Book-A-Day Almanac
Discover the stories behind the children’s book classics and the new books on their way to becoming classics.
Lincoln: A Photobiography
Biography, Elementary SchoolToday I feel sorry for George Washington. He is, after all, the father of the country, yet he has to share a birthday celebration with Abraham Lincoln on President’s Day. Of the two, Lincoln has received the best treatment in children’s books, so today we’ll celebrate his accomplishments. Of all the hundreds and thousands of […]
Award Winning, Civil War, History, Holidays, Newbery, President's DayFeatured on February 21
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Elementary School, FictionToday in 1872 the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened its doors for the first time. Founded by a group of businessmen and financiers, the Met was established to bring art and art education to Americans. Over the years, many families, school classes, and children have visited the magnificent collection. But it wasn’t until 1967 that […]
Adventure, Art, Award Winning, Humor, Newbery, SurvivalFeatured on February 20
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Elementary School, Historical FictionFor authors and artists week, I’d like to talk about the most impressive author I ever worked with, Scott O’Dell. Scott was in his mid seventies and I was in my late twenties when we first met. A tall man, large in body, spirit, and charisma, he could tell stories like no one I had ever […]
20th Century, Award Winning, History, Multicultural, Native American, Newbery, True StoryFeatured on February 6
Lloyd Alexander
Fantasy, Middle SchoolOn January 30,1924, Lloyd Alexander was born in Philadelphia. He knew from the age of fifteen that he wanted to be a writer, and for seventeen years he wrote for adults. Then in 1963, this charming, erudite author published his first children’s book, Time Cat, and 1964, his second, The Book of Three. His editor […]
Adventure, Award Winning, Magic, NewberyFeatured on January 30
Robert C. O’Brien
Fantasy, Middle SchoolToday marks the birthday of one of the most reclusive children’s book authors of the 20th century. He was not so, however, because of his personality or because he did not want to engage with children. Robert Leslie Conly was born in Brooklyn in 1918; he studied English at the University of Rochester. Working for […]
Adventure, Animals, Award Winning, Mice, Newbery, SurvivalFeatured on January 11
The Midwife’s Apprentice
Elementary School, Historical Fiction, Middle SchoolIn Greece January 8 has been designated Midwife’s Day or Women’s Day, to honor midwives. Midwifery, of course, has a long and important history throughout the world. Drawing on her extensive knowledge of medieval times, Karen Cushman chose the practice of helping women deliver babies as the subject for her second novel, The Midwife’s Apprentice, […]
Award Winning, History, Middle Ages, Newbery, WomenFeatured on January 8
Johnny Tremain
Classic, High School, Historical Fiction, Middle SchoolOn January 1, 1735, Paul Revere, patriot, silversmith, and engraver was baptized in Boston’s North End. Although made famous by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,” our birthday boy’s story has attracted many fine writers over the years, including one of the descendants of Samuel Adams, the organizer of the Sons […]
Award Winning, History, Newbery, Revolutionary WarFeatured on January 1
Mr. Popper’s Penguins
Classic, Elementary School, Fantasy Today marks the birthday of Richard Atwater, born in 1892. He graduated with honors from the University of Chicago, where he taught Greek. But for most of his career, Atwater worked as a journalist, book review editor, and columnist for newspapers. He dabbled in publishing—first he wrote an opera, then a children’s book Doris and […]
Animals, Award Winning, Newbery, PenguinsFeatured on December 29
Nothing But the Truth
Fiction, Middle SchoolOn December 18, 1956, one of the most popular long-running television shows, To Tell the Truth, premiered. Truth, of course, is a slippery thing. What seems true to one person does not appear that way to another. One of our best novels for ten- to fourteen-year-olds, published in 1991 and already a classic, explores the […]
Award Winning, Newbery, Politics, SchoolFeatured on December 18
The Wright Brothers
Biography, Elementary School, Middle SchoolDecember 17 was declared Wright Brothers Day in 1963 by Presidential Proclamation. Certainly these two Buckeyes, who lived their lives in Dayton, Ohio, have inspired numerous books for children. But the best remains Russell Freedman’s The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane, a Newbery Honor book published two decades ago. Few in the history […]
Award Winning, Flight, History, Newbery, Planes, Technology, TransportationFeatured on December 17
Millions of Cats
Classic, Elementary School, Picture BookDecember 15 has been designated Cat Herding Day. Certainly, this impossible task deserves to be celebrated! Eighty-two years ago a classic children’s book demonstrated what a lot of herded cats might look like—although it left the way to accomplish this feat unexplained. In the history of picture books, men have created the vast majority of […]
Animals, Award Winning, Cats, NewberyFeatured on December 15
