Reading Ahead
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
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