“Few children learn to love books by themselves. Someone has to lure them into the wonderful world of the written word; someone has to show them the way.” -Orville Prescott, A Father Reads to His Children

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One of the best parts of our recent trip to Richmond was our visit to bbgb, an absolutely fantastic children’s book store. I have two wonderful literary friends who live in Richmond and bbgb seemed like the perfect place to re-connect. Meg Medina (far left) is the author of Milagros: Girl from Away and Tia […]

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  We just returned from four days in Richmond, Virginia. In this town, Rob and I graduated from college,  lived as newlyweds and brought both our babies home for the first time. When we left nearly five years ago, we promised to come back again and again. After one quick visit, the winter after we […]

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I found this note on Katherine’s desk tonight. It reads “I love myself.” Could a mother ask for anything more?

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A few weeks ago I wrote a post about how simple it really can be to help your child become  a reader. I got a great response from that post and was reminded again this week of how important this message is. I evaluated a little girl who is reading far below grade level. Her parents read […]

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The 2011 Cybils have been revealed! I am so proud to have been part of the amazing panel who chose Mo Willems, I Broke My Trunk as the Easy Reader winner and Have Fun Anna Hibiscus as the Early Chapter Book winner. There are summaries of each of these books and short posts about why we […]

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A few years ago, I realized that pets were called pets because they liked to be pet. And when I a say a few  years ago, I mean when I was in my 30s. I felt quite silly as it now seems so obvious. And then last night, I found a whole new reason to […]

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Both of my girls were huge Mama’s Girls, until they weren’t. Caroline and Rob began to bond a few years back over a shared love of the Yankees. While Caroline still thinks I’m pretty great, there are nights that she nearly knocks me over, running past me to greet Rob when he arrives home from […]

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Sometimes I think my girls have been handed a script from the great blog writing assistant in the sky. The things that come out of their mouths are just too good. The other day, Katherine spotted the book Here Come the Girl Scouts on my desk. I was planning on using it during an upcoming […]

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I spent a good part of  my morning thinking about and talking about the inequity that exists in our public schools. Whenever I have this conversation, I can’t help but think of my favorite Mem Fox quote. “If every parent understood the huge educational benefits and intense happiness brought about by reading aloud to their children, […]

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