One of the most endearing images in Ibtisam Barakat’s beautifully written memoir Balcony on the Moon: Coming of Age in Palestine (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) is when 13-year-old Ibtisam and her little sister, Mona, watch Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci win gold medals at the 1976 Olympics. “On the inside of our closet, Mona and […]
Tag Archives: Kate Hannigan
April
13
Growing Up Amid Unrest in Palestinian Writer Ibtisam Barakat’s ‘Balcony on the Moon’ by Kate Hannigan
posted by CBethM
February
09
The Harlem Charade by Natasha Tarpley – Review by Kate Hannigan
posted by CBethM
“Who gets to decide what is important about a community?” asks debut novelist Natasha Tarpley in her middle-grade mystery The Harlem Charade (January 31, Scholastic). “Who gets to tell our stories?” Setting her fascinating adventure in Harlem, with its rich history of African American art, music, literature, and dance, Tarpley explores ideas of gentrification […]
June
26
Here Comes the Fun: Sunny Summer Reads by Kate Hannigan
posted by CBethM
Summertime reading is here. And as I pile up stacks of books to keep my kiddos’ brains from becoming mush, I meet with the inevitable pushback. Titles I point my children toward – the award winners, the weighty “issue” books – are not always the types of stories they want to read. The Washington Post […]
June
05
Hannigan and Hannigan: Talking April Book Releases with Two (Different!) Children’s Authors
posted by CBethM
One of us is Katherine Hannigan; Kate to family. The other is Kate Hannigan; Kathleen only if we’re being formal. We both write books for kids. We both live in the Midwest. And somehow the stars aligned so that we both have books coming out in April (which sounds like the first steps in The […]
April
03
Top 10 Pulse-Pounding, Nail-Biting Historical Fiction Adventures by Kate Hannigan
posted by CBethM
Historical fiction doesn’t have to be a hard sell. For some young readers – my own kids included – it conjures up images of wooden-toothed men in white wigs or dusty, musty storylines. Often, however, it is anything but. I first fell in love with heart-pounding historical fiction when I got my hands on Scott […]
October
24
Helping Readers Find Strong Girls on the Road to Katniss by Kate Hannigan
posted by CBethM
I found my writing inspiration sitting on a bench at my kids’ school. It wasn’t me plopped down there on the hard wood, it was a Wee Reader devouring a copy of The Hunger Games. While I loved the book, I was a little blown away that a third-grader was taking on such big, emotionally […]
Nerdy Book Club 