My Best Friend is a self-explanatory title so on first read, I readily accept this friendship between the girls. But <SPOILER ALERT>, it’s Fogliano’s ending that makes me fall in love with the book as a whole.
In My Heart: A Book of Feelings
I first spotted In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek around Valentine’s Day last year. I picked it up, assuming it was a book associated with the holiday. Instead, I found a picture book so full of heart and emotion that it was overflowing.
Pre-ordering Books
Do you pre-order books so you’ll have them on their release day?
World Read Aloud Day 2020
In honor of World Read Aloud Day, here are two of our all time favorite picture books to read out loud.
National Women Physicians Day 2020
I celebrate my mom every day by honoring her example.
For Macy
What are the things I carry? It’s an amalgam of treasured childhood moments, intimidating med school and residency moments, and an awful lot of both regrets and happiness that involve each of my kids, including, of course, my Macy though she passed away.
New Year, New Books
Every New Year’s Day, my Lola (grandma) would hold a raffle.
Holiday Family Traditions
When I was little, my mom would get a few new Hallmark ornaments every year. Our ornaments were handmade school projects and a mish-mash of gathered ornaments from years past, and I loved our tree very much.
The Wand
I have a hard time letting things go. In my heart.
So it may come as no surprise to you that I’m still mourning Little Lion’s wand.
The Laurie Berkner Band: Waiting for the Elevator
Mini Me and discovered The Laurie Berkner Band when the band was featured on Jack’s Big Music Show on Nick Jr and Noggin. Her fun and catchy songs were so loved in our house that we had to buy ALL of her albums.
First Pages: Frankly In Love
“Well, I have two names.
That’s what I say when people ask me what my middle names is. I say:
Well, I have two names.
My first name is Frank Li.
Mom-n-Dad gave me that name mostly with the character count in mind.
No really: F+R+A+N+K+L+I contains seven characters and seven is a lucky number in America.”
~ from Frankly In Love by David Yoon
First Pages: Wayward Son
“Simon Snow did what he came to do.
What they all said he would do someday. He found the big baddie—he found two—and he finished them off.
He didn’t expect to live through it. And he hadn’t.
Baz once told him that everything was a story, and that Simon was the hero.”
First Pages: Dragon Masters: Rise of the Earth Dragon
“Drake didn’t see the king’s soldier coming. He was busy digging in the onion patch. He pulled out a fat, white onion. A worm crawled on it. Drake didn’t mind the worm. He was the son of a farmer. HIs family had been growing onions in the Kingdom of Bracken forever. He would spend his life digging up onions, whether he wanted to or not.”
~ from Dragon Masters: Rise of the Earth Dragon by Tracey West
Llama Destroys the World
Dat! Dat is my new favorite picture book! And llama.
OC/IE Walk to Remember 2019
Mini Me was a precocious two-year old, and she pulled me and my husband through the muddy, tangled, dredgy waters that is the thing we call GRIEF.
I Like The Me I See
In our current culture, when our little ones may be learning that they might not have the right hair color, or skin tone, or nose, or clothes, or verbal skills to be accepted, I love Culture Queen’s simple but profound message: I LIKE THE ME I SEE.
Picture Books are for EVERYONE
Picture Books are for EVERYONE. Over the summer, Little Lion systematically pulled out almost every single picture book off of our shelves so she could re-read them. All of them.