Nothing beats curling up with a kid and a book that screams "don't quit." I've done it a ton with my own little ones back in the day, watching their…
Bedtime often turns into a nightly tug-of-war with toddlers bouncing off walls. I've been there, chasing a 2-year-old around the living room while the clock ticks past 8 PM. That's…
Books aimed at STEM learning for 7-year-olds catch kids right as they're wired to dig into the world around them. Think of a child staring at falling leaves, blurting out,…
In Kate Messner’s resonant, necessary CHIRP (Bloomsbury, 227 pp., $16.99; ages 8 to 12), 12-year-old Mia is on the mend — from a broken arm, after a fall from the…
MY BEST FRIENDWritten by Julie Fogliano Illustrated by Jillian Tamaki Image From “My Best Friend.” Two small girls spend a perfect day together in the park, making chalk drawings, twirling until they fall,…
The recent Iowa caucus debacle could serve as a primer on America’s not-quite-representative system of government. The malfunctioning app. The reporting delays and inconsistencies. The delegates determined by coin tosses…
Americans have always assumed that the key to undoing the all-encompassing framework of white supremacy lies, in part, in literacy. Literacy helped combat slavery in practical ways — reading and…
In the spring of 1880, in a railroad town in Dakota Territory, a girl in her 15th year bends over her sewing to help support her family. This might be…
Like many fictional families before them, the warm, vibrant Vanderbeeker family of 141st Street — 13-year-old twins Jessie and Isa, 10-year-old Oliver, 8-year-old Hyacinth and 6-year-old Laney — has developed…
This past summer bees were voted the most important living beings on earth. While I agree wholeheartedly, I also enjoy imagining this vote, conducted by scientists at the Royal Geographic…
We hear so much about the challenges of young female friendships. But STRANGE BIRDS: A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers (Kokila, 350 pp., $16.99; ages 8 to 12), Celia C.…
What kind of literature do we owe our young readers? Should it aspire to artfulness, or is that a luxury when there are American educators who don’t believe the Holocaust…
