Steven Palmquist

Skinny Dip with Steve Palmquist

Favorite holiday tradition? Well, that usually involves food—we try to have Chinese food on Christmas Eve. Our family has had a lot of changes lately, so we’ve been trying to create new traditions. Were you a teacher’s pet or teacher’s challenge? Both! At times I was a model student and other times I was the class clown.… more
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Skinny Dip with Vicki Palmquist

What do you wish you could tell your 10-year-old self? A good many things, but most emphatically I would tell myself to not listen to the comments about being too smart or showing off by using big words or being too curious. I have always enjoyed learning about new things and sharing what I’ve learned. I love discussing ideas and unknown-to-me corners of the world and people who have accomplished great things and shown great imagination.… more
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My Incredible India

My Incredible India

I am utterly mesmerized by this book! The author and illustrator express their love for the wonders of this vast and many-faceted country, which shines from each double-page spread, irresistibly inviting the reader to discover more for the sheer joy of learning.
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Hands

Hands

Trev is a talented artist. He’s kind, thoughtful … and he doesn’t want to learn how to fight. But … he needs to protect his family.
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Toni Buzzeo

Toni Buzzeo

I most fervently hope that my young readers will learn that the voices and opinions of children are important in any conversation — that children, especially tweens and teens, are important contributors to family decision-making and community change.
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Thank You, Moon

Thank You, Moon

Night is my favorite time of day, so I was entranced by this book about the many ways in which moonlight affects animal behavior ... including humans.
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Mark Ceilley

Mark Ceilley

Writing this book was a wonderful experience for me. I am proud to be a part of writing a book that incorporates themes of friendship, kindness, cooperation, and building self-confidence.
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Granny Rex

Granny Rex

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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See the Ghost: Three Stories about Things You Cannot See

See the Author / See the Illustrator

Once in a while, a duo creates several books together and they get to know one another. We're curious about how that works. Meet David LaRochelle, author, and Mike Wohnoutka, illustrator, of six books together (so far).
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Pamela S. Turner

Pamela S. Turner

I had several goals from the onset. The first was to make human evolution understandable. I have always been interested in the topic but found it very confusing
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Debra Frasier

This is the Planet Where I Live

Illustrating a book written by K.L. Going, This is the Planet Where I Live, Debra Frasier works with collage that exuberantly celebrates our connections to everything on this earth.
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Walking Grandma Home

Two Books about Grief

Take these books to heart: two books that will help adults and children find paths into discussions about this part of life, Sitting Shiva and Walking Grandma Home. 
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Bee-bim Bop!

Fabulous Food

There are so many terrific books about food! I could go on and on with selections and recommendations but these are a few of my favorites.
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Library Girl

Library Girl

I eagerly waited for this book. I wasn’t prepared to fall in love, which I most definitely have.
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Maizy Chen's Last Chance

Maizy Chen’s Last Chance

This book has everything going for it. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wind up caring about the characters, and you'll want to eat at the Golden Palace in Last Chance, Minnesota.
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The Shortest Day

Winter!

Now that snow has fallen in many places throughout the land, it's time to celebrate the frozen crystals in picture books, nonfiction, and early chapter books.
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One Winter Up North

One Winter Up North

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, stretching for 150 miles along the Canadian border, is the setting for John Owens’ newest wordless picture book.
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The Voice of My Heart

The Voice of My Heart

It works well to read poems here and there from The Voice of My Heart ... but I often find myself caught up in the expressions of love and longing, moving from one poem to the next, contemplating, learning, feeling.
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I Will Dance

Dance Party

Dance has many personalities and appeals to a myriad of people. Here are some exceptional books for very young readers through teens (and adults, too).
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Garvey in the Dark

Garvey in the Dark

With her usual positive and hopeful storytelling, Nikki Grimes reminds us that lives changed during the Covid pandemic, affecting many people in many different ways. Garvey's story will resonate deeply with readers of all ages.
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J.S. Puller

