Out of Africa
World music—a term no one really likes but no one has come up with a fully utilitarian replacement for, either—has always been a big part of children’s music, going at least as far back as Pete...
View ArticleThe Phantom Returns
I wrote last year (have I really been doing this that long already?) about my premature attempt to read The Phantom Tollbooth with my then-five-year-old, so it’s safe to say that Norton Juster’s...
View ArticleWondrous Things
Brian Selznick’s debut children’s book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, followed the path of every new author’s fantasy: It got magnificent reviews full of words like groundbreaking; it won a Caldecott;...
View ArticleShaggy Dog Story
Picture books for the youngest readers can be many things—beautiful, moving, offbeat. But sometimes children (and their parents, too) are just looking for something, well, silly. Satisfying this common...
View ArticleThink Global
Graphic novels have gained a great deal of respectability since I was a kid. With the possible exception of Herge’s Tintin books—and those had European cred!—back then, the genre was linked more with...
View Article‘Tis the Season
Putumayo‘s compilations of children’s music are such reliable standbys in the genre, so consistently good, that I end up never writing about them. I realize that doesn’t sound as if it makes any sense,...
View ArticleTrainspotting
We have two young boys, so trains have been a major theme of our home for quite some time. The three-year-old grows more fascinated with them daily, his interest waxing conveniently apace with his...
View ArticlePresidential Primaries
Most holiday-themed children’s books, let’s face it, aren’t very good. Most are conceived and created mainly to be promoted at their respective times of the year, and accordingly aren’t terribly...
View ArticleA Math Book They’ll Love
Zero the Hero is a math-lesson picture book that doesn’t feel anything like a lesson, because it actually tells a story. Author Joan Holub and illustrator Tom Lichtenheld (who clearly has a talent for...
View ArticleNeon Lanyards
Okay, we know, it’s a little late to be posting about shell necklaces, but we are just getting through our Momfilter emails, and spotted this one from reader Linda Dare. “Shell necklaces are not a new...
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