What’s a school author visit via Skype like? I just experienced two successful ones so I thought I’d share my experience in the hopes that you will be able to get authors to your kids’ school too! Skype is really very easy and kids are surprisingly unperturbed when there are minor technical issues which can…
Category: Best Books for Kids
Best picture books, chapter books, young adult books, graphic novels and non fiction for kids.
2014 Asian American Children’s Book Awards & Kid Lit Blog Hop
Have you heard of the APALA children’s book awards? Of course not. I blogged for three years on children’s books seeking out the best Asian American KidLit and I didn’t know about it. That’s a shame because Asian American children’s books are slowly coming into their own, well on the heels perhaps of the Asian…
Amazing Parrots 3 Book GIVEAWAY
It’s my turn to choose the Picture Book of the Day and I picked the 2014 Seibert Winner, Parrots Over Puerto Rico. I thought we’d explore parrots today with a non-fiction picture book, a singalong parrot picture book and an easy reader with a naughty parrot. Next, I clear up confusion that I have about…
14 Funny Science-y Math-y Chapter Books for ages 7 and up
There seems to be a new sub-genre in children’s books that targets boys to get them reading. It’s for boys like my own who graduated from potty and underwear humor (ok, maybe they never do!) and still want funny but with a science twist. This is not to say that these books are science fiction;…
Judging the Cybils Graphic Novels Category
There were so many great graphic novels on the short list for the Cybils, particularly in the Young Adult category! The Cybils do not include honorable mentions so my take is just my own opinion and not that of the Graphic Novel judging committee. I wanted to spotlight a few standouts that are worth hunting down….
Multicultural Winners from ALA and Kid Lit Blog Hop
I was so happy to see multicultural children’s books win ALA awards (that were not specific diversity awards such as the Pura Belpré, the Coretta Scott King, or the Schneider Family Book Award. Many are on my to-be-found-and-read-pile so I thought I’d share a few of them today. 2014 Printz Award Honor Books: Eleanor & Park by…
27 Children’s Books About the Arab World
Please welcome my guest blogger, author Elsa Marston who has a wonderful book list for children about the Arab World including picture books, advanced picture books, chapter books, a graphic novel, and young adult books. How can we Americans hope ever to understand the Middle East? Not very easily, I’m afraid, it’s complicated. But we can gain an…







