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 […]
September
29
10 Positive Things about Aging We Need to Show Kids in Books by Lindsey McDivitt
posted by CBethM
Childhood is an important stage of life, but it’s time limited. The fact is—we all have lots of living to do beyond age 18, yet the images of growing older in books for kids are often skewed to portray negative stereotypes as truth. Adulthood is frequently ignored and late life is often seen as sad. […]
September
28
Book Chat with the Illustrator: Oge Mora
posted by CBethM
Book Chat with the Illustrator: Oge Mora from LB School on Vimeo. Oge Mora is a painter residing in Providence, RI. She grew up in Columbus, Ohio and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) with a degree in Illustration. She’s a fan of all things colorful, patterned, or collaged, and she […]
September
27
COVER REVEAL: On a Scale of One to Ten by Ceylan Scott
posted by CBethM
Ceylan Scott, author of On a Scale of One to Ten When I decided that I wanted to write a book, I was sixteen. I had recently been admitted to a psychiatric ward and overwhelmed with too much time to fill and too many things to say bubbling in my head. I was frustrated […]
September
26
The Chicken or the Egg? by Jonathan Auxier
posted by CBethM
What came first, the chicken or the egg? It’s an old question — and a cliche. And yet, sometimes cliches have a way of shedding light on our unique circumstances. This week, I have a new book out in the world. Sweep is the story of a girl and her monster, set in the world of […]
September
25
22 More Barbara Jordan Books, Please by Chris Barton
posted by CBethM
I feel I should start by apologizing to the thousands of students and their teachers to whom I gave — in person — incorrect information this past spring. During my school visits, whenever someone would ask what book I was working on at that time, I would generally tell them that my next priority would […]
September
24
Reflections of a Middle School Teacher by Kris Barr Paquette
posted by CBethM
Picture this. It’s mid-August. I have a million thoughts flying through my scattered brain while I speed through the grocery store. Things to get for my son’s sleepover party. What I still need to do in my classroom. I’m in a hurry because I am trying to squeeze in this grocery shopping chore during my […]
September
22
A Tale of Disruption: Teaching The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline – Post by Emily Visness
posted by CBethM
“We’ve always taught that novel.” “The lesson plans and activities for that novel are already prepared.” “I love teaching that book!” “We have enough copies of the book for all our classes.” “It’s a classic!” The reasons, or rather the excuses, are many, but these are some common responses from teachers when the contentious topic […]
September
21
The Adventure of Inquiry by Marc Aronson
posted by CBethM
I grew up surrounded by books in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Russian, languages my father spoke, and German, my mother’s native language, and many in English. Books were words and images but they were also something else – connection. Somewhere on those pages, in those strange letters, were the worlds my parents had left behind in […]
