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Teacher Love Book Giveaway
Happy Valentine’s Week! Teachers and Librarians, I have the honor to be a part of this incredible middle-grade book giveaway, the brainchild of my friend Lynda Mullaly Hunt. It’s to show our...
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Murderous Mosquitoes
I saw this table posted at the site of my friend, Paul, who is an infectious disease specialist. Have a closer look. It’s pretty amazing. It’s from the Gates Foundation website. What’s striking is...
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World Read Aloud Day 2016
On Wednesday I Skyped with multiple classrooms around the country for World Read Aloud Day. Thanks to all the teachers and librarians for making time in their day for this super-fun event, and to all...
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Author Visits!
What a week! In the past eight days, I visited ten schools via Skype and three schools in person, in South Portland, Maine, Andover, Massachusetts, and Old Saybrook, Connecticut. It has been busy, but...
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Skype Day
Because I’m on a book deadline (make that two. No, three.), I’ve had to get super-efficient with my time but also try to carve out hours for what I love to do—and one of those things is Skyping with...
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Facts and Blarney about Saint Patrick (Reposting!)
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! While not Irish myself, I do have quite a few Irish relatives by marriage on my Italian mother’s side. (“They meet each other in church!” as my Irish uncle-by-marriage once...
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Duel Purpose
I saw the show Hamilton last week. My family is somewhat obsessed with it, and we knew every note of the soundtrack. Still, it exceeded our expectations. One question left unanswered by the musical is:...
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Oh, Baby!
From National Library of Medicine I remember that anxiety I felt when we brought our first baby home (he’s now in college). Everything in our apartment became a Potential Hazard that might hurt my...
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Way to Glow
In the course of my research for an upcoming book about poison in history (Spring, 2017), I came across a lot of cool facts that, for space reasons, I was unable to include in the book. One of these...
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Boy Oh Boy
I love fashions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and fun fact: men were every bit as into fashion, if not more so, than were women. In the days when an outfit could cost as much as a house,...
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Author Visit!
For two days last week, I visited the Hampden Meadows school in Barrington, Rhode Island, to talk to multiple classes of fifth graders. I knew it was going to be a great author visit when this greeted...
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Anne Hutchinson, Cheeky Preacher
The road I drive on to get in and out of New York City is called the Hutchinson River Parkway. It was named, of course, for the Hutchinson River. But I wonder how many people know who the Hutchinson...
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On the Banks of Blumb Creek
I’ve been reading the journals of Lewis and Clark and others from the Corps of Discovery expedition (which began in May, 1804). (You can read them online here.) It’s compelling, entertaining reading,...
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Racine and Reason
I have a couple of vivid memories from my high school AP French literature class. Our teacher, Madame Sorrell, was a lovely woman whose bright red hair tumbled in tendrils to her shoulders, and who was...
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Read It And Weep
I’m researching colonial America, and just spent the morning reading a book written in 1660, by one Thomas White. The full title doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue, but here it is: A Manual for...
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Desk Jobs
I’ve been researching the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and I got curious about writing desks. They’ve evolved quite a bit over the past two hundred years, from this:To this:Yeah,...
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Knockdown, Drag-Along
It’s been a long time since I was in high school, but I’m still in touch with my favorite teacher—who taught history, naturally—Mr. Heller. (It took me about twenty five more years to call him by his...
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That’s Harsh
I try not to discuss politics on this blog, but the widespread criticism of Hillary Clinton’s “annoying” voice begs for some historical context. The criticism tends not to be about what she is...
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Mate and Create
Gray WolfPhoto: Gary Kramer, USFWS, Creative Commons A classic favorite movie in our house is Napoleon Dynamite, and here’s one of our favorite scenes:his drawing of a “liger.” But were you aware that...
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Theodosia and Theodosia
A young Aaron Burr Fans of the Broadway show, Hamilton, will be familiar with the beautiful duet, Dear Theodosia, sung by Aaron Burr (Leslie Odom Jr.) and Alexander Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda). It’s...
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