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Hurrah! Summer 2021

May 20, 2021 No Comments

We celebrate these books, published during Summer 2021! Click on a book cover to watch a short video by one of the book’s creators. We’ve enjoyed learning more about each book — we know you will, too!

Chickens on the Loose
written by Jane Kurtz
illus by John Joseph
West Margin Press, May 2021

Dear Tree Frog
written by Joyce Sidman
illustrated by Diana Sudyka
HMH Books, 2021

Fearless World Traveler
written by Laurie Lawlor
illustrated by Becca Stadtlander
Holiday House, 2021

How to Apologize
written by David LaRochelle
illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka
Candlewick Press, May 2021

The Most Perfect Thing
in the Universe
written by Tricia Springstubb
Margaret Ferguson Books, 2021

If you’re inspired to buy one or more of these books, please click on the title to purchase the book from Bookshop.org,

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Constance Van Hoven and Her Reading Team

May 20, 2021 7 Comments

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.

Picture Book Parade

May 19, 2021 2 Comments

This season, if you visit Minneapolis’ Midtown Farmers Market, you’ll stroll by a harvest of picture books by Minnesota authors: Picture Book Parade—a new initiative by children’s authors Sarah Warren and Catherine Urdahl.

Nonfiction Storytime, Part 3

May 19, 2021 No Comments

In my experience, you can elevate the learning experience with nonfiction books through the development of activities that connect with a specific topic or the theme of your program.

We Are the Future

May 18, 2021 1 Comment

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

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.

Notes from a Reluctant Researcher

May 13, 2021 2 Comments

I’ve never been a fan of research. I prefer to make stuff up, and even when my world-building demands facts, my first, lazy inclination is to fudge my way through. With this book, though, I had to knuckle down.

Crossings

May 12, 2021 3 Comments

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

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.

Robert Topp

May 11, 2021 1 Comment

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.

Crafting a Home of the Heart

May 6, 2021 6 Comments

It had been years since I last visited the home of my heart, the only place where I can breathe freely. Conicville is in Shenandoah County in the Valley of Virginia, bordered by the Allegheny Mountains. It consists of a church, a cemetery, and a scattering of houses and farms. In 2012, I traveled to meet my 98-year-old cousin. His farm had recently been designated a Virginia Century Farm, land that has been in the same family for a hundred years.

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The Startup Squad

May 4, 2021 No Comments

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.

No Way, They Were Gay?

May 4, 2021 1 Comment

Why do I love this book so much? Because Wind does a phenomenal job of weaving together excerpts from a diverse array of primary source materials to reassess the sexual and gender identities of a dozen famous and lesser-known figures from the past.

Geography, Part 2

April 29, 2021 1 Comment

In Part 2 of Geography, we take a look at Caldecott winning and honored books with settings in Europe. Recognizable landmarks are among the illustrations in these books, giving a strong connection to location.

Catherine Urdahl and Her Reading Team

April 28, 2021 5 Comments

It’s been a month since I’ve seen my grandchildren, who live five hours away—a month since we’ve snuggled up with our favorite books. For me, a month is a long time.

Nonfiction to the Rescue, Part 2

April 22, 2021 No Comments

By featuring both nonfiction and fiction during storytime, you provide children an opportunity to experience the contrast between what is real and what is imaginative. Both are important for a successful reading experience. Here are 18 of my favorite nonfiction books to use in storytime programs.

Ideas and Details

April 21, 2021 5 Comments

When I was doing lots and lots of author visits, many schools were focusing professional development — and writing instruction — on Six Traits: Voice, Ideas, Presentation, Conventions, Organization, Word Choice, and Sentence Fluency. I liked to show ways that I, a professional writer, also dance and wrestle with those traits. In particular, I liked to focus on ideas and details.

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And the People Stayed Home

April 15, 2021 4 Comments

Perhaps you saw it. On social media, or in a chain email. A poem that seemed like a hopeful sigh went out into the world very early in the pandemic last spring and made its rounds as quickly as the virus. And the people stayed home.
And they listened, and read books,
and rested, and exercised, and made art,
and played games, and learned new ways of being,
and were still….

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Compassionate Listening Deconstructs Fences

April 14, 2021 2 Comments

Caren: When my daughter Beth was fourteen, she traveled with a small exchange group of teens to Poland where she would live with a couple and their teen daughter in a small village. In a true exchange, the Polish teens then traveled to Minnesota for a similar experience. Neither group spoke the other’s language. Recently, while cleaning out boxes, I found a reflection Beth wrote of that experience: The Polish kids taught me one of the most valuable lessons I have ever learned; the power of a smile … I thought that to create the iron strong bonds of friendship, a common language was essential.

