Hilltown Families 
This month in "Open Sesame: Kid Lit Musings & Reviews," Cheli shares five new kids' books that bring history alive in honor of Black History Month. Courageous individuals, unsung heroes,...
As the Year of the Water Snake slithers away, the Lucky Chinese Year of the Wood Horse comes galloping in... In searching for books to coincide with the marking of the...
Four new picture books capture a bit of that snowflake magic - the quiet, the impermanence, the beauty, the thrill. This month in "Open Sesame: Kit Lit Musings & Reviews,"...
This month in "Open Sesame: Kid Lit Musings & Reviews," Cheli shares a new title on gratitude and thanks that serves up universal principles from across cultural and religious traditions... ...
Coming down the tracks and headed straight into the hands of young enthusiasts, are three new picture books about trains. If you have little engineers in your life, the ones who...
This month in "Open Sesame: Kid Lit Musings & Reviews," Hilltown Families Contributing Writer, Cheli Mennella, shares a pair of picture book she comes back to again and again when the...
Cheli shares five books she currently has at her bedside - a wild assortment of fiction and nonfiction, with a handful of kids’ books thrown in the mix! All have...
This month in "Open Sesame: Kid Lit Musings & Reviews," Hilltown Families Contributing Writer, Cheli Mennella, reviews 5 new picture books featuring watery landscapes... refreshing titles for cooling down this summer!
A Dozen Quick Picks for Middle Grade Summer Reading It’s summer! The perfect time to get away with a great book. Whether relaxing at the beach or the park, chilling in...
Blessed are the Peacemakers Now more than ever it seems imperative that we engage and embody and choose peace. From events that hit close to home like the Newtown tragedy and...
New Book Portrays History’s Bad Girls with a Modern Twist Delilah. Cleopatra. Anne Bonney. Catherine the Great. Mata Hari. Bonnie Parker. Just a few of history’s bad girls. Or are they?...
In honor of Black History Month I want to share an extraordinary book about an extraordinary human being: Carver, a life in poems (Front Street, 2001) is an intimate portrait of...
Three Favorite Folktales It’s National Folktale Month! And I’m digging into the vaults to share three of my favorites, all starring leading ladies. For me, folktales are food for the soul....
Keats’ The Little Drummer Boy Hits All The Right Beats Okay, I’ll admit it – I have a real soft spot for the song, “The Little Drummer Boy.” Some of you...
Chickadee New Book Continues the Story of An Ojibwe Family It is 1866. Chickadee and his twin brother, Makoons, have been together every day since they were born. Eight years old...
Kids love the spook and scare of Halloween! Here are ten picture books that prickle the spine, rattle the funny bone and charm the...
“A Hymn to the Barn” Charlotte’s Web Turns 60! The animals of Zuckerman’s barn have something to celebrate. On October 15, the book which launched them into the world, E.B. White’s...
Got Excavators? These Two Books Do I went through most of my life blissfully unaware of the divine differences between front loaders and backhoes, and couldn’t pick an excavator out of...
Take Me Out To The Ball Game: New Baseball Books for Kids In this boy-dominated batch of new baseball books, there are picture books and middle grade novels, action packed stories...
Giant Talent A Tribute to Two Remarkable Children’s Books Creators The month of May marked the loss of two creative giants in the field of children’s literature – Maurice Sendak and...
A Trio of New Picture Books Just In Time For Spring Every year I am surprised when the fields and forests finally turn green. Just when I think it will be...
A Boy Called Dickens Imagining the Boyhood of A Legendary Author This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens. Though Dickens never published an account of his...
Langston Hughes, The Dream Keeper Bring me all of your dreams, You dreamers, Bring me all of your Heart melodies That I may wrap them In a blue cloud-cloth Away from...
In Honor of Black History Month, 5 Award Winning Books Every January the American Library Association announces the much-anticipated Youth Media Awards, some of the highest honors given to books for...
The Mysteries of Harris Burdick Revealed More than twenty-five years ago, writer and illustrator, Chris Van Allsburg, introduced readers to the strange and mysterious drawings of Harris Burdick. The picture book...
Holiday Books ‘Tis the season for stories. And what better way to share a story than snuggling up with your favorite kids and turning the pages of a beloved holiday book....
Open Sesame Open Sesame’s debut review is a hot-off-the-presses picture book about an extraordinary artist and a Thanksgiving Day parade. Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s...