I am so excited that Colby is willing to do the big reveal of this amazing cover, for the second book in THE GREAT PEACH EXPERIMENT series (The Great Peach Experiment 2: The Peach Pit), since so many pieces of the first book in this series were inspired by my family’s road trips to and […]
June
23
COVER REVEAL: The Great Peach Pit Experiment 2: The Peach Pit by Erin Soderberg Downing
posted by CBethM
June
15
When Life Hands You Ideas by Nandini Bajpai
posted by CBethM
The path to publication from idea to ink is different for every book. Sometimes life hands you an idea and sometimes the idea comes from something in your own life. The first was true of my U.S. debut A Match Made in Mehendi since I don’t actually come from a family of matchmakers and the […]
June
11
All About What About Will by Ellen Hopkins
posted by CBethM
Twelve-year-old Trace and seventeen-year-old Will used to be best friend brothers. It was Will who taught Trace to ride a bike, skate, and snowboard. But Will doesn’t do those things anymore. Trace understands it’s because of the brain injury his brother suffered playing football. He’s scared of getting hurt again. But there’s something else going […]
June
10
The Birth of a Jewish Storyteller by Amy Hest
posted by CBethM
It all starts, I suppose, with Aunt Harriet. A nice Jewish girl from the Bronx. (My mother, a reliable source, and a quite good storyteller in her own right, is the one who told me that my Aunt Harriet had always been, absolutely, a nice Jewish girl from the Bronx.) Okay then, the year is […]
June
09
HOW TO USE TAROT CREATIVELY by Caroline O’Donoghue
posted by CBethM
There’s no wrong way to read tarot. It’s been around since the 15th century, and mostly as a card game, so it’s silly and ultimately not very rewarding to think of the cards and their meanings as fixed entities. They change, over the course of hundreds of years, but also over the course of the […]
June
07
MONSTER OF THE WEEK by Brita Sandstrom
posted by CBethM
My favorite TV show when I was in the third grade was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Listen. It was the 90s—I was a very well-looked-after child, but in terms of the media I took in, I was a latchkey kid. And in my parents’ defense, Buffy never scared me. I watched Buffy fight monsters every […]
June
05
Top Ten Short Story Anthologies for Teens by Kasey Short
posted by CBethM
Short Story anthologies have so much to offer middle and high school age children. Teens are often still deciding what types of books they enjoy, looking for authors whose work engages them, and may not have significant time to invest in reading outside of school assignments. These approachable books provide an opportunity for teens to […]
June
03
WHAT IF YOU’RE NOT READY TO FLY? by Dev Petty
posted by CBethM
I wrote Moth & Butterfly Ta-Da! long before our lives were upended by a global pandemic and long before my daughter went to middle school and found herself on the wrong side of a friendship triangle. I also wrote it before my own life had some twists and turns. Now, as we edge to the […]
May
23
2020 – 2021: When Teaching is Like a Bad Cooking Show by Colleen Cruz
posted by donalynm
My favorite cooking show, and I know I’m not alone in this, is the Great British Baking Show. I love all the support and positivity of the show between the contestants. And I also love the seeming fairness of it. Times and ingredients are within the realm of realistic possibility. Almost all of the mistakes […]
May
21
Shaping Pathways Through Content Area Literacy: Instructional Models for Teaching with Text Sets by Erika Thulin Dawes and Mary Ann Cappiello
posted by CBethM
Literature-based instruction is having a moment and we’re confident that you’re as excited about that as we are. Not only do we have more access than ever to an array of well-written titles representing diverse perspectives and experiences, but current curriculum conversations are also recognizing the potential children’s literature holds for fostering critical literacy and […]
