Book-A-Day Almanac
Discover the stories behind the children’s book classics and the new books on their way to becoming classics.
A Nation’s Hope
Biography, Elementary School, Picture BookDecember has been designated Read a New Book Month, and this week we are celebrating Kwanzaa. The book of the day, A Nation’s Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis, fits for both holidays and combines the talents of Matt de la Peña and Kadir Nelson in one of the best new offerings of […]
African American, Boxing, History, Multicultural, Sports, World War IIFeatured on December 27
Breadcrumbs
Elementary School, Fantasy, Middle School December is Read a New Book Month; many are hunting for new books not only to read but to buy for the holidays. Because of the robust young adult market, those authors who write books for fourth through sixth graders have been a bit overlooked. Fortunately, this is not true of our book of the […]
Adventure, Family, Friendship, Multicultural, SchoolFeatured on December 21
Blood on the River
Elementary School, Historical Fiction, Middle SchoolOn December 20, 1606, three small ships, Susan Constant, Goodspeed, and Discovery departed from London, England, to America. When they landed on May 14 of the next year, the passengers, sent by the Virginia Company, established what would become the first permanent settlement in the United States: Jamestown, Virginia. The characters of this early-American drama—Captain […]
Adventure, History, Pioneer, SurvivalFeatured on December 20
Bigger than a Bread Box
Elementary School, Fantasy, Middle SchoolDecember has been designated Read a New Book Month. One of the best books of the last couple of years, Laurel Snyder’s Bigger than a Bread Box, features twelve-year-old Rebecca. Her life is suddenly torn in two when her mother takes Rebecca and her little brother, Lew, to live at her grandmother’s home in Atlanta, leaving […]
Family, MagicFeatured on December 16
The Money We’ll Save
Elementary School, Picture BookIn December many hunt for books both to read and to give as gifts. Well, if you are hunting for a picture book for four- to eight-year-olds and could use a good laugh, I recommend the book of the day, Brock Cole’s The Money We’ll Save. I laughed so much the first time that I […]
19th century, Animals, Birds, Christmas, History, HolidaysFeatured on December 11
The Mitten
Elementary School, Picture Book, PreschoolDecember 6 marks Mitten Tree Day; to celebrate everyone is encouraged to decorate a Christmas tree with mittens (the tree and mittens can be real or cut out from brightly colored paper). As I write this, I am packing to travel to Canada and Seattle to present a workshop on children’s classics. One of the […]
Animals, Clothing, Folktale, Seasons, WinterFeatured on December 6
The Three Robbers
Elementary School, Picture BookToday we celebrate the birthday of one of the most original, and certainly most creative, members of the children’s book community. Tomi Ungerer was born in Strausbourg, France in 1931, and knew both poverty and tragedy at an early age. His father died when he was three. Then, because of economic hardship during the Great […]
ArtFeatured on November 28
I Want My Hat Back
Elementary School, Picture Book, PreschoolToday we celebrate International Hat Day. I personally love, wear, buy, and covet hats—all kinds of hats. Since the book of the day I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen was published last year, it has already gained an enormous number of fans. Klassen is a master of the minimalist form. Starting with sumptuous […]
Animals, Bears, Humor, RabbitsFeatured on November 25
Annotated Peter Pan
Middle School, NonfictionOn November 23, 1903, an already popular writer and playwright began the first draft of a play entitled “ANON” and set in the night nursery of the Darling family. A few years later, in 1911, he extended the script ideas of that play, Peter Pan, into a longer novel for children, Wendy and Peter. In […]
Adventure, SurvivalFeatured on November 23
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
Elementary School, Picture BookWhile I was vacationing in the Rangeley Lakes area of Maine in October a sign caught my eye: “Wilhelm Reich Museum.” Although I could not get in, I was intrigued to see the location of the laboratory of the radical psychoanalyst who worked with Sigmund Freud. While there I thanked him silently for his little-known […]
Animals, Award Winning, Caldecott, MagicFeatured on November 14
The Goats
