Hello Emily Mitchell, Please describe your favorite pair of work shoes and what sound they make? I work from home, so in the summer I’m usually barefoot (pad-pad-pad), and in the winter I’m wearing slippers (schwoosh-schwoosh-schwoosh). What is your occupation? Literary agent What age children do you have? 15 and 12. Plus a three-ish-year-old dog. What does your child think you do all day? (please ask them and tell us in their own words if you can!) Look at Facebook. (*cough

There is a noble, ancient battle being fought in bedrooms every night, all over the world. Surely there must be some kid, somewhere, who can keep the blankets at bay! This nightlight of an idea switched on as I watched a child struggling against sleep in a stroller on the bustling NYC subway. Clearly it was naptime; the child’s parents had a stuffed animal, a cozy blanket, and soothing sing-song voices to aid their efforts. Lips sealed, face wiggled, eyes widened but the yawn

In kindergarten, I spelled words into ribbons. That is, I practiced each spelling word written on my stack of index cards until I had mastered it and my teacher put the card into a small box; when all the word-cards from my list were in the box, she smiled and invited me to open the container where she kept her magical collection of ribbons. I got to select the three colors she would wrap around my box, tie tightly into a double knotted bow, and turn into a bouquet of curly-Q

The only thing better than when something you've long hoped for happens, is when something that you never would have dreamed to hope for happens. I'll just blurt it, because it's on the back of Ida, Always. In print. (so, it's real, right?) Judith Viorst, read Ida, Always. Judith—Alexander, Barney, If I Were In Charge of the World, And Two Boys Booed, and oh-so much more—Viorst. Yup. And she wrote are you-pranking-me words about Ida, Always. When I found this out, I fell out

A tennis court filling up with snow. A playground catching flakes on its silver-slide tongue. Trees standing stubbornly without coats, gleefully spreading gloveless fingers into the wind. These are some of the snapshots I took in with my window-camera as I sat curled under a blanket on my gray coach, during the blizzard last weekend. I was grateful to be snowbound. I had writing to do, a class to prepare for, and piles of other assorted get-to-do's. But there was a snowflake

I enjoyed this recent article from School Library Journal about teachers using picture books with middle and high-school students to support English language learners, as companions to the classics, and to create a community of readers. I've always thought (biased as I may be!) that picture books are also a great way to support social emotional skill building for older students. Older students can be asked to read and consider the emotional themes of a picture book and share