Bookology Magazine

Gennifer Choldenko

It Takes Place on Alcatraz

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All Capone Does My Shirts Gennifer Choldenko
Books about a specific locale are magnets for readers. One of the places that has mythological status in American culture is Alcatraz Island. Here are some of the books about this island that captivates our imaginations.

Gennifer Choldenko

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Gennifer Choldenko
I’m so pleased to have Gen­nifer Chold­enko grant Bookol­o­gy an inter­view about all the ques­tions I’ve bot­tled up since read­ing Orphan Eleven, her newest nov­el. Each one of her nov­els is a page-turn­er from first to last, often intro­duc­ing his­to­ry we didn’t know but can’t wait to learn more about. Those are my favorite sorts of books.… more

Honey Peanut Butter Popcorn Balls

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Author Gen­nifer Chold­enko con­tributes this recipe, which is just right for autumn, Hal­loween, or curl­ing up with a good book. Have you read her Orphan Eleven yet? It’s num­my, too. Hon­ey Peanut But­ter Pop­corn Balls ½ cup honey 3 T peanut butter 2 T water 4 T butter 12 cups popcorn 1 cup salt­ed mixed nuts Toast­ed Sesame seeds (option­al) 1. Melt hon­ey, peanut but­ter, but­ter and water.… more

Bookstorm™: Orphan Eleven

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Orphan Eleven
Four orphans have escaped from the Home for Friend­less Chil­dren. One is Lucy, who used to talk and sing. No one knows why she doesn’t speak any­more; silence is her protection. The orphans find work and new friends at a trav­el­ing cir­cus. Lucy loves car­ing for the ele­phants, but she must be able to speak to them, and to warn oth­ers of dan­ger.… more

Writing a Funny Book

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One of my favorite books of Gen­nifer Chold­enko’s is One-Third Nerd, in which a broth­er and two sis­ters attempt to solve the prob­lem of their beloved dog being incon­ti­nent in their rent­ed apart­ment, over which the land­lord threat­ens to evict them. They’ve been told a vet could fix the prob­lem, but surgery for their dog is low on their par­ents’ list of pri­or­i­ties.… more

Gennifer Choldenko

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Gennifer Choldenko
Bookol­o­gy is proud to fea­ture Gen­nifer Chold­enko’s Chas­ing Secrets as its Book­storm™ this month, shar­ing themes, ideas, and com­ple­men­tary book rec­om­men­da­tions for your class­room, lit­er­a­ture cir­cle, or book group discussions. Were you a curious child? How did this manifest itself? I was an eccentric child. I was curious to the extent that I could find out new facts to feed my imaginary world.… more

Bookstorm™: Chasing Secrets

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Chasing Secrets
  Don’t you love a good mys­tery? Set it in an exot­ic but famil­iar city like San Fran­cis­co at the turn of the 20th cen­tu­ry. Cre­ate a main char­ac­ter who’s a smart and adven­tur­ous young girl with inter­ests frowned upon dur­ing that time: sci­ence, math­e­mat­ics, and pur­su­ing a col­lege edu­ca­tion. Pro­vide a fam­i­ly and friends who are immense­ly inter­est­ing because they’re so vivid that you’d like to know each one of them.… more

Orange Omelet

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orange slices
Gen­nifer Chold­enko’s Chas­ing Secrets takes place in the late 1800s — this recipe is one that might have been served at a lun­cheon. From the Boston Cook­ing School Cook­book: Orange Omelet Ingre­di­ents:
3 eggs
Few grains salt
1 tea­spoon lemon juice
2 1⁄2 table­spoons orange juice
1⁄2 table­spoon but­ter (for pan)
2 oranges
2 table­spoons pow­dered sugar Sep­a­rate yolks from whites.… more

Skinny Dip with Gennifer Choldenko

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Skinny Dipping
What keeps you up at night? Generally I wake up worrying about my kids or my career. The middle-of-the-night scenarios are dire: accidents, Alzheimer’s, awful reviews, abject humiliation in one form or another. Unfortunately I’m a world-class worrier, so there I am lying in a pool of sweat whipped into a fretting frenzy when suddenly an idea pops into my head.… more

Teaching the Future

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Animal Shenanigans
by Rob Reid I am for­tu­nate to teach three sec­tions of children’s lit­er­a­ture each semes­ter to future ele­men­tary teach­ers, future spe­cial edu­ca­tion teach­ers, and future librar­i­ans. It’s tru­ly a fun gig. I was asked by the Bookol­o­gy folks to share those books and top­ics I teach to these bud­ding professionals. I open each semes­ter by intro­duc­ing myself and read­ing my cur­rent favorite inter­ac­tive pic­ture book.… more

Teaching the Future

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Animal Shenanigans
by Rob Reid I am for­tu­nate to teach three sec­tions of children’s lit­er­a­ture each semes­ter to future ele­men­tary teach­ers, future spe­cial edu­ca­tion teach­ers, and future librar­i­ans. It’s tru­ly a fun gig. I was asked by the Bookol­o­gy folks to share those books and top­ics I teach to these bud­ding professionals. I open each semes­ter by intro­duc­ing myself and read­ing my cur­rent favorite inter­ac­tive pic­ture book.… more