I went to the monthly book club meeting of the Nightlighters last night. This month we read Where Do They Go? by Julia Alvarez (Author) and Sabra Field (Illustrator). Yes, your eyes aren't deceiving you. It's a children's picture book. OK, you might be skeptical. A children's picture book for an adult book club...
Have you ever wondered what TV witch character you are most like? Do you think you’re a flame-haired Willow? Maybe you’re prudent Piper? Well, now you can find out. I love witches, obviously. I wrote a book about them (see The Travelers). Therefore, I was very happy to chance upon this test to discover which TV witch I am most like. (Spoiler: I’m Hilda!) It’s super quick and fun if you'd like to try it too. And, if you enjoyed that, maybe you want to find out what character from The Travelers you are most like? If so, I have another test for you!
Buying gifts can be stressful. If you're like me you fret about giving people the perfect gift. I like my gifts to be meaningful. Honestly, if someone makes a wishlist that's the best. But, not everyone does and if it's a wishlist available to multiple people, then you risk giving duplicate gifts. So how do you pick the best gift for someone?
Today's T-shirt Tuesday is actually not inspired by one of my husband's t-shirts. However, he did buy it for my daughter because of her rather large obsession with unicorns. I'm pretty sure she doesn't actually think they're real. But, she may...and maybe she's not completely wrong...
Once upon a time, before I’d even decided to try to publish my own book (The Travelers, Saguaro Books), I was unaware of the world of independent publishers. I didn’t read books by small presses and I definitely did not read anything self-published. I determined my reading list based friends' recommendations or reviews in large media outlets. (Don’t judge. I just didn’t know better at the time!) Until one day, a friend recommended that I read this new book “Lost Girl”...
The Books Over Looks blog series focuses on how to encourage children and young adults, particularly girls, to look to books and reading to increase self-esteem and knowledge rather than appearances and material possessions. At some point as girls grow up, they become very aware of and concerned about their appearance. They start to derive self-esteem by how many likes they get on Instagram or the number of followers on Snapchat...
Have you ever heard of a book-mas tree? Well, it’s essentially a tree made of books that you decorate with lights and other ornaments for the holidays. Sounds great, right? I love books. Therefore, I decided this year our family would make a book-mas tree. Here’s how it went, step-by-step, if you’d like to replicate our experience. Although you may want to read the how-to before trying it yourself…
I recently wrote a blog post on my characters favorite books and the books they secretly love (eg, book guilty pleasure). It was fun so I want to do a variation on the theme. This time it's my characters favorite songs and the songs they secretly love but don't want to admit to anyone. (You know, like you secretly love Dancing Queen but won't admit it.)
In the next installment of my Books Over Looks blog series, which focuses on how to encourage children, particularly girls, to look to books and reading to increase self-esteem and knowledge rather than appearances and materials possessions, guest blogger Elizabeth MacKenzie Biedell (check out her bio at the end) talks about the merits of book clubs for children and provides some perspective based on her experiences trying to start a book club with her daughter.
K.L. Kranes 