Bean lives across the street from Ivy, and she wants nothing to do with her. Ivy seemed like such a nice girl, and to Bean, nice is a synony...

In her back-of-the-book bio, Kathryn Lasky acknowledges a long fascination with owls and mentions her extensive research for an intended no...

Attention! Attention, readers who long for adventure. Readers who wish to feel the strong, fresh breeze of the sea. Readers with ideas of ch...

Hello to everyone attending the 2008 Ohio District Educators' Conference. It's an honor to be asked to lead sectionals for your conf...

When Artie King and his family move to a new town, that of course means a new school. Camelot Middle School. After missing the bus on the fi...

Hello to everyone in Little Rock attending the 2008 Arkansas Reading Recovery & Comprehensive Literacy K-8 Conference ! I'm looking ...

My initial thought after reading Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka was that it might be in my best interests to not share it with students. Aft...

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. More recommended books are on the way shortly. For real. It's not like I haven't been writing...

On page one we learn that Baron von Baddie was a genius. And if page two didn't flat out tell us so, we'd quickly figure out he'...

Raise your hand if you know a boy / have a boy / taught a boy / ARE a boy that has a cowlick. There’s probably one in your family. If you’re...

Chowder is back, in all his drooly, slobbery greatness. He's dying to attend Twisty's Acrobatic Fanatic Camp, but Twisty doesn't...

The Van Gogh Cafe sits in Flowers, Kansas, a town not much more than a speed bump on Interstate 70. It's like any small town cafe - good...

So it's time for Another Perfect Day , a day where everything goes exactly as you'd want it. What does it include? A human rocket la...

Sometimes kids work amazingly hard – incredibly, astonishingly, extraordinarily hard – at avoiding work. The tactics children take to avoid ...

It's the start of the school year, things are happening ninety minutes to the hour, and the book posts are coming fewer and farther betw...

Edwurd Fudwupper is the king of liars, or, as his sister Fanny explains, “From a long list of liars, there’s none higher upper than my fibb...

There are certain things that get children's attention, especially in books. In the first few pages of My Little Sister Ate One Hare , B...

After Peggy Gifford gives a few introductory Moxy facts – nine years old, starting fourth grade, has big plans – readers of Moxy Maxwell Do...

All we’ve come to love about Clementine is back in Clementine’s Letter . Her visits with Mrs. Rice, her vegetable-named brother, her awesome...

In The Talented Clementine , the second book in Sara Pennypacker's Clementine series, I’m immediately reminded why I like this little g...

After an in-flight explosion sends Otto Malpense sailing chaotically through the night sky and plummeting toward the earth at breakneck spee...

Here is a list of all the books I mentioned this morning at the Summer Literacy Institute and a bunch of bonus titles I couldn't get to....

Oh what a difference one little letter can make. Pet or pest? That’s the question being asked by Buzz, the pith helmet wearing, neighborhood...

Beware of the Frog is about a “sweet little old lady named Mrs. Collywobbles” who “lives in a little house on the edge of a big, dark, scar...