These17 picture books written by Native American and First Nations authors introduce kids to every day life, history, culture, and struggles for justice.
We’re talking about happy books. Admittedly, I’m not the biggest aficionado of happy books. I’m more of a chaos and destruction kind of reader, but I do occasionally read books that make me laugh. Here are 10 of my favorite happy books. I hope they make you smile.
Haunted TV shows, surveillance owls, liver-based children's toys—nothing is too weird for Scarfolk.
I found this on Facebook and just had to share (and yes, I know it’s “bated breath,” not “baited breath”). If you enjoy reading about Shakespeare, you may enjoy this p…
I have so many totally heart-tugging, can't-stop-reading historical fiction books for kids ages 8 - 12 to tell you about.
50 fictional books that Jack Edwards would recommend to help you broaden your mind. This list follows Jack Edwards' recommendation of 50
Check out this growing list of historical fiction books for kids. With excellent literature selections for grades 3-7, these books will bring history alive.
According to researchers, the number of books at home significantly impacts a child’s educational success. It’s even more important than their parents’ education, family’s economic situation, or the country they live in. But not all books might be equally helpful.
A list of the top ten historical fiction books for kids lists the best of fiction that recounts history in a fiction setting in childrens literature
Make history come alive with these EXCITING Historical Fiction BOOKS for Kids Arranged by Time Period. Books for kids of all ages.
#56 A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1905) 37 points At eight, I found nothing as exciting as a poor mistreated orphan. Swoon! – Anna Ruhs I read this again fairly recently and couldn’t capture the sense of wonder that I had as a child, but refreshing the story in my mind was enough […]
Dream Song by Walter de la Mare from Poems for Boys and Girls I simply love the imagery in this poem by British poet Walter de la Mare and Lois Maloy has illustrated this book in such a beautiful way. Sadly, I could not find anymore information about Lois. The little bats and the owl make this a perfect poem for this month of Halloween posts! The image for 'Dream Song' has been enhanced using the Pixlr, photo app. Hope you all enjoyed the quirky poem! ~~ Diane ~~
Git more Bad Childrens Books by clicking' that there button –>Bad Kids Books
Try one of these awesome historical fiction books for tweens, recommended by my 8-12 year old avid readers.
Resources for teachers and students in literature circles. Different genres of books to read and guides for literature circles.
As a child, I always had my nose in a book. I loved being transported to different lands, meeting interesting characters and getting lost in a story. Books captured my imagination in a way I never knew was possible. Now that I’m a mom, I can’t wait until my son will be able to enjoy... View Article
Sit & relax with a rousing new edition of the worst inappropriate children's books ever! This classic collection of vintage kid’s books with funny & bad titles
Planning to study the life, music, and legacy of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with your kids? Here's a great list of Mozart books for kids to help you learn!
After being in school for basically your entire life, of course graduation is scary. Thankfully, there’s quote therapy for that.
If you're like me, you may feel like your education only scratched the surface of all there is to know about China. From ancient dynasties to the rise of communism to the current modernity, China's
Put yer eye on more of the worst Bad Children's Books. This fine collection of vintage stories from our past may not be Newbery or Caldecott award winners,
Tweens can look forward to great middle grade books from debut authors and new releases from major players like Dave Eggers, Wendy Mass, and Rebecca Stead in 2018.
One of the best things about reading realistic fiction is that you don't have to always experience something to experience it. In other words, you can experience poverty, death, heartbreak, loneliness through the characters. In fact, it creates empathy to have experienced these things in literature. It creates compassion.
Similar to the Ouija Board, the "Nonnein" Wraith Advisory Board was released by Scarfolk Games in 1970. The main difference between the two boards was that the latter gave the deceased more control over their messages. Ghosts had became weary of dictating one letter at a time to the living, especially if they had poor spelling skills, so they welcomed the upgraded Nonnein Board which permitted them to shuffle the letters and spell out their own messages in 140 characters or less. Predictably, the initial otherworldly communiqués were ominous, such as those below: However, eerie threats and foreboding creepiness eventually gave way to genuine, inter-plane bonhomie: The Nonnein Board also became a political interface between the spirit and earthly realms and by 1979 there were, in local government, several deceased politicians defending the social rights of both living and dead constituents. This wasn't without some controversy, as right-leaning politicians expressed concern at the idea of dead people immigrating to the UK and taking the jobs of the living. Happy Halloween from Scarfolk Council.
