The search for excellent books is a lifelong hobby. More books are being published today than ever before, but discovering the gems is nearly as tricky as, well, finding gems is. One tip I find useful is to collect good authors. When we find a great book, the next thing we crave is something else…
Gina Smith (my wife) wrote a short review of The King of Little Things and you can read that here. We love the book as a family and have snuggled up many times in our cozy home in West Virginia to read it. So imagine our surprise when we learned later that Bil Lepp, the…
Gina Smith (my wife) wrote a short review of The King of Little Things and you can read that here. We love the book as a family and have snuggled up many times in our cozy home in West Virginia to read it. So imagine our surprise when we learned later that Bil Lepp, the…
I read about Kobi Yamada and Mae Besom’s What Do You Do With An Idea? on one of those lists that all of us parents bump into somewhere or other on the internet. I checked it out from the library while we were on vacation and read it to the kids. They were delighted with…
Jim LaMarche loves light. When bands of slanting afternoon light spill into the kitchen or early morning light causes a blush to fall over a meadow, Mr. LaMarche catches the light and every subtle shade it awakens. He sees the world in quiet tableaus of light and color. A young boy holds his silver spoon…
One of the things I enjoy most about hanging out with kids is their sense of wonder, the way they are constantly reminding me to see the world through fresh eyes. Little things, like a small bug or leaf, or the magic of a Christmas tree, become much more profound and nuanced when you’re watching…
A lot of important things went by the wayside the day I read this book. The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, by Daniel James Brown, is a gripping account that reads like suspense fiction. Maybe it is because I have two teenaged boys…
There is something so lovely about reading a parenting book that is co-written by parent and child. While the unquestionable affection and mutual respect Sally and Nathan Clarkson have for one another is palpable in their new book, Different, it also feels like an authentic depiction of their experience. While every parent wonders if they…
Note: I received a review copy of this title from the authors. As an undergraduate, I studied literature, immersing myself in the tortuous metaphors of John Donne, the heartrending tragedies of Shakespeare, and the philosophical piety of Dostoevsky. I love how a talented author can make my heart sing with only twenty-six letters and a…
When I think back to the favorite books of my childhood, books whose tang of atmosphere and illustration are still keen in my mind, one of the first I remember is the series of English country tales known as the Brambly Hedge books. These picture books were so intricately illustrated and vividly told that I…
It’s not very often that you hear of a trilogy of picture books; I frequently see popular series for early readers or for older kids, but picture books seldom seem to get the opportunity to tell a story longer than thirty-two pages. Thankfully, Aaron Becker’s beautiful wordless Journey trilogy has busted that trend. I first…
Editor’s Note: This year (2016), Advent starts on Sunday, November 27! I love celebrating Christmas, and I love almost every Christmas tradition I’ve ever met. But once I had children of my own, I realized the idea of Santa Claus was eclipsing the joyous miracle of Jesus’ arrival among us. This made me feel decidedly…
