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,...
April 10 is National Siblings Day (the picture above is Roger's brother with his bloopah). Here are some booklists and articles that highlight "siblings doing what siblings do best." Find more at Horn Book Family Reading blog; at Siblings tag; and lots and lots more at the Guide/Reviews Database subject Family--Siblings. From Notes from...
Happy 2024! What did YOU read at the end of the year? Here are a few of mine: And during break I got to introduce my younger child to this classic: ...
The weekend before last, my younger son and I had a splendid time visiting the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and attending the opening reception of the R. Michelson Galleries 34th Annual Children’s Illustration Celebration. We arrived at the Carle just too late to see the Telling Tales &...
Some grandparents remember their grandchildren’s early years as a kaleidoscope of blocks, plastic stacking rings, sticky highchair trays, and cars named Doc Hudson, Lightning McQueen and Flo. What I remember are book characters: Davy the sheep from Matthew Cordell’s Another Brother, the doleful rodent in Robert Kraus’s Whose Mouse Are...
"Little Amal has become an international symbol of compassion and of human rights. She carries a message of hope for displaced people everywhere, especially children who have been separated from their families." (From WalkwithAmal.org) Last week, my family was able to "meet" Little Amal as she made her walk through...
When I wrote this editorial for July's issue of Notes from the Horn Book, my own kids were still weeks away from back-to-school. Now the time has come! In solidarity with all late-starters: re-read our recommendations for school stories for all age groups, along with Five Questions interview with Kerascoët about...
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...