If that isn’t a perfect title for a children’s picture book, I don’t know what is. What child can resist reading a picture book called THE DEAD BIRD? In this case, it’s a reissue of the classic written by Margaret Wise Brown published in 1938, and recently re-illustrated by Christian Robinson, (Harper, an imprint of… Read more »
Stephanie Greene
Inside the minds of five-year-olds.
I love BEAR AND BUNNY (Candlewick Press), written by Daniel Pinkwater and illustrated by Will Hillenbrand for so many reasons. The biggest is the fact that if I didn’t know better, I’d swear the author was five-years-old. I’ve been listening to Pinkwater on NPR for many years, however, and have also read his books, so… Read more »
What children should know about slavery
There has been much controversy and conversation recently about the history of slavery and how to present that to children so they get a true, un-romanticized picture of the cruelty it imposed on generations of Black Americans. There are few stories about our country’s history that are more important to set straight. Elizabeth Bird, Collections… Read more »
A Tiny Piece of Sky, an Important Piece of History
World War II is a conflict that has been the subject of many books in recent years. Many of these books – both adult and children’s – are about life in Europe during that conflict. Fewer paint a picture of what life was like here in the United States. Although the fighting was far away,… Read more »
A perfect middle grade summer series
Summer is the perfect time for young readers to sink into a book. Even in year-round schools, it’s the longest time they have off during the school year. The only thing better than one book is two books about the same characters. Better yet, three books! A series … now, that’s a satisfying summertime experience…. Read more »
“I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world.”
THE NEGRO SPEAKS OF RIVERS (Disney, Jump at the Sun Books 2009), is a poem widely acknowledged by many to be the song of the Harlem Renaissance, and the poet who wrote it at age eighteen, Langston Hughes, to be the voice. As illustrated by E. B. Lewis, in powerful and vivid watercolor, it… Read more »
Doing research has never been more fun!
In the Fact Tracker series by Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce, there’s a non-fiction companion book for each of the books in the original Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne – a series that has been delighting young readers (and their parents and teachers) for years. The Magic Tree House books… Read more »
