Vroom! Vroom! Things that Go (Or Don’t)
This is a month for vehicles, imagined vehicles, that take us straight out of our chaotic and worrisome now to “what if.”
Elizabeth Verdick
Constance Van Hoven and Her Reading Team
November 2020
Despite the coronavirus pandemic and a way-too-long physical separation from her Reading Team, Connie Van Hoven has continued to find creative ways for them to enjoy books together. Here, Connie describes some of the tactics she’s using — including technology and canine love — to assist her in Raising Star Readers:
My Reading Team is going to the dogs!… more
Elizabeth Verdick
When I picture myself as a kid, I think of my bedroom in our split-level West Virginia house, a room I loved but had to leave behind at age eleven when my family moved to Maryland. For years, that room was my own little world, my book nook, my place to cuddle my cat Rag, collect china-cat figurines, and, yes, read books about cats.… more
A Blizzard of Snow Books
We’re snowed under right now, what with teaching and writing and, well, snow, so we thought we’d offer up a blizzard of books about the white stuff that falls from our skies. Curl up with a child, a cup of warmth, and enjoy winter in the pages of a book.
The Snow Party by Beatrice Schenk De Regniers and Bernice Myers
A lonely woman who lives with her husband on a Dakota farm wishes for a party. … more
Aging Down, Aging Up
Back when my kids were little, I started work on a nonfiction SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) series called the “Best Behavior” series. More than a decade later, these board books and paperbacks are still going strong, I’m happy to say. Titles in the series include Teeth Are Not for Biting, Voices Are Not for Yelling, and Worries Are Not Forever.… more
You Write Books with … Messages?
Yes. Yes I do.
Sure, I know there’s a whole school of thought that says “sharing a message” in a children’s book is something to avoid. That children will learn more, feel more, by reading books—stories—that evoke an emotional response and increase empathy through strong characterization and vivid language. Yes. Yes that’s true. But.…
Sometimes children, and the adults raising and teaching them, need straightforward tools that address social and emotional challenges and milestones.… more
Let It Snow!
Phyllis: The first real snow has fallen overnight, and the quality of light when I wake up is luminous outside the window. Solstice approaches, and we’ve turned our thoughts to books about winter and snow. So many to choose from! Here are a few.
When my grown daughter saw a copy of Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton on my bookshelf, she cried, “Oh!… more
Skinny Dip with Elizabeth Verdick
What keeps you up at night?
Reading much, much too late!
What is your proudest career moment?
In 2005 I won the Henry Bergh Award, which honors books that recognize the need to treat animals with kindness and caring (for my book Tails Are Not for Pulling). I got to stand on a stage in New Orleans with Norman Bridwell, author/illustrator of the Clifford books.… more
