Boy Detective: Does everything rhyme? Me: Are you asking whether every word has something that rhymes with it? Boy Detective: Yes. Me: I don’t know. I would imagine there could be a few words that don’t have a rhyme, but not many. C-Man: I bet it’s hard to rhyme Quetzalcoatl. Me: I was excluding names and scientific terms from that… Read more »
Silly is one of our family’s favorite things. Boy Detective loves to laugh, so it doesn’t take much to get him giggling. I’m more of a hard sell. To make me laugh, you have to bring funny AND clever. (And I don’t like potty or gross-out humor.) The following books were perfect for both of us, and many got at… Read more »
When Candlewick Press offered us a review copy of The Princess in Black by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale, I said yes! Because who wouldn’t want to read this? Incognito princess fighting monsters? Perfect! Art by LeUyen Pham? Even better! (New to my blog? All my children’s book recommendations are here, or check out my children’s books Pinterest board. My… Read more »
Boy Detective: If I had to go without pizza, or go without you, I would probably go without pizza so I could be with you. Me: “Probably.” But you haven’t quite decided yet. Boy Detective: Here’s the more reassuring thing! That situation will probably never happen.
Multicultural and diverse literature has been such an amazing thing for our family. We’ve had to search for it, but we have found so many wonderful writers and artists from diverse backgrounds, telling stories that star all kinds of characters. Our lives are richer because of these folks’ hard work and talent. So when Diverse Book Tours was looking for… Read more »
(Just a heads up that my book posts use affiliate links, but check your local library too!) In 2009, Gretchen Rubin published The Happiness Project, detailing her year-long experiments in being happier. I didn’t hear of it until November 2013, when my friend Shannon wrote about it at her blog Salt Lick Lessons. And then it took me more than… Read more »
Have you ever been in that meeting where everyone is making a Big Important Plan, and you’re saying “hang on, there may be a problem!” and NO ONE is listening? Candlewick Press publishes so many of our favorite kids’ books, and they were kind enough to send over Shh! We Have a Plan by Chris Haughton. And this book is… Read more »
Fairies are possibly the most under-represented imaginary population in quality children’s picture books. I don’t understand why! My son has always loved fairies, so it’s taken extensive digging in the Austin Public Library catalog to create even this short list. And forget about finding any diversity, sadly enough. But here are the children’s books about fairies that have warmed my… Read more »
I started to write this as a personal wishlist post… and then I realized that just about everything I want might be great for lots of other geek girls – and guys as well! So we’ll call it a gift guide, and clearly I am helping with your holiday shopping for the geeky people in your life. Even if that… Read more »
—-This post was updated and refreshed in June 2018. Happy reading!—- Dangerous missions! Conspiracies and betrayals! Fast cars! Deadly weapons! Spy comics have an infinite budget for special effects and different locations, so they’re possibly even better than spy movies. Here are four of my favorites – hopefully you find something new and exciting to read here, or feel free… Read more »
