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Bless This Mouse

September 21, 2017 No Comments

Over the last month or so, my nieces and I have been reading Bless This Mouse by Lois Lowry. We started it on one scaryish night when I picked them up at the hospital emergency room. My brother-in-law had a mishap with a chisel in the garage resulting in a flesh wound that created an enormous amount of blood. (He’s fine — couple of stitches and thankful it didn’t hit the artery.)… more

Adjust Your Mirrors

September 19, 2017 No Comments

You get a different view of the road behind you depending on which of your car’s mirrors you look into. And writers can direct readers to a different outlook on their story depending on which point of view they use as the “mirror” for the events that take place. I’ve found that point of view is a tricky thing for many writers, whether they’ve been at the writing game for ﬁve months or twenty-ﬁve years.… more

English Syllabus

September 7, 2017 4 Comments

I used to hate the night of the first day of school. I loved hearing about the first day details, new teachers, old and new friends…but The Forms nearly did me in. A whole packet for each kid filled with multi-colored papers, many of which asked for the very same information — so many emergency numbers, medical forms etc.… more

August Shorts

August 1, 2017 No Comments

Picture books you’ll want to add to your repertoire! Touch the Brightest Star
written and illustrated by Christie Matheson
Greenwillow Books, 2017. A night-time book, settling down for bed, quietly looking at the pages, hearing the story. An interactive book? Yes, because the author/illustrator wisely invites the reader and listener to touch the pages, to help the magic of the evening unfold.… more

Skinny Dip with Susan Latta

May 23, 2017 No Comments

This week we’re all set to Skinny Dip with Susan Latta, who is celebrating the publication of her first trade book on September 1st, Bold Women of Medicine: 21 Stories of Astounding Discoveries, Daring Surgeries, and Healing Breakthroughs (Chicago Review Press). With historical to contemporary biographies of women who have found cures, advanced medicine, and tended to the sick with compassion, Susan has written an inspiring book that teen readers will find fascinating.… more

Just Another Roadside Abstraction

April 27, 2017 No Comments

For this week’s writing road trip, I oﬀer you texture. I aim for an abstract element of a realistic subject and use texture to add interest and suggest depth. —a quote that to the best of my research abilities I ﬁnd attributable to artist Margaret Roseman. I liked the way the above quote spoke to how texture can be used in visual art.… more

Creekfinding with illustrator Claudia McGehee

April 13, 2017 1 Comment

While taking a closer look at Creekfinding: A True Story, it is impossible to separate the narrative and the illustrations because together they make the book whole. And yet two different artists created the words and the illustrations that guide the reader toward an understanding of the Brook Creek restoration project. Claudia McGehee notices the details, the encompassing emotions and the nuances of the landscape that encourage to walk alongside Team Brook Creek while they explore this restored ecosystem.… more

This Is Just To Say

April 6, 2017 No Comments

April is National Poetry Month, which is as good an excuse as any to take some poetry books off the shelf and have a read. I’m quite methodical in April — it’s the hint of spring in the air, I suppose. I clean my office and then I build a stack of wonderful poetry books — some Billy Collins, a little Emily Dickinson, a tome of Robert Frost, Shakespeare’s sonnets, Mary Oliver, naturally…..… more

Our Hearts Will Hold Us Up

February 28, 2017 1 Comment

Jackie: It seems perfectly appropriate that the Manager of Holiday Placement has placed Valentine’s Day, a day to celebrate love and affection, right in the middle of cold, dark February. I want that celebration to spread out for the whole month (why not the whole year?) the way the smell of baking bread fills an entire house, not just the kitchen.… more

Focus Your Trip

January 5, 2017 No Comments

When students set out to revise, a whole lot of different things will all try to grab their attention at once. Encourage them to focus their attention on a few key things each time.

Karen Cushman, the Girl in Men’s Underwear

December 13, 2016 5 Comments

We welcome the opportunity to talk with Karen Cushman, Newbery Medal and Honor recipient for The Midwife’s Apprentice and Catherine, Called Birdy, as well as historical fiction set in the western United States. Her most recent novel is the fantasy Grayling’s Song. We look forward to talking with Karen because her sense of humor is always in play, something you’d expect from reading her books.… more

Feeding the Naturally Curious Brain

November 29, 2016 No Comments

“You’ll discover mouthless worms and walking ferns … ” (pg. 13) And with those words, I’m charged up for the hunt. Along the way, I can’t help being distracted by a satisfying amount of irresistible information in National Geographic’s Science Encyclopedia. If you learn best visually, there is a surfeit of images to stimulate a curious mind. If you learn best verbally, then this book is chock full of words arranged in the most interesting ways.… more

