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How Do We Read? | Consider the Source
How do we read, and how should we review K-12 nonfiction? This question came up as I was riding with Jonathan Hunt (co-author with Nina Lindsay of the Heavy Medal blog); Sue Bartle, the school...
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Text Sets: Your Chance to Lead the Common Core | Consider the Source
A few days before I flew off to meet publishers and wholesalers at the Educational Book and Media Association (EBMA) conference last month, I received an email that changed what I ended up speaking...
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The Good News | Consider the Source
Lately, everything we hear about the Common Core State Standards is gloom and doom. Well, I’m here to spread the gospel, to bring you The Good News. And this news is so good it comes in several parts:...
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Diversity in Librarianship | Consider the Source
For the past several weeks the Cooperative Center for Books for Children Listserv (CCBC-NET) has been a very lively place. Periodically, the Center (CCBC) surveys the 3,000 or so K-12 books that arrive...
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The Right To Know | Consider the Source
I have a new name for my Common Core crusade: The Right to Know. Here’s why: Both Marina, my wife, and I teach in state colleges in New Jersey. Recently Marina asked her students to select and...
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Hello World, Goodbye Flatland | Consider the Source
Photo by Ava Dakota Kim I’m just back from taking some of my graduate students to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair–a truly eye-opening event and experience. I often refer to the United States as...
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I Heard It Through the Grapevine | Consider the Source
Last week my friend and some-time blogging partner Myra Zarnowski read Betsy Bird’s piece on children’s literature blogs that have come and gone. She saw a nice mention of Uncommon Corps, the blog...
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One Story That Should Change How We Teach History | Consider the Source
Last week I had the chance to visit the beautiful Burgundy Farm Country Day School in Alexandria, Virginia–a school founded in 1946 to create a diverse and interracial environment as an alternative to...
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Are Teenagers Reading Less? | Consider the Source
Earlier this month, a new study, “Children, Teens, and Reading,” reported alarming statistics about the decline of reading among teenagers. Or, that’s the way the results of the study were reported in...
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Where, What, How, and Why Teens Do and Don’t Read | Consider the Source
By Seeta Pai, Vice President of Research, Common Sense Media Are teens reading less today than they did in previous decades? What kinds of “reading” count? The answers―as Marc Aronson discussed in his...
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Greatest Generation | Consider the Source
Charlotte Zolotow (l) and Frances Foster (r) The recent deaths of Charlotte Zolotow and Frances Foster have me thinking about the genealogy of books for young readers—for we are experiencing the end...
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Growing Up Together | Consider the Source
Shailene Woodley and Ansel Eigort in the film adaptation of John Green’s Fault in Our Stars. Last night I got a call from my 13-year-old son Sasha who needed to touch base, to hear my voice. He had...
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Guadalajara | Consider the Source
Guadalajara International Book Fair, 2013 How can we bring high quality Spanish-language books into American libraries? Here’s one answer: I recently spent an afternoon with Kay Cassell. a fellow...
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Waiting for the Common Core to Go Away? Don’t Hold Your Breath | Consider the...
Where are we on the Common Core State Standards? Right now I’m working on a chapter on elementary school nonfiction for a textbook. In the original draft, my co-author linked the new emphasis on...
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A Girl Who Loved Reading and Triumphed in Math | Consider the Source
Dr. Maryam Mirzakhani My colleague and friend Sue Bartle sent me this thrilling notice: for the first time in its history, the Fields Medal, sometimes referred to as the “Nobel Prize for math,” has...
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Let Pixar Turn Your Library Into a Laboratory | Consider the Source
This summer while on vacation my 14-year-old son made a discovery, which became an obsession for his visiting 14-year-old cousins, and then, his 9-year-old brother: The Pixar Theory and the Easter...
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Guest Kvetching: Transparency is Paramount | Consider the Source
Consider this: the current push to invigorate our students’ critical-thinking skills has created a demand for more nonfiction for children and teens. This need has stimulated a resurgence in the...
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Let’s Go to the Video… Rethinking College Applications | Consider the Source
Have you been following the changing shape of the college admissions process? Recently, a New York Times article highlighting today’s practices cited Goucher College’s willingness to accept a...
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Connecting Adults, Kids, and Science | Consider the Source
I’m just back from the Wisconsin Science Festival in Madison. I’ve been to similar events in several states and if there is one word that characterizes them all it is excitement. Sure, kids spending a...
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In Search of Stellar Nonfiction | Consider the Source
I’ve visited Dorcas Hand at the school where she works in Houston and I’ve read her articles; we presented together at American Association of School Librarians (AASL) in Hartford last year and met up...
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