If you have something to say...
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If you have something to say...
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The Blog
Set in the landscape of World War II Britain and featuring women pilots and spies, the intricate plot of Code Name Verity involves espionage, Nazis, the Resistance, and occupied France.
I used to wonder why my sons asked for the same story night after night. I came to the conclusion that kids simply enjoy the comfort of repetition. Think of it as an emotional security blanket.
But while those waiting for Rowling's finale were both children and adults, those waiting for Colbert were almost exclusively adults, most of whom I'd venture to guess had never been there before.
I spent a delightful afternoon yesterday reading the Barefoot Books collection of Indian Tales, as told by Shenaaz Naji and illustrated by Christopher...
Around four years ago, I met a broker at a Greenwich Village building to see an apartment. The owner was Maurice Sendak. I could tell that whether I got the apartment or not, I was going to enjoy this conversation. Just from his voice, his timing, you could tell Sendak was funny, wise, sensitive.
Where The Wild Things Are shows us that children need to be free to roam, explore and invent in order to understand their place in the world that surrounds them.
Sendack knew that we should never pretend about the potential danger of human rampaging, but neither should we lose hope about the possibility of returning home. We don't, as Reb Maurice teaches, escape to a better place, as much as we return to where we came from.
Enjoy this look back at the man behind some of the most magical literature ever conceived.
Learning is one of the most empowering things a person can do with their life and can be quite fun, yet the mediums used in classrooms are dated and have caused students to think that learning is drudgery.
When dads tell me they don't know how to tell stories, what they're often saying is, they don't know how to talk with their kids.
With poetry, photographs, creepy monsters, and a weird family next door, this month's recommendations give us a chance to celebrate the women who bring home the bacon, tuck kids into bed, bake cakes and remind us how important it is to always listen to our mothers.
I will always remember one of my first reading groups in Yonkers, N.Y. One afternoon four little girls walked in and took a seat with me at our reading table. I said, "Oh, it's us girls today!" Then little Alfonse walked in and I said, "And one boy!"
As an overworked Dad, I'm always looking for ways to find more time with my kids. I've found that storytelling is the ideal activity to enrich family time by creating a fun, free tradition.
Every night, we read at least two (but sometimes as many as five) books to Simone before she goes to bed. So we've read a lot of books in her nearly two years of life. There are some great books for kids, and a surprising number of really awful ones. Here are Simone's 10 favorites.
It's what we sort of know that's really scary: the gaping, haunting silence before somebody shouts boo, but also the silence that comes when we are about to shout boo at someone else.
If teachers (or family, or media) don't ask questions, then usually children will stop asking as well -- and their natural curiosity and imagination, which are the stepping stones to skeptical thinking, become censored in the meantime.
