About Me

I have been a teacher (from preschool age to college level) in some capacity for over 20 years.  I am currently a college English instructor.  I teach (or have taught) college composition, world literature, children's literature, and creative writing.  

I fell in love with children's literature in college while I was studying to be an elementary teacher.  When I went to graduate school, I earned a degree in English Education and later took additional graduate credits in children and adolescent literature at Penn State.  I am currently developing a couple different children's literature courses.  

I have 5 picture book manuscripts at various stages.  I am also researching for a couple other books.  My goal is to be a published children's author, but in the meantime I am disciplining myself to write each day.

I go to the library several times in a typical week. It is not uncommon to have a 100 or more library books in stacks all over my house (which drives my husband crazy!).  Since I have started this blog, I spend countless hours researching and reading in an effort to highlight the best books for teachers, home-educators, librarians, parents, grandparents, and children’s book lovers. 

This blog is my hobby. I do not get paid to promote books or get compensation from publishers, except an occasional free review copy of a book.  I do not take many requests for reviews because this blog is about what I like, not what someone wants me to share of his/her behalf.  Most of the books highlighted here come from my local library.  On occasion I review books I have requested from publishers that are not available at my local library. 

My interests are high quality picture books (both text and illustrations), well-written juvenile non-fiction, picture book biographies, and literary middle grade fiction.  I only read YA and other types of children's literature on occasion.    

You can contact me at books4learning@yahoo.com. 

Carl and the Meaning of Life (Deborah Freedman)

Title:   Carl and the Meaning of Life   Author :   Deborah Freedman   Illustrator: Deborah Freedman ...