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Happy birthday to a very special boy! Keep reading… First published in 1964 The Giving Tree has been translated into more than 30 different languages. Written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein, this story is about a relationship between a boy and a tree. The tree loved the little boy very much and the little boy [...]

With temperatures soaring, I had my first ice cream cone of the season, a scoop of butter pecan on a sugar cone from Ed’s Real Scoop. Voted the best homemade ice cream in the city, Ed’s was worth the trip across the city. With ice cream in hand, I made my way to the water. [...]

Lots of things go bump in the night. When I was a kid, any sound coming out of the dark would send my imagination running wild (to be honest it still does). For years I would sleep under the covers, thinking it would hide me from any monster, goblins or ghosts. My philosophy: if I [...]

Something weird and wonderful. Keep reading… Having seen Marc Craste’s commercial work, Helen Ward set out to write the story of Varmints with him, “I like to think in pictures, so it is very important to me that I know and love the work of the illustrators for whom I write.” Helen tells a story [...]

“Once upon a time three pigs built three houses, out of straw, sticks, and bricks. Along came a wolf, who huffed and puffed…” Read more after the jump. Author and illustrator David Wiesner explores the nature of storytelling in his book, The Three Pigs. In a new spin on this classic tale, Wiesner gives the three [...]

Scary stuff and not appropriate for sensitive readers. Read more after the jump. There once was a white rabbit who went to the library and signed out a book on wolves. Like Alice in Through the Looking-Glass, the rabbit unknowingly becomes part of the book he is reading. Oblivious to the looming danger of a wolf, [...]

Happy Halloween! Read more after the jump. I’ve got something deliciously wicked in mind for Halloween. How to Cook Children: A Grisly Recipe Book, written by Martin Howard and illustrated Colin Stimpson, is guaranteed to make you pee in your pants laughing (otherwise known as “lizzing” by 30 Rock fans). Children are the main ingredient in this [...]

“A wonderful student but…” is a phrase that would commonly show up on my report cards and I swear my dad’s eye would twitch each time he stumbled across one of those “buts”. The only complaint I ever got all through school was my lack of concentration. English class was spent deep sea diving, looking [...]

My dad is weird. Besides claiming to be from Mars, my dad has a freezer full of dead goldfishes. Okay, “full” might be an exaggeration; there’s maybe half a dozen or so. My dad stopped raising goldfish after they all died. Instead of flushing them down the toilet or throwing them out with the trash, [...]

I am finding it hard to keep motivated these days, to keep plugging away at my goals when it feels like I am hitting a brick wall at every turn. When things get tough, it can easily send your mind into a tailspin, so much so that you forget what your goals even are. It’s [...]

This week, we continue to think outside the box. Read more after the jump. Antoinette Portis’s sequel to Not a Box is just as imaginative and engaging. Not a Stick introduces readers to a little pig and his stick. Insisting it is not just a stick, the little pig demonstrates its many uses: a [...]

Last week, our super duper cat-scratching post was delivered, with the manufacturer’s guarantee that this will become our cat’s new best friend and will make him the envy of all cats. Well, Binky wasn’t impressed. However, he was wild about the box it was delivered in; he spent hours playing with the packaging. I remember [...]