The Twenty-One Balloons
Elementary School, FantasyOn December 14, 1782, the Montgolfier brothers’ first balloon lifted off on its first test flight. Later they would conduct public demonstrations, taking a thirty-three-foot diameter balloon aloft for about ten minutes. From this humble beginning, humans sailing the skies in a hot-air balloons became a possibility. William Waterman Sherman, the protagonist of the Newbery […]
Adventure, Award Winning, Humor, Newbery, TechnologyFeatured on December 14
The Giver
Elementary School, Middle School, Science Fiction“It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened.” With these words Lois Lowry opens the best novel for children of the 1990s and one of the greatest science fiction works of all time—The Giver. In the early ’90s Lowry found herself a frequent visitor at a nursing home. There her mother, going […]
Adventure, Award Winning, Dystopia, NewberyFeatured on December 3
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
Biography, Middle SchoolToday has been designated Rosa Parks Day, marking her arrest on December 1, 1955, for refusing to give up her seat on a bus. The incident sparked the yearlong Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott and is considered the beginning of the Modern Civil Rights Movement. But today, because of the research of author Phillip Hoose, we […]
Award Winning, Civil Rights, History, National Book Award, Newbery, SibertFeatured on December 1
Savvy
Elementary School, Fantasy, Middle SchoolWe all have at least one talent. November 24, Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day, allows all of us to acknowledge our own individual abilities. Whatever you do best, take some time today to recognize that talent. What if you knew that on a certain birthday, your thirteenth, you would be given a special talent or […]
Adventure, Award Winning, Family, Magic, NewberyFeatured on November 24
Elizabeth George Speare
Elementary School, Historical Fiction, Middle SchoolOn November 21, 1908, Elizabeth George Speare was born in Melrose, Massachusetts. After finishing degrees from Boston University, she taught in the Massachusetts schools, then married and moved to Connecticut. When her children entered junior high school, she began writing articles and eventually books for children. One thing that distinguishes Speare from other writers is […]
Adventure, Award Winning, History, Newbery, Pioneer, SurvivalFeatured on November 21
The (Mostly) True Adventures of Homer P. Figg
Elementary School, Historical Fiction, Middle SchoolOn the third Saturday in November, the town of Gettysburg celebrates Remembrance Day with a parade of Civil War groups and organizations. One of the most dramatic events of the battle at Gettysburg occurred on the second day when Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Bowdoin College professor who commanded the 20th Maine, was sent to defend Little […]
Adventure, Award Winning, Civil War, History, NewberyFeatured on November 20
Jean Fritz
Biography, Elementary School, NonfictionOn November 16, 1915, Jean Fritz was born to American missionaries in Hankow, China. She spent the next thirteen years there—and observed another culture while “wondering what it was like to be an American.” Fritz would write about that childhood in the 1980s for her compelling autobiography, Homesick: My Own Story, a Newbery Honor Book, […]
Award Winning, History, NewberyFeatured on November 16
Hachet
Elementary School, Fiction, Middle SchoolThe second week of November we celebrate National Young Readers Week, an event created in 1989 by the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress to help schools recognize the joys and benefits of reading. To go along with the activities this year, I recommend two books, one a classic and the other […]
Adventure, Award Winning, Nature, Newbery, SurvivalFeatured on November 8
Katherine Paterson
Elementary School, Fiction, Middle SchoolUnless you are living under a rock, you know today is Halloween. Either for nutritional or theological reasons, Halloween has not been as appreciated in recent years as when I was a child. But I think there is a better holiday to celebrate on October 31. In fact, I am sorry that it is not […]
Award Winning, NewberyFeatured on October 31
The Cricket in Times Square
Classic, Elementary School, Fantasy More than fifty years ago a down-on-his-luck, New York City playwright who had graduated from Yale wandered into the Times Square subway station late at night and heard a cricket chirp. It reminded him of his childhood in Connecticut when his life had been more optimistic and innocent. Because he knew how to write scenes […]
Animals, Award Winning, Cats, Classical, Insects, Mice, Music, New York, NewberyFeatured on October 30
Sarah, Plain and Tall
Elementary School, Historical FictionOctober is Family History Month, celebrated by genealogists and family historians who believe in actively searching for information about ancestors. Because of my own family research, I have stood on the Gettysburg battlefield and imagined what my great-grandfather experienced there. I now think about the streets of New York City in an entirely different way—because […]
Award Winning, History, Newbery, PioneerFeatured on October 26
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.
