Children’s book reviews by elementary school teachers Kate Glinsmann and Jennifer Sykes.
In this day and age you hear a lot about how so many young adults don’t know how to solve problems because their parents never allowed them to encounter situations where they needed to figure things out on their own. Read More
One of the most important things that I learned during my 36-year career as an early childhood educator was the importance of phonological awareness activities. Phonological awareness is a broad skill that includes identifying and manipulating units of oral language. Read More
Since I retired from the field of education last year I decided to look into all of the new(ish) children’s books from the last few years. Who better to give me input about these books then our local librarian at our public library here in town. Read More
THE ROUGH-FACE GIRL by Rafe Martin, illustrated by David Shannon
There are over 1,500 versions of the Cinderella story, but this one, The Rough-Face Girl, is truly my favorite. This one is an Algonquin Indian Cinderella, and actually a part of a longer traditional story. Read More
Autumn is upon us, and with Halloween just around the corner I thought it would be fun to review my favorite books for this time of year. It was very hard for me to choose just two because there are so many wonderful books! Read More
Since September signifies the beginning of a new school year in many areas, I thought it would be nice to review one of my very favorite children’s books that I would read during the first few days of kindergarten. Read More
Telephone
by Mac Barnett
One of my favorite games to play as a child was the “pass it on” game of Telephone. You whisper a simple statement to the person sitting next to you, they whisper what they heard to the person sitting next to them, and so on. Read More
Here is the second installment of my favorite farm books. As I mentioned in my previous blog, I have so many favorite farm books that I needed to make this a two-part blog. These books were published after my sons grew up, but many of them came out while I was teaching kindergarten, and they are the ones that my students loved and wanted to read over and over again. Read More
Since summer is now upon us and here in Iowa I am reminded daily of the work happening on the nearby farms in my community, I thought it would be fun to spotlight some of my favorite farm books for children. Read More
I have been an elementary teacher for the last 36 years, and over those years I have read thousands of children’s books. Some of these books have been great, some have been good, and some have been real stinkers. Read More
Potterwookiee
by Obert Skye
Obert Skye’s The Creature from my Closet series features mashups of popular fictional creatures/characters. There’s Wonkenstein (Willy Wonka/Frankenstein), Pinocula (Pinocchio/Dracula), and Katfish (Katniss/Ariel, the Little Mermaid). The second book in the series is the Potterwookiee, which is a miniature Chewbacca with Harry Potter’s lightning bolt scar and accessories. Read More
While the slightly older set may have dreams of gadgets and devices, the gift of a great book cannot be overlooked. They’ll thank you when they curl up with their new diversion and a cup of hot cocoa. Read More
Why, yes! The clock is ticking. Hanukkah begins on Wednesday night, and Christmas is right around the corner. If you are still hunting down the perfect gift for a toddler, preschooler, emerging reader, or anyone who enjoys picture books, you have come to the right place! Read More
One Cool Friend
by Toni Buzzeo
My daughter and I had the great pleasure of meeting author Toni Buzzeo last week at a Young Authors Festival here in Michigan. She shared some very useful tips for young writers, and she shared a lot about her own process as an author. Read More
Thanksgiving is nearly here, and we all have so many reasons to be thankful. For one, there are really great books for our children. Another? There are really great books about Thanksgiving for us to sit and read with our children as the tryptophan coma wears off. Read More
