Culture and tradition are part and parcel of every person’s identity and yet many of us—perhaps especially in the United States—tend to see the identities of those around us as flattened into tropes. Instead of ignoring the nuances that encompass unforced and forced migrations, developments in social and political surroundings, and even availability of food […]
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Introducing children to participating in and observing the natural world holds well-acknowledged merit—as well as rich offerings in current children’s books. No matter how urban a child’s environment may be, there are almost always snatches of nature available: the sky and weather; a vendor selling fruit that was planted and grown to be eaten and
Picture book illustrators use so many different media to create engaging—and often revealing—elements for the pages children examine during read-aloud times. Sometimes the illustrator makes use of a tool other than a brush, a pencil, pen, or cut paper. Sometimes, we see picture books—in a range of age interests from board books to informational books
Photo Perfect Picture Books Read More »
August is celebrated annually as Women In Translation Month. This is the time when we turn specific attention—and give gratitude—to the women writers and the women translators who make possible access to stories from many languages to readers who can access them only in their own home languages. Professional translation is an art, just as
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One of the developmental steps in reading proficiency is learning how to predict while suspending certainty sufficiently to discover what actually occurs in the text. If the author had only one path to take and we could predict it with total accuracy, reading as recreation—which is how we get enough practice to make reading a
One, Two, Three, Plot Twist! Read More »
Sometimes it appears that attention from many quarters comes to rest on one theme or an object with unanticipated universal agreement that this is the IT topic for the moment. This year in kids’ books we’re seeing that happen with—eyeglasses! In books that come to us from Spain, the Netherlands via New Zealand, the United
Look Here! These Books Are Spectacular! Read More »
The newly released list from Bank Street College of Education reflects their Children’s Book Committee’s choices from 2023’s publications. Bank Street’s seal of “best” is recognized by librarians, teachers, teacher training programs, and parents as a gold standard guide to children’s books. The selection committee is composed of more than two dozen members who are
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Westerners have a peculiar way of prioritizing physical status over the conditions of our minds. We supply, even in casual conversation with children (and other adults), specific names for an array of possibilities when talking about our physical manifestations, including the experience of excellent health, impediments such as injury and disease names, recovery degrees, and
This article is by Publisher Spotlight intern Nicole Speyrer Poetry, to many, carries the weight of emotion and internal movement. In a way, it sometimes becomes more difficult to express deeper, more complex experiences in our everyday language. In being forced to certain grammar constraints and spoken emphases or without certain imagery, a certain complexity
Speaking to the Soul of Teen Readers: Young Adult Novels in Verse Read More »
