I grew up in suburbia—or urban sprawl—with fairytales and children’s nonfiction series like Lands and Peoples. My passion for reading (and history and art museums) nurtured my sense of wonder and awe at the richness of the world. I was inspired to write nonfiction about heroic people by my own children, whose social studies education lacked dazzle and examples of heroism. I had already been creating educational materials for schools, but I wanted to inspire their wonder about and appreciation of the world. My kids are grown, but I’m still writing for young readers. An avid world traveler and historian, I've always aspired to bring other people, places, cultures, and times to life.
This is one of the most perfect books ever written (and illustrated).
When Max gets up to mischief, is sent to his room, visits his wild side, and returns a richer boy, he speaks to my wild side. This book is a visual delight that goes beyond words, literally.
I love that the wild rumpus is just being a happy kid who swings from trees, dances, and loves life. I feel happy, too, whenever I revisit this charmer.
Read-along with the story in this book and CD edition!
One night Max puts on his wolf suit and makes mischief of one kind and another, so his mother calls him 'Wild Thing' and sends him to bed without his supper.
That night a forest begins to grow in Max's room and an ocean rushes by with a boat to take Max to the place where the wild things are. Max tames the wild things and crowns himself as their king, and then the wild rumpus begins.
But when Max has sent the monsters to bed, and everything is quiet,…
I have never tired of Alice’s outrageous, surreal romp through the world of imagination.
It transports me to the magical strangeness not only of Wonderland but also of this world. I love the way unlikely adventures can happen, how odd friendships can arise, how reality can shift just as fantasy does. It empowers my own imagination and channels it into creativity and wonder.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 novel by English author Lewis Carroll (the pseudonym of Charles Dodgson). It tells of a young girl named Alice, who falls through a rabbit hole into a subterranean fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children.
One of the best-known and most popular works of English-language fiction, its narrative, structure, characters and imagery have been enormously…
The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.
The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.
Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…
With simple, colorful illustrations and a humorous plot featuring Grandmother Witch’s magical pasta pot that requires more than the right words to control it, this book delights me still.
The story seems to be about learning to listen properly. It’s also about eavesdropping, bragging, and above all, the consequences of failing to follow directions. But its charm to me is its sympathy for naughty Big Anthony, who is, after all, just like everyone’s inner child.
When Strega Nona leaves him alone with her magic pasta pot, Big Anthony is determined to show the townspeople how it works in this classic Caldecott Honor book from Tomie dePaola.
Strega Nona-"Grandma Witch"-is the source for potions, cures, magic, and comfort in her Calabrian town. Her magical everfull pasta pot is especially intriguing to hungry Big Anthony. He is supposed to look after her house and tend her garden but one day, when she goes over the mountain to visit Strega Amelia, Big Anthony recites the magic verse over the pasta pot, with disastrous results.
I love this book for its wacky humor, its kindness, and its great illustrations.
The sleepy dad’s hair sticking up always makes me smile. Not to mention the bear trying to hide under the bed, which is smaller than he is. And I love its gentle sympathy for the clumsily helpful child and the suffering and then grateful bear.
Aury and Scott travel to the Finger Lakes in New York’s wine country to get to the bottom of the mysterious happenings at the Songscape Winery. Disturbed furniture and curious noises are one thing, but when a customer winds up dead, it’s time to dig into the details and see…
I read this book and the entire series as a child and then read it to (or with) my children.
I love the way it recounts the author’s early childhood in the 1870s, a much more work-filled and challenging time for a child, and how it evokes the way any small child feels in a huge world full of mystery. I also love the way Laura was so observant of her world, how she learned life skills from her family and to take joy in everything, from the seasons to celebrating life events large and small.
Her later books are also good jumping off points to discuss how attitudes have changed since they were written.
Classic tales by Laura Ingalls Wilder about life on the frontier and America's best-loved pioneer family.
Inside the little house in the Big Woods live the Ingalls family: Ma, Pa, Mary, Laura and baby Carrie. Outside the little house are the wild animals: the bears and the bees, the deer and the wolves. This is the classic tale of how they live together, in harmony mostly, but sometimes in fear ...
The timeless stories that inspired a TV series can now be read by a new generation of children. Readers who loved Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, and Heidi…
Padme, a servant girl who must endlessly sweep her master’s home, meets the Buddha. When she laments that she is too busy to meditate, the Buddha advises her to say “sweep and clean” as she works: to pay attention. This simple mindfulness practice transforms Padme’s life, and when she encounters the Buddha many years later, he teaches her how to send compassion out to others. This picture book is a wonderful way to introduce children to the power of mindfulness meditation practice.
All Elizabeth Bennet wants for her father to bring back from Lambton is a cutting of Pemberley’s famous roses. Little did she know that her humble request would lead to her father’s imprisonment, putting both her father’s life and her childhood home of Longbourn at risk.
Selected by Deesha Philyaw as winner of the AWP Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction, Lake Song is set in the fictional town of Kinder Falls in New York’s Finger Lakes region. This novel in stories spans decades to plumb the complexities, violence, and compassion of small-town life as the…
