Julia Smith is an associate editor for Books for Youth at Booklist. She is a graduate of the MLIS program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is also trained in aerial acrobatics. Follow her on Twitter at @JuliaKate32.
There’s a cannibalistic theme running through picture books at the moment, with several offering lessons in not eating your friends or classmates. This, of course, is plated up with humor and a side of manners, but sometimes not even the best etiquette can save the day. It’s not all heartless carnage, however. Unconventional diets are also […]
Growing up, I leapt from children’s books directly to adult novels, and found Agatha Christie and Elizabeth Peters to be marvelous company. I must admit that I was, and remain, more of a Poirot girl than Miss Marple devotee, but I’d happily lose myself in Christie’s novels whoever the detective happened to be. It is […]
The first thing you learn about Amy Krouse Rosenthal when you visit her website is that she “is a person who likes to make things.” And make things, she did: picture books, essays, films, lectures. Lucky for us, the things she made, she also shared, and with them an inspirational and inspired dose of life […]
My first job in Chicago—my first job as a college graduate, for that matter—was as a Christmas elf for Marshall Field’s in its final year of existence. My best friend and I drove here from Baltimore in a little Penske truck so that she could pursue her improv dreams at Second City. I tagged along as […]
Well, I’ve done it. I entered the Riggs-Burton time loop and emerged intact and, on the whole, pleased. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, you’re clearly not among the Peculiar initiate. Yet. I’m referring, of course, to Tim Burton’s new film adaptation of Ransom Riggs’ Miss Peregrine’s Home for […]
Facts versus romance You go and call yourself the boss But we’re not robots inside a grid Text versus romance You go and add it all you want Still we’re not robots inside a grid Zeros and ones —”Science vs. Romance,” by Rilo Kiley But what if you are a robot? Are you not capable of love, […]
I have a confession. If I were to have an alter ego, it would be a punk-rock chick. I am about as far from punk rock as you can get, which, perhaps, accounts for my fascination with this culture. I love rules; I’m not very political; and I hate wearing black, though I’d happily dye […]
Faith, magic, and science converge in Frances Hardinge’s The Lie Tree. On the small island of Vale, something unnatural this way comes. Is it wicked? Perhaps, but it is quickly evident in Hardinge’s newest tale—following her acclaimed Cuckoo Song (2015)—that things are not what they seem, and the answers to such questions are rarely black and white. As […]
Kathi Appelt and Alison McGhee’s collaborative novel entwines the story of one girl’s grief with that of a fox with a rare but important destiny. Among Jules and Sylvie Sherman’s dad’s Do Not rules is that they are never to go near the Slip, a dangerous point where the Whippoorwill River surges beneath the ground […]
I’m in the midst of packing up my apartment to move, and by far the biggest undertaking has been boxing up my books. It is a fun chance to look through everything—I’ve even convinced myself to donate at least a few of the books I’d forgotten about entirely. But one book that surfaced is one that […]
Encouraging Middle-Schoolers to Choose Books
There’s been a lot of discussion among the librarians I know about what to do with middle-schoolers: they just don’t seem to read as much as they used to. I know that here in Chicago, we have a unique perspective on this situation, since our schools run K–8. In my former school system in Maryland […]
Getting Started with the Global Read Aloud
The 2017 Global Read Aloud kicked off yesterday, and I’m here to help. Author and educator Pernille Ripp founded the program as a way to connect students and teachers from different locales around the topics of books. (Think One Book One School or One Book One City, but on a global scale.) Each year, Ripp […]
TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: Practice Recognizing Fake News
Cindy: There have been a number of YA fiction books with the title “Two Truths and a Lie,” but we’ve found a creative, informational book for middle-grade students that reinforces evaluating information for truth. Fake news, anyone? Two Truths and a Lie: It’s Alive (2017) by Ammi-Joan Paquette and Laurie Ann Thompson is the first […]
Encouraging Middle-Schoolers to Choose Books
There’s been a lot of discussion among the librarians I know about what to do with middle-schoolers: they just don’t seem to read as much as they used to. I know that here in Chicago, we have a unique perspective on this situation, since our schools run K–8. In my former school system in Maryland […]
Getting Started with the Global Read Aloud
The 2017 Global Read Aloud kicked off yesterday, and I’m here to help. Author and educator Pernille Ripp founded the program as a way to connect students and teachers from different locales around the topics of books. (Think One Book One School or One Book One City, but on a global scale.) Each year, Ripp […]
TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: Practice Recognizing Fake News
Cindy: There have been a number of YA fiction books with the title “Two Truths and a Lie,” but we’ve found a creative, informational book for middle-grade students that reinforces evaluating information for truth. Fake news, anyone? Two Truths and a Lie: It’s Alive (2017) by Ammi-Joan Paquette and Laurie Ann Thompson is the first […]
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