• Activities

    Blogging A to Z: Disability

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    Reluctance doesn’t always come from not wanting to read. Sometimes reluctance comes from an undiagnosed disability that makes reading difficult for kids. I’ll be honest, I don’t know a lot about the process of testing and diagnosis, but I think it’s important for families to advocate for their children if…

  • Reviews

    Aven Green Sleuthing Machine

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    Synopsis: “Third-grader Aven Green has been solving mysteries for a whole month—cracking such cases as The Mystery of the Cranky Mom. But can this perceptive detective solve two cases at the same time? First her teacher’s lunch bag disappears. Then Aven’s great-grandma’s dog goes missing. Fortunately, since Aven was born without arms,…

  • Lists

    Three on a Theme: Winter Animals

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    I love winter when it means that I can stay home curled up in my reading chair with a great book! Otherwise, I’m not a huge fan of the cold. It was 9°F this week, my body doesn’t even know how to function in that weather! I had layers on…

  • Lists

    Three on a Theme: World Braille Day

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    Happy World Braille Day! Celebrated every year on Louis Braille’s birthday, the inventor of Braille, World Braille Day promotes the accessibility and independence for people who are blind or visually impaired.  Diversity reaches beyond skin color and religious beliefs and I’m always interested in promoting books that share the experience of…

  • Lists

    Top Ten Tuesday: New to Me Authors in 2017

    I started reviewing what I had read in 2017 and realized that I was already familiar with many of the authors I read, but there were a number of really amazing debut novels this year, so I focused my Top Ten list on those authors – new to me (and…

  • Lists

    Top Ten Tuesday: Books I'm Thankful For

    This list could go on forever, so I tried to force myself to keep to titles that I’m thankful for that were published this year in middle grade fiction. I still had a lot more titles that I would love to highlight, but here’s what I came up with for…

  • Reviews

    Picture Book Month: Courage

    An inspirational story about never giving up and working hard to reach your goal. Emmanuel was born with a fully developed leg and in an area of Ghana where having a disability was seen as a curse and bad luck. But his mother never gave up on him, teaching him…

  • Lists

    Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Want My Future Children to Read

    There are so many amazing books available to kids in this day and age. It was hard to pick just ten, but I focused on ten titles that show a wide diversity in terms of culture, gender, race, ability, socioeconomic status and more. It’s important for kids to see all…

  • Lists

    It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 3/27/17

    I finally finished Carmer and Grit: The Wingsnatchers by Sarah Jean Horowitz – it took me quite a while to finish and it wasn’t because I didn’t enjoy reading it, for whatever reason it just took me some time. It’s the perfect book if you have a middle grade reader who likes fairies…