I recently took a field trip (see my mom’s recent post “The Pleasure of Little Field Trips”) to Children’s Book World, an extraordinary bookstore with a remarkable selection of children’s and young adult books.  As I browsed the shelves, glimpsing titles I had never before seen, reading the summaries of book upon book, I slowly compiled a stack of treasures.  At one point, a staff member came up to me, and looking at my pile of eight novels, asked if I was finding interesting things.  I said, “Yes, I am.  All of the books look so good!”  She looked more closely at my stack, and said, “That’s a very interesting…

I revised this recipe by using whole-wheat flour, less sugar, and an excellent bar of chocolate.  As part of “life math,” we figured out that each cookie costs 50 cents (twice as much as our oatmeal cookie ingredients).  My mom now orders a box of chocolate bars (12 bars) from Whole Foods, so that we are always ready to bake these cookies.  With the case discount, each bar costs $3.10 This is what our friend Joyce, who is a serious baker, said after having one of these cookies:  That may be the BEST chocolate cookie I have EVER tasted!  I like everything about it! Chocolate Chile Pepper-Cinnamon Cookies 12 oz.…

(Natalie wrote this paper when she was in 6th grade) Gravitational forces, also known as g forces, are the effect gravity (the force that pushes matter down) has on you when you move against it.  Normally, you experience one g on earth.   To look at how g forces work, it is interesting to look at how roller coasters work.  To understand how they work, it is important to keep in mind the Laws of Motion that Issac Newton discovered.  He stated that Every object on earth persists in a state of rest or uniform motion unless it is compelled into motion by forces impressed on it.   He defined force as…

Clare Vanderpool, author of the 2011 Newbery Award winner Moon Over Manifest (see my October 14th blog, “Some of Natalie’s Favorite Books”) says that the keys to good writing are to read, write, imagine, play, observe, and to find your own voice (www.clarevanderpool.com).  It is always exciting to discover authors whose work is clearly inspired by these pursuits. My current reading delight is the Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King (www.laurierking.com).  Look for a review of The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, the first book of 11 in this wonderful series, on this blog soon!

My friend Auveen and I often make things when we get together, whether we’re knitting, building miniature rooms out of cardboard boxes, or baking.  Here we are making bracelets.   What is it about making things that is so enjoyable? We get to be creative. We can talk while we work. We like playing with colors, textures, and tastes. We enjoy each other’s company and making things is a fun way to visit. Auveen says we balance each other out with our different personalities and making things allows us to learn things from each other.  

  To me, the word “stop” had always meant a red octagonal sign posted at a street corner.  Or a place where buses stop to pick up passengers, or the word placed between sentences in an old-fashioned telegram.  But I also knew that “stop” meant something to do with light.  I’d never been exactly sure what it meant when my mommy would say, “That window blind must reduce that light by two stops!” and my daddy would nod.  Or when my daddy would say, “The light coming in that window was definitely a few stops over.”  I’d been hearing “stop” used in such ways for my entire life, not quite…

William Lavender’s Just Jane begins with 14-year-old British-born Lady Jane Prentice arriving in Charleston, South Carolina.  The year is 1776 and Charleston seems a city where nothing should go wrong.  However, tension grows from spirited arguments between Loyalists and Patriots to a British attack on this beautiful city, causing Charlestonians and Jane to prepare for something tremendous.  Love, bravery, and loyalty to one’s family, country, and self play across the pages of this deeply dramatic and moving novel, one I could not put down until I had finished the very last page.  Mr. Lavender’s writing brings history to life, drawing readers into Jane’s world.  Planted into a new life of…