Today is the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Cat in the Hat. To honor the occasion, the National Education Association is sponsoring a National Read-Aloud of The Cat in the Hat as part of its Read Across America program. They encourage people to read the book at 2:36 p.m. EST today, in recognition […]
(Originally published in Bay Windows, February 22, 2007.) One of the ways I judge a children’s book is by how much it captures my son’s imagination. After we read The Different Dragon, he made me run around the house with a blanket over my head, flapping it like dragon’s wings, while he pretended to be
The venerable paper had a number of articles of interest yesterday: “With One Word, Children’s Book Sets Off Uproar“: This year’s Newbery Medal-winning book, The Higher Power of Lucky, contains the word “scrotum” in it. It’s in reference to a dog who gets bitten on that rather tender piece of his anatomy, but some parents
Fifty years ago this March, Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, published The Cat in the Hat. The little volume revolutionized children’s book publishing with its inventive silliness yet kid-appropriate vocabulary. In honor of the event, the National Education Association is sponsoring a nationwide Read-Aloud of The Cat in the Hat on March 2 as
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in the series, will hit the shelves at midnight, July 21, 2007. Amazon is already taking preorders, if you’d rather not risk getting trampled at your local bookstore. I think this gives me just enough time to reread the first six. Anyone with me? I could
My second column for Bay Windows, Of Dinosaurs and Monsters, is now online. If you live in Massachusetts, you can also find a paper copy, suitable for reading on the T, in the doctor’s office, or whenever your cable modem goes out.
We’ve been reading a lot of books about snow here at the house of Mombian, perhaps in hopes of coaxing something sleddable out of our unusually mild winter. Since today also marks the start of Black History Month, I thought it would be appropriate to highlight The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. Keats himself
I’ve always been fond of Groundhog Day. Maybe because it’s an underdog (-hog?) of a U. S. holiday, its February 2nd date following the noble Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and preceding the excessively commercial Valentine’s Day. It also seems to hearken back to a time when people paid more attention to natural signs (right
This coming Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day here in the U. S. His work and the movement he led represent values that resonate with many of us, regardless of race. I thought it would be appropriate to honor the holiday by showcasing a number of books for young children about Dr. King. What
My son’s latest favorite read is Wild About Books, by Judy Sierra. It’s the cheerful, rhyming tale of a librarian who accidentally drives her bookmobile into the zoo. The animals discover the fun of reading, and the zoo is never the same. Marc Brown, author of the popular Arthur series, illustrated the book, but you’d
