• Lists

    RIP Gary Paulsen

    woods

    Gary Paulsen passed away yesterday at the age of 82. He was the author of over 200 books during his life, one of his most famous being Hatchet. Like so many kids growing up in the ’90s, we read Hatchet in school. And although I’ve got to be honest, I…

  • Lists

    Summer of Nonfiction: Young Adult

    nonfiction summer

    In my Summer of Nonfiction: Young Adult list, I tried to include a diverse list of titles including personal memoirs, major historical events, and a few titles about events or people you might not even be aware of! As with my middle grade nonfiction list, there could be a number…

  • Lists

    Three on a Theme: Hispanic Heritage Month

    I cheated a little bit this week for my Three on a Theme and went with six books – the past three years’ of authors and illustrators who have won the Pura Belpré Award. The Pura Belpré Award “established in 1996, is presented to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose…

  • Lifestyle

    Jacqueline Woodson at the Free Library of Philadelphia

    If you know anything about me at all, you’ll probably pick up that I’m a planner – I like to know what’s happening, when it’s happening and what is expected of me. So when I scrolling through Twitter yesterday morning and saw that Jacqueline Woodson (yes, the Jacqueline Woodson) was going…

  • Lifestyle

    Arthur Curley Lecture: Ishmael Beah

    I had the great pleasure of attending the Arthur Curley Lecture featuring Ishmael Beah yesterday afternoon. For those unfamiliar with Ishmael Beah, he was born and raised in Sierra Leone and at the age of 12 became a child soldier, but was later adopted and moved to America where he…