Children's Feature

Behind the Book: Learning from history—and experimenting outdoorsWeb exclusive

"Do you know what building this is?” I ask a gym full of third graders as I direct their attention to my next slide.

“Empire State Building!” several voices call out. (Good start. Sometimes kindergarteners think it’s the Eiffel Tower.)

“Exactly! Any idea how old it is?”

“A hundred years,” someone yells. “Ten years,” another guesses.

A boy in front raises his hand excitedly. Maybe he’s a kid who’s really into history, I think. Maybe he’ll nail it on the first try.

I call on him. “How…

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Featured Review

Steps on a perilous journey

Ludelphia Bennett has quilting in her fingertips, her heart and her brain. Her 10 years of life have been both a challenge and a joy. Blind in one eye and wearing a patch, Lu works alongside her mother and father caring for the animals and fields they sharecrop. Her closest companion is Delilah, her beloved mule. Lu’s family lives in Gee’s Bend, Alabama, far from any town or city or signs…

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Meet The Illustrator

Award winners

Creatures great and small

Winner of the 2010 Caldecott Medal

Jerry Pinkney’s latest picture book is an absolutely gorgeous example of book making and pictorial storytelling, a wordless book readers will “read” over and over again, each time noticing new treasures in the pictures. The dust jacket places the lion and the mouse head-to-head, the lion on the front cover, the…

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Author Interview

Road trip! Two teens follow a new path on the drive of a lifetime

Two teenagers take off in a whirlwind journey and a quest for answers in Jennifer E. Smith’s second book for young adults, You Are Here. Along the way, they find out a little about each other and a lot about themselves.

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