Live Oak Media

A cover collage of the titles discussed

Building Stories

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 […]

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Tales in Tune:  Music and Picture Books

Fusing the delights of music and story is a powerful way to teach basic concepts as well as explore deeper ideas and emotions.  Over my nearly 30 years of teaching young children, I’ve set a LOT of knowledge to simple tunes: the names of continents, oceans, countries and states, math concepts, simplified steps of the

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101 Ways to Read a Book_Red Comet Press_ cover_ interior spread

O, Come All Ye Book Lists!

We’ve been collecting all the kids’ book lists we can find and highlighting the titles mentioned that come from our US-based publishers. (For listed titles from our many international publishing friends, just look here.) Like many of our beyond-the-US-borders publishers, our American kids’ book publishers provide titles from abroad in translation, as well as books

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Food for Hope interior

Feeding Food Awareness

This spring brings a new crop of informational picture books that offer readers of all ages new insights on healthy eating, food access, and food preparation.  Food topics, of course, are of perennial interest and these new books join contemporary classics featuring food heroes, kids’ science related to food topics, and food gardening. Let’s take

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Farmer Will Allen letter

Breaking Bread for Food Literacy

The little and powerful kids’ press From Readers To Eaters realizes its mission to encourage food literacy through an array of community-level activities. You can find a full catalog of their books, in English and Spanish, here. Part of their list features a series featuring “food heroes” including former basketball star Will Allen, a pioneer

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Happy Grandparents’ Day!

Grandparents’ Day seems extra special this year as so many of our families reach out across households to keep in touch when we can’t touch. Sharing books across generations can provide emotional comfort, whether you hold story time in the relative safety of outdoors or through video chats across the miles. If you are lucky

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Book Lovers Day for Middle Grade and Teen Readers

We’re guessing that if you are reading this post, you indeed are a book lover! How many young book lovers do you know?  We hope you’ll share these recent and forthcoming books to love.  Show your tween and teen book lover some book love today! Series can be highly attractive to the book lover, whether

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Wild about Wildlife

July is a wildly great time to celebrate wildlife! We’ve seen lots of pictures and reports about one side effect of social lockdowns in many locations giving urban dwellers more up-close visits by wildlife who generally steer clear of busy streets. Whether you’ve seen bears, coyotes, bunnies, turkeys, deer, or other wildlife up close lately,

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Hair, It's a Family Affair interior

Black Lives Matter All the Time for All Children

At a time when many people around the world find themselves willing to focus on the material truth that Black Lives Matter, we want to make sure that all kids—regardless of identity—have plenty of access to books that show and tell the wide range of interests, appearances, languages, and concerns that everyone, including Black children,

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