The world shrank in 2020. Many kids lost connections and opportunities to pursue their interests. The global shutdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools and libraries, cancelled after school programs and field trips, and ended or postponed indefinitely many enrichment opportunities. High quality, engaging nonfiction remains a powerful way to keep the world open–through […]
Tag Archives: Donalyn Miller
December
31
The 2020 Nerdies: Long Form Nonfiction Announced by Carol Jago and Donalyn Miller
posted by donalynm
December
20
Do You Want to Join a Book Club? by Donalyn Miller
posted by donalynm
I’ve been open about my inability to read much during the initial pandemic shutdown last spring. My anxiety was out of control and I couldn’t focus. Working in my flowerbeds and writing helped me find some joy and calm, but my reading life consisted of news articles and planting guides. Sometimes, readers don’t read much. […]
December
06
Nominations Open for the 10th Annual Nerdy Book Club Nerdies!
posted by donalynm
In the beginning, Nerdy was a community-driven book award blog, and we still hold the Nerdy Book Club Awards, the Nerdies, each winter. Each year’s list provides an overview of our readers’ and their reading communities’ most popular recommendations. The Nerdies look like a handpicked children’s bookshelf—a current mix of genres, formats, voices, and styles; books […]
December
01
Our Ninth Nerdversary: Social Readers in Pandemic Times by Donalyn Miller
posted by donalynm
Self-isolating and working from home for the past eight months, my reading life has been challenging to maintain. It takes more effort to settle into a book and stick with it. The six half-finished books sitting on my coffee table ooze judgement. Reading seems self-indulgent and I cannot sit still for long before I feel […]
March
22
Reading or Not, Here We Go: A Social Distancing #Bookaday Challenge by Donalyn Miller
posted by donalynm
“The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps greater.” —J.R.R. Tolkien If you asked me three months ago what I would do if the world […]
December
31
The 2019 Nerdies: Long Form Nonfiction Announced by Donalyn Miller
posted by donalynm
Engaging, accurate, relevant nonfiction texts provide opportunities to expand our knowledge of the world and our perceptions of both the past and future’s potential. I have always enjoyed nonfiction books and spent a large part of my childhood reading books about animals and history. As an adult, I still enjoy reading about the natural […]
December
01
Past, Present, and Future (Our Eighth Nerdversary) by Donalyn Miller
posted by donalynm
This Thanksgiving, we were blessed with fifteen dinner guests—spanning four generations of family and friends. Although my mother and aunts have passed the bulk of holiday meal preparation to younger family members, they still hold sway over details like meal times, dress codes, and the menu. It’s tricky to please and honor everyone at the […]
October
06
Readers, in Spite of School by Donalyn Miller
posted by donalynm
I am endlessly fascinated with readers—what and why they read, how they became readers and sustain a reading habit, and the ways reading has shaped their worldview and their identity development. I know other folks are endlessly fascinated with other aspects of reading and reading instruction including phonics, comprehension, or vocabulary. All of […]
June
02
The 11th Annual #Bookaday Challenge
posted by donalynm
Like all readers, my reading life ebbs and flows. For every week I stay up until 2 am to finish Tomi Adeyemi’s 544-page epic fantasy tome, Children of Blood and Bone, I can point to weeks where I read almost nothing, but emails and Facebook posts. We don’t commit to reading once, we recommit every […]
January
03
The 2018 Nerdies: Young Adult Fiction (Part Two), Announced by a Convention of Nerds*
posted by donalynm
Today we announce the second half of the 2018 Nerdies for Best Young Adult Fiction of the Year and close out the Nerdy Book Club Awards for this year. Thank you to everyone who nominated books and volunteered to write reviews for our announcement posts. Nerdy remains a vibrant reading community because of all of […]
