Our New Home: Immigrant Children Speak is a powerful book written by the children who have immigrated to Canada from countries such as China, India, Russia, Ghana, Malaysia, Argentina, Germany, and Pakistan. I love that this book gives power to the voices of the children. (Not to mention, that this is a great book to [...]

Guest post by Irene Roth! Finding Lincoln By: Ann Malaspina Illustrated by: Colin Bootman (Paintings by Coretta Scott King Honor artist) Albert Whitman and Company, 2009. This book is based on a true story. It is about an African-American boy who wants to get a book out of the main library in Alabama about young [...]

Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan by Jeanette Winter is one of those special books that we should all share with children at home and in our classrooms. It is the true story of a girl in Afghanistan, Nasreen, who did not speak to anybody after the Taliban took over, and she lived [...]

Why War is Never a Good Idea by Alice Walker and illustrated by Stefano Vitale is a poem put to life in a picture book with beautiful, rich illustrations. This powerful text shows children the affects of war and the innocent bystanders from frogs to children to mothers to villagers who are the victims of [...]

What some children go through in our world is unbelievable, scary, tragic. It is hard for some of us, especially in the United States and Canada, to imagine how life can be like this–how people can kill one another over religion and race, how people can be so greedy to kill for land or cash [...]

*Picture book about volcanoes–found in non-fiction section–told in poem form *Subject matter: A volcano erupting and how it affects life around it *Rating: Volcano Wakes Up! is a wonderful book to teach kids about volcanoes and the life around them. Love it! Short, short summary: In Volcano Wakes Up!, Lisa Westburg Peters uses poetry to [...]

*Chapter book for 7 to 10 year olds, fantasy *Young (flat) boy as main character *Rating: Kids that are fans of Flat Stanley and/or love Ninja stuff will enjoy this book! Short, short summary: Flat Stanley loves ninjas, and so does his brother, Arthur. They especially love movie star, Oda Nobu, and they decide to [...]

Yesterday, I discussed the book Three Cups of Tea. When I posted the link on my Facebook page, people praised the book, and some people had actually heard Greg Mortenson speak on college campuses. So, if you haven’t read it yet, put it on your to-do list. If you want to share his message with [...]

Sometimes when we talk to kids about issues going on in the world, like I wrote about on Monday with my stepson and the visiting priest from Africa who needs money for his church, it is hard for them to understand what we mean by freedom–especially if they live in a free country like the [...]

photo by Beverly & Pack www.flickr.com July 4th is always a good day for me. I love summer, I love festivals, and I love BBQ. I also love my husband, and it’s our anniversary–so even more reason to celebrate. I don’t always take the time to really think about what we are celebrating on July [...]