• Lists

    20 Middle Grade Books on the Environment & Climate Change

    environment

    Climate change is a topic that personally stresses me out and makes me very anxious. But, that doesn’t mean that I can choose to ignore what is happening to our planet. In today’s book list, I’m sharing books that focus on the environment and climate change for middle grade readers.…

  • Activities

    Picture Book Neighborhoods: Outcome & Recap

    pb neighborhoods

    It’s the end of September and I’m sharing the ins and outs of how and why we reorganized our picture book collection in my library from typical author’s names to picture book neighborhoods. Our first week, I shared what picture book neighborhoods are, and why we chose to reorganize thousands…

  • Lists

    Top Ten Tuesday: Typographic Book Covers

    Top Ten Tuesday

    This was a hard theme for me this week! I think that so many children’s books really depend on brightly colored, engaging illustrated covers to draw kids to read them, that the typography isn’t always the first thing you notice. I always say this, but it’s true, I love that…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Weather

    clouds

    I love a storytime theme that can be used during any time of year, anywhere around the world. Weather is always happening every where around us. You’ll find dozens of books about rain and lots of books about snow, but finding books about sunshine and/or wind are not as easy…

  • Lifestyle

    Malcolm Gladwell on Research

    research

    Wired does a series of videos on YouTube where they invite an expert in a field to answer Twitter questions about that topic. Recently, Malcolm Gladwell was on answering questions about research. I find these interviews fascinating, partially for the questions they choose and I always learn a little something.…

  • Lists

    12 Middle Grade Baking Books

    baking

    I know I’m not the only fan of The Great British Baking Show, and with a new season dropping on Netflix, I was inspired to create this middle grade book list that features all kinds of baking! Although, there are an awful lot of cupcake-themed books. It’s also getting cooler…

  • Activities

    Picture Book Neighborhoods: The Process

    pb neighborhoods

    During the month of September, I’m going to share the ins and outs of how and why we reorganized our picture book collection in my library from typical author’s names to picture book neighborhoods. Previously, I shared what picture book neighborhoods are, and why we chose to reorganize thousands of…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Woodland Creatures

    forest

    Storytime Theme: Woodland Creatures was such a cute storytime to pull together! And what I love is that it can go in so many different directions! You could focus on one type of animal or one specific type of habitat, or something else entirely. As always, I’ve included some nonfiction…

  • Activities

    Family Book Club: Spooky Titles

    family book club

    For my second-ever Family Book Club (check out my first one), I’m sharing some spooky titles for the fall season. Now, I’ll be the first to admit, that I am the biggest scaredy-cat out there! I don’t like haunted houses, I don’t like scary movies, and even scary middle grade…