As soon as I saw Janet Nolan’s new book, Get Ready For School (Albert Whitman), I knew it would be the perfect book to feature in a late-July post. This is an ideal book to share with kiddos on the cusp of that all-important (and more than a little intimidating) …
Something different today, audience participation required. (Well, not required. But very sincerely appreciated.) Each summer, as we’ve been doing for many years, my friend Linda Skeers and I co-host a summer picture book writing retreat/workshop. Each summer, we raid our personal bookshelves and lug hundreds of picture books to the …
Want to show a kiddo how one small act of kindness, multiplied, can make a real difference to somebody in need? There’s a book for that… Marsha Diane Arnold’s latest story, One Small Thing, features forest characters who exemplify kindness and thoughtfulness after their friend Raccoon’s home is destroyed. None …
I’m especially excited today because it’s PUBLICATION DAY for my newest book, Stinkbird Has a Superpower (Putnam), book #1 of a new series featuring animals with superpowers. As you can see, this one’s illustrated by Bob Shea … still hard not to call him The Bob Shea, because that’s how …
Oh, readers. This book. Talk about a work of art. Here at PBB, we like to talk about a book’s one outstanding element. But I’m really not sure where to begin with FINDING FAMILY – The Duckling Raised by Loons, the latest from Laura Purdie Salas and Alexandria Neonakis, because …
I had the chance to see Rebecca Gardyn Levington’s second book, WHATEVER COMES TOMORROW (Barefoot Books), illus by Mariona Cabassa, and was again blown away by her rhyming skills. This is a beautiful package: exacting rhyme that flows so smoothly it doesn’t feel like it took any work at all …
I’ve been following the work of illustrator Rebecca Gibbon for a couple of years now, ever since learning she’d be illustrating my 2024 biography with Calkins Creek, BIRD GIRL. So when I heard that Rebecca had illustrated author Gretchen Woelfle’s new book, A TAKE-CHARGE GIRL Blazes a Trail to Congress: The …
This one’s a gem, people. I cannot recommended it highly enough. You can’t help but notice the art first, naturally. You get a look at this amazing cover, and you wonder: Can it be that the entire book is this impossibly appealing? Oh, it be, all right. Every page turn …
Note: Two things. First of all, thank you for hanging in with us, readers, while our site experienced technical difficulties that brought our emails to a screeching halt AND made it impossible for any of you to comment. PLEASE revisit recent posts, especially those featuring book giveaway contests you were …
Dictionaries are always evolving and changing, of course, as our language does the same. But adding words means removing others to make room. Understandable, right? But when Oxford University Press, back in 2007, removed 40 common nature words from their Oxford Junior Dictionary—words like acorn, bramble, dandelion, kingfisher, pasture, weasel, …