“Play is often talked about as if it were a serious relief from learning. But for children, play is learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” - Fred Rogers Mr. Rogers knew what he was talking about. Play is how children learn! Through play, they are experimenting, pretending, imagining, using their bodies, practicing interpersonal skills, trying new things, exploring, and so much more. Here are some great picture books that celebrate the work of childhood, WE ALL PLAY

Honestly, I don't know what happened last year. I don't feel like I read... anything? But I did. I just don't remember much. It's been a challenging year, for many of us, I think. Our brains are good at helping us to mitigate stress by making sure we don't remember it well, but that also affects remembering the good things (like great books). So I'm combining all the categories for my list this year because the list will most definitely be shorter. Here's are some 2025 books

Before children learn to read on their own, the are building the foundation they will need TO learn to read. One of the things they're developing is their print awareness . Children are beginning to notice words all around them - on signs, in books, on boxes, - and that words have meaning. They're learning, too, how books and print work. There are lots of ways to help your child develop this skill. You can point out words and say what they mean. You can look for signs and ex

Did you know learning about math begins early? I'm not talking learning to add and subtract, I'm talking about foundational math skills ,...

Recently I was attending a webinar overview of a new online product with digital books for kids. Overall, the product was nice, and will...

Some recent YA and MG graphic novels worth reading!

I love middle grade fiction. Next to picture books, I read these the most. I have a long commute, so I get a lot of reading done in the...

Look, it's well into February and I'm finally getting around to writing about my favorite books of the previous year! Let's just say that...

In my 30s I was diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. I'm not sure what triggered it, although I was an anxious kid and so always...

Oh, preschoolers are fun. They've got OPINIONS and FACTS (about dinosaurs and firetrucks and Disney characters) and THINGS TO TELL YOU. They can handle more complicated storylines, where the action doesn't all happen on the page or in the words. Stories can be more nuanced, the jokes less obvious. But still, they're young, so attention spans are short. We don't need paragraphs of text - 3 or 4 sentences a page, max. But their eyes can find more details in illustrations and so

In my monthly library program, I choose an early literacy theme on which to focus. In November it was vocabulary - or, more specifically,...

Sharing picture books is a great way to grow social-emotional skills like empathy. Reading a story offers a great opportunity to put...

Did you know that learning about shapes helps with learning letters and numbers? It does! Being able to recognize shapes helps with...

Every month I share a booklist to go along with the theme of the program I'm doing at my library that month. This month we're exploring...

The past couple of days, I had the opportunity to work at my library's maker booth at Denver's FanExpo. I've done it several times...

More books for babies! We might be getting a little more complicated here, but not much. But books will start having more of a story arc...

So, first, I admit, "babies" is a broad category. There is a difference between what a newborn might respond to versus a 9 month old...

*[cross-posted on In The Writer’s Web] I realized recently that two of my manuscripts have unreliable narrators. One is a “voice...

What do toddlers like in picture books? What kinds of books will keep them most engaged? Young toddlers are still developing their eyesight, so super-complicated images with lots of detail might be harder to decipher. They need more information spelled out in the text, and a simpler plot with fewer sentences - one or two per page - as their attention spans are short. VERY short. Toddlers, in general*, love: books with repeated refrains, simple concepts (counting, colors, numb