“What makes you big? What makes you small?” the blurb on the back of Nina Crews’ new book, I’M NOT SMALL, asks. In spare text and lively digital collage, a little boy, or maybe a BIG KID, sets off to explore this idea in his own backyard. When mom tells …
It’s summertime, summertime, sum-sum-summertime! If you jotted down a list of things that tie into this time of year, I’m pretty sure two of the items on your list would be outdoor adventures and bugs. Lucky for us, my critique buddies, Dianne White and Catherine Bailey, have new picture books …
THE BLUEST OF BLUES, Anna Atkins and the First Book of Photographs, written and breathtakingly illustrated by Fiona Robinson. Having a father who was a scientist, Anna Atkins was inspired by nature and education from a very early age. She studied shells, plants, insects, and illustrated their minute details. Her …
A writer named Rebecca Gardyn Levington came super close to being my #PBChat mentee in 2019. I wrote her a private note to let her know how impressed I was by her rhyming skills. So much so that I encouraged her to KEEP writing rhyming manuscripts (which I don’t often …
Geometry is one of my favorite math units to teach in kindergarten. Kindergartners mold playdough shapes for ages, chatter about sides and vertices, and become suddenly fascinated with rectangular tiles—tiles, people! And the books! We have enough shape books in our classroom library to fill a big ole’ basket. But can …
Recently, I was asked by one of my webinar attendees how I approach writing a sequel. I started my explanation when I realized I had written an entire post on this topic on Tara Lazar‘s blog a few years ago. Hooray for past Tammi helping present Tammi out! 🙂 Since …
When I visited The Kerlan Collection of Children’s Literature at the University of Minnesota, I was struck, inspired, surprised, and overjoyed, by many things. Seeing artwork created by iconic illustrators was incredible. The subject of my post today was one of the most overwhelming discoveries that I made and I …
Author Beth Anderson has a new book out in the world, and it’s a doozy! Here’s the gist of the story, from the publisher: “… offers an engaging look at the inspiring life of Franz Gsellmann, an inventor from rural Austria who, with no formal artistic or engineering training, built …
Hugs are the best, the absolute best. I love them, crave them, and not to brag, but I am renowned for mine. I have letters of reference. The previous 2+ years have made the want and need for hugs much more apparent. In the before times, I would hug most …
I don’t know when it began, my interest in how seemingly disparate things are connected. Maybe it was all the mysteries I read as a kid, trying to suss out what the clues were and how they fit together before the detective did. Maybe it was learning about the butterfly …