• Reviews

    Green

    This little book is absolutely delightful!  It’s s a true celebration of the color green in all of its forms and could be used as easily in story time or on-on-one.  It would also be a great book to use to discuss color in an art class as well.  Laura…

  • Activities

    Fun Friday Program

    As we began making plans for this winter, I decided that we had a great opportunity to provide to our elementary age students once a month on a Friday afternoon.  Our school district gives the children a half day on a the second Friday of every month, giving the teachers…

  • Reviews

    Tracing Stars

     Tracing Stars is a coming of age story for a young girl in a small coastal town where being different makes you stand out.  Indie Lee Chickory is a fish freak – she’s knows everything there is to know about the fish that can be found in the ocean that borders town.  She…

  • Reviews

    Seymour Simon’s Extreme Earth Records

    I had the privilege of listening to Seymour Simon speak at a conference last year and I was blown away by the number of books he has written and his amazing website filled to the brim with information about almost every topic you could imagine – especially if it has…

  • Reviews

    The Book Whisperer

    The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child by Donalyn Miller is definitely geared toward elementary and even middle school teachers, but I found it very interesting.  Miller makes the case that children will turn into lifelong readers, by choosing what they read and by getting in the habit…

  • Lifestyle

    2012 Cybils Shortlist

    The Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards have announced the shortlist for 2012!  Definitely take a look as these are some of the great books published during the past year.  Winners will be announced on February 14th and the judges are people who regularly submit to a blog about…

  • Lifestyle

    2012 Nerdies Book Awards

    If you don’t follow The Nerdy Book Club blog, you are definitely missing out!  The blog is written by three school teachers from different schools across the country and blog book reviews and other information about children’s books.  They specifically have created their own awards called The Nerdies Book Awards where books…

  • Reviews

    When Santa Fell to Earth

    As many others out there do, I drove multiple hours to get to my parent’s house for the Christmas holiday and I have found that if I can find a really good book on CD that the trip goes that much more quickly.  As I was perusing the shelves before…

  • Reviews

    Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Subsitute

    Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute is the prefect start to a series of books for reluctant readers – especially elementary school-age boys.  Jarrett Krosoczka’s graphic novel format works perfectly for reluctant readers with minimal text and a lot of action.  The plot line follows the lunch lady and her assistant…

  • Reviews

    Starry River of the Sky

    Starry River of the Sky is written by Grace Lin and is considered a companion novel to Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.  In both of these stories, Lin takes the Chinese folklore that she so desperately did not want to hear as a child and creates her own spin…