Superheroes and Lost Things

The titles of J.S. Puller's first two books intrigued me so much that I immediately checked them out of the library. Once I finished them, I asked her for an interview.
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We Belong

We Belong

I've seen many questions on social media, asking which books teachers will read aloud to their classroom during the first week of school. I don't teach in a classroom but I've thought about this question anyway.
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The Genius Under the Table

The Genius Under the Table

Eugene Yelchin grew up in Stalinist Russia, the Cold War Soviet Union. We grow to love his parents, his grandmother, his brother Victor, but most especially Eugene. His memories are at once sad and humorous.
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Samira Surfs

Samira Surfs

 I don't think I've ever read a novel about surfing before Samira Surfs. I was fascinated by the setting, the sport, and the culture, different than my own.
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Finding Junie Kim

Finding Junie Kim

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.
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Good Luck Gold & More

Good Luck Gold & more

This book will make you feel, many different feelings. It is filled with poetry and a short essay about the poem on the facing page. There are two or three questions at the bottom of each essay that encourage digging deeper ... into your own experience.
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Girls Solve Everything

Girls Solve Everything

Reading this book, I jumped up and down with excitement. I kept turning the pages until I had read every one of the true stories. My brain revved into high speed as I learned about girls and women, problem solving and innovating.
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Loyalty

Loyalty

Leave it to Avi to find a way to help me look at the Rev­o­lu­tion­ary War from a new per­spec­tive. Make that two. Young Noah is the son of a Loy­al­ist and min­is­ter, pledged to the King. When local rev­o­lu­tion­ar­ies tar and feath­er his father, the fam­i­ly flees to Boston. Need­ing work, Noah finds a job as a British spy and a serv­er in a tav­ern, where he can eas­i­ly over­hear plans and report on them.
more
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Brian Weisfeld

The Startup Squad

In which we interview Brian Weisfeld, one of the authors of The Startup Squad series, featuring a reluctant team of four girls who start their own business. I found them to be charming … and I mean that in both senses of the word: being appealing and casting a spell.
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Bee Fearless

Kids in Business

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 tales shared in these ten pic­ture books.
more
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Ten Ways to Hear Snow

Ten Ways to Hear Snow

When you grow up in Min­neso­ta, snow is a part of your world. From play­ing in it until your feet are so cold and wet that your grand­moth­er will scold while you drink hot cocoa to lift­ing your feet high as you trudge through knee-deep snow to a bus stop that’s far­ther away than it has ever been, snow is a fix­ture in your thoughts. 
more
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Love is Powerful

Love is Powerful

This book will lift you up in its arms and make you believe that “Love is Powerful”! It’s the right choice to help us under­stand what a group of peo­ple can accom­plish if they are unit­ed in their pur­pose and mov­ing toward treat­ing all peo­ple with love and kindness. Writ­ten by Heather Dean Brew­er from Michi­gan and illus­trat­ed by LeUyen Pham from Cal­i­for­nia, both of whom marched in the 2017 Women’s March­es, this book is inspired by Mari, a real lit­tle girl who trav­eled with her moth­er from Harlem to Mid­town New York to march with large crowds of peo­ple who were protest­ing inhu­mane actions and poli­cies of a pres­i­dent who reviled many people.
more
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Planetarium

Planetarium

My fas­ci­na­tion with out­er space is well-doc­u­ment­ed. I had star charts on my child­hood bed­room walls. But this book would have enthralled me … in fact, it still does. The illus­tra­tions by engraver and print­mak­er Chris Wormell are detailed in a way that aids under­stand­ing. Scale is a tough con­cept for our com­pre­hen­sion but this book tack­les that with info­graph­ics that give a sense of how enor­mous our uni­verse is.
more
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The Range Eternal

The Range Eternal

I am delight­ed by the re-issue of The Range Eter­nal, a pic­ture book that reach­es back into his­to­ry and con­nects with our sens­es, our fam­i­lies, our fears, and our reas­sur­ances. I have read all of Louise Erdrich’s books for adults and chil­dren. She nev­er fails to bring me new ways of look­ing at the world. So it is with this book.
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You Are (Not) Small

