This post was inspired by Lisa Keeler’s Six Things I’ve Learn in Six Years of Slicing. Reading makes me a better writer. I used to think that my propensity for reading slices before writing my own was a way to procrastinate, and in my first year, I didn’t allow myself to read before I had…
One. I started blogging in November 2012, not coincidentally when I was at my first NCTE conference. My very first post was called Writing Advice from John Green’s Dad and my mom left my only comment. “11 Things About Me as a Blogger” will be my 1,066th blog post. Two. The title of my blog…
Inspired by lists at Elsie Tries Writing and Wahoo Literacy Teacher and in honor of the Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge’s eleventh year, here’s a list of 11 things about me: I live in Western South Dakota where the prairie meets the hills. When I moved here for a teaching job, I never meant…
It’s an excuse to buy more notebooks. And art notebooks have the kind of wonderfully thick and toothy paper that I always have trouble finding in a writer’s notebook. My favorite notebooks right now are Moleskine watercolor sketchbooks. The 16 x 12 is so impractical, but I love it so much. The supplies! The amazing…
The Broke and Bookish host a Top Ten list every Tuesday. This week’s topic is book-related problems. And I have a few. Self-Restraint As in, I have none. I periodically make a resolution to buy no more books for two or three months, usually in an effort to get the credit card debt back to…
I am not sure my mother was quite prepared for the length of my Christmas book wish list, but she gamely and generously ordered all of them. Even though I knew what all of the books were, it was still very exciting to open all of them yesterday. Now I have piles of wonderful new…
I’ve read over 100 nonfiction picture books in 2014, and I’ve given 5 stars to many of them. Nonfiction picture books seem to be consistently the strongest genre I read. Maybe it’s because so much work goes into a nonfiction picture book. Maybe it’s because I have really good book pushers recommending books to me…
Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish. This week’s theme is Top Ten Underrated Authors or Books in X Genre. The illustrators on my list are hardly underrated: many have won major prizes, including Caldecott Honors. But each illustrator has a particular book that I find deserving of the…
Today is a Top Ten Tuesday Freebie. I decided to share my Top Ten Childhood Favorites, the Picture Book version. (Because once I started thinking about chapter books and middle grade, my list suddenly exploded to about 30 titles.) If you grew up in the 70s, this post may bring on nostalgia and a desire…
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten Books If You Like These Movies, TV Shows, Plays, etc–“basically any sort of other entertainment.” I was debating possibilities with my husband, when he gave me the best idea ever: what about a list of…
