I’m very happy to host Bonnie Hearn Hill’s blog tour today on Read These Books and Use Them. Bonnie is part of WOW! Women On Writing’s blog tour, and she is doing 31 blogs in 31 days. She’s a busy woman. She’s also giving away a copy of the first book, Aries Rising, from [...]

You might have noticed this new widget I have on my sidebar, courtesy of JacketFlap and the Children’s Book Council. It is announcing several nominees for the Children’s Choice Book Awards. In case you didn’t know, the Children’s Choice Book Award nominees have been announced in each category: Kindergarten to second grade, third to [...]

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*Young adult, urban contemporary fantasy
*Teenage girl as main character
*Rating: City of Ashes, the sequel to City Of Bones, is a page-turner. You won’t want to stop until you read every last word of the Clary-Simon-Jace saga.
Short, short summary: It’s hard to summarize this plot without giving anything away. But I’ll [...]

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First, I want to apologize if this photo from Flickr.com makes you hungry for cookies and milk today if you are on a “healthy eating plan.” (That’s what I like to call a diet. ) But I won’t apologize for this great information I have to [...]

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The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver is on everybody’s minds, and it seems like on everybody’s TVs. If you log on to Twitter or Facebook, tweets and status updates about the Winter Olympics are inevitable, and so we know our children and teens are watching and listening, too. As [...]

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Today is a Wacky Wednesday post because I have a few things to discuss that don’t really go together, so that’s why it’s wacky! First I want to introduce to you my new website! I have been using this blog as a kind of website for a while [...]

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I am so happy to hold this contest on my blog today for Hate List by Jennifer Brown. I am IN LOVE with this book. It is perfect for tweens and teens, and I think all parents and teens should HAVE to read it. It’s great for a mother-daughter book club. [...]

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Recently, my stepson who is in third grade completed a unit on rounding and estimating that I thought might get the better of his dad, his mom, me, and Logan, but we made it through! One of the first things I said to my husband when we were [...]

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On today’s Maniac Monday post, I am writing from a prompt I received from JuiceBoxJungle. First I’m going to answer the question as a parent and then as a teacher. Then I’m going to talk about how you could use this same writing journal prompt with your students and/or children [...]

Last week, I featured historical fiction author, Clara Gillow Clark, on my blog on Tuesday and Wednesday. We had a great discussion about historical fiction, and we both appreciate all your comments. This week, I am featuring YA fantasy writer, Ellen Jensen Abbott, and her book, Watersmeet. Please leave a comment below about [...]