You Should (Not) Read These Books

I remem­ber my neigh­bor­hood friends stand­ing on oppo­site sides of a dri­ve­way, angry, yelling loud­ly at each oth­er. I don’t recall why, but I can still feel those emo­tions. That’s how strong feel­ings are. Our chil­dren deal with a mul­ti­tude of emo­tions every day. You were prob­a­bly remem­ber­ing sim­i­lar instances from your child­hood. And what hap­pened after­ward? Most like­ly you were all friends again, because you need­ed to be.
more
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Wild Girl

Wild Girl

WOW!*!&! I want to car­ry a back­pack with me wher­ev­er I go, hand­ing out a copy of this book to every per­son I see. I loved every dare­dev­il, detailed, aston­ish­ing minute of read­ing this book. I believe you will, too. Mind, I grew up at a time where I heard two phras­es con­stant­ly: “Sit still” and “Ladies don’t rough­house.” Rough­house meant any kind of run­ning, climb­ing, jump­ing, or play­ing in the dirt.… more
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The Book Rescuer

The Book Rescuer

I have had The Book Res­cuer on my desk for sev­er­al months. I imme­di­ate­ly knew I want­ed to write about it because I feel such a strong attrac­tion to this sto­ry (a true sto­ry) but I had a hard time putting into words how deeply I am moved by the actions of this book hero. The sto­ry begins this way: Kum aher. Sit down.… more
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Gennifer Choldenko

Gennifer Choldenko

I’m so pleased to have Gen­nifer Chold­enko grant Bookol­o­gy an inter­view about all the ques­tions I’ve bot­tled up since read­ing Orphan Eleven, her newest nov­el. Each one of her nov­els is a page-turn­er from first to last, often intro­duc­ing his­to­ry we didn’t know but can’t wait to learn more about. Those are my favorite sorts of books.… more
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Yasmin the Zookeeper

Yasmin

Once I finished reading Yasmin the Zookeeper, I was charmed. I wanted to find out more about this young Pakistani American girl who is curious about everything.
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Candice Ransom

Big Green Textbook

My first inkling there was a thing called children’s lit­er­a­ture came at a yard sale. I picked up a thick green text­book, Children’s Lit­er­a­ture in the Ele­men­tary School, by Char­lotte S. Huck. I mar­veled at the idea that peo­ple dis­cussed and stud­ied the books I loved and planned to write, that children’s books were lit­er­a­ture, like Moby Dick.… more
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The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs

The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs

Our col­lec­tion of cook­books is vast. Some of them are in use more than oth­ers, and some of them are in rough shape from too much use. I’m always on the look­out for good cook­books that will encour­age young peo­ple to cook and to read about cook­ing, just as I did with the gift of my first, Bet­ty Crock­er’s Cook­book for Boys and Girls.… more
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The Next President

The Next President

Who the next U.S.A. pres­i­dent will be is pre-occu­py­ing many minds around the world right now. This book takes a stance by telling us about the dis­tinc­tive pres­i­dents of the past, a cou­ple of sen­tences about every one of them, #1 through #45, and asks us to real­ize that the next ten pres­i­dents are prob­a­bly alive right now.… more
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Alphabet Forest 2020

Alphabet Forest 2020
Author, illus­tra­tor, and edu­ca­tor Debra Frasi­er intro­duces the Alpha­bet For­est 2020, in which your favorite authors, illus­tra­tors, and vol­un­teers share videos, activ­i­ties, and ideas for a lit­er­a­cy expe­ri­ence at home or in a class­room. Play the vocab­u­lary game! Get your paper, glue, and favorite crayons or mark­ers ready!
Debra Frasi­er demon­strates how to make a Game Card so we can col­lect our words, just as hun­dreds of peo­ple do each year at the Min­neso­ta State Fair.
more
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Girls Garage

Girls Garage

Don't miss adding Girls Garage by Emily Pilloton to your bookshelves. It's a terrific book specifically written to help young women gain the confidence they need to build anything they want to build. Highly recommended.
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