cre­ators. We’ve enjoyed learn­ing more about each book — we know you will, too! If you’re inspired to buy one or more of these books, please click on the title to pur­chase the book from Bookshop.org,
… more
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Rare & Blue

Picture Book Salute to Blue

September 22, 2020 1 Comment
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.
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Soar High, Dragonfly

Ann Angel and Her Reading Team
September 2020

September 8, 2020 No Comments
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, par­ent or grand­par­ent, raise your hand if you’re a pan­dem­ic teacher.… more
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Lisa Bullard. Photo by Katherine Warde

Road Scholar

May 28, 2020 No Comments
I once had an “aha” moment while giv­ing my nephew a ride on a beau­ti­ful sum­mer day. He was in that ear­ly stage of ado­les­cence: old enough to sit in the front seat, but young enough that rid­ing shot­gun was excit­ing. But dur­ing this ride, he was giv­ing off strange sig­nals. He twitched. He wig­gled. He squirmed. When we pulled up to a red light, I turned to look at him.… more
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Bookwanderers

Books Set in Bookstores

May 26, 2020 1 Comment
 For many of us, wan­der­ing around inside a book­store is our Hap­py Place. It can also be a place of mys­tery, sur­prise, romance, adven­ture, how-tos, and an oppor­tu­ni­ty to tap into the knowl­edge of the uni­verse. Here then are fif­teen books for chil­dren that are set in bookstores.   Archie Greene and the Magi­cian’s Secret
writ­ten by D.D.
… more
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Lights, Camera, Action:
Launching Virtual Storytime

April 16, 2020 No Comments
Although COVID-19 has been dif­fi­cult, libraries con­tin­ue their core mis­sion to pro­vide access to resources and ser­vices by improv­ing and increas­ing their dig­i­tal ser­vices. Sto­ry­time is a key ser­vice the pub­lic library pro­vides to sup­port ear­ly lit­er­a­cy, fam­i­ly engage­ment, and help­ing chil­dren find the joy of read­ing. Face-to-face inter­ac­tion helps to improve the con­nec­tion with fam­i­lies — how­ev­er, librar­i­ans have had to tran­si­tion sto­ry­time pro­gram­ming to a vir­tu­al plat­form.… more
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Maurna Rome

My Word for the New Year

January 23, 2020 4 Comments
As in past years, in lieu of a New Year’s res­o­lu­tion, I’ve cho­sen a sin­gle word to frame the year ahead. There are numer­ous web­sites and blogs that cel­e­brate this idea. This is my favorite. The fol­low­ing sen­ti­ment from the site real­ly sums it up beau­ti­ful­ly; My One Word replaces bro­ken promis­es with a vision for real change.… more
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Susan Fletcher

Susan Fletcher

January 21, 2020 3 Comments
Sto­ry­teller adept Susan Fletcher’s mind has giv­en us The Drag­on Chron­i­cles, Alpha­bet of Dreams, the star­tling Fal­con in the Glass, and most recent­ly Jour­ney of the Pale Bear. As you’ll read below, she has trav­eled to amaz­ing loca­tions and had envi­able expe­ri­ences as she researched her nov­els. Susan taught at the Ver­mont Col­lege of Fine Arts’ Mas­ter of Fine Arts in Writ­ing for Chil­dren and Young Adults pro­gram but now she lives full-time in Texas.… more
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A to Zåäö

December 17, 2019 3 Comments
A to Zåäö is an alphabet book, a museum exhibit catalog, an introduction to the Swedish language, and a picture book illustrated  by a mother's watercolors and her son's pen-and-ink drawings.
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Aimée Bissonette

December 4, 2019 4 Comments
A few days ago, I scanned my many book­shelves in antic­i­pa­tion of writ­ing this piece. My charge was to assem­ble a small stack of books that had sig­nif­i­cance to me.  Per­haps, I thought, I’ll write about my love for mys­ter­ies. After all, I spent count­less hours as a young girl devour­ing the Hardy Boys and Nan­cy Drew mys­ter­ies before mov­ing on to Agatha Christie, Tony Hiller­man, and Sara Paret­sky.… more
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Candice Ransom