Trailblazing Illustrator, Elizabeth Shippen Green

November 16, 2016 2 Comments

Younger readers may not fully appreciate how difficult it was for women to break into the highly competitive field of illustration. For many years, men were routinely hired for advertising art, newspaper and magazine illustration, and children’s book illustration. Elizabeth Shippen Green, born in 1871 and dying in 1954, was one of the earliest female illustrators to win high regard, helping to open the door a little wider for the women who followed her, Her father was an artist-correspondent during the Civil War.… more

Welcome to Roy’s House

August 30, 2016 No Comments

What better way to familiarize one’s self with the work of pop culture artist Roy Lichtenstein than to walk through his house from living room to snack bar, from bathroom to bedroom, and finally into his studio, where we can try our hand at painting? Susan Goldman Rubin and her team at Chronicle have created a book illustrated by Roy Lichtenstein’s paintings, Roy’s House, which lets us see up close his style of art, the colors he used, and the technique of shading color in dots.… more

August Shorts

August 17, 2016 No Comments

Warning: There’s a lot of enthusiasm ahead for these books! Where Do Pants Go?
Written by Rebecca Van Slyke, illustrated by Chris Robertson
Sterling Children’s Books, 2016 Well, this is just adorable … and I can already hear households throughout the English-speaking world chanting: “Where do pants go? On your arms? No. On your neck? No. No, no, no. Pants go on your legs, that’s where pants go.”… more

Must. Get. Out.

July 6, 2016 No Comments

Third rainy day in a row ... outside the Ivory Tower.

Lighthouse Beef Stew

June 25, 2016 No Comments

Author Aimee Bissonette writes, “To accompany your reading of Miss Colfax’s Lighthouse, here’s the type of recipe Harriet would have cooked in winter months. It gets incredibly cold on Lake Michigan in the winter and Harriet was always so busy! She would have needed something that was pretty easy to make (no time to fuss) but would warm her inside and out.… more

I must go to Scotland

June 8, 2016 No Comments

In which our heroine suddenly realizes she must get to Scotland to research Castle Menzies.

The Odious Ogre

May 5, 2016 No Comments

I’m a big fan of Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, illustrated by Jules Feiffer. I can remember reading it as a kid and thinking it both hilarious and clever. And I loved the words! So many words! So when the Juster-Feiffer team came out with The Odious Ogre a few years back, I leapt at it. A picture book! A long picture book! My favorite kind!… more

Libraries in the USA are at Mission Critical

February 9, 2016 No Comments

“There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration.” —Andrew Carnegie Libraries in the USA are at mission critical. Those who went before us worked hard to establish free public libraries so we could have access to what we need to know.… more

Interview with Julie Downing: Illustrating The Firekeeper’s Son

December 17, 2015 No Comments

interview by Vicki Palmquist and Marsha Qualey The illustrations in The Firekeeper's Son are all double-page spreads. How did that design decision affect your choices and work? I decided on the format because the landscape is an important part of the story. The original dummy I made had fewer pages so I split many spreads into smaller images.… more

Skinny Dip with Rick Chrustowski

November 11, 2015 1 Comment

What animal are you most like? Sometimes I am a Zen-like praying mantis, sitting and watching the world. And other times I am hopped up like a hummingbird zipping around trying to get a bunch of things done at once or, if I am at a party, trying to meet everyone in the room. Which book of yours was the most difficult to write or illustrate?… more

USBBY Reflections

October 28, 2015 3 Comments

by Nancy Bo Flood Books can help readers heal. Stories can create compassion. Every one needs to find “their story” in books. The United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) is part of The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), a world-wide organization that works to build bridges of understanding through children’s and young adult books.… more

Museum Feast

October 20, 2015 No Comments

Historium
curated by Richard Wilkinson and Jo Nelson
Big Picture Press, 2015 by Vicki Palmquist In a large, folio-sized book, the curators of Historium present a printed-page trip through a museum, grouped by cultures and described in detail so you can understand what you are seeing without being rushed along by the crowd. Much like those rentable museum audio tapes or the placards on the wall, it’s an enhanced experience of the artifacts.… more

Authors Emeritus: Virginia Lee Burton

October 6, 2015 No Comments

Virginia Lee Burton was born on August 30, 1909 in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. She studied art at the California School of Fine Arts and the Boston Museum School. One of her earliest jobs was as a “sketcher” for the arts section of the Boston Transcript. She married George Demetrios, a sculptor and her teacher at the Museum School, in 1931.… more

Authors Emeritus: Lynd Ward

October 6, 2015 No Comments

Born in Chicago on June 26, 1905, Lynd Ward, the son of a Methodist minister, grew up moving around and living close to new immigrants. Ward was a sickly baby and the family moved to northern Canada for several months hoping his health would improve. Upon the family’s return, Ward, now a healthier child, never lost his bond with the wilderness.… more

