Book-A-Day Almanac

May 1, International Workers Day, is celebrated in more than eighty countries around the world The observance originated in the United States in the 1880s as workers mobilized to secure an eight-hour workday. The Association of American Publishers has designated May as Latino Book Month. So today seems like a perfect time to look at [...]

For our last selection for Read a New Book Month, I’d like to look at one of the most original graphic novels to appear this year, Na Liu and Andrés Vera Martínez’s Little White Duck. When books for American children focus on other parts of the world, they tend to be in line with accepted [...]

December has been designated Read a New Book Month. During this month many hunt for new books from the 2012 publishing year to give as gifts. If you are one of those people take a look at the picture book biography, Monsieur Marceau, written by Leda Schubert and illustrated by Gerard Dubois. The story of [...]

On October 15, 1860, eleven-year-old Grace Bedell wrote to a candidate running for the presidency, Abraham Lincoln. She stated that her brothers would vote for him if he grew a beard. “You would look a good deal better for your face is so thin,” she advised. Lincoln wrote back, and then, as a reporter announced, [...]

Today is National Comic Book Day. Certainly comic books and graphic novels have become the hottest commodity in children’s publishing in the last few years. Last year I looked at one of the towering historical figures in that world: Crockett Johnson and The Carrot Seed. If you are a fan of Crockett Johnson, then a [...]

During August many individuals visit one of the hundreds of arts and crafts fairs held around the country. Whether you are going to the Festival of the Hills in St. Louis or looking forward to the Minnesota State Fair for its crafts exhibits, you should pick up one of the best celebrations of the art [...]

The summer in New England has been unbearable in parts of July; but I can always drive down to the ocean for a fresh breeze. Not so in my landlocked childhood state of Indiana. For many of my summers, the community pool provided the only escape from long, hazy summer days. Hence I found myself [...]

December 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 [...]

While 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 [...]

Today 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 [...]