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The Apollo Missions

April 13, 2021 No Comments

The fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing in July 2019 inspired many new books along with some updates and reissues of existing titles. For those who haven’t had the chance to look at all the possibilities, let me introduce you to a few.

Catherine Urdahl

April 8, 2021 3 Comments

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 Stories: The Three Little Kittens, The Three Little Pigs, The Three Bears, illustrated by Garth Williams.

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Children’s Literacy Foundation

April 8, 2021 4 Comments

Imagine the joy of a child who never had the privilege of owning a book being able to choose new hardcover or paperback editions for free out of hundreds displayed in front of him. The Children’s Literacy Foundation doesn’t have to imagine. Staff have seen the excited smiles on these young faces for the past 23 years, and they hear the same question wherever they go.

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The Cottage of Lost Play

April 8, 2021 2 Comments

Working on my magical realism middle-grade novel, I realized I couldn’t visualize where my story is located. I could describe immediate buildings, but the landscape was blank. If I couldn’t see it, neither could a reader.

Hedy Lamarr’s Double Life

March 31, 2021 5 Comments

One of my favorite STEM-themed picture book biographies is Hedy Lamarr’s Double Life: Hollywood Legend and Brilliant Inventor by Laurie Wallmark and Katy Wu. Here’s a brief description: To her adoring public, Hedy Lamarr was a glamorous movie star, widely considered the most beautiful woman in the world. But in private, she was a brilliant inventor. During World War II, Hedy collaborated with another inventor to develop an innovative technology called frequency hopping.

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The Soaring Imagination of Uri Shulevitz

March 30, 2021 4 Comments

In two of his picture books Uri Shulevitz introduces a child alone in a room, isolated, similar to our quarantined children today who are stuck at home, cut off from friends. But where is the iPad, television or computer screen? Look closely—there are none in the pictures.

Box: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom

Carole Boston Weatherford

March 25, 2021 2 Comments

Carole Boston Weatherford has been writing since she was in first grade. Her father taught printing and was able to publish those early stories. Weatherford has written dozens of picture books for young readers — and all readers. We cannot be exhaustive here, but we can introduce you to this wonderful writer.

Bess Press

March 24, 2021 No Comments

Think tropical … island nations, high and low islands. Feel the sun’s warmth, the stir of a gentle breeze clattering palm fronds high overhead. Escape winter, cold, snow, white, ice. How? In a book. Open one of the many books published by Bess Press, one of the first independent publishers located in Honolulu. Their books cover history and culture, war and peace in the Pacific, the many cultures of Polynesia, Micronesia (meaning small islands, there are over 10,000 islands in Micronesia) and Melanesia (the dark islands).

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Geography, Part 1

March 24, 2021 1 Comment

Many picture books have anonymous settings, but some include authentic landmarks identifying locations that can be pinpointed on a map. Traveling from west coast to east coast, several Caldecott Award books feature settings in the United States, and we can become armchair travelers through the illustrations.

Perseverance

March 23, 2021 3 Comments

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!

Hurrah! Spring 2021

March 20, 2021 No Comments

We celebrate these books, published during Spring 2021! Click on a book cover to watch a short video by one of the book’s creators. We’ve enjoyed learning more about each book — we know you will, too!

The Floating Field:
How a Group of Thai Boys
Built Their Own Soccer Field
written by Scott Riley
illus by Nguyen Quang
and Kim Lien
Millbrook Press, 2021

Frogness
written by Sarah Nelson
illus by Eugenie Fernandes
Owlkids, 2021

Headstrong Hallie!

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Nonfiction to the Rescue, Part 1

March 18, 2021 1 Comment

As a children’s librarian, a primary goal for me is to help children embrace imagination through books, from imagining we are superheroes to going on a hunt to find a bear, flying in the sky, exploring a new land, to diving deep in the ocean. For some time however, including nonfiction titles in my programs has been a top request from parents and educators.

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Library Love:
Children’s Author Shares Her Passion for Research

March 11, 2021 3 Comments

Author Tracy Nelson Maurer shares, "My heart leapt when I learned that I was old enough for my first library card—the key to that vast kingdom of words. I’ve treasured each library card since then."

Reading Mary Oliver with Kids

March 11, 2021 8 Comments

Sunday mornings find me on zoom with a gathering of kids ages 3 – 10. We call this time Songs & Stories. It is a highlight in my week. They come in their pajamas, often eating breakfast, and usually with some “stuffies” they want to introduce to the group. They are full of energy and good cheer.