Slideshow: Block Print Illustration

October 6, 2015 No Comments

Eric Rohmann’s wonderful illustrations for Bulldozer’s Big Day were made using block prints, also called relief prints. This technique has long been used to illustrate children’s books, especially early ABC books such as the The Ladder to Learning by Miss Lovechild, published in 1852 by the New York firm R.H. Pease. The Bookologist has put together a slide show of some of our more recent print-illustrated books.… more

Mouse and Bear Books

October 1, 2015 2 Comments

by Melanie Heuiser Hill When I plan a storytime, I always plan for the kiddos first and foremost. But I do like to give a nod to the grownups who have brought them when I can — something they’ll “get” at a different level than the kids, a treasure they might remember from their own childhood, a book that will make them smile or laugh. The Mouse and Bear Books by Bonny Becker, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton, are always an inspired fit.… more

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

Skinny Dip with Augusta Scattergood

September 9, 2015 No Comments

What is your proudest career moment? My proudest career moment? Being invited to the American Library Association’s mid-winter conference to introduce my new book. As a career librarian turned middle-grade novelist, it doesn’t get much better than that. I was also honored to have my first novel, Glory Be, which takes place during Freedom Summer, chosen by several groups highlighting the fiftieth anniversary of that event.… more

Authors Emeritus: Tom Feelings and Virginia Hamilton

September 1, 2015 No Comments

Authors Emeritus, a compilation of short biographies of deceased children’s literature creators, is a Bookology Children’s Literature resource. When a Bookstorm™ includes books by authors and illustrators in the index we like to highlight those biographies. This month: Tom Feelings (The Middle Passage) and Virginia Hamilton (Many Thousand Gone). Tom Feelings, born on May 19, 1933, was a native of Brooklyn, NY.… more

Advertise with Us!

August 2, 2015 No Comments

Advertise with Us!

In Bookology magazine, Winding Oak is pleased to offer advertising to a vertical market of children′s literature professionals and enthusiasts throughout the world. Advertising opportunities are open to trade-published books, reading-related products, conferences and festivals, and educational programs. How to Place an Ad Review our rate card (PDF). Read our Terms and Conditions page.

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Middle Kingdom: Dartmouth, Massachusetts

July 29, 2015 No Comments

The books that most delight middle school and junior high readers often straddle a “Middle Kingdom” ranging from upper middle grade to YA. Each month, Bookology columnist Lisa Bullard will visit the Middle Kingdom by viewing it through the eyes of a teacher or librarian. Bookology is delighted to celebrate the work of these educators who have built vital book encampments in the transitional territory of early adolescence.… more

A Trip to the Art Museum

July 15, 2015 No Comments

by Vicki Palmquist

Arlo’s Artrageous Adventure! David LaRochelle
Sterling Children’s Books, 2013 When Arlo’s grandmother drags him to the art museum, he can’t imagine how he’ll be interested. Something odd catches his eye and he soon realizes the paintings have things to say that surprise and delight him — and the reader. Fun and quirky, with illustrations that will make you smile and flaps to lift that will reveal nuances in much the same way you discover something new in a painting each time you look at it … this is a good choice to prepare a child for a trip to the museum.

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Lynne Jonell: Justice in Another World

July 7, 2015 No Comments

by Lynne Jonell I just met a woman who lived through horrifying emotional abuse as a child. I had been told about her history some years before; but when I met the woman, we didn’t mention it. We talked instead about books, a subject of common interest, and teaching, her passion. I made an effort to forget what I knew about her past; it was awful enough for her to have lived through it without my thinking about it while we talked, like a bystander at a crime scene who keeps casting surreptitious glances at the pooling blood beneath a blanket-covered mound.… more

Skinny Dip with Susan Cooper

July 1, 2015 1 Comment

What animal are you most like? I'm a giraffe. A medium-sized giraffe, because I was tall when I was young, but now—to my fury—I've passed the age when you begin to shrink. A giraffe is shy, and doesn't make much noise: that's me, I think. The giraffe and I are both good at looking around and noticing things—though in my case I'm collecting material for books, and in hers she's looking out for the lion who wants to eat her.… more

Authors Emeritus: Arna Bontemps

June 2, 2015 No Comments

Born on October 13, 1902 in Louisiana, Arna Bontemps grew up and was educated in California. Upon graduating from college he accepted a teaching position in New York City, where he became friends with several other writers and educators, including Langston Hughes. Bontemps would become, along with Hughes, one of the influential artists of the Harlem Renaissance who would expand the presence of African American writers in children’s literature.… more

