Book-A-Day Almanac
Discover the stories behind the children’s book classics and the new books on their way to becoming classics.
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
Jerry Pinkney
Elementary School, Picture BookToday is the birthday of Jerry Pinkney, illustrator extraordinaire who has created more than two hundred books for children since he entered the field. Born in Philadelphia, Jerry studied at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art and then moved to Boston for work. In 1964 he published his first children’s book, The Adventures of Spider. […]
Award Winning, Caldecott, FolktaleFeatured on December 22
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
Snow
Elementary School, Picture BookIn some areas of the country, the first snowfall comes in October, but depending on where you are, you may still be waiting for the first snow of the season. I recently watched my young Bernese mountain dog, Lancelot, run around in ecstasy as he experienced an early snowfall; of course, it reminded me of how […]
Award Winning, Caldecott, Seasons, WinterFeatured on December 12
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Elementary School, Historical FictionOn December 8, 1861, Georges Méliès was born in Paris, France. He became one of the first French filmmakers, renowned for his creative development of motion pictures. Delighting in special effects, Méliès explored time-lapse photography and hand-painted color in films. His most famous movie, A Trip to the Moon (1902), features a scene where a […]
Award Winning, Caldecott, Film, HistoryFeatured on December 8
Happy Hanukkah
Elementary School, Picture BookThe celebration of Hanukkah, which takes place this year from December 1–9, has generated a number of fine books for children. Today I’d like to look at two picture books that I particularly admire, one classic and one newer title. Trina Schart Hyman won a Caldecott Honor for her spirited artwork in Hershel and the […]
Award Winning, Caldecott, Hanukkah, History, Holidays, Revolutionary WarFeatured on December 6
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
Margot Zemach
Elementary School, Picture BookWe’ll end the month of November with another birthday celebration, this time of one of the finest book illustrators of the twentieth century, Margot Zemach, born in 1931. Strangely, and I have never figured out why, male illustrators for children outnumber and generally outrank, in terms of accolades, their female counterparts. But Margot Zemach could […]
Adventure, Award Winning, CaldecottFeatured on November 30
Moonshot
Elementary School, Nonfiction, Picture BookToday for National Aviation Month, let’s look at a perfect book for four- to eight-year-olds that explains the Apollo 11 mission. In 1969 families and friends gathered around small television sets in households across America to watch Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin attempt to land on the moon. In Moonshot: The Flight of […]
Adventure, Award Winning, History, Sibert, SpaceFeatured on November 28
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
Marc Simont
Elementary School, Picture Book Today we celebrate the ninety-fifth birthday of an incredible artist, Marc Simont, who in seven decades has illustrated more than one hundred books for children. Born in Paris to parents from the Catalonian region of Spain, Simont lived in France, Spain, and the United States during his childhood. Very much like Jean Fritz, our other […]
Animals, Award Winning, Caldecott, DogsFeatured on November 23
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
Abraham Lincoln
Biography, Elementary School, Picture BookOn November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln helped dedicate seventeen acres of the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Orator Edward Everett delivered the main speech that day. He spoke for two hours; Lincoln’s short address lasted about two minutes. Although contemporaries thought little of the president’s address, today we consider “The Gettysburg Address” one […]
Award Winning, Caldecott, Civil War, HistoryFeatured on November 19
Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream
Middle School, NonfictionNext for National Aviation Month, I’ve chosen a book honoring women who loved flying. When Lieutenant Colonel Eileen M. Collins became the first woman to command a spacecraft that orbited the earth, a group of women pilots had been invited by her to sit at the coveted VIP spots at Cape Canaveral. This group included […]
Award Winning, History, Sibert, Space, WomenFeatured on November 18
My Season with Penguins: An Antarctic Journal
Elementary School, Nonfiction, Picture BookOn November 17, 1820, Nathaniel Palmer and his men on the Hero became the first Americans to set foot on the Antarctic Peninsula. He was a young man, twenty-two, when he accomplished the act for which he has been immortalized. When I think of young Americans journeying to Antarctica, the book that instantly comes to […]
Animals, Award Winning, Penguins, SibertFeatured on November 17
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
So You Want to Be President?
Elementary School, Nonfiction, Picture Book It’s November when Americans vote in national elections. November is also Picture Book Month, a time set aside to celebrate the need for picture books in the lives of children. Both causes merge in our book of the day, which both educates and entertains young people — just as good picture books should. Winner of the 2001 Caldecott Medal for David […]
Award Winning, Caldecott, History, Humor, PoliticsFeatured on November 2
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
Grandfather’s Journey
Biography, Elementary School, Picture BookOn October 28,1886, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s sculpture, Liberty Enlightening the World, was officially dedicated on Bedloe’s Island in New York. A sonnet by Emma Lazarus had been inscribed on the pedestal: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, […]
Asian American, Award Winning, Caldecott, Family, History, Immigration, MulticulturalFeatured on October 28
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.
