The Butter Man: the challenge and beauty of delayed gratification

The Butter Man: the challenge and beauty of delayed gratification

Set in Morocco—the baba (father) in this story is telling his little girl about a time when he was a child living in Morocco. There was a drought and his family was running out of food, so they ate less and less each day. Eventually, the gnawing hunger pervaded all of his thoughts ...
ages 4 to 12 years

Read More

Make Way For Ducklings: Caldecott Medal winners tend to hold their appeal!

Make Way For Ducklings: Caldecott Medal winners tend to hold their appeal!

Make Way for Ducklings is the story of Mr. & Mrs. Mallard and their quest to find a place to nest and then to raise their family of ducklings. It has cult status in Boston, where the duck statues in the public gardens never need polishing because children sit on them so often they naturally keep up the sheen!

Read More

how (and why) we started WTBA

how (and why) we started WTBA

Sunday afternoons we talk. We loll in chairs, go on long drives, lie all over the bed, throw quilts on the grass or linger over lunch – it doesn’t so much matter how, we just talk. On one of those days, in the midst of all the conversation, I mentioned that a friend had asked for advice about some troubles her little girl was facing.  

I knew what I would do. I would be reading. I had a couple of picture books in mind; a chapter book and a couple of poems.  

Those books weren’t ‘about’ the things troubling this little girl – but they were what I had read to my children when they were facing the same issues.

Read More

sometimes, books just need to be there—at home, waiting

sometimes, books just need to be there—at home, waiting

Public libraries stand as a symbol of a society that values thoughts and ideas – a society that appreciates art and believes it should be available to all – a literate society.

And (especially in free countries where libraries abound and good books can be had for free and taken for granted) homes need to have bookshelves in bedrooms, or rooms or walls dedicated to books. Even more especially when that home has children in it.

Read More