Breaking a tradition is hard but making a new one can be incredibly fun. When I moved from Northern Virginia to Boston to attend college five years ago, I had a whole new daily life to adjust to, one that excluded some of my favorite traditions: attending the National Book...
“Beams of light from the setting sun entered through the cracks in the boards. / Specks of dust danced in the air. The yellow marble glowed like a lamp. / The silver sardine can shone. / All was hushed, still.” — Orris and Timble: The Beginning by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated...
I wanted to write about my eleven-year-old grandson’s decision to read To Kill a Mockingbird as an independent reading assignment. The book was on a “stretch” list his fifth-grade teacher had distributed, so his choice wasn’t like deciding to read Ulysses or worse, Infinite Jest, out of nowhere. Still, even voracious eleven-year-old readers...
Minh Lê's wonderful "Blowing the Horn" piece in our May/June Special Issue: Our Centennial reminded me of this mid–virtual school assignment that made me smile then (which was much needed) and makes me smile now: See also Vera B. Williams's 1983 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award poster: And here's Bertha's chair...
Not breaking news, but motherhood is hard (fatherhood, too; check back next month). Of course it's also all the good stuff — rewarding, gratifying, exhilarating, heartwarming — but easy it is not; and, to borrow from The Princess Bride, "anyone* who says differently is selling something." Mother's Day is this Sunday, May...
The late, beloved Robin Smith's rocking chair. This year May 6-10 is Teacher Appreciation Week, with today, May 7, 2024, marked as National Teacher Day. Please #ThankaTeacher — including teacher librarians, if your district is lucky enough to have them — and remember the extreme difficulties, unique challenges, and seeming near-impossibilities that our educators face on...
April 30 is El día de los niños / El día de los libros (Children's Day/Book Day), a "celebration of children, families, and reading...that emphasizes the importance of literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds." This year marks the twenty-eighth anniversary of Día — read about its history here and find resources...
Let's Go! © 2024 by Julie Flett. I’m not a skateboarder, but it sure looks like fun in Julie Flett’s picture book Let’s Go! (at right). It’s a story about a kid mustering the courage to try something new (using Mom’s childhood skateboard!) and then finding — and helping build...
Today is Patriots' Day in Massachusetts, a state and regional holiday that commemorates the Battles of Lexington and Concord and the beginnings of the Revolutionary War. It's the day the Boston Marathon is traditionally run, and the start of Spring Break for the public schools. To keep the little ones busy,...