No Wraiths or Fetches Necessary

October 3, 2019 2 Comments
To cel­e­brate our for­ti­eth anniver­sary this year, we decid­ed to take a Big Trip. My hus­band sug­gest­ed Paris. “Corn­wall,” I said. “Some­place old.” Not that Paris isn’t old. Instead of a crowd­ed city, I want­ed win­kles and pasties, lost gar­dens and stand­ing stones, piskies and Tin­tagel cas­tle. He agreed and I began putting togeth­er a trip that would send us back in time.… more
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Stay Close to Mama

The Animals in The Stuff of Stars

March 20, 2019 2 Comments
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 list of ani­mals that roam the earth, bring­ing to mind all of the sto­ries and facts about these spe­cif­ic ani­mals, birds, insects, and reptiles.
… more
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If You Give a Dog a Donut

Paws and Read

February 21, 2019 No Comments
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 was excit­ed about this new adven­ture but, to move for­ward, I was miss­ing a fur­ry friend.… more
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Candice Ransom

The Angel in the Woods

December 6, 2018 1 Comment
It was the ear­ly eight­ies and I was grap­pling with my first mid­dle grade nov­el, a piti­ful imi­ta­tion of Daniel Pinkwater’s Alan Mendel­sohn, the Boy from Mars. The boy in my apt­ly-titled “The Dooms­day Kid” played Dun­geons and Drag­ons and attend­ed a rock con­cert that end­ed in a bot­tle-and-can riot. For “research,” I tried to teach myself D&D and dragged my hus­band to a Bad Com­pa­ny con­cert that end­ed in his tem­po­rary deaf­ness.… more
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The Quiltmaker’s Journey

November 21, 2018 No Comments
Ear­li­er this week I pulled out our small stash of Thanks­giv­ing pic­ture books. The kids are old­er now, but they seem to like it when the old favorites come out. I got lost, as I always do, in The Quiltmaker’s Gift by Jeff Brum­beau, illus­trat­ed by Gail de Mar­ck­en. I’ve writ­ten about that book for Red Read­ing Boots — you can find that here.… more
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Pie and Gratitude

November 6, 2018 1 Comment
Novem­ber is a month of grat­i­tude — and, for us, a month to cel­e­brate Pie. We all have a favorite. Many of us have child­hood mem­o­ries of good times and pie. We all wait for the days when we can eat pie for break­fast. So we two thought this would be the per­fect month to look at pic­ture books about pie.… more
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Eliza Wheeler

Eliza Wheeler

April 25, 2018 1 Comment
Eliza Wheel­er is the fas­ci­nat­ing illus­tra­tor of many books, includ­ing John Ronald’s Drag­ons: The Sto­ry of J.R.R. Tolkien, The Pome­gran­ate Witch, and Tell Me a Tat­too Sto­ry. You can read about her work on her Wheel­er Stu­dio blog. For this inter­view, we are focus­ing on a series she has illus­trat­ed for Can­dlewick Press, the Cody books by Tri­cia Springstubb.… more
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Spend the Day with Arnold Lobel

February 28, 2018 2 Comments
Phyl­lis: Feb­ru­ary is the month of valen­tines and lovers, and we spent a day (through his books) with some­one we love: Arnold Lobel. He wrote easy read­er sto­ries that help chil­dren crack the code of read­ing, give them fun sto­ries with char­ac­ters who remind us of peo­ple we know and that give read­ers of all ages plen­ty to think about.… more
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Mighty Jack and the Goblin King

Mighty Jack

November 21, 2017 No Comments
We are thrust into the midst of the action, which nev­er stops until the epi­logue. This is how Ben Hatke tells a story. We don’t know what’s going on. There’s no set­up. Instead, we quick­ly learn that Jack is climb­ing some veg­e­ta­tive mat­ter to find the ogre who kid­napped his sis­ter Mad­dy and take her home. His friend, Lil­ly, no side­kick, is climb­ing along­side him.… more
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To Bee or Not to Bee

