Rethinking Your Book Collection

Take a moment to evaluate your classroom or library book collection. Do you have enough nonfiction titles? Experts recommend a 50-50 mix of fiction and nonfiction. How diverse is your nonfiction section? Does it include a healthy selection of expository nonfiction? Experts recommend that at least 66 percent all nonfiction titles should have an expository […]

10 Great Books for Young Engineers, Inventors, and Tinkerers

Ada Lace Sees Red by Emily Caladrelli The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba, Bryan Mealer, and Elizabeth Zunon  The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer’s Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors by Chris Barton and Tony Persiani Energy Island: How One Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed their World […]

My Favorite Book of 2014

The Most Magnificent Thing is hands-down my favorite book of 2014, and I am so grateful to Alyson Beecher for urging me to read it. Thanks, Alyson! Oh, how I wish this book had been eligible for the Caldecott. But alas, its uber-talented author-illustrator resides in Canada. Why do I love The Most Magnificent Thing […]

10 Great Fiction Picture Books for Young Engineers, Inventors, and Tinkerers

11 Experiments that Failed by Jenny Offill If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen (See also If I Built a House by Chris Van Dusen) Iggy Peck Architect by Andrea Beaty (See also Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty) Junkyard Wonders by Patricia Polacco Mattland by Hazel Hutchins Papa’s Mechanical Fish by Candace […]