Hi all. I just wanted to stop in and explain my MIA status. As I predicted, this week has been crazy with conferences. I had some today and what feels like eight million to do tomorrow night. To top it off, I had a lovely migraine on Monday which is still lingering. I had planned to post some responses to some recent comments, but honestly I have just been falling into bed this week. I know I won't be able to post tomorrow or Friday, but I am going to try to get back over the weekend. There was one comment about picture books in math that I want to talk about. I love picture books in math! In fact, one book we read is How Much is a Million? by David Schwartz. I think everyone knows this book. It's a classic. What was interesting about this book for me this year was the impact it had on a literacy lesson. My friends are reading Number the Stars by Lois Lowry as part of our Holocaust unit. I've read this books so many times over the years. It just happens that this year, we had read How Much is a Million? a week or so before starting the book. One of the facts my friends learn is that about six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. This is one of the few years that I could see my friends really grasp how many six million is. It was one of the first years they truly understood the magnitude of what it means that six million Jews were killed. It wasn't just a number they couldn't really imagine. Thanks to How Much is a Million?, they had a very real idea of just how horrible it was. I will definitely make it a point to read both books in conjunction from now on. But, back to picture books in math. I do have a bunch that I like to use when I can, and am happy to share my list. Hopefully, I can get to it this weekend after the craziness and, hopefully, the headache have passed. For now, I am off to bed. Good night!
When all the Potters and Weasleys are together nothing goes smoothly especially when Lorcan and Lysander Scamander, Scorpius Malfoy and Ali Longbottom are with them and with Teddy Lupin and Victoire Weasley in charge. So when the three most troublesome of the family, go into Harrys study, and find something, there world changes as they all go back intime to the Tri-Wizard Tournament.
Lesbian Non-Fiction Books Lesbians in the media are becoming more present, more diverse and more accepted as the years go back. Accessible internet across the globe has seen a surge in Lesbian Web Ser
A children’s librarian provides thorough reviews of the best narrative nonfiction books for children in grades K–3. She points out special aspects of the books that would be of interest to teachers and parents.
Hello Everyone! I am going to be quick today as I have a ton of studying to do for my ESL Certification, and tomorrow is Valentine's Day! I've got a lot to do to get ready for the festivities and love!! Our "Friendship Celebration" should be a lot of fun!! Anyway, today we worked hard on the main differences between fiction and nonfiction books. We talked about the kinds of pictures, words, elements, and the reason for reading both genres. We made this anchor chart to help us remember. With all these differences in mind, our next job was to sort through a mound of animal books. Each kiddo chose several books to look through and deposit into two different groups, fiction and non fiction. They did a perfect job!!! Way to go guys!!! Now on to using the nonfiction selections to reasearch!! Thanks for stopping by to take a quick peek into our wonder-filled world! See you soon! Now, bring on the chocolate!! Joyfully, Nancy
Need help getting your kiddos interested in the stories of past cultures and places? Good news, today we're sharing our favorite history books for kids.
