Cindy: In West Michigan, we live in a snow globe for much of the winter due to the lake effect snow from Lake Michigan, but now other parts of the country are living in one as well—my daughter in North Carolina had enough snow last week to make a full-size snowman! The snow globe phenomenon […]
Lynn: I read for work and pleasure, so I think about both reading choices and the act of reading often. As reviewers, Cindy and I discuss who reads what all the time, but what I’m musing about today does not concern work, but personal choices. How do you, dear reader, decide what to read next? […]
Lynn: I think we can all agree that this is quite a politically divisive time; no one can seem to agree on much of anything. One rare commonality is how often people pull the Constitution and the Founding Fathers into their arguments. Further, many seem certain that the Founding Fathers knew exactly what they were […]
Cindy: Do you need a last-minute gift for a reader on your list? Scoop up a copy of Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks (2017) by Annie Spence. I received this little treasure a few months ago from a teacher who said I needed it. He also bought one for his long-retired […]
Cindy: What’s black and white and NEON all over? YA fiction book covers, that’s what. Lynn recently wrote a post about Moxie, and while reading about Amy Poehler’s movie rights for that story, I added it to my saved list of color-coordinated titles. Laini Taylor led the black and white and neon way a few […]
Lynn: High-school junior Vivian Carter has always loved looking in the battered shoebox labeled “My Misspent Youth” on her mother’s shelf. These days, Vivian’s mom is a widowed, hard-working urgent care nurse. But back in the day, Viv’s mom was a punk rock-loving, feminist zine-creating Riot Grrl, and that box is full of mementos of that […]
President Obama’s historic December 17, 2014 order to “normalize relations” between the United States and Cuba began the restoration of diplomacy after more than half a century of hostile restrictions. His 72-hour visit to Havana in March 2016—the first made by a sitting president since Coolidge in 1928—opened and encouraged travel in both directions. The thaw, […]
Lynn: Looking for a heart-thumping thriller? Anne Sibley O’Brien’s In the Shadow of the Sun (2017) was already a great choice, but then the political situation with North Korea got even worse, heightening its timeliness and intensity. Twelve-year-old Mia Andrews and her surly older brother Simon—who we learn has been “mad since August”—are touring North […]
Lynn: For 200 carefully selected teens, a hangar in the cornfields of Iowa is where their future will be decided. They’ve made it this far, but now the tests have gotten really tough. Only two young people will be chosen to join NASA’s Interworld Agency, which has decided to add a third team to its […]
This intense trailer is only a taste of what is to come in Lauren DeStefano’s new novel, The Glass Spare. Wilhelmina Heidle, the fourth child of a greedy king, must come to terms with her unique ability to turn living things into gemstones. In this novel of self-discovery, Wil will need more than her own willpower […]
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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