In my state, Missouri, the Missouri Association of School Librarians has book awards for K-12 students. When the list for their picture book award, the Show Me Award, contains a picture book that focuses on an actual event or individual,… Read More ›
My students love the extraordinary. That is why I knew they would enjoy Strong as Sandow by Don Tate. Tate tells the story of Eugen Sandow, once known as the strongest man on earth. It also tells a story of… Read More ›
Have you tried creating a timeline recently? I did, and what an enlightening experience it was! First, I had to find answers to questions I had about a topic. Then, I evaluated the information to check for accuracy. Finally, I… Read More ›
As school librarians our heart leads us to books. Using picture books is a great way to teach beginning coding concepts. Digital Citizenship week and Hour of Code celebrations are often featured in many of our school libraries. I like… Read More ›
Did you see the cover of The New Yorker published on July 2, 2018? The illustration is quite remarkable. In it, we see terrified children peeking through the cloak of the Statue of Liberty. This powerful image brings attention to family… Read More ›
The Audubon Society has the perfect tagline: “Get Outside: That’s where the birds are, after all.” Wouldn’t students just love spending time observing birds in the playground? Many birds migrate during the month of March, so now is a great… Read More ›
One aspect of primary sources that I enjoy is the perspective that the creator of the item brings to the source. Some formats of primary sources lend themselves to pointing out perspective. A letter or diary entry can easily reveal… Read More ›
Like many of you, I love picture books. But there is one type of picture book that holds a special place in my heart: the nonfiction picture book. That’s probably because I’m also a lover of history, and many of… Read More ›
We all love books or we would not be in the library business. Unless we are authors, how often do we think about the actual writing process? What do the authors of our addiction go through to write books that… Read More ›
Open letter to publishers Publishers try to bring us books that we want to read and to buy. We have asked for more diverse titles and they have tried. The recent uptick in titles by and about minority group characters… Read More ›