If you’ve ever been trapped reading a boring book to a young person, I feel your pain. These books are NOT boring. They’re really well written, and the art is beautiful and interesting. Even better, they’re about magic. Strange happenings, special powers, and mysterious characters. What’s not to love? I’d hand them to an adult looking for a light read,… Read more »

Why aren’t there more awesome kids’ books about robots? Kids love robots! More kids love robots than probably love farm animals, and yet we’re subjected to billions of books about cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, and ducks. But I have been ransacking the Austin Public Library system and pickings are very slim. Folks, if there’s a city in Texas that should… Read more »

There’s a rumor that boys prefer stories with male lead characters. I’m not sure when that’s supposed to kick in. We’ve gone five and a half years and I see no signs of Boy Detective shying away from appealing stories with strong characters just because they’re led by girls. Which is great, because I like our reading to be as… Read more »

Many, many, many children’s books end with bedtime. It’s almost like children’s book authors know how much the parents of young children crave sleep and welcome assistance in achieving their sleep-related goals from literature. Sometimes, though, when you’ve had one of those verrrrrry long days, you may need something a little more explicit that the gentle suggestion at the end… Read more »

Pirate fever hit our house hard in late 2012. Seemingly overnight, my kid became obsessed with Jolly Roger coloring pages and drew new “treasure maps” daily. C-Man and I always thought of us as a ninja family in the ninjas v. pirates smackdown, so this was somewhat awkward. However, our son is our son, and we love him no matter… Read more »

I’m lucky that our trips to the library are usually family outings. That means one adult chases the kid and the other (me) gets to look through 40-60 books and find the ones worth checking out. Out of those, there are several fantastic ones that have stood out. This is the second post in a series highlighting those rockstars. I… Read more »

We’ve read some amazing children’s books since Boy Detective joined us, so I thought I’d do a series with our book recommendations. When I say “recommendations,” I mean serious, heartfelt recommendations for children’s books about friendship that are totally awesome, by our grownup standards. If you’re parenting young children, you might find some new reads. If you buy gifts for… Read more »