September 28, 2017 2 Comments
Jack­ie:  It’s good to be back on this blog this month. We took a nec­es­sary break, but can­not be away from talk­ing about books for too long. The pres­sure builds… Phyl­lis is busy writ­ing in the North Woods, so I am bee-side myself with enthu­si­asm for doing this blog. We have a make-shift bird­bath on our deck, next to our hum­ming­bird and ori­ole feed­ers, and this sum­mer the bees have found the bird bath.… more
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Pop-up Books

March 23, 2017 3 Comments
Our household’s fas­ci­na­tion with pop-up books came as a sur­prise to me. As a child I didn’t like them much. We had a few — one was Sleep­ing Beau­ty, I think. But they popped with bor­ing mod­esty and they always had these tabs that you pulled to make things move, only my broth­er pulled them too hard and so they didn’t do any­thing besides pull in and out.… more
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The Girl Who Drank the Moon

December 29, 2016 No Comments
I con­fess, I’m a bit of a tough sell when it comes to fan­ta­sy books (unless they are for real­ly young kids). I don’t do vam­pires, I’m not thrilled with dystopic set­tings, and although I love drag­ons and fairies, oth­er fan­tas­tic beasts tend to make my eyes roll, and I…well, I lose inter­est. I believe in mag­ic, but it has to be real­ly well writ­ten to keep my inter­est, and frankly, I’ve not fin­ished a lot of real­ly well done fan­ta­sy novels.… more
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Making Friends with Billy Wong

Third Grader Reading at a Sixth Grade Level

November 1, 2016 5 Comments
Respond­ing to a par­ent request for books that would inter­est her third-grad­er-read­ing-at-a-sixth-grade-lev­el, we crowd-sourced a list. Big thanks to Sara Alcott, Lin­da Baie, Les­ley Man­dros Bell, Karen Cramer, Caren Creech, Melin­da Fant, Ellen Klar­re­ich, Vick­ie LoP­ic­co­lo, Ellen McEvoy, Lau­ra Moe, Tunie Mun­son-Ben­son, Vic­ki Palmquist, Car­rie Shay, Faythe Dyrud Thureen, Cindy Walk­er, and Sharon J. Wilson. Unlike our usu­al anno­tat­ed book­lists, we are pre­sent­ing this one in alpha­bet­i­cal order by book title due to the length of the list.
… more
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Mary Casanova

Below the Surface

September 15, 2016 No Comments
Our park ranger, Earl, which is pronounced in three syllables in south-central Kentucky, asks one last time to reconsider this journey if anyone suffers from a bad heart, high blood pressure, or claustrophobia. He waits at the steel door at the base of a sinkhole.
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Nancy Johnson

Skinny Dip with Nancy Johnson

June 23, 2016 2 Comments
We are pleased to share a Skinny Dip with Nancy Johnson, professor, children’s/young adult literature and English/ language arts education, Western Washington University.
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Melissa Stewart

Look at how we’re teaching nonfiction!

June 8, 2016 3 Comments
As anoth­er school year winds to a close, I’m feel­ing encour­aged about the state of non­fic­tion read­ing and writ­ing in ele­men­tary class­rooms across the country. In 2010, when the Com­mon Core State Stan­dards were intro­duced, edu­ca­tors began ask­ing me for ideas and strate­gies for imple­ment­ing the Read­ing Infor­ma­tion­al Text stan­dards. And they were hun­gry for tips and tools that they could use to teach infor­ma­tion­al writing.… more
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Reading Ahead bubble

Laughter and Grief

October 6, 2015 4 Comments
by Vic­ki Palmquist There are books we remem­ber all of our lives, even if we can’t remem­ber the details. Some­times we can’t even remem­ber the sto­ry, but we remem­ber the char­ac­ters and how they made us feel. We recall being trans­port­ed into the pages of the book, see­ing what the char­ac­ters see, hear­ing what they hear, and under­stand­ing the time and spaces and breath­ing in and out of the char­ac­ters.… more
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Interview: Ann Bausum

