Read On!

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

Archive for October, 2016

Graphic Nominees

October28

When those involved in nominating books for the Massachusetts Children’s Book Award (MCBA) at Salem State University choose titles, they look for representatives of different genres. There are selections that represent non-fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, and contemporary fiction. Recently, there have also been graphic novels as nominees. It’s important to understand that a “graphic novel” […]

Education and Segregation

October21

One of the rights of passage for our eighth graders is their study of the United States Constitution and Supreme Court cases. Every year, one of the popular choices to study is the 1954 decision of Brown v. Board of Education. In this decision, the US Supreme Court made school segregation unconstitutional, saying separate is […]

Louise Bourgeois

October14

Louise Bourgeois’ (1911-2010) art has been exhibited in museums all over the world. She worked in many mediums, although she is probably best known for her sculptures of spiders. In 2011, one of her works, Spider, set a record for the highest price ever paid for a woman’s piece of art, when it sold at […]

The First NYC Subway

October7

Readers, both children and adults, can learn some amazing facts from books that are published primarily for children. An interesting example of this is The Secret Subway by Shana Corey, illustrated by Chris Sickels of Red Nose Studio (Wade Books). While I’m wary of using too many superlatives when I write about books because they […]



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