I have yet to meet a kid who doesn’t love rocks. Any kind of rock, really. Gravel on a path, landscaping rocks, rocks in other people’s yards, gemstones and geodes — you name it, they usually love it. And if they’re anything like my kid, they’ll say things like, “I’m going to put this in my pocket to take home and save.” And then they’ll add it to their ever-growing collection on a shelf in their room. I mean, what’s not to love, right? Rocks can tell us all about the history of the Earth if we know what to look for. Plus, many of them are cool shapes and textures or just feel really good to h ..read more

Figuring out what books to read to your kids can be a challenge—at the library, I see people struggling with it constantly. There are so many books for kids out there, and as adults, not everyone knows the difference between a picture book for a two-year-old or a five-year-old. Or a board book that is aimed at teaching concepts to a newborn baby vs. one more aimed at amusing the parents. And while your local librarian is probably happy to help you, sometimes it can be challenging to get out and visit a library for advice. Signing up for book subscriptions for kids, even just short term for a f ..read more

The weather is getting warmer, and the flowers are blooming, which makes March a great month for reading outside (though if you have allergies like me, maybe pack a box of tissues with you!). I often bring along a children’s book on our outdoor excursions, and there are lots of March children’s book releases to choose from. While March always has a lot of book releases, this March has just SO MANY. I know I say this every month, but because of the unusually high number of March children’s book releases, I had an extra hard time narrowing this list down to ten books. All this to say, if you wan ..read more

We all know that kids love to play and that it’s a crucial way they learn about the world, but did you know that play directly helps children develop early literacy skills? That’s part of why how-to books for kids are so important, as they can help guide children in making and building things in imaginative ways. Learning to craft and build is a form of playtime and is especially important for the development of a five to nine-year-old’s brain. Additionally, skills like origami, drawing, gardening, and cooking can help with promoting physical abilities; think of how using craft tools like scis ..read more

Black History Month often finds non-Black caregivers searching for Black middle grade authors to read to their kids, and while supporting Black authors is always a good thing, books about Black experiences and Black authors need to be read every month of the year, something Black kids and caregivers know well. In a study done by WordsRated, there was a 23% decrease in Black characters in children’s bestseller lists from 2020 to 2021, a fact attributed to the fading interest in the Black Lives Matter Movement. I decided to do some research into the 2023 New York Times best-seller middle grade l ..read more

2024 marks the 45th anniversary of the Choose Your Own Adventure series’ inception. We’re celebrating here by ranking the classic Choose Your Own Adventure book covers of the 20th century and presenting you with the best of the best. If you’re due for a dose of nostalgia, keep scrolling to relive those rainy Saturday afternoons spent trying to find all 25 — or more — possible endings. Note: In pulling this piece together, I am deeply indebted to Demian Katz and his Gamebook Web Page, which catalogs copious amounts of data on Choose Your Own Adventure and other gamebook series. If you’re lookin ..read more

Because I write about sex for a living—and because I maintain an online database of sex ed resources for parents and other caregivers—publicists often send me stuff that is sex- and sex ed-adjacent. You know. PMDD devices. Lazy eye lifts (?). Every CBD product known to man. (Seriously. Stop sending me CBD pitches.) On top of all these, there are also the middle grade novels with themes around sex ed or puberty or menstruation. In the past, I’ve rarely read them, as I don’t often include fiction in the Guerrilla Sex Ed database. But as my child has hit the tween years and has started to read ch ..read more

We are now in the second month of 2024! I am still setting reading goals and making lists of books I want to read this year. My goal is to read at least 60 middle grade novels in 2024, and I’m off to a good start! I had a long list of February children’s book releases that I’ve read and loved and needed to narrow down for this list, so make sure to sign up for The Kids Are All Right newsletter, where I review even more new releases. February is typically the coldest month of the year where I live in Tennessee, so it’s the perfect time to snuggle under blankets with a cup of tea and a good book ..read more

The media is a purveyor of what our culture sees as normal and positive, and that is why pop culture tropes such as “Bury Your Gays” have had such pushback. Though focused on the medium of film, many of the points made in The Celluloid Closet documentary — and the book by the late Vito Russo — are still apt for a variety of media portrayals of queerness. For one, historian Richard Dyer explains, “Our ideas about who you are don’t just come from inside you. They come from the culture […] what it means to be a man or a woman, what it means to have sexuality.” This is especially true for middle g ..read more

The winners of this year’s American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards have been announced. These awards, often colloquially referred to as the Oscars of children’s literature, honor the best books published for young people in the prior year. This year’s winners are as follows: American Indian Youth Literature Award Picture Book Winners: Forever Cousins by Laurel Goodluck (Mandan & Hidatsa and Tsimshian), illustrated by Jonathan Nelson (Navajo/Diné) and A Letter for Bob by Kim Rogers (Wichita & Affiliated Tribes), illustrated by Jonathan Nelson (Navajo/Diné) Picture Book Honors ..read more