Lois Ehlert created numerous inventive, celebrated, and bestselling picture books, including Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Waiting for Wings, Planting a Rainbow, Growing Vegetable Soup, and Color Zoo, which received a Caldecott Honor. Her unique books reflected her creative and curious mind. In this exclusive video interview with Reading Rockets, Ehlert discussed her early love for art and how she continually worked to create highly original children’s books. Ehlert was an artist who wasn’t afraid to wire, sew, glue, cut, paint, or photograph.
Lois Lowry is the highly acclaimed author of more than 30 books for young people. Over the years, she has received numerous awards, including two Newbery Medals. Lowry has written such a wide range of books that her body of work cannot be categorized easily.
Her genres range from contemporary fiction to historical fiction to fantasy to autobiographical. Her audiences range from elementary school children all the way up to young adults. Some of Lowry’s books are light-hearted, but others deal with serious and somber topics. Her most well-known novel, The Giver, is set in a future dystopia where sameness and conformity rule.
Words come in many forms, including poetry, descriptive text, narrative text, and dialogue. Images, too, appear in varied forms: drawings, paintings, photographs, and more. Books capture moments in time through images and words. They present the past to help us get a clearer view into the future. Writer Pearl Buck once said that “If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.”
You’ll meet the past in these moving books about people, places, and events that continue to have an influence today. A few of the books listed here were written for teens and adults, but can be shared together with mature readers of younger ages. Discover many more related titles with Book Finder.
In this special Reading Rockets video series, reading expert Linda Farrell works one-on-one with students in grades K-3 to help ensure that they master the skills they need to become proficient readers.
Few things have ignited imaginations like the Moon. People have looked up to see the Moon wax and wane over millennia, inspiring poets, scientists, and everyday people. It continues to do so.
July 20, 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of man’s first Moon landing. Has that diminished the Moon’s mysteries or its pull on the imagination? Not at all. It took both skill and a great deal of imagination to land on the Moon then return to Earth.
Read about the Moon in fact and fiction as we celebrate this important anniversary.
Explore annotated writing samples from kids in pre-K through grade 3, and see next-step suggestions for instruction. You’ll also learn about writing milestones and different purposes of writing — along with ideas for how to make room for writing during the day.