Fiction, Middle SchoolToday for Young Readers Week I am going to look at one of the most powerful books ever written for twelve- to fourteen-year-olds. Like all books that change us and make us a different person, I remember exactly where I was and how I felt the first time I read it. I was Editor of […]
Adventure, Seasons, Summer, SurvivalFeatured on November 10
Freak the Mighty
Elementary School, Fiction, Middle SchoolThe second week of November we celebrate National Young Readers Week. I wish that all young readers had access to the books we celebrate every day on the Almanac. Today we’ll look at one, published in 1993, which I consider a contemporary classic, Rodman Philbrick’s Freak the Mighty. When I first read this book about […]
Humor, School, Special NeedsFeatured on November 7
Bone Dog
Elementary School, Picture Book, PreschoolTonight we celebrate All Hallows Eve, or Halloween, a time of carved pumpkins, parties, or door-to-door canvassing in costume for treats. In my childhood the latter activity was quite casual, and costumes often consisted only of sheets with eye holes. But in more recent years Halloween costumes have become elaborate, often prepared with great care. […]
Animals, Dogs, Halloween, HolidaysFeatured on October 31
My Brother Sam is Dead
Elementary School, Historical Fiction, Middle SchoolOctober has been designated Reading Group Month by the Women’s National Book Association. All kinds of reading groups have become popular over the last couple of decades: teen book groups, mother and daughter groups, parents and children groups. An ideal pick for book groups and classroom discussions is our book of the day: My Brother […]
Award Winning, Family, History, Newbery, Revolutionary WarFeatured on October 27
Apples and Pumpkins
Elementary School, Picture Book, Preschool For years I have admired Anne Rockwell’s ability to render the complex simple in her picture books for the very young. Rockwell was one of the pioneers in the area of books for very young readers, ages birth to three. She studied art at Pratt Institute and began to write and illustrate picture books after […]
Fall, Food, SeasonsFeatured on October 23
Robin Hood and His Adventures
Classic, Elementary School Born on October 22, 1882, in Needham, Massachusetts, Newel Convers Wyeth was raised on a family farm that dated from 1730. As a young man he fell under the tutelage of Howard Pyle, the great children’s book illustrator of his era, and became the advocate of the principles of book illustration taught at Pyle’s Brandywine […]
Art, England, HistoryFeatured on October 22
Harriet the Spy
Elementary School, FictionOn October 21, 1964, a book appeared that critics consider the beginning of modern fiction for children. Before that day, it had been controversial in its own publishing house, causing disagreement among the members of Harper & Row’s children’s book department. The gatekeepers of children’s books wanted to keep it out of the hands of […]
Family, New York, SchoolFeatured on October 21
Carl Goes Shopping
Babies and Toddlers, Board Books, PreschoolIn October 1992, the board book edition of a title that had already gained a devoted following of picture book fans appeared, Alexandra Day’s Carl Goes Shopping. Often publishers eager for titles for the very young frequently republish material in board books that have originally appeared as standard picture books. For the Carl books, wordless […]
Animals, DogsFeatured on October 20
Horton Hatches the Egg
Elementary School, Picture BookIn October 1940 a new children’s book author and illustrator published his fourth book, one destined to become a classic. Admittedly since he had been rejected some twenty times for his first book, and then only been picked up by a small press, Vanguard, he did not necessarily seem to be poised to become America’s […]
Animals, Elephants, HumorFeatured on October 19
Danny and the Dinosaur
Beginning Readers, Elementary School, PreschoolOctober is International Dinosaur Month. Except for cats and dogs, few creatures seem as appealing to children as dinosaurs. In fact, to have a dinosaur as a pet must be one of the great childhood fantasies, an idea explored by Oliver Butterworth in The Enormous Egg. Well our dinosaur of the day isn’t exactly a […]
Dinosaurs, HumorFeatured on October 18
Al Capone Does My Shirts
Elementary School, Historical FictionOn October 17, 1931, Al Capone, known as Scarface and the most notorious outlaw in the United States, was finally convicted for tax evasion, a rather dull offense amid his many crimes. Eventually, when a new, completely secure federal penitentiary was completed, Capone, known as prisoner AZ 85, went to live on Alcatraz Island, off […]
HistoryFeatured on October 17
The Summer I Learned to Fly
