All posts in Biography for Kids

Abraham Lincoln birthday hat craft pragmatic mom

Abraham Lincoln Top Hat Craft and Book for Kids

Abe Lincoln Craft and Book

In honor of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, the Historic Museum in my town is doing a workshop for kids that combines reading a biography picture book with an art project. Unfortunately, we can’t attend the event that day because we are so over scheduled we will be watching The Road to Nowhere during that time. I’m kidding. The showing for The Road to Nowhere was actually last week in my local theater. Here’s the irony on that: you had to buy a ticket in advance and it sold out. I guess that is a way to screen out the slacker moms who shouldn’t be there anyway. Read more…

Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, best kidlit, children's literature

Lifetime Achievement Award for Children’s Book Authors

Best Children’s Book Authors Ever!

Administered by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award was first given to its namesake in 1954. The award, a bronze medal, honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children. Read more…

6th grade books, 7th grade reading list, 6th grade chapter books, 7th grade chapter books, a million miles from boston

Books for 5th Grade and 6th Grade

New Books for 5th Grade and 6th Grade

This great list is from my local library, the Newton Free Library. If you are part of the Minuteman Library System, just click on the title to reserve the book. These lists have a great mix of graphic novels, non-fiction, poems, fiction, audio books and more. I have more lists here: Read more…

One Crazy Summer won crazy amount of awards black panther movement martin luther king jr. day pragmatic mom

Best Children’s Books on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Celebrating MLK Day with Children’s Books

My youngest, who was then just 3 and in preschool, came home one day talking about an upcoming holiday celebrating a king.  ”Elvis?”, we wondered.  ”There is no king in the United States!,” we said.  Still, he insisted so we continued to probe.  ”It’s his birthday,” my son said, “so I don’t go back to school for three sleep and wake ups.”  Oh!!!  We suddenly understood:  he was talking about Martin Luther King, Jr.!! Read more…

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Clara Barton, Florence Nightingale … and Mary Breckenridge (ages 9-12)

Female Role Models: Extraordinary Nurses in History

Mary on Horseback: Three Mountain Stories by Rosemary Wells

If you hear Rosemary Wells and think Max and Ruby , Yoko and Friends or McDuff, you have the right author. She is an author, like Cynthia Rylant, who has incredible range and also have ties to the Appalachians. I had read biographies in 5th grade about Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale but I was not familiar with Mary Breckenridge until I happened upon this book and it turns out that she deserves the same recognition, if not more so. Read more…