I've spent a lifetime reading fantasy novels, but there are so many novels and series that I didn't have the chance to read when I was younger and could have enjoyed them more. If you're burned out on today's magical book offerings, I've got 17…
Teenagers. They're a species of humans generally disliked by both adults and children. It's seen as some kind of horrible disease that pops up around 13 and supposedly miraculously disappears at the age of 18 or 20, depending on how one interprets the word teenager or the laws concerning minors. Suffice it to say that teenagers are not a favorite part of most societies. And yet, books featuring teenage characters are some of the most popular stories known to modern man. Makes total sense, right? Yeah, not really. Because teenagers are generally frowned upon and not well understood, they almost always suffer when they are converted into book characters. As a writer of YA, I spend a lot of time reading YA fiction. It is very rare that I run across a teenage character and think, "Yeah, this one was done really well!" Most of the time it ends up being, "Idiots. They're all idiots!" Allow me to explain to you all of the various ways that many writers manage to ruin their teen characters, along with ways to fix them. 1. You are generalizing. This is the number one problem that spans across all genres and effectively ruins potentially awesome characters. Your character needs to be treated as an individual with unique personality traits and interests, not as part of the teenage body. As soon as your character's defining trait becomes "teenager," you have lost all hope creating anything other than an annoying, stereotypical fictional person. 2. You aren't taking time period or society into account. This is the part where I tell you about how teenager is a fairly new word, that "back then" you were either a child or an adult, that teenagers were expected to run houses, have jobs, and function as adults, were actually able to pull it off, yada yada yada. But I'm not going to, because I'm sure you've heard that before, and yet it doesn't seem to matter to most writers. So go ahead and ignore all that and plop your teenager into medieval times and have him act like an immature idiot. Or make your Indian girl be extremely disrespectful toward her elders and get away with it. Go on. I'm sure it'll be fine. 3. You are relying on cliches. The characters defined by their love triangles, the "I can change him" girl, the guy with absent parents, the bookworm nerd, the brooding jock, the hot one. *slaps upside the head with your own manuscript* Stop it! You are a writer, not a copy cat. Besides, if you are going to rip something off, then rip something of that isn't subpar and completely horrendous. 4. You're using the "teenagers have bad decision-making skills" excuse. In an attempt to explain away the fact that your characters are acting like idiots, you may try to say that they do dumb things because they are teens and thus don't make good choices because they're too young to know differently. Let's get something straight: Teenagers are not stupid. They have brains and are perfectly capable of using them. You need to develop your character so that any bad decision he/she may make is specific to him and his mentality and his past. Teenagers don't make bad decisions simply because they're teenagers. It goes far deeper than that, so find the root of the problem that is unique to your character and go with that. 5. Your slang skills are horrible. If you are writing contemporary fiction, please, for the love good dialogue, go talk to some real teens. You will soon discover that they do not say things like, "OMG, that was, like, totes cray cray." They just don't. If you want your characters to talk like teenagers, then let them talk like teenagers, not like some crackpot 80-year-old alien who has come to earth and is attempting to masquerade as a teen. Unless you actually are writing a book about crackpot 80-year-old alien who has come to earth and is attempting to masquerade as a teen, in which case, that sounds amazing and I applaud your genius 6. Every piece of dialogue you write is dripping with sarcasm. Some teenagers are very sarcastic, some are only a little bit sarcastic, some are not sarcastic at all. If all of your characters have sass buckets for their patronus's, then you have some serious editing to do. I suppose you think your pieces of dialogue are terribly clever, but they probably aren't. They will get very old, very fast, so tone it down. Try reading this guide for writing sarcasm. 7. Your character is extremely troubled. The teen who drinks too much, has abusive parents, misuses his ADHD meds, is bulimic, and is in and out of juvy. This may come as a shock, but that is a rather extreme scenario. Try to find a middle ground. No, I am not saying that troubled teens don't exist, but I am saying that they have become the focus of many stories, so much so that there is a huge (and unhealthy) imbalance in YA fiction. 8. Adult characters are lead by your teen character. The world is in shambles, people are dying left and right, freedom has disappeared, and for some reason the only clothes available are grey-colored. A leader is needed to fix this broken, dying, ugly-clothes world. So everyone decides to herald a sixteen year old girl as their leader. Sounds like a great plan, right? While it is not absurd to think that a teenager can be elemental in leading a group of people, it is absurd to think that adults would choose said teen as their unrivaled leader. So please, don't be such a clotpole. Use your brain to create realistic situations. 9. Your teen is constantly thinking about crushes. While you may spend most of you time playing "he loves me, he loves me not" in high-stress situations such as zombie apocalypses, most people do not. Stop putting your character in a position where he/she is trying to save the world while also fretting about which crush to choose. Here's a fun idea: How about the crushes stop trying to hit on the main character and instead come along side her and try to make her life easier rather than harder? And, if you aren't writing an action novel, please remember that sex should not be the main point of your story. Give your characters a personality and a reason for existing. If you have to put sex in there to make your story interesting, then you're doing it wrong. And there you have it. 9 common mistakes writers make when writing teenage characters. What do you think? Did I miss any or get any wrong? Tell me about it in the comment section below! Related articles: 7 Cliche Characters in YA Fiction that Need to Stop Writing Strong Female Characters: What You're Doing Wrong Writing Awesome Male Characters: What You're Doing Wrong Enjoy this post? Take a look around. If you like what you see, please don't forget to subscribe by email for a new post every Friday!