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Tiny Steps Toward Peace

March 10, 2021 2 Comments

When I say the word Peacemaker, who is the first person that comes to mind? It is so important to teach children about famous peacemakers but if we only teach about folks who have become larger than life, children may put peacemaking on a pedestal that seems unattainable for themselves.

Constance Van Hoven and Her Extended Reading Team
March 2021

March 9, 2021 2 Comments

I’ll be honest, this installment of Raising Star Readers should be called “Raising Gigi’s Spirits.” The thing I miss most about spending time with my Reading Team is sharing laughter — everything from giggles to rolling-on-the-floor belly laughs.

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.

Ten Ways to Hear Snow

March 2, 2021 4 Comments

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.

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Mélina Mangal

March 2, 2021 2 Comments

Mélina Mangal’s Self on the Shelf I looked on my shelves, wondering which books to highlight. I have several shelves, scattered around the house. Though I am a school librarian, my home shelves are quite fluid, as in, they’re not strictly organized. Books are loosely grouped by format and size, sometimes by genre. I really don’t have that many books (I love to visit the library!),

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Ashley Bryan: Brave for Life

February 25, 2021 3 Comments

Ashley Bryan's life has been so full of making children’s books and there are so many wonderful children’s books that we can only call out a few—a few enticements, and encourage you to take yourself on a wonderful journey into Ashley Bryan’s world.

Visual Artists, Part 2

February 24, 2021 1 Comment

When considering picture book biographies of visual artists, one cannot overlook the three illustrators who have garnered Caldecott Honors for their autobiographical works: Bill Peet, Uri Shulevitz, and Peter Sis.

Deb Andries and Her Reading Team
February 2021

February 24, 2021 No Comments

Reading teams do read together, and my Reading Team(s) and I have been doing just that. However, as you view the photos of the twins, Hayes and Myles, now seventeen months, you see them reading by themselves.

Bookstorm™: Virginia was a Spy

February 23, 2021 No Comments

World War II spy Virginia Hall was born and raised on a farm in Maryland. Her parents took her abroad when she was three, awakening a life-long fascination with travel and adventure. She was in France when Hitler was recognized as the threat he was. When Germany overtook France, she became a part of the French Resistance. She used the skills she learned on her family farm to disguise herself as a humble milkmaid who couldn’t possibly be a spy.… more

The Comfort of James Herriot’s Stories

February 11, 2021 16 Comments

I don’t know if you are watching All Creatures Great and Small on Masterpiece Theater on PBS these Sunday nights, but if you’re not, you are missing something wonderful.

Finding Peace While Grieving

February 10, 2021 2 Comments

Some days are tough. During this COVID-19 pandemic, our children face plenty of challenges. Loss of playground time. Loss of playdates. Changes in school routines. Changes in home routines. These days, children may need more time alone on a “peace blanket” to grieve their former lives. The rest of us may need the same.

Ann Angel and Her Reading Team
February 2021

February 9, 2021 3 Comments

Our Raising Star Readers contributor Ann Angel always has a unique take on selecting books for her Reading Team. Here, Ann talks about books that encourage what she calls “mindfulness moments” — titles that help kids (and adults) slow down and focus during our current “wild” times: Our house is home to three generations. So husband Jeff and I live with Teddy, a rather rambunctious five-year-old, and his mom.… more

The Joy of Bad Reviews

February 4, 2021 2 Comments

Ah, the joy of bad reviews! Yes, they're fun. But they take a little getting used to.

Losing Wonder

February 4, 2021 7 Comments

I hadn’t written in months. Yet each morning, during that misty period between sleep and wakefulness, ideas popped into my mind. In the cold winter light, though, those ideas were revealed as withered and drab. Covid stole more than concentration and motivation. It robbed me of wonder.

Revisiting the Moon

February 2, 2021 No Comments

A full moon on December 29 ended the year 2020. New year, new moon, and we are thinking once again about moon books – we’ve looked at some of these before, but good books, like the moon, keep coming back.

Visual Artists, Part 1

January 28, 2021 No Comments

With declining funding for arts education in schools^1,2 and limited opportunities for school-sponsored class visits to art museums, Caldecott Award-winning picture books invite children to explore various media and styles of art deemed “distinguished.”³ Indeed, as professor of English and children’s literature specialist Philip Nel observes, “Good picture books are portable art galleries.”⁴ A number of Caldecott award books extend the art enrichment experience by introducing children to the lives and works of visual artists.

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