From May 13–19 we celebrate Children’s Book Week, a great time to look at old classics and new favorites. Last year for Scholastic Book Clubs, I worked with more than twenty children’s book experts to identify the best books to include in their offerings. When we took our original ballot, before discussion, one book garnered [...]
Humor
Today marks the birthday of Clara Lemlich, born in 1886 in Ukraine to a Jewish family. Following a pogrom in 1903, Clara and her family immigrated to the United States. She stood a mere five feet tall, but as Brave Girl, our book of the day, tells us, she had grit and was going to [...]
20th Century, Clothing, History, Jewish, Multicultural, New York, Women
Tonight the full moon appears around the world, and I plan to celebrate with a 1957 title by Janice May Udry, The Moon Jumpers, which won a Caldecott Honor for its illustrator, Maurice Sendak when he was just thirty years old. It has been less than a year since Maurice’s death, and the outpouring of [...]
Award Winning, Bedtime, Caldecott
Today marks the sixtieth birthday of Peggy Rathmann. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Peggy studied commercial art and crafted picture books at the Otis Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles. In 1991 she published her first book, Ruby the Copycat, and was immediately hailed by Publishers Weekly as a “Promising New Author.” Promising indeed. [...]
Animals, Bedtime
From February 3–9 this year, we celebrate Children’s Authors and Illustrators Week. Of course, on the Almanac I celebrate them every day of the year. But still I appreciate a week where everyone can focus on these extraordinary people. After being in the field for more than forty years, I love finding an author-illustrator unknown [...]
Animals, Art, Award Winning
The 20th Singapore Robotic Games is taking place on January 22 and 23 at the Science Center in Singapore. Does this sound like fun or what? Since I can’t be there, I am doing the next best thing: picking up Ame Dyckman’s Boy + Bot, one of the funniest and most original picture books of [...]
Friendship, Science, Technology, Toys