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On doing whatever you want by Peter Cheong | Nerdy Book Club
It’s ironic that I pursued a career in children’s books to get away from essay writing and public speaking, as nowadays I’m getting asked to do more and more of both. And I never would have guessed that I’d actually enjoy doing both of them. Isn’t it funny how things work out? When I first…
Power to the Parasites! by Chelsea L. Wood | Nerdy Book Club
At first glance, I might look like a typical science professor, someone who teaches classes, runs a research lab, and trains graduate students. The reality is so much weirder than that. In Power to the Parasites!, readers get a glimpse of my day-to-day job duties. I am a tour guide, introducing newcomers to the netherworld.…
The Best True Stories by David Rickert | Nerdy Book Club
One of the great joys I get when writing non-fiction books is finding a story that is so compelling I want to share it with everyone I know. And in many cases, I know it will be a great story for kids, and then I’ve struck gold. Such was the case with Checkups, Shots, and…
BEWARE THE DRAGON AND THE NOZZLEWOCK: BREAKING THE RULES OF THE COMIC FORMAT BY VIKRAM MADAN | Nerdy Book Club
BEWARE THE DRAGON AND THE NOZZLEWOCK is an unconventional book by any sense. The tagline for the book says ‘A Graphic Novel Poetry Collection Full of Surprising Characters’. Mathematically speaking, (funny poems) x (comics) x (surprising characters) = (fun)CUBED My entire childhood was spent reading comics. Even my earliest introduction to classic literature (e.g. Count…
JOYFUL SONG: A NAMING STORY by Lesléa Newman and Susan Gal – Book Review and Poem by Aliza Werner | Nerdy Book Club
Your name is a joyful song. And a song is meant to be sung. It’s first note -- wailed or cooed or sputtered Announcing: I am here. I’ve never been here before. I have never been a child or grandchild or sibling or friend before, I am brand new The world is brand new An…
The Universe in a Glass of Water by Ruth Spiro | Nerdy Book Club
One of the most important choices I make as a writer is how to approach and develop a topic or story idea. Most often, I find there are many directions I could go and it may take multipledrafts to determine the best fit. Whether I’m writing fiction or nonfiction I’m always looking for the hook – that universal emotion or experience that connects with the reader. But before I can connect…
What Inspires a Writer? by Chaz Hayden | Nerdy Book Club
Growing up, my house was filled with books. They were everywhere and especially piled up next to my mom's favorite reading chair. My mom absorbed books like she needed them to survive, much like food. Watching her read was like witnessing someone in their element, completely at peace and yet utterly engaged. It was through…
Starry-Eyed Wonder by Lynn Brunelle | Nerdy Book Club
Want to experience some fun science with the kids? Go outside and look up into the night sky and be dazzled by the stars. We are such tiny beings in this universe amidst these billions and billions of stars. Whether you live in the city, the suburbs or the country, you can see the night…
Sixteen Books That Celebrate Palestinian Voices This Banned Books Week by M.O. Yuksel | Nerdy Book Club
Soft censorship—when books quietly disappear from shelves and reading lists without any official ban-- and shadow banning—where books and their creators are deliberately suppressed-- are just as harmful as outright book bans. Instead of sparking debate or activism, soft censorship and shadow banning works in silence, keeping important books out of readers' hands. This is especially harmful for books by marginalized voices, like those from Muslim and Palestinian authors, whose…
American Spirits – Daring to Write Scared by Barb Rosenstock | Nerdy Book Club
A Seance in 1887 I am a natural born skeptic. So, I wasn’t scared when I met my first psychic medium at a birthday party in 2005. I dismissed her insistence that an older man’s spirit wanted to talk with me. “His name began with ‘S’,” she said concentrating, “it sounds like ‘Sam’ but that’s…
Pathways Home by Naila Moreira | Nerdy Book Club
I'm an immigrant kid, more or less twice over. My parents emigrated from Brazil to England, bringing the culture of their country with them. There they birthed my older sister and me. We lived there until I was five, then off my family went to the United States, where we've lived ever since. By all…
The Howdunit by Loree Griffin Burns, Ph.D | Nerdy Book Club
The other night, out to dinner with a couple fiction-writer friends, I learned a new-to-me genre word: howdunit. The friend who shared the term said it describes a detective story in which the focus of the narrative is not the person who committed the crime (that would be a whodunit) but, rather, how the crime…
My Message to Students and Teachers by Rob Buyea | Nerdy Book Club
Students sometimes ask what the themes are in my book, to which I usually laugh and reply, “That sounds like a test question.” Then, turning serious, I go on to explain that I don’t think about themes when tackling a story. Rather, I find myself spending time with my characters, and wondering how they will…
On Being New Places and Trying New Things by Ruth Chan | Nerdy Book Club
