Sorry for the radio silence. I have been sleeping, watching TV, listening to books, reading books, managing my emails, playing with Ruby, and dealing with Facebook. I have listened to Megan Whalen Turner’s The Return of the Thief. I have read a Sitting in St. James by Rita Williams-Garcia. I have perused Carole Boston Weatherford’s Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre and Lynne Rae Perkins’ The Museum of Everything. I will do posts about them later. I have watched The Mysterious Benedict Society, Sweet Tooth, In the Heights, and The Mandalorian. I am working on a book with Lesley Younge. We ta ..read more

This looks amazing. CANNOT WAIT ..read more

On the last day of ALA, I did a last wander of the exhibits right before they closed and received an unexpected and wonderful gift — a bound manuscript of Neal Shusterman‘s The Toll, the finale of his Arc of a Scythe series. (FYI: I was just at the right place at the right time — they had only brought a handful — and I don’t believe I would have been given it if I’d gone by earlier.) No worries, no spoilers here; I’m just letting fans know that I thought it wonderful. On Goodreads I wrote: I would give this ten stars and more if I could. Extraordinary. One of the best things I’ve read in a whi ..read more

Had a lovely time visiting Washington DC last week, mostly for ALA’s annual convention, but not completely. Some highlights: Visiting the United States Holocaust Museum. I was last there when it opened, but am now contemplating telling my father’s story (who came from Germany in 1936 at age 14) and wanted to see specifically how the museum presented the rise of the Third Reich. Took a ton of pictures and was especially interested in the other visitors. They were respectful and quiet in a way that indicated horror. When resting in the atrium afterward spoke with an older black woman who spoke o ..read more

Had fun coming up, along with fellow committee members Kim and Cindy, with questions for the creators of The Patchwork Bike, Maxine Beneba Clarke and illustrator Van Thanh Rudd, for Horn Book.  Check them out here.  Also, they are working on a sequel — The Patchwork Sky. Very, very cool ..read more

Jennifer Frank’s Teaching Tolerance article, “Lies My Bookshelf  Told Me: Slavery in Children’s Literature” is an excellent addition to what is already out there on this topic. With a fresh and clear-sighted tone, Frank unpacks this for those who may have not yet considered it. Several voices are included in the article, among them the University of Pennsylvania’s Professor Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, a leading academic expert it in this topic (and someone I’ve known and admired for decades).  The article ends with a list of “Recommended Books That Address Slavery” and I was incredibly honored to ..read more

Yesterday morning Horn Book Magazine editor Roger Sutton announced the winners at the beginning of School Library Journal’s Day of Dialog. You can see the recording of that here. Participating in this process was a wonderful experience and I can’t thank Roger enough for inviting me to chair the committee and for my thoughtful, flexible, hard reading, hard-working, smart, and enjoyable fellow travelers — Kim L. Parker and Cindy Ritter. Ladies, it was grand and I can’t wait to celebrate these books and their creators with you in October. Here’s the press release: THE BOSTON GLOBE–HORN BOOK AWARD ..read more

This past weekend I was sequestered at Simmons University, deliberating with Kim L. Parker and Cindy Ritter (with ample tasty donuts and pastries).  After a long and stimulating day (after many months of heavy reading), we had our winners and honors. Next Wednesday, May 29th, Horn Book editor Roger Sutton will announce them at SLJ’s Day of Dialog and I can’t wait to see what you all think. From this blog post: On Wednesday, May 29, 2019, at 8:30 am EDT, The Horn Book, Inc., Editor in Chief Roger Sutton will be announcing the winners of the 2019 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, during School Lib ..read more

I’m not a GoT fan, but have followed the discussion of the finale with interest as it is so in the public right now. The following from this article caught my attention: Yet how many readers have fallen for and fallen into Tolkien and Rowling’s worlds, only to let out a disbelieving protest in the final pages? “Gollum would never have stumbled with the ring into Mount Doom?” “Voldemort’s death makes no sense.” Huh? is my response. The ending of Harry Potter wasn’t about Voldemort, but other things and it was hotly debated by fans. But Lord of the Rings? I was unaware that there was any debate ..read more

Last year I began exploring the possibility of a literature-connected STEM unit for my 4th grade students around refugees with my school’s Engineering chair, Dr. Michael Sloan Warren. Early on I suggested we center it around Andrea Davis Pinkney’s beautiful verse-novel, The Red Pencil (which I had reviewed for the New York Times). We also used a number of refugee-centered picture-books, among them some I also reviewed for the Times.  We recently finished running the unit and are thrilled with how well it turned out. I can’t wait to do it again next year (and am excited that some of my colleag ..read more