Elementary School, Fiction, Middle SchoolSome books just begged to be discussed with others, and our book of the day for Reading Group Month is perfect for mother/daughter groups: Dana Reinhardt’s The Summer I Learned to Fly. When we first meet the protagonist of the book, she tells us that some smells draw us back to childhood—like her grandfather’s aftershave […]
Food, Romance, Seasons, SummerFeatured on October 16
Ballet Shoes
Elementary School, Fiction, Middle SchoolOctober has been designed Reading Group Month, organized by the Women’s National Book Association. Today we’ll look at a classic book, ideal for mother/daughter book discussions, and tomorrow a new title. I am always interested in the books that people remember from childhood—children read so many books but which ones stay with them into adulthood? […]
Dance, Great Depression, History, LondonFeatured on October 15
Gregory, the Terrible Eater
Elementary School, Picture Book October has been designated Vegetable Awareness Month and today also marks National Dessert Day. Certainly, I embrace both causes. The book of the day, Gregory, the Terrible Eater by Mitchell Sharmat, brings these two holidays together in a humorous and totally satisfying story. Like many children, Gregory was a fussy eater; he wants only fruits, […]
Food, HumorFeatured on October 14
Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute
Elementary School, Graphic NovelThis week America celebrates National School Lunch Week. And as that old ditto goes: “Teachers come and teachers go,/It’s the lunch lady who you get to know.” But how well do you really know the lunch lady? Do you know what she does when she leaves the school? In our book of the day, an […]
Humor, SchoolFeatured on October 13
The Thief Lord
Elementary School, Fantasy, Middle SchoolOn October 12, 1797, Napoleon signed the Treaty of Campo Formio, handing Venice over to Austria. In one of the best children’s books of the last decade, the city of Venice comes so alive that it almost seems like a character itself. In the The Thief Lord, the first novel by German author Cornelia Funke […]
Geography, HistoryFeatured on October 12
Eleanor Roosevelt
Biography, Elementary School, Middle SchoolToday marks the birthday of both Russell Freedman and Eleanor Roosevelt. Originally a West Coaster, Russell was born in San Francisco and studied at the University of California at Berkeley. Russell’s long-time editor Dorothy Briley once said that he made the most perfect dinner guest she had ever encountered. He could make intelligent conversation about […]
Great Depression, History, Social Conscience, World War I, World War IIFeatured on October 11
Morning Girl
Elementary School, Historical FictionToday we celebrate Columbus Day. Every now and then a book not only educates you but changes the way you view history. Once you have read it, you cannot see things quite the way you once did. That is how I think about the book of the day, Michael Dorris’s Morning Girl. Published in 1992, […]
History, Multicultural, Native AmericanFeatured on October 10
The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales
Elementary School, Middle School, Picture Book Just when I think I can’t be surprised about the existence of a holiday, one comes along that amazes me. Today we celebrate Moldy Cheese Day. Molds play an important part in the production of delicious—but often stinky—blue cheeses like Roquefort and Gorgonzola. Even the milder Brie and Camembert get created by the introduction of […]
Fairy Tale, HumorFeatured on October 9
Midnight Fox
Elementary School, FictionFor our last book for Great Books Week, I will look at a classic by Betsy Byars, published in 1968, The Midnight Fox. In her career, Betsy wrote picture books, easy readers, historical fiction, and fantasies; she won the Newbery Award for The Summer of the Swans. But The Midnight Fox, a book about a […]
Animals, Foxes, Seasons, SummerFeatured on October 8
Arthur’s Nose
Elementary School, Picture Book, PreschoolToday for Great Books Week (October 6-12) , I’d like to look at a modest picture book that launched an empire: Marc Brown’s Arthur’s Nose. In 1976 a failed television weatherman, Marc Brown, published his first picture book under the astute guidance of Emilie McLeod of Atlantic Monthly Press. Emilie, one of those most respected […]
Animals, Friendship, HumorFeatured on October 7
Daily children’s book recommendations and events from Anita Silvey.
Discover the stories behind the children’s book classics . . .
The new books on their way to becoming classics . . .
And events from the world of children’s books—and the world at large.