If you had given 13-year-old me a choice whether to move to Hong Kong or stay in Toronto, chances are I would have said, “No way I’m going to Hong Kong! Why leave everything I know and love to start over somewhere so completely new and different?” Well, we moved anyway, and like any kind…
And the People Could Swim by Julian Randall | Nerdy Book Club
My first memory of learning about slavery is the imagined cries of a baby whipped across the face beneath a merciless sun. I am five years old, seated in my father’s lap, the pages of And The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton splayed before me. The illustrations are sepia tone, the brown hues of…
On Being a Writer by Katherine Arden | Nerdy Book Club
Ask ten writers how they pursue this ancient and often bewildering craft of ours, and you’ll get ten different answers. I recall, for example, reading an interview with Lee Child where he said that eating any bite of food during his workday entirely stops his flow of words, and so he fasts every day at…
How Picture Books Helped Me Embrace My Bilingual Identity by Hannah Chung | Nerdy Book Club
We loved covering the entire living room walls with our drawings. (left: my sister, right: me!) I spent my childhood in both the US and Korea and moved frequently. At one point, I attended three different middle schools in two countries. Adjusting to different cultures wasn’t easy. I felt happiest and safest at home, especially…
The Journey from Journalist to Children’s Author by Nathalie Alonso | Nerdy Book Club
As a journalist, I wrote many true stories long before the idea of writing nonfiction for children crossed my mind. I was a junior in college back in 2006 when I joined the editorial team at LasMayores.com, the Spanish-language website of Major League Baseball. Since then, I’ve been translating and producing articles and writing original…
The Magician Behind the Curtain by Stephanie Gibeault | Nerdy Book Club
As adult readers, we understand how books can transport us to different worlds, open our eyes to other points of view, shift our thoughts and opinions, soften our hearts, and expand our minds with new information. We can look back and reflect on how books have changed us. But as children, we don’t think about…
10 New Picture Books for the Vehicle-Obsessed Child by Carrie Finison | Nerdy Book Club
Richard Scarry’s much-beloved Cars and Trucks and Things that Go turns 50 this year. It’s been a staple of children’s bookshelves since it was published, and one thing hasn’t changed: Kids love vehicles! Beyond the classic, which was re-issued in a 50th anniversary edition in January, 2024, here’s a list of 10 great NEW vehicle…
Where My Love of Books Began by Jamel C. Campbell | Nerdy Book Club
As an author my journey started from my love of books which came from my mother reading stories to my siblings and I before bed. We had mostly Caribbean readers that my mother had from Trinidad and Tobago, church books or second-handbooks bought from library sales and gifts from church. We had toys as children but one thing my…
Kids Need Horror by Eden Royce | Nerdy Book Club
My new novel, The Creepening of Dogwood House, comes out today and I'm delighted to have been able to write a scary book for kids! Those unfamiliar with the horror genre may simply not realize how varied it is, or how nuanced it can be. I know people who claim to dislike and avoid horror, but those same…
Celebrating the Olympics with Middle Grade Sports Stories by Laura Shovan | Nerdy Book Club
The 2024 Summer Olympics kicked off on Friday. When I was growing up, my family would always gather to watch the opening ceremony together. My favorite moment was when Team USA paraded into the stadium. There was so much hope and excitement on the athletes’ faces. It was infectious, giving kid-me a boost of “work…
Centering Our Stories by Supriya Kelkar | Nerdy Book Club
My maternal grandfather, dean of the engineering college, was an author, of books on math riddles and brain-teasers. One of my maternal great-grandfathers was also an author—he wrote a biography on my great-grandmother, a freedom fighter who became one of the first women in India's congress, post-independence. And my dad was a screenwriter for Hindi…
A LOVE LETTER TO MY DAD by Laura Dockrill | Nerdy Book Club
When I sat down at my desk this morning I had definitely not intended to write a love letter to my Dad. I mean, he’s my dad; Ew. Gross. But when I think of reading; my own story with stories; books; the written and spoken word and how I came to be a writer, I…
Stories as Medicine™ by Arlène Elizabeth Casimir | Nerdy Book Club
Stories are medicine. Stories heal- depending on who tells them and how. Stories are organic compounds that support various developmental milestones. Stories correct character deficiencies. Stories treat damaged perspectives. Stories protect dreams. Stories co-regulate emotions. Stories improve social health and wellness. Stories restore hope. Stories preserve innocence. Stories reveal human complexities. Stories can have bitter…
There Are No Rules by Vicky Fang | Nerdy Book Club
In first grade, I was a rule follower. I hated being in trouble. (I still do.) I was what people called “a good girl.” I behaved nicely, I did all my lessons. (I had a LOT of lessons.) And I loved reading. I started reading with my mom on her bed at night, huddled together…
Cover Reveal: Tear This Down by Barbara Dee | Nerdy Book Club