September 29, 2015 No Comments
With Courage and Cloth: Win­ning the Fight for a Woman’s Right to Vote
Ann Bausum
Nation­al Geo­graph­ic, 2004 inter­view by Vic­ki Palmquist You state that you weren’t taught women’s history in school. (Neither was I. I remember reading and re-reading the few biographies in the library about Molly Pitcher, Clara Barton, and Florence Nightingale.) When you went looking for information for With Courage and Cloth, how did you start?… more
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Shadow Hero

Interview with Sonny Liew

July 28, 2015 No Comments
The Shad­ow Hero
writ­ten by Gene Luen Yang
illus­trat­ed by Son­ny Liew
First Sec­ond, 2014 Growing up in Malaysia and Singapore, what were the popular comic books? Well in terms of what you’d see at the newsstands , there was Old Master Q or Lao Fu Zhi from Hong Kong. In schools, there’d always be someone reading Tin Tin, Asterix or Archie.… more
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In Which the Boy Cleans His Room …

July 23, 2015 No Comments
by Melanie Heuis­er Hill We’re at the one-month mark before #1 Son leaves for his first year of col­lege. This is big for our fam­i­ly. (I real­ize it’s a big thing for every fam­i­ly, but it’s feel­ing par­tic­u­lar­ly per­son­al for us right now — indulge me.) It’s entire­ly right, he’s absolute­ly ready, and he’s going to a place that’s a good fit for him.… more
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The Shadow Hero Companion Booktalks

July 7, 2015 2 Comments
A 12-pack to get you start­ed on the Book­storm™ Books … 5‑Minute Mar­vel Sto­ries, by Dis­ney Book Group, Mar­vel Press, 2012. Ages 3 and up. Per­fect read-aloud length for younger fans Nice intro­duc­tion for new­com­ers to Spi­der­man, Iron­man, the Hulk, the Avengers, the X‑Men, Cap­tain America Oth­er than a few swing­ing fists, lit­tle violence Boys of Steel: the Cre­ators of Super­man, by Marc Tyler Noble­man, illus­trat­ed by Ross Mac­don­ald, Alfred A.… more
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Quirky Book Lists: Go Fly a Kite!

May 19, 2015 No Comments
by The Bookologist Curi­ous George Flies a Kite
 H.A. Rey
HMH Books for Young Read­ers, 1977 (reis­sue of 1958 edi­tion)
Ages 5 – 8 First George is curi­ous about some bun­nies, then about fish­ing, and then about his friend Billy’s kite. All’s well that ends well. Ages 5 – 8.   Days with Frog and Toad Arnold Lobel
1979 Harper­Collins
Ages 4 – 8 Five sto­ries with the two famous friends, includ­ing “The Kite,” in which Frog’s opti­mism and Toad’s efforts pre­vail over the pre­dic­tions of some nay-say­ing robins. … more
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Princess of the Midnight Ball

May 14, 2015 3 Comments
by Melanie Heuis­er Hill My twelve-year-old daugh­ter is inhal­ing books these days — a stack at a time out of the library, every book­shelf in the house pil­laged, major insid­er trad­ing at school, etc. There’s no way I can keep up, but when I move a book from here to there I often flip through or ask her opin­ion. When she start­ed read­ing Princess of the Mid­night Ball, I assumed, based on the PBS Mas­ter­piece The­ater-like attire on the cover’s princess, that it was “just-anoth­er-princess book.”… more
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Oh_Prophecy Trilogy

Ellen Oh: Researching and Writing the Prophecy Trilogy

May 12, 2015 No Comments
  Bookol­o­gist’s note: Last month we fea­tured Cather­ine, Called Birdy and an inter­view with the author, Karen Cush­man. In that inter­view, non­fic­tion writer Claire Rudolf Mur­phy asked Cush­man about her research and incor­po­ra­tion of his­tor­i­cal fact into her fic­tion. Con­tin­u­ing that explo­ration, this month Bookol­o­gy vis­its with nov­el­ist Ellen Oh. King, the final vol­ume of her Prophe­cy tril­o­gy, was released in March (vol­umes 1 and 2 are Prophe­cy, Harp­er Teen 2013 and War­rior, Harp­er Teen 2014). A blend… more
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