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Dr. Bookworm features children's book reviews from a pediatrician's point of view. We also host read-alongs of favorite books.

Categories

  • An Introduction
  • Book Groupings
  • Book Review
  • Book Versus Film
  • Book Versus Movie
  • Bookish Topics
  • Creative Endeavors
  • Doctor Bookworm Reads
  • Doctorly Musings
  • Dr.Bookworm Book Rec
  • ENDINGS first
  • Epic Read-Along
  • Featured Fridays
  • First Pages
  • Flashback Friday
  • Gift Lists
  • Giveaway!
  • Little Lion Likes
  • Milestones
  • Music to Boogie To
  • NonMedical Medical Advice
  • The Skinny on this Writer
  • Young Writers & Dreamers


Authors

  • Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Dr. Bookworm
Get Your Read On
What's YOUR Superpower?
Dec 11

Dec 11 What's YOUR Superpower?

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Doctorly Musings, Creative Endeavors

Dr. Bookworm discusses SUPERpowers.

The Greatest Gift of All
Dec 8

Dec 8 The Greatest Gift of All

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Creative Endeavors, Bookish Topics

Dr Bookworm talks about unstructured playtime with boxes.

The Perfect Book for Bibliophiles
Dec 6

Dec 6 The Perfect Book for Bibliophiles

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Book Review

Dr. Bookworm reviews A Child of Books by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston.

Twelve Picture Books for the Twelve Days of Christmas
Dec 1

Dec 1 Twelve Picture Books for the Twelve Days of Christmas

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Book Groupings, Giveaway!, Gift Lists

In honor of the 12 Days of Christmas, Dr. Bookworm recommends 12 Must-Have Picture Books for every home library.

The Land of Forgotten Girls
Nov 29

Nov 29 The Land of Forgotten Girls

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Book Review

Three different Filipino-American women review Erin Entrada Kelly's The Land of Forgotten Girls.

How Becoming a Parent Not Only Changed Me as a Person, but as a Pediatrician
Nov 26

Nov 26 How Becoming a Parent Not Only Changed Me as a Person, but as a Pediatrician

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Doctorly Musings

Random House has a contest going on regarding the release of Nicola Yoon’s The Sun Is Also A Star.  The focus? They want you to answer the difficult question of ā€œHow has love changed you?ā€

What I want to focus on, instead, is how becoming a mother in the first place has changed me as a pediatrician.

Thankful, Thoughtful, Wonderful
Nov 23

Nov 23 Thankful, Thoughtful, Wonderful

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Bookish Topics, Doctorly Musings

Dr. Bookworm talks about how THANKFUL and THOUGHTFUL can lead to WONDERFUL.  With some books that promote gratitude, thoughts and wonder.

Bedtime Books
Nov 17

Nov 17 Bedtime Books

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Book Groupings

Dr. Bookworm talks about some of her family's favorite bedtime stories.

Return
Nov 15

Nov 15 Return

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Book Review

Dr. Bookworm reviews the wordless picture book, Return, by Aaron Becker. The last in his trilogy.

Don't Let the Hair Bugs Bite!
Nov 10

Nov 10 Don't Let the Hair Bugs Bite!

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Doctorly Musings, NonMedical Medical Advice

Dr. Bookworm doles out advice about lice, and her own personal experiences with the little buggers.

The Dichotomy (Trichotomy) of Me
Nov 8

Nov 8 The Dichotomy (Trichotomy) of Me

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Doctorly Musings

I'm a super hero. My other name is mom. Dr. Bookworm talks about the balance between being a mom and being a doctor.  And the balance between the science and, more importantly, the ART of being a good doctor.

Coloring the Monster
Nov 5

Nov 5 Coloring the Monster

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Book Review, Book Groupings

A book review of The Color Monster: A Pop-up Book of Feelings by Anna Llenas plus other emotions-related book recommendations.

Dress-Up and Imaginative Play
Nov 2

Nov 2 Dress-Up and Imaginative Play

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Creative Endeavors, Doctorly Musings

Dr Bookworm talks about costume trends and the importance of dress-up and imaginative play.

A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy far, far away....
Oct 27

Oct 27 A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy far, far away....

