Bright Star by Yuyi Morales (Neal Porter Books, 2021) is not the kind of book I typically review. Is it too abstract for young readers?  But after two readings and especially reading the author’s note in the back which explains eleven reasons why she wrote the book, I fell in love with what this book represents for the author, and since I agree with her motivations for writing it, I decided to review it. With beautiful illustrations, the story follows a newborn fawn as it learns from its mother how to stay safe and that it is loved. But then, right in the middle there is an abrupt change ..read more

I thought I knew a fair bit about the octopus, but that was before I read Behold the Octopus! by Suzanne Slade and illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez (Peachtree Publishing 2023). The book is designed with a layered text format. Bigger, simpler text is on the left-facing page and smaller, detailed text that further explains the smaller text is on the right-facing page. A layered text allows for different ways to read the book and for different age readers to enjoy the book. Behold the Octopus! covers the basics, but then with examples gives us a picture of the incredible diversity of octopus speci ..read more

When I taught elementary school and the question of fairness came up, I tried to explain that fairness does not necessarily mean treating everyone the same. For example, I need glasses to see and if everyone was the same, perhaps I would not get glasses. That would not be fair to me. I admit it is not the best example, but students understood and could transfer the example to ones where a student gets special help or some students got a gift or a coat before school let out for the winter holidays. Fairness is about everyone getting what they need to thrive. In Big Red Lollipop by Rukhsana Kha ..read more

Our time in Finland was full of cloudy skies so we were not treated to green and pink curtains of solar particles shimmering in the skies. While that would have been icing on the cake, we had a wonderful trip and I got a needed fill of snow, northern latitude landscapes, new experiences and interesting people. Helsinki was vibrant, depite the cold and rain. A very walkable city with lots of modernista architecture. We had great meals and visited several museums, and Suomenlinna, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which needed a short ferry trip though 8-inch think ice floes. All interesting, but th ..read more

I have been fascinated with the Northern Lights ever since reading Balto with my daughter when she was young. I saw them for the first time in February 2023 on a trip to Tromsø, Norway. I would love to see them just on chance some time – an in the right place at the right time kind of situation. But I also love trying new things and so we are headed to Finland to try again. This time we will learn how to snowshoe, ice fish, and dog sled while we look for the lights. And, we get to sleep in glass igloos! I know though, that it all depends on a really dark night with no clouds, and some good so ..read more

We do not tend to think of spiders as jumping much, but if you are a jumping spider your life depends on it. Jessica Lanan brilliantly takes us on a journey to understand the world of the jumping spider in her book Jumper: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider (Roaring Brook Press, 2023). Her book is exactly the kind of book I appreciate and want to share because it so aligns with my desire to have young readers understand, appreciate, and respect the natural world around them. Comparing a jumping spider’s movement and sensory adaptations to humans using a young girl character we get ..read more

I hope your New Year has begun well and calmly. The beginning of a new year is a terrible time to feel stuck, but the feeling can happen to all of us no matter when in the year.  And for children, feeling stuck can be a difficult condition to navigate if it is a new experience for them or if solutions have never been modeled for them. That is why the book I am Stuck by Julia Mills (Clarion Books, 2023) is a great way to start the new year. It provides a silly story with a deeper meaning and some ways for children to cope when they are feeling stuck. Us adults can learn from it too. In th ..read more

This summer we put in a long awaited patio between the back of the house and the garden. When it was finished, my husband declared he wanted a hot tub and I declared that I wanted a frog pond. I bought a how-to book, read it, ordered a liner and started to dig. I am pleased that I did most of the digging myself. It is about 5 feet by 3 feet and 2-3 feet deep. Chris did help with some final digging and he helped me line it and add rocks around the edges. Then I waited. Everyone said, “If you build it, they will come.” How, when and from where? filled my thoughts. Sure enough, less than three w ..read more

I do not have a book review this week because we’ve been out of town, and then home for Thanksgiving prep and family time. My husband and I traveled to British Columbia – he is taking his phased retirement goals very seriously – where we visited Whistler, which we’ve never been to, and Tofino, which is a favorite place of ours. It was a visit full of hikes and walks among wonderful giant trees and along the Pacific coast. If we didn’t love where we live in Virginia so much, we would be tempted to move there. I do want to announce that I will be participating in ART IN THE BATHS December 9 at ..read more

This week I want to share a book about careful observation, kindness, families, penguins and love. Sounds like wonderful content, and it is. However, it has been banned countless times since it was published. And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell and illustrated by Henry Cole (Simon & Schuster, 2005) is a true story about a pair of male penguins at the Central Park Zoo who seemingly fall in love because they pair up together and exhibit the same behavior that males and females who pair together do during the mating season. One of the zookeepers was very attentive an ..read more