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High quality contemporary picture books are works of art and the best way I know to teach visual literacy and dive deeply into critical thinking and discussion with both the very young, and with tweens and teens. The language in quality picture books is often complex and the storylines sophisticated…
READ MOREI have been reading Planning With Kids for a very long time now, since I had PudStar in 2008. Nicole Avery’s incredibly successful blog and website has always been one of my favourite online reads and even though I have very little time to read the writing of others these…
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All families are different and I try very hard to feature books here on my blog for all families. You will find children’s books about mothers and mother figures in this post here. Mothers’ Day can be a beautiful day of honouring your mum or mother figure, or it may be…
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Two years is such a very short time in #grieftown. When my brother died unexpectedly in 2012 I spoke about feeling like I was in a place, far from everyone else and I affectionately hashtagged it #grieftown. When my favourite aunt died unexpectedly in 2017 I remember posting online about…
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There’s that old saying, ‘you can’t judge a book by its cover’. But you know what? We all do – yes even teacher librarians like myself. Unless we are hunting down a specific title, it is often the cover of a book which will first attract our attention. Young children,…
READ MOREThis Tuesday marks 5 weeks until my book, ‘Raising Readers’ is officially out in the world. This realisation is exciting and terrifying in equal measure; somehow I have written a book, an actual book with a cover and endpapers and an ISBN. I’ve always wanted an ISBN. ‘How Did ‘Raising…
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If you’ve been reading my blog for a while now, you will know that I love a local online jewellery store by the name of Oh My Giddy Aunt – this is not a sponsored post just a personal recommendation. I have all manner of bling from Oh My Giddy…
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‘Travelling Book Club’ week in Shanghai. Literature, inspiration, conversation, authentic cuisine and truly absorbing explorations of old and new China. This post is not sponsored in any way, I just had to share the details because this is my kind of holiday and one day I’ll go! I have been…
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If you are looking for a post about top tips for Bali holidays, this is not the blog post for you. I do books remember? If however, you would like to know about the best travel journal for children that I have ever found, read on, and if you’re lucky…
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Over the last few weeks we’ve been publishing ALL.THE.LISTS for Christmas book buying. To help you find what you’re after here is ONE list with all those lists in one place. There is absolutely something for everyone here – from babies through to young adult and adult readers. Happy shopping!…
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