Authors Emeritus: Syd Hoff

June 2, 2015 No Comments

His illustrations best characterized as simplistic and humorous, Syd Hoff has held a warm place in children’s hearts through more than 200 books. Born on September 4th, Syd Hoff grew up in New York City. He went to the National Academy of Design as a fine arts student, but his teachers didn’t appreciate the humor that pervaded his work.… more

Skinny Dip with Karen Cushman

May 13, 2015 No Comments

What’s your favorite holiday tradition? Phil is Jewish so we celebrate Hanukkah. I light the house with candles—one hundred or so white candles of all sizes and shapes. It looks beautiful but makes the house very, very warm. Were you a teacher’s pet or teacher’s challenge? Oh, teacher’s pet, without a doubt. I was too nervous to misbehave, smart enough to learn quickly, and quiet enough not to show off (see question #5).… more

Author Emeritus: Eleanor Cameron

May 5, 2015 No Comments

Eleanor Frances Butler Cameron in was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on March 23, 1912. She attended UCLA and the LA Art Center School for three years before marrying Ian Stuart Cameron, a printer, in 1934. Mrs. Cameron worked as a reference librarian for many years before beginning to write full time, and was fascinated by the way the mind took fragments of a writer’s life and rearranged them for writing material.… more

Raul the Third: Illustrating Lowriders in Space

May 5, 2015 No Comments

Lowriders in Space written by Cathy Camper
illustrated by Raul the Third
Chronicle Books, 2014 When did you first become aware of (or involved in) lowrider culture? I feel like I’ve been aware of lowrider culture for my entire life. When I was in high school I would draw the type of imagery you might see used as décor on a lowrider.… more

Author Emeritus: Rosemary Sutcliffe

April 29, 2015 No Comments

Rosemary Sutcliff, author of children’s historical novels, was born on December 14, 1920, in Surrey, England. She wrote children’s books, novels, short stories, and scripts for radio, TV, and film. In childhood, Still’s disease kept her in a wheelchair and close to home. Her mother homeschooled her and first introduced her to Saxon and Celtic legends. She didn’t learn to read until the age of ten.… more

The Curious Child: writing and books

April 28, 2015 8 Comments

by Vicki Palmquist After reading Catherine, Called Birdy, readers will wonder about Edward, Birdy’s brother, and the books he was scribing at the monastery. In what type of book did Birdy keep her journal? Who taught her to write? Did she write in the same fancy script that her brother did at the monastery? Birdy gives the reader clues about her journal: “The skins are my father’s, left over from the household accounts, and the ink also.… more

The Curious Child: writing and books

April 28, 2015 No Comments

Karen Cushman: Researching and Writing

April 7, 2015 2 Comments

interview by Claire Rudolf Murphy Congratulations, Karen. Your first novel and Newbery Honor book Catherine Called Birdy is 20 years old and still going strong. The story still resonates with teen readers, especially girls, and is remembered fondly and reread by many readers who are grown up now. One such fan is actress Lena Dunham, who announced last fall that she is adapting the novel into a movie with plans to direct it.… more

Two Birds from the Same Egg with Poetry PLUS!

April 7, 2015 No Comments

(editor’s note: In honor of National Poetry Month, we asked Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong, authors of the The Poetry Friday series for a quick example of integrating poetry into the classroom. ) by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong We are pressed for time, so we multitask. You might be eating breakfast while you’re reading Bookology, or doing laundry, or both.… more

Two Birds from the Same Egg with Poetry PLUS!

April 7, 2015 1 Comment

Chris Van Dusen: Illustrating Leroy Ninker Saddles Up

March 31, 2015 2 Comments

Leroy Ninker first appeared in Mercy Watson Fights Crime as the criminal. Did you consciously change his appearance for Leroy Ninker Saddles Up to make him a more sympathetic character? I’m not sure that I consciously changed his appearance. I tried to make him look like the same character. In the original series he was wearing a robber’s mask which gave him a slightly sinister look.… more

Katherine Tillotson: Illustrating Shoe Dog

March 1, 2015 No Comments

I have always been attracted by collage. In the past, I have enjoyed cutting up patterned paper and arranging the pieces in unexpected ways. The computer has made it possible to re-imagine the technique of collage. Now I am able to combine marks that would have been impossible to mix if I was working conventionally.

“I love that you always find a bookstore!”

December 11, 2019 No Comments

After posting photos on Facebook of a recent trip to Chicago, my friend Joanne posted the above comment. My heart soared a bit, knowing that my passion for books and bookstores garnered such a lovely, positive observation. It’s no secret that just about anytime I find myself traipsing through a new town, I am eager to check out the local bookstore. It seems fitting that as 2019 comes to a close, I recap my bookstore adventures from the past year and share a few highlights from five favorites.… more

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