Hi Reader, The first person to tell me that the ceasefire agreement in Gaza was actually going to be signed was Ameera. (If you're new to my email list, our community has been supporting Ameera, her husband, and her three children for the past year as conditions in Gaza became increasingly horrific.) Just a week before, Ameera and her husband were trying to decide if it was too late to flee Gaza City. Every time I messaged her I was worried there might only be silence on the other end. I'm...
15 days ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Indigenous Peoples Day is this Monday. November is Native American Heritage Month. We're about the enter the short time of year when non-Native children are most likely to hear things about Indigenous peoples, especially at school. I'm hopeful this time of year that educators, families, and community groups will take advantage of the growing body of resources for respectfully and accurately learning about Indigenous nations in the present day, as well as their histories. But I'm...
22 days ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Banned Books Week starts on October 5th and sadly it is more relevant than ever. The huge spike in book challenges and bans that started in 2021 has only continued to rise, with the federal government now joining in this censorship on a massive scale. But that does not mean we are helpless! Even in my conservative home state of Tennessee, the Rutherford County Library Board unanimously voted to put previously banned books back on the shelves in June after public and legal pressure....
29 days ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, When I started working on this month's booklist of great children's books by autistic authors, I didn't know that Trump would make a bunch of dubious and dangerous claims about the causes and "cures" of autism right before I published it. As I read the books and wrote the post, I was thinking a lot about Robert F. Kennedy's, Jr.'s offensive comments that autism was a "tragedy," and that most autistic kids wouldn't grow up to contribute anything to society. Rather than understanding...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, It’s been quiet around here because I’ve been working behind the scenes to a boring, detailed tech project. It will save me a lot on business expenses, but I'm so glad to be almost finished with it! I'll have a brand new children's book list for you next Tuesday that you won't want to miss. I've also been quite busy volunteering with Coffees for Gaza, a mutual aid effort that raises funds and awareness for 25 families in Gaza. One of those 25 families is Ameera Skaik's. Many of you...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, They say you should never meet your heroes. So far for me, that hasn't been true, especially not when I got to meet Mychal Threets earlier this month. Mychal went viral a couple years ago for his heartfelt videos about library kids and how everyone belongs at the library. He's also honest and empathetic about his own struggles with mental health. And he speaks up for kids in Gaza. And he was homeschooled. So you can see why I was so thrilled to meet him! Plus, I not only got to...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Do you have a question about my new ebook, From the Margins to the Center: A People's History of the United States Told Through Children's Books? I'm here to answer the most common questions I've been getting about this brand-new resource. #1 Is this a history curriculum? No, this is not a full curriculum. It is a set of in-depth book reviews broken down by periods of U.S. history and by age group (with books for kids as young as age 5 and as old as age 14). You could certainly put...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Hi Reader, When I was creating From the Margins to the Center: A People's History of the United States Told Through Children's Books, I came across a movement I'd never heard of. First, I noticed it in Ilyasah Shabazz's excellent novel about her mother's childhood, Betty Before X. (Shabazz's father is Malcolm X.) When young Betty moved to Detroit in 1945, a mentor from her church got her involved in the Housewives' League. The League organized Black women to put economic pressure on...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader, I'm thrilled to announce that From The Margins to the Center: A People's History of the United States Told Through Children's Books is now available! I started researching and writing this ebook five months ago after deciding that none of the homeschool U.S. history programs out there were quite what I wanted. As I searched for engaging non-fiction books and historical fiction that would pull my son into different eras, I wished I could find some type of mega-list of U.S. history...
3 months ago • 2 min read