Kids

Animal rescues: Q&A with local author Kelly Milner Halls

Posted on September 23, 2015 at 6:00 am

By Sheri Boggs What do Sasquatch, wild dogs, dinosaur babies, ghosts, and alien visitors all have in common? Besides being intrinsically awesome, they’ve all been book subjects for local writer Kelly Milner Halls. Halls is a passionate profiler of the wonderfully weird, with nonfiction titles like Tales of the Cryptids, Ghostly Evidence, a […]

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Discover endless possibilities within your reach

Posted on September 15, 2015 at 6:00 am

By Gwendolyn Haley I just bought a cartful of school supplies for my three kids. We love new pens, pencils, and notebooks at our house. They represent the endless possibilities a new school year brings. I get excited just thinking about everything that my kids will learn and create over the next few months. One […]

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Getting ready for kindergarten book list

Posted on August 18, 2015 at 6:00 am

By Rachel Edmondson Starting kindergarten can be both exciting and scary. What parent isn’t excited about the free time they will have while their kindergartner is at school, but also a little scared to let them go? This transition can be just as intimidating for a new kindergartner as it is for parents. Even if […]

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Asper-reads: Great books and resources about Asperger’s and autism spectrum disorders

Posted on August 6, 2015 at 6:00 am

By Sheri Boggs A few weeks after running a blog post on the We Need Diverse Books movement, I heard from Kathleen, a young reader in North Carolina who wrote that she has Asperger syndrome. “I’m trying to put together shareable resources to help empower others with autism to be confident, social, and able to […]

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Exploring the lives of imaginary friends: 5 books for kids & grown-ups

Posted on August 5, 2015 at 6:00 am

By Clarissa Fidler Bing Bong, Jacques Papier, Beekle, and Sean Murphy—what could those names possibly have in common? Are they even real? Well, believe it or not, the aforementioned names all belong to imaginary friends you’ll find in current books, TV shows, and movies. Studies report that over a third (37%) of children create an […]

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How to plan a last-minute staycation

Posted on July 28, 2015 at 6:00 am

By Rachel Edmondson With August only a few days away, the end of summer is coming way too fast. Or, if your kids are driving you crazy with their refrain of “I’m bored,” maybe it’s not coming fast enough! Either way, this is the time of year when I start to feel like summer is […]

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Why my children study a foreign language

Posted on July 23, 2015 at 6:00 am

By Gwendolyn Haley They don’t believe us when we tell them, but our children will thank us for this one day. You see, for the last few years, my husband and I have required our three daughters to study a foreign language; specifically, Mandarin Chinese. Why Chinese? We taught English for 18 months at a university in the People’s […]

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May the Force Be With You: 7 Star Wars Books for Kids

Posted on June 25, 2015 at 6:00 am

By Clarissa Fidler I confess that I don’t know a lot about Star Wars. Growing up my exposure to the “Force” was limited to a few viewings of Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi at a family friend’s house. Jabba the Hut always creeped me out but I loved Princess Leia’s strong character […]

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Take Me Out to the Ballgame: Kid-Friendly Fun with the Spokane Indians

Posted on June 24, 2015 at 6:00 am

By Rachel Edmondson When my oldest daughter was still in diapers, my husband and I decided to brave our first baseball game with a kid in tow. We packed our diaper bag to overflowing, slathered on the sunscreen, and, with a little trepidation, headed to a Spokane Indians baseball game with some friends. We weren’t […]

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Every Hero Has a Story

Posted on June 16, 2015 at 6:00 am

By Gwendolyn Haley There’s something about reading during the summer that’s just magical as a child. I remember one year, I spent an entire day in my treehouse with my friend Darcie. We had snacks and the complete Anne of Green Gables series. We must have read for over 10 hours; ok, maybe it wasn’t quite […]

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