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Epic Read-Along, Book Review

Dr. Bookworm and family perform a read-along ofStar Wars: The Original Triology, A Graphic Novel in honor of #StarWarsReads. Mr. Bookworm does a guest review of the graphic novel.

Panda Pants and Meeting Authors
Oct 25

Oct 25 Panda Pants and Meeting Authors

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Book Review

A book review of Panda Pants by Jacqueline Davies

Boos and Rules
Oct 24

Oct 24 Boos and Rules

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Doctorly Musings

Dr. Bookworm shares some tips and a golden rule for keeping safe on Halloween.

I Want to Be Your Personal Penguin
Oct 20

Oct 20 I Want to Be Your Personal Penguin

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Book Groupings

A trio of our three favorite penguin picture books.

I'll Give You Everything, Everything
Oct 18

Oct 18 I'll Give You Everything, Everything

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Book Review

A book review of Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon.

First World Kid Problems aka Penguin Problems
Oct 13

Oct 13 First World Kid Problems aka Penguin Problems

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Book Review

A book review of Penguin Problems by Jory John, illustrated by Lane Smith.

Silly Old Bear
Oct 11

Oct 11 Silly Old Bear

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
Book Review

A book review of Finding Winnie by Lindsay Mattick.

Load More
 
 

Dr. Bookworm

My bookstack and me dressed in blue for World Autism Day 

#drbookworm #bookstack #autism #autismawareness #raiseareader
We officially have a rainbow teen.  Not a rainbow baby, not a rainbow child, but a rainbow TEEN.  That also means that my Macy Button is 14 years old, and my Little Lion has just turned 13. 

It took me a long time before I found out that the term ra
From my rainy day Mulan disneybound a few weeks ago. Finally got my Mulan ‘castle’ loungefly a bit ago. 😃 Please note my reluctant Mushu. 

#drbookworm #disneybound #disneyboundtowork #mulan
I forgot to post the last of my I-Support-Trans-Rights- Not-Hogwarts-Pride-Days pictures! From a few days ago, here are some books featuring trans or non-binary characters. 

šŸ“– The Deep and Dark Blue by Niki Smith
šŸ“– Magical Boy by The Kao
šŸ“– Cemete
Did you know that the character of Ursula was partially inspired by an actor and drag queen named Divine? 

Continuing my anti-Hogwarts House pride days to support the LGBTQ+ community. 

Also, I somehow have two copies of the wonderful Blackout.  If
Bi crossing the bifrost! In today’s boycott of Hogwarts house pride days, I feel a bit remiss because Loki would fit right in. But I earnestly believe that Slytherins would support trans rights and not transphobia. Btw, I’m told that Loki
This is the week when I usually would dress up for each Hogwarts house pride day. This year, I’m supporting LGBTQ+ rights. 

#everyonewelcome #lgtbqpride #lgtbqally #ally #doctorbookworm
Happy International Women’s Day! It happens to coincide with Women in History day at Little Lion’s school. Today I represented Mabel Ping Hua Lee, a lesser known suffragist who happened to be a Chinese American teen activist. 

She led a
FOURTEEN
Squirt:
Warm belly hugs
Guitar music and toddler singing
Teary nights
Loving warm hands
Warm meals and sad smiles
A circle surrounding me, surrounding you
With nothing but love
Three chromosomes
Many anomalies
‘Incompatible’ with
#Caturday A latergram as Little Lion is still fast asleep.
Waves of Grief:
They say that grief comes in waves and I can understand that metaphor. This month is January, typically the hardest month of the year for me as it is when Macy was born and when she died. 

This year—this year I’m feeling
They say you should never meet your heroes.  It’s a trope for a reason. (And one  which one character mutters about another in the Wednesday series…. no spoilers.) Luckily we haven’t had to live that trope yet. 

Every time we&rsqu

Dr Bookworm is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to www.amazon.com. Any money earned through affiliate advertising will go toward the maintenance of the site, book/prize giveaways, and/or book donations.

***** 11/2025: I’m currently in the process of switching links to Bookshop.org, which supports indie bookstores. Here is my affiliate link, or copy and paste this in your browser https://bookshop.org/shop/drbookworm. Thank you! *****

Site, text, and pictures are copyright 2016-2025 by Melanie Tioleco-Cheng, unless otherwise noted and posted with permission. Guest comments and postings are property of their respective authors.

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