This weekend I attended the most wonderful event. BookFest. In case the name doesn’t just say it all, “BookFest is an event devoted to the celebration, discovery, and discussion of books for children and teens. This event, designed for adults, features luminaries from the children’s literature community. Authors, illustrators, editors, reviewers, and scholars will […]

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Katherine is going to Abma’s Farm tomorrow on her first field trip. As she said at dinner tonight, it is “the first field trip of her life.” I’m not sure what she is more excited to do- take the bus, go on a hay ride, choose a pumpkin or see the animals. She has been counting down the days since the […]

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I attended an interesting session about student vocabulary development at the Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project Saturday Reunion this past weekend. One of the points I took away was that we, as adults, need to think constantly about the words we use around children. If we want children to speak with more precise and intriguing words, […]

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Yesterday was just crazy. Between 5:50pm and 7:30pm we had to be a million places at once.  I am usually very protective of this time of day so everyone was really thrown for a loop. During all the running around we talked about the fact that I would be happy to write a note to […]

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I’m not sure how I missed knowing Naomi Shahib Nye but I’m awfully glad I found her this weekend at the Columbia Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project’s Saturday Reunion. Naomi presented the morning keynote and her words were every bit as inspiring as a good keynote should be. Because I was so touched by hearing […]

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As I wrote this post in my head, I kept thinking of a chicken with her head cut off. When I searched for pictures that went along with that image, they were pretty gross so you’ll just have to imagine and be satisfied with the crazy chicken instead. I am so incredibly overwhelmed right now […]

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I love seeing new e-mails appear in my inbox from Choice Literacy. To quote their website, Choice Literacy is dedicated to providing innovative, high-quality resources for K-12 literacy leaders. Founded in 2006, the website has grown to include over 700 professionally produced and edited video and print features from top educators in the field, as […]

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When I give presentations to parents, I talk a lot about how a love of reading is caught not taught. If we are telling our children how important it is read while sitting in front of the tv it’s just not going to work. Inevitably, I will have a mom who hopes that I will […]

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How did I miss this guy? Bob Shea is my new favorite author and now that I’ve found him, he’s showing  up all over the place. He has a funny clip going around on Facebook and one of my favorite kidlit bloggers, Jules of Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, not only wrote about him this […]

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I had to buy two birthday party gifts today so I headed off to my favorite children’s book store. As soon as I walked in, I knew I would be walking out with more than my two gifts. Sometimes my will power can be pretty strong and I am able to leave only with what […]

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