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Category: 31 Days of Bringing Lit to Your Littles

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Free Halloween-Themed Printables for Books

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5 Halloween-thened book printables

When I was a kid, there was not much I liked better than getting a new bookmark. I ain’t lyin’, even today you could get away with buying me a pretty bookmark as a gift and I would think you were the Greatest Person Ever. I’ve made my own more times than I can count, from ripping off a strip of paper to intricate designs involving ribbons and beads.

(I mean, there’s nothing more criminal than dog-earing a book. I avoid it however I can.)

There are just some things that make reading more precious. More personal. More Ours.
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YA Book Review: Foundling Witch and Giveaway Winners!

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YA Book Review: Foundling Witch

I hadn’t done a tween review in a while and I wanted to read something Halloween-y (because otherwise what’s the point of October?), so I went through my Kindle/Netgalley files and found this gem just sitting there all alone in technology world, waiting for me to remember its existence.  I. am. so. glad. it waited.

Because Foundling Witch was fun and spooky and a little hair-raising and cool

–all the things my own 11 year old requires in a book, so I assume yours does, too.

Remember the Slavic folk tale of Baba Yaga?  Particularly the picture book Bony-Legs by Joanna Cole?  Well, Baba Yaga is the ultimate bad guy to Anna Sophia’s good girl.  And I do so love it when authors re-imagine old tales and give them new life.
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Story Time: Room on the Broom

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Story Time: Room on the Broom-Crafts and activities for the picture book

O. M. G.

I love this book.  I still laugh out loud about having witch with french fries.  And yeah, every time the 5-Creature beast shouts, “THAT’S MY WITCH!”  I totally cackle like a 5-year-old.  Some books just do that to me.  Revert me back to childhood within a few words.  I’m not ashamed.  In fact, if you can’t think of a picture book that makes you feel that way, well.  I mean, shame on you.  But I mean it in the nicest, most encouraging, embrace-your-inner-child kind of way.

Room on the Broom is that book for me.

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How to Read Poetry With Your Kids

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A 3-step process for teaching littles to read poetry using song lyrics

Poetry can be a tricky subject for some of us, but it doesn’t have to be.  I’ve always loved poetry as the ultimate expression of language, but not everyone feels that way.  My beautiful husband would probably rather poke out his eye than read a book of poems.  And that’s cool; he has a poetic soul, I just don’t point it out to him.

If you feel like he does and wish this was the one subject you could pawn off on a public school or tutor, take a breath.

I’m going to tell you how to teach your littles to read poetry.  And it starts with a song.

 

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