Its no secret that young children have a penchant for exploring everything from closets and kitchen cabinets to open meadows and roadside ditches. Many are the books that chronicle t...
Hello writers, readers, and the calendar year 2012: This months Guinea Pig Writers theme is Discovery, one of those words that can have some wonderful and/or unsettling meanings. Ill start us off wit...
We all know the story - how a poem written for children established the American image of St. Nicholas as something approaching the modern Santa Claus, a "jolly old elf" who travels acro...
Fun fact: Chanukah, the Winter Solstice, Christmas, and Kwanzaa all happen within the same week this year. Actually, Chanukah is occuring during ALL of the other winter holidays. Isnt that neat? Of c...
Two of my favorite Christmas-themed picture books happen to be close and personal looks at good ol Saint Nick. I love that both books are so beautiful and cheery while maintaining a clear sense of or...
When I decorate my house for any holdiday, I love to display my holiday-themed picture books. Most of these are books I had when I was younger and simply could not part with when I moved into my own ...
Ive never made a quilt. Its always been too daunting a project. But I remember helping my big sister make her first quilt for her newlywed bed. We sat on her bedroom floor with squares and squares of...
December is full of holidays and traditi ons and there are many books available to help us celebrate them. We will highlight a few over the course of the month but you can find man...
Picture books centering o n m o t h e r - c h i l d mother-child r e l a t i o n s h i p s a a bound. Picturebooks c e n t e ring on e d o n father- - child relationships&...
Teaching children the importance of bookmarks and how to use them is an important step in learning to read longer chapter books. After all, they are not expected to be read in one sitting. I learned ...
Pete’s A Pizza by William Steig is one of my favorite picture books. The plot in a nutshell: Pete’s grumpy because he can’t play outside with his friends since it’s raining. H...
Yep, we went on an unofficial vacation. In fact, for a few of us, it’s been more like a sabbatical. But we Guinea Pigs recently decided we wanted to get back here, talking with you about what w...
One of my favorite weeks of the year is Banned Books Week. During this time, I wear my banned books t-shirt, button and bracelet. We create displays in the library to highlight the books that have be...
What is it that schoolteachers dream for their students? Many express the desire that students read on their own and that they frequent both school and public libraries. Libraries are a cornerstone o...
"Back-to-School" brings up so many feelings and emotions. As September looms closer I always get a vague panicky feeling, like theres something Im forgetting to do. This is usually followed b...
When the kids go back to school, I always breathe a sigh of relief...knowing that for a few hours everyday, I MIGHT actually get some writing done. But then theres that book I didnt get to finish at ...
Oh, September! That 7 pm sunset means only one thing: fall is imminent. And that means school is starting. And that means the sawdust scent of freshly-sharpened #2 pencils, new boxes of crayons with ...
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I love sending postcards. I always pick out postcards to send to friends and family while Im travelling (even if I dont actually remember to send them until Im already home). I also LOVE to get postc...
Like many, if not all, of my fellow Guinea Pigs, I love independent book stores. Sadly, these are an endangered species in the book world. There isn’t one close to me that I am aware of, and if...
In my previous post this month, I confessed my struggles with what to read while traveling - how to appear literary while still breezing away the long hours of travel. Flavorwire has come to the resc...
My husband and I have just returned from a 15 day business/pleasure trip to Europe. We landed in Brussels, drove to Paris then to Northern Germany and finally back to Belgium. We covered 1,200 miles ...
“Heres a scene Youre in the back seat laying down The windows wrap around To the sound of the travel and the engine All you hear is time stand still in travel Feel such peace and absolute still...
A friend once insisted that the preferable way to travel was in an armchair, by reading a magazine or book. I contended that any account of another place is destined to fall short of the actual exper...
Quick, 10 life points for whoever gets the literary reference in the title of this post!20 life points if you can give me the author/title/the 2 characters to whom this most applies without looking i...
I just returned from the West Coast, where I visited Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and a few places in between. There were several literary highlights to this voyage: getting lost in Powell&rsquo...
I was one of THOSE kids. As chain reading was my first addiction, dominating the “how many books have you read” poster during the summer reading program at my local library was a snap. Ot...
At the beginning of June, I tend to ponder the best type of book to read when the weather is warm and the hours leisurely. Fiction or non-fiction? Narratives that take place during summer or - when t...
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