My latest post with Knoxville Moms is available here! Keep reading for a sneak peek! There's something about sunny summer days that invite readers of all ages to sit outside with a glass of lemonade and an open book. But with so many great books out there, how will you ever decide what to read? [...]
Michael Leali's Matteo is a contemporary spin on Pinocchio and The Giving Tree, but in a less-problematic, overall better way. Eleven year old Matteo just wants to grow a little so he can be a better baseball player. But the leaves, twigs, and bark growing out of his body is not what he had in [...]
I have the hardest time reviewing the books that touch my heart the most. This review is going to be a little different. A little less formal. A little more like a conversation. I want to tell you why this book brought tears to my eyes, filled my heart with hope, and will stay with [...]
The week between Christmas and New Year's often feels like a time warp. The kids are still out of school, but work goes on, and what day is it again? Though Christmas is over, the decorations are still hung and a pile of Christmas-y sweets is taking up a whole corner of the kitchen (holiday [...]
My latest post for Knoxville Moms is a bookish holiday shopping guide! You can view the post on their website here. Books make excellent holiday gifts, whether you're shopping for babies all the way up to great-grandmas. Here's a thorough list of highly recommended books, from a book nerd, to help make your book shopping [...]
Nothing makes me pick up a book faster than a dog on the cover. Strange? Probably. True? Absolutely. The only problem with books that feature dogs is the general fear that the dog won't make it to the end of the book. So rest assured, these book recommendations are safe reads as far as canine [...]
As a total and complete book nerd, I love books of all kinds, from KidLit to literary fiction to beach reads to short stories to...basically everything but horror, because I'm a big scaredy-cat. But there's just something about summer that makes me want to read beachy rom-coms and stories heavy on character development and plot [...]
It's almost June, somehow, and I just finished my first semester as a graduate student. I'm working towards earning my Master of Fine Arts in writing for children and young adults, and so I have been doing a LOT of reading. Here are my top reads of 2022, so far: Picture Book: Fry Bread, Kevin [...]
My latest post with the Knoxville Moms is available here! See below for a sneak peek! Somehow, summer is just around the corner. Reading is a wonderful way to maintain those hard-earned skills developed during the school year, all while encouraging imagination and building empathy at the same time. But staring down shelves and shelves [...]
Novels in verse are books with a full and complete plot told in poetic verse. These novels lend themselves to topics that have emotional depth and resonance. Novels in verse can also be laugh out loud funny, and have all the great qualities prose novels have as well, including well-developed characters and an interesting plot. [...]
Paw Prints in the Sink 