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Greenglass House by Kate Milford
Illustrated by Jaime Zollars

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On November 29, many authors will head to one of their favorite bookstores to become booksellers for a day. Indies First was the brainchild of author Sherman Alexie, who wanted to celebrate what every author knows: that without independent bookstores and booksellers to carefully select books and support authors, our lives would be so much […]

Seasons, Winter
Featured on November 24

Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

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The game’s afoot! This weekend in Cape May, New Jersey, one of my favorite events of the year, Sherlock Holmes Weekend, takes place. Anyone lucky enough to attend can don Victorian garb and stalk gas-lit streets to solve an intriguing mystery. I myself always want to go, if only to wear one of those great […]

Award Winning, Newbery
Featured on March 11

The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer

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Around this time of year many school children find themselves on summer vacation, often with an assignment to read a number of books over the summer.  I myself was never so happy as a child as when I had unlimited time to read and a pile of new offerings by my chair. Well, if you […]

Adventure, London
Featured on June 9

Encyclopedia Brown by Donald Sobol

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Born on October 4, 1924, in New York City, Donald Sobol served in the Army Corps of Engineers in World War II and then attended Oberlin College. There he became interested in writing and worked as a reporter for the New York Sun and the New York Daily News. In the late fifties Sobol began […]

Humor
Featured on October 4

The Stratemeyer Syndicate

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On May 10, 1930, Edward Stratemeyer, author and empire builder, died. He began his career as a ghostwriter for the Horatio Alger series, then fashioned his own adventures about the Rover Boys. In 1906 Stratemeyer began to hire freelance writers to develop his ideas. He created nothing less than a literary assembly line—in the end […]

Women
Featured on May 10

Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
Illustrated by Brett Helquist

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March has been designated Youth Art Month, set aside to promote art and art education in the United States. The perfect book to celebrate the month, Blue Balliett’s Chasing Vermeer, published in 2005, contains all the necessary elements to get young people thinking about art and artists. Set at the University School in Hyde Park, […]

Art, School
Featured on March 29

The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman

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For our celebration of mysteries that began last week, let’s look at one of our best-written mysteries for young readers, Philip Pullman’s The Ruby in the Smoke, first published in the United States in 1987. With this book, Pullman, a former schoolteacher raised in Rhodesia, Australia, London, and Wales, launched his career as a writer […]

History, Victorian
Featured on March 19

Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams

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The game’s afoot. For all Sherlock Holmes fans, from March 16-18 in Cape May, New Jersey, the Sherlock Holmes Weekend takes place. Everyone attending the event at the Inn of Cape May, preferably in Victorian attire, will be attempting to solve a mystery. Well, I wish I could be there—for no other reason than to […]

School, Theater
Featured on March 18

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

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On March 13, 1928, Ellen Raskin was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At first she pursued a career in fine arts, graduating from the University of Wisconsin. After she moved to New York, she began designing book jackets and created over one thousand of them. Raskin was lured into the field of children’s books to serve […]

Award Winning, Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, Games, Newbery
Featured on March 13

The Man Who Was Poe by Avi

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On January 19, 1809, Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts. At some time or another during childhood or adolescence, almost every child in America falls under his spell. I remember the first time my mother read me “The Raven;” later I became obsessed with his dark mysteries and macabre short stories. Poe only […]

Gothic
Featured on January 19

Walter R. Brooks by Walter R. Brooks

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On January 9, 1886, Walter R. Brooks was born in Rome, New York. Orphaned at an early age, he was sent to a military academy and then attended the University of Rochester. An interest in homeopathic medicine brought him to New York City, where he worked for the Red Cross. He then turned his hand […]

Adventure, Animals, Humor, Pigs
Featured on January 9

The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd

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On December 31, 1999, the Prime Minister of England, Tony Blair, formally opened what was then the tallest Ferris wheel in the world, the London Eye. On the banks of the River Thames, this major landmark and tourist attraction has provided a panoramic view of the city for around 3.5 million riders each year. In […]

Autism, Family, London, Special Needs
Featured on December 31

Masterpiece by Elise Broach
Illustrated by Kelly Murphy

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Today I’m focusing on another book for National Young Reader’s Week, one of the relatively new titles I think is destined to become a classic. A mystery and suspense novel, it also presents the work of Albrecht Durer, painter and printmaker, to young readers in grades three through six. Precocious as a child because of […]

Adventure, Animals, Art, Insects
Featured on November 12

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.