Knock Knock

Sarah Nelson revision

To Rhyme or Not to Rhyme 

If you’ve ever dipped a toe into the children’s book pub­lish­ing world, you’ve prob­a­bly heard cau­tion­ary tales about writ­ing in rhyme. In short, most insid­ers say, “Please don’t rhyme.”

Follow the Flyway

Marveling about Migration 

Fly­ways? Up until this moment, I con­fess I had a rel­a­tive­ly ele­­men­­tary-school-like under­stand­ing of how and why birds migrate. Join me in learn­ing more.

Gandalf Lives

Gandalf Lives! 

I’m not cer­tain, but I sus­pect sto­ries have played sig­nif­i­cant roles in the lives of most librar­i­ans. We are sto­ry peo­ple, after all — their sacred keep­ers, and we delight in help­ing oth­ers dis­cov­er their wonders.

A Park Connects Us

How Parks Connect Us
… and Why It Matters 

Spring is in the air, and we’re pulled out­doors to wan­der in our favorite city parks. Ducks are dab­bling; frogs are trilling; the apple trees are burst­ing into bloom. Every­where, it seems, chil­dren frol­ic and neigh­bors wave. It’s been a long win­ter, but our cities are alive.

Sarah Nelson

Doorways to the Wild and Wondrous 

Today, writ­ing about nature and out­door play just feels as nat­ur­al and right to me as breath­ing. All my hap­py mem­o­ries of chas­ing frogs, climb­ing trees, and splash­ing in sum­mer lakes eas­i­ly inform the sto­ries I write.

Margo Sorenson

Playing Your Troubles Away 

Fan­ta­sy and feel­ing lie deep­er than words…  and both demand a more pro­found, more bio­log­i­cal expres­sion,  the prim­i­tive expres­sion of music.”  (Mau­rice Sendak in “The Shape of Music”) Tied up in knots — nots — er — words? Are sen­tences slith­er­ing past you and para­graphs para­chut­ing from your brain? If so, maybe it’s time to step away from the writ­ing task, or any chore

David LaRochelle

Modern-Day Treasure Hunting 

Why was I crawl­ing through a frozen sew­er pipe on my hands and knees in the mid­dle of win­ter? I was geo­caching, my lat­est obses­sion. If you haven’t heard of geo­caching, it’s a world­wide trea­sure hunt using GPS to locate hid­den con­tain­ers called geo­caches. There are lit­er­al­ly mil­lions of geo­caches hid­den around the globe. When I first start­ed playing,

Aimee Bissonette

Try Something New, Have a Blast! 

A few months ago my daugh­ter, Aliza, came over after an evening out with her work friends. Aliza told us she and her friends had gone to the Min­neapo­lis Boul­der­ing Project or MBP, an indoor climb­ing gym where peo­ple climb “cir­cuits” of up to 17 feet high with­out ropes or har­ness­es. She was so excited

Stephanie Calmenson

Books Are Our Emissaries 

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 a par­ty atmosphere

Virginia Euwer Wolff: The Guys’ Clubhouse 

I didn’t even ask why I was turn­ing into Hold­en Caulfield. I was fif­teen, a brochure girl for post­war inno­cence. And I was a farm kid, three thou­sand miles away from Holden’s Man­hat­tan; I took vio­lin lessons, rode my bike through orchards, mem­o­rized social stud­ies facts, picked straw­ber­ries to make mon­ey, earned Camp Fire Girl hon­or beads. I also sought the right

Planting Giant Pumpkin Seeds 

As I write this, Min­neso­ta is in line to get hit with anoth­er Major Win­ter Storm. I know many of you in the north­ern lat­i­tudes can sym­pa­thize as we’ve all been hit, but it’s mid-April, and even by Min­neso­ta stan­dards, this is demor­al­iz­ing. Proms are being can­celled this week­end, the gro­cery stores are crazy, everyone’s watch­ing the

David LaRochelle

The Kindness of Teachers 

I loved first grade. Fifty-one years lat­er, I still have vivid mem­o­ries of my teacher, Miss Fol­lett. She played the piano every day. She read to us from her giant book of poet­ry. She showed us pho­tos of her trips to exot­ic places, like Alas­ka and Hawaii. At Hal­loween we screamed in ter­ror and delight when she

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