I’ve always thought that the most powerful scene in The Wizard of Oz has nothing to do with wicked witches and twisters and flying monkeys. It’s the anticlimax, the moment when Toto exposes the Wizard for who he is: a weak, flawed man hiding behind a curtain. To me this scene is so powerful because…
WHO’S IN CHARGE? by Stephanie Allain & Jenny Klion | Nerdy Book Club
Children’s literature has always been a reflection of the times. It’s the adults in the room who are ultimately in charge of kids lit and its rollout—of what social messages get bought and sold, how they think kids should live the life they’re selling them, and most importantly, how kids themselves can add value to…
Good Grief: On Reading Books and Loving the World by Maggie Philpot | Nerdy Book Club
It was late. We were past bedtimes, but we couldn’t stop. I was about to finish reading aloud The Trumpet of The Swan to my six- and eight-year-old. There is not bittersweet to this beloved book by the wondrous E.B. White (unless you count the rather strange arrangement with the Philadelphia Zoo to leave a…
Knowledge Spelled Backwards by A. R. Capetta | Nerdy Book Club
Mrs. Petruny’s third grade classroom wasn’t just a classroom—it was a kingdom. Specifically, it was the Kingdom of Edelwon. At first, I thought this name was simply magical and musical. I later learned from Mrs. Petruny that it was also Knowledge spelled backwards, with a few letters missing. I’d already spent an enormous amount of time in fantasy realms by third grade. I’d portaled through as many…
Birth of a Blob: An Author/Editor Q&A with Constance Lombardo and Jill Davis | Nerdy Book Club
Available today from Constance Lombardo and Micah Player, ITTY BITTY BETTY BLOB is a charming picture book with an important message: Being yourself is MORE than enough. Learn more about the behind-the-scenes story in this exclusive Q&A between author Constance Lombardo and Jill Davis, Editorial Director at Hippo Park. Jill: Thanks for welcoming us to…
Names Have Power by Suma Subramaniam | Nerdy Book Club
“Names have power,” says acclaimed author, Rick Riordan in The Lightning Thief. Have you ever mispronounced someone’s name? What do you do when someone mispronounces your name? Do you correct them? Ignore it? Get mad and storm away? My name is Suma Subramaniam. Or is it? My name story is a common one in India where I was born. I was given…
Self-Edit by John David Anderson | Nerdy Book Club
7972. That’s how many changes I made to my latest novel, Keep It Like a Secret. Microsoft Word has this nifty feature allowing you to compare versions of the same document, the writing equivalent of a before and after pic. It highlighted everything I’d altered in a nice red font so I could see the…
A Story Bigger Than A Volcano by Rebecca E.F. Barone | Nerdy Book Club
Volcanoes are awesome. They’re huge, unstoppable forces that answer to exactly zero human input or consideration. Our very home is constantly being shaped and reshaped by what’s going on far beneath our feet every single day. Well, what’s going on far beneath our feet…until it’s brought to the surface, often in spectacular and violent ways.…
Mother’s Day by Elisha Cooper | Nerdy Book Club
I have never given birth, but some of my favorite people inthe world have. One of them, on the days our daughters were born, did something so powerful and raw that the memory of itstill fills me with awe. I often wonder why on birthdays we celebrate the person who was born, and not the person who gave birth. The day really should be called Giving Birth Day. Or,Giving Day. This feeling of awe made me want to write a children’s book about birth. I wanted to celebrate women, mothers, females of all species. It’s wild when you…
EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD, SEEN THROUGH NUMBERS! by Jennifer Berne | Nerdy Book Club
I have to admit, I’m a bit of a number nerd. Even though I became a writer, and really do love the magic of words, I have a special soft spot in my heart for the wonderful language of numbers. And I know I’m not alone! The language of numbers Without using numbers we can describe things as “big"…
Girl Power Picture Books of 2024: A Top Ten Round-up by Roxanne Troup | Nerdy Book Club
The world is full of amazing stories and inspiring people. Stories worth knowing. People worth emulating. But how do we expose kids to these stories when we don’t have immediate access to another culture or can’t travel through time? When a person’s story isn’t yet available through mainstream media? Picture books! Picture books are a great way to introduce young…
What books are your kids loving? by Colby Sharp | Nerdy Book Club
It feels wild to think that we only have 7.5 weeks left in the school year. One of my favorite things about the school year is watching my readers and their preferences evolve over the course of our 180 days together. I'd love to know which books the readers you serve are loving these days.…
A Story of Resilience and Sisterhood in Three Summers by Amra Sabic-El-Rayess PhD | Nerdy Book Club
As a genocide survivor, so much of my life has been defined by my survival of the unimaginable during the Bosnian Genocide, as told in The Cat I Never Named. While the physical scars of hate, including the Serb military’s bombing of my home on my birthday, starvation, and isolation of living under the siege…