One November day, a brave little girl named Ruby Bridges went to her first day of school. She would be the first black student to attend a whites-only school, changing it from segregated to integrated. In 2018, students of different races and ethnicities attend school with each other every day all across America. In 1960, […]
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Do you doodle?Would you like to improve your skills and learn to draw? I know I would. Drawing’s a fun and relaxing way to get rid of stress and be creative, and drawing can be practically free, for the price of a pencil and a scrap of paper, and it’s portable. And maybe, just maybe, […]
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Music has the Grammys, TV has the Golden Globes, and movies have the Oscars. There is no single award for books. Books, specifically books for Children and Young Adults (YA), are a little different. On February 12, the American Library Association (ALA) will host the Youth Media Awards Ceremony in Denver, and the entire ceremony […]
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I was always afraid of going to the dentist when I was young. The masks, the too-bright light, the tiny metal picks, the high-pitched whirr of the drill all combined to make a place much scarier than any haunted house. Terrified by dentists, I vowed to never EVER trust one. Never say never, right? One […]
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Presidents Day is coming soon, and if you’re like me, you like fun facts about U.S. presidents. For example, did you know that Franklin Pierce, our 14th president, is considered to be one of our most handsome presidents? That “Hail to the Chief”, the official presidential anthem, first became a tradition because James K. Polk […]
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In college, I cringed anytime the syllabus said the dreaded words: “Textbook Required” because I knew that meant that I had countless hours of bland reading ahead of me. More often than not, I would skim the pages hoping that obtaining information through osmosis was real and that I wouldn’t need to read the text at […]
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February is Black History Month, with such a wide range of voices and experiences, over centuries and continents, that it is hard to present all the rich variety of history, commentary, and fiction. Here are a few classic books by African-American authors to start with: […]
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Every year the American Library Association (ALA) presents the Morris Award to an outstanding Young Adult book written by a first-time writer. Because of its defining criterion, I like to think of the Morris Award as the ALA’s version of a Rookie of the Year Award. Don’t, however, let these authors’ newness to the scene […]
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It happens to the best of us. You read a book review, then head to your local library with that certain book in mind you’re dying to read. You pull into the parking lot, whistling a happy tune, because hey, you’re at the library! The library rules! You head over to the stacks and stare […]
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If you’re like me, you’re too tasteful and refined for the gaping-maw, bloody bones of everyday horror. You want excellent writing and psychological shivers to give you the creeps. Thanks to Unbound Worlds, I now know about literary horror fiction and the high-class path to getting scared. Dread, fear, and distorted reality are all part […]
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