Roses are Red, Your Feet Really Stink is one of my favorite Valentine books–especially when I was teaching. I read it to my class every year! Diana deGroat illustrated and wrote the book–such a talent. Here’s a summary of the story: “When Gilbert writes two not-so-nice valentines to his classmates, his prank quickly turns into [...]

* Concept book (ABCs) for preschoolers through first graders *Peas as the main characters *Rating: LMNO Peas is a cute book, going through the ABCs with the peas doing different jobs is clever. Some of the jobs were a little strange, and I wanted more of a play on the LMNO Peas idea, but my [...]

Happy New Year! Here’s a winner in my book: *Picture book, contemporary, for preschoolers through 2nd graders *Little girl and BIG dinosaur as main characters *Rating: As I said on Pinterest and Goodreads, this is a book that takes everything parents are saying and says it (MIND YOUR MANNERS!) in a non-threatening and engaging way. [...]

Debbie Fox wrote the most amazing e-mail and sent me a link to a review copy of her new book, Quiet Kid. Debbie is extremely talented. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful, and the theme of this book is so important. Quiet kids are NORMAL–and it is hard to be a quiet kid in a world [...]

I am honored to preview this book, which will be officially out on October 2! Don’t miss it. *Picture book, contemporary winter-themed, preschoolers through 2nd graders *Young girl as main character *Rating: When someone can rhyme and tell a story as well as Janet Lawler can, then you don’t want to miss her books. Snowzilla [...]

*Picture book, contemporary, for preschoolers through 2nd graders *Dan, the Taxi Man and a band as main characters *Rating: Dan, the Taxi Man (Publisher: Kane Miller) follows a classic children’s book form that I happen to love. There’s sound effects that are easy to read aloud AND there’s repeating text. Think The House that Jack [...]

*Picture book for preschoolers through third graders, history?–you’ll see what I mean. . . *Man’s best friend as main character/topic *Rating: Do You Have a Dog? is one of those books I wish I would have written. Brilliant! Short, short summary: This book starts out asking the reader if he/she has a dog and lists [...]

It’s National Children’s Book Week, a week to celebrate children’s books. There are no better! This week, I am taking part in a blog hop with other children’s bloggers from my publisher, Guardian Angel Publishing. (They are publishing one of my picture books, release date still to be determined.) Anyway, you can visit each blog [...]

*Concept book, preschool to kindergarten *Forest creatures as main characters *The layout is one of the best parts of this concept book. It’s a cute idea and well executed! Short, short summary: Each pair of pages asks, “Who is in the forest, dark and deep?” and then there is a circle cut-out previewing the next [...]

*Picture book, fantasy, preschool through second graders *Little Miss Muffet as main character *Rating: David Conway has written a clever picture book, incorporating many of our favorite nursery rhymes that we can share with a whole new generation of children. And of course, Melanie Williamson’s illustrations are cute, cute, cute! Short, short summary: Little Miss [...]