Read On!

Mrs. Farquharson’s musings about books for children and young adults

Archive for October, 2014

A Halloween Gift

October31

J.K. Rowling released a Halloween gift to her fans on her website, Pottermore. Fans of the Harry Potter series will enjoy reading about the background of one of the villains of the books, Dolores Umbridge. She was the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and during […]

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MACBA Nominees

October24

Every year the administrators of the Massachusetts Children’s Book Award (MACBA) are faced with the challenge of not only choosing books for various reading levels, but also books for widely varied reading interests. There are always readers who are interested in stories that involve animals. This year, there are three books that address that reading […]

Massachusetts Children’s Book Award Nominees

October17

The nominees for this year’s Massachusetts Children’s Book Awards (MACBA) cover a range of topics and reading levels. It is always interesting to debate the appropriateness of a book for a specific child. Two of the books on this year’s list are perfect examples of the fact that basing a selection on an “anointed” reading […]

Words, words, words…

October10

Picture book biographies for children have become works of art in recent years. It’s not just younger children who enjoy them. Because of their content, students in the middle school also find them entertaining and valuable for research. Talented authors and illustrators bring the stories of historical and contemporary people to life in engaging text […]

Virginia Lee Burton

October3

While today’s children may have never seen a steam shovel, or a tractor who pushes a plow, they still respond to the humanity and artwork in Virginia Lee Burton’s books. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel and Katy and the Big Snow may be books who feature a technology from the past, but today’s children […]



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