Roberta Pressel, Book Designer

  “I just learned that Roberta Pressel, the Macmillan designer who designed covers for my books Moonbird and The Boys Who Challenged Hitler, passed away. Roberta put her heart and soul and brilliant eye into all of her work. Her conscience too. I remember she told me that she had been initially uncomfortable the assignment… Read more »

Building an Empathy Library

What does the world need more than a “Building Empathy Library”? Hey, Little Ant is honored to join such strong books in Lakeshore Learning’s collection.

The Bee is Now in the Race

  Each year, the Scripps National Spelling Bee publishes its School Spelling Bee Study List, a list of 450 words to help students prepare for a school-level spelling bee. These 450 words come from a list of books carefully selected by the Bee’s editorial team for their engaging and age-appropriate content, as well as their… Read more »

Phil Hoose Interviews Mr. Rogers

“During the minute or so that I am on hold, waiting for Fred Rogers to pick up the phone, I grow increasingly tense. The next voice I hear will belong to a man whose sweater is in the Smithsonian, along with the Spirit of St. Louis and pterodactyl skeletons and Archie Bunker’s chair. He is… Read more »

Claudette’s Fight for Rights: An Essay by Jeremy Felix

Jeremy Felix, a seventh-grade student at Glen Meadow Middle School in Vernon Township, NJ won the Scholastic Scope national essay contest for his essay on Claudette Colvin. Kristen Lewis, executive editor of Scope magazine wrote to Jeremy, “We loved how you captured the dauntlessness and courage of Claudette Colvin…Wonderful work!” Thank you to Language Arts… Read more »

Raising Activist Kids

The Washington Post shared, “The Best Books for Raising Activist Kids.” Proud to have It’s Our World, Too! Young People Who Are Making a Difference: How They Do It — How You Can, Too! by Phillip Hoose (FSG) among such amazing children’s literature titles. “As protests and marches continue to sweep the country, parents can… Read more »

March 2 Named Claudette Colvin Day

The city of Montgomery, Alabama has declared March 2nd,  Claudette Colvin Day.  That date marks the day in 1955, when the impassioned teenager, fed up with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation, refused to give her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus. “She was an early foot soldier in our civil… Read more »

Leave the Books on the Bed

Loving the Horn Book article,“’Leave the books on the bed’: Shaping a child’s social conscience” by Jen Mason Stott, the librarian at King Open School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Explore the book list. “…grounding difficult conversations in shared books shows respect for a child; a grownup trusts him or her to think critically about complex moral… Read more »