A picture-book writer’s guide to balancing words and illustrations

The national average is obscuring a widening divide between readers

The problem with didacticism isn't always what a story says. Sometimes it's how determined the author is to say it.

What’s Actually Happening When Libby Tells You to Wait

My Six Favorite Extra-Long Picture Books

The Power of Strong Opening Lines and Why Weak Ones Loose Readers

Why Public-Library Funding Matters Long Before the Budget Cuts Arrive

On Make Believe, children’s literature, and the limits of a very short book

Literacy is not a light switch and the statistics are more complicated than the headlines suggest.

Why Children Deserve Better Than AI-Generated Books

Five recent picture books that make room for sensitivity, sadness, and wonder

Why children’s reading preferences deserve more respect than adults often give them.

The missing realistic middle-grade stories boys need to keep reading.

The Dangers of Choosing to Write Your Picture Book in Rhyme

Six Picture Books to Read this Summerween

What funding cuts to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library reveal about how we value early literacy.

What makes these deceptively simple books work

The self-sacrificing competition inside libraries, museums, and other feminized workplaces

On the stories children reach for when the adults finally let them

They Hate All the Judgment that Comes with It

What caregivers are really getting from the library is relief, routine, and somewhere to be.

the joy of being in on the joke

Children deserve stories, not glossy branding exercises from famous adults

On public librarianship, social strain, and one of the last truly free places left.

A librarian’s plea to let children discover the lesson.

A librarian’s plea to let children discover the lesson.

LUNA and the SNOW CAT: Winter Solstice Magic: Davies, Suzy, Graber, Sheila: 9798344138169: Books - Amazon.ca