Book award winners! Let’s see who won this year’s awards for the best new books. The American Library Association announced book award winners at their recent midwinter meeting. You can see the link to the full press release here. Book award winners cover a range of categories. The John Newbery Medal is awarded for the…
ASA book drive! Thanks to you, what a success! We decided to honor Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy with our own month of service, collecting used children’s books for donation to ReadWS. Throughout January, we placed bins for book collection at the center, and you responded with even more donations than last year. Thank you…
Welcome to 2019! We wish everyone a happy and learning-filled new year! Last year seemed to be a bit crazy in terms of weather events and school closures. Between hurricanes and an early snow, the Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools have added five dates to their school calendar. They are as follows: January 22 March 29…
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Cynthia decided to choose her next book from the top 100 novels featured in PBS’ recent initiative, the Great American Read. She has not read Outlander, but after scanning that novel’s online reviews, she decided to pass, thinking this novel may not be appropriate for many high school students. Instead…
Snow days! Kids love them, and to be honest, from time to time we love them too. It’s so great to have a chance to pause and breathe and see the beauty of a winter day around us. And who doesn’t love an excuse for an extra cup of coffee? OK, back to reality. The…
Winter solstice reading. A tradition at our home. Years ago, Cynthia read about a family who paused during the hectic days leading up to the ‘famous’ winter holidays. The pause was intentional, to celebrate a change in the natural world, and to engage in rest, relaxation and reading. The family celebrated winter solstice, the shortest…
Classic children’s books. While cleaning out accumulated clutter, we came across our collection of best-loved classic children’s books. It sparked a lot of fond memories of reading to the kids, and then listening as they read. We do love reading books alongside our older teens. But we can still remember with great joy when we…
The Great Gatsby. The great Gatsby? F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby about America in the 1920s, when the fabulously wealthy flaunted their funds with lavish parties and opulent lifestyles. Many people, not fabulously wealthy, hitched their trains to these ‘stars’ and showed up, night after night, for parties with music and gin and…
Note: This blog post first appeared with Triad Moms on Main on October 23, 2018. The year was 1994. Bill Clinton was president, OJ Simpson was arrested, and I was in 3rd grade, having an emotional breakdown while trying to learn my multiplication tables. Nearly 25 years later, I still remember how overwhelmed, anxious,…
Winner! Great American Read. Last summer, PBS introduced a public process of voting for America’s favorite novel. The first step was selecting the 100 novels eligible for votes. You can find out more about that process here. But who is the winner of the Great American read? Cynthia’s prediction doesn’t win Cynthia’s guess…