Riddle me this readers…why do so many educators consider comic books second class literature? Comic books are books. The very word “book” is in the title of the genre. I recently asked a student who had just finished his novel in my reading intervention class what he was reading next. He shamefully showed […]
October
13
Rules and Roadkill by Heather L. Montgomery
posted by CBethM
The gravel crunches as I pull my red RAV 4 to a halt at the edge of a dusty highway. I can just imagine my car asking: “Why is she stopping? What is she doing now? And, how come she’s poking at that DEAD BODY?” Wait, . . . that’s not how a blog post […]
October
09
Let’s Indigenize Our Bookshelves & Fully Welcome Native Kids As Readers by Cynthia Leitich Smith
posted by CBethM
Abracadabra! I sought out how-to books about card tricks, guidebooks to seashells, and page-turning mysteries. Shortly after second grade, I’d begun perusing the Newbery Award shelf and won the summer reading contest at my local library in Grandview, Missouri. It was my parents who, each in their own way, first introduced me to books. […]
October
08
A Big Helping of Poetry by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong
posted by CBethM
How can we serve up poetry in a fresh new way? This is the question we ask ourselves each time we start a project. In our early books in The Poetry Friday Anthology series, we provided a “Take 5” approach that emphasized participatory readings and skill connections; in the Poetry Friday Power Book series, we […]
October
06
Ten Great Mentor Sentences from a Middle Grade Text by Kris Barr Paquette
posted by CBethM
I love a great sentence. You know the ones that just grab you and make you say, whoa! One of the suggestions I always have for the teachers I work with is that they model sentences from these fantastic middle grade novels that we just love to teach grammar, editing, and revision. Jeff Anderson, also […]
October
05
COVER REVEAL: The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad
posted by CBethM
“What’s in a name?” Shakespeare asked that very famously centuries ago in a play you might be familiar with. I always took umbrage at that question. You see, in many cultures, including mine, names have power, meaning, and functions beyond the obvious. The earliest version of The Candle and the Flame wound itself around Shakespeare’s […]
October
04
Cover Reveal: YORK: THE CLOCKWORK GHOST by Laura Ruby
posted by CBethM
It’s been eighteen months since I wrote this post about York: The Shadow Cipher—the first volume in my middle grade alternate history adventure—and my cancer diagnosis. A lot has happened since then. I’ve gone through chemo, surgery and radiation. I lost my hair, grew a bunch back, and dyed it purple and blue. I got my nose pierced. […]
October
03
THE RECKLESS CLUB / When adults are the bullies by Beth Vrabel
posted by CBethM
When my dad was eight years old, his greatest ambition was for his teacher, Miss Hagley*, to ignore him. “She just didn’t like me,” he says now, nearly 60 years later. “I don’t know why, but she just didn’t like me.” “I can picture her now, walking toward me.” His shoulders hunch at the […]
October
02
WELL-BEHAVED WOMEN SELDOM INSPIRE GOOD BOOKS by Christopher Healy
posted by CBethM
There’s a special kind of anxiety that grips you when see your child’s school on Caller ID. You can generally assume a teacher isn’t calling to say, “Your kid did nothing objectionable today—keep up the good work!” So when I answered the call from my daughter’s second grade teacher, I braced myself—correctly—for some unhappiness on […]
October
01
How Can Two Authors Make One Story? A BACK and FORTH between Ally Condie and Brendan Reichs
posted by CBethM
Reichs: Hello, Ally! I’m excited that the amazing Nerdy Book Club is willing to let us chat in their forum about our new middle-grade scare factory, The Darkdeep. I’m going to dive right in with both feet, because I love it when we get this question, mainly because of how incredibly hard we worked at […]
