Annie Lowrey is a contributing editor for The Atlantic. In Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World she examines the impact of giving people a stipend with no expectations. The amount she suggests – and that has been suggested by others – is $1000 per …
It is magic that makes a tale a fairy tale, but it takes a writing magician to make a fairy tale that “grown-ups” can believe in. That is what Naomi Novik does in Spinning Silver. This is a story in which three extraordinary women emerge from the ordinary women everyone believes them to be using …
Just as the weather cooled this week and fall began, a cookbook arrived for me in the library – a cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi! When I opened the book, I found myself reading a recipe for “Mustardy cauliflower cheese”, called the “ultimate comfort dish” by the author. (Page 92) Since the temperature had fallen to …
I have spent the summer reviewing books for children and youth. As the summer ends, I am going to write about my favourite children’s book, thinking about my favourite author – and Madeleine L’Engle is my favourite author of all time. L’Engle wrote books for youth and adults. I think when this is the case, …
I have spent the summer reviewing books for children and teens. In a month when we have heard that the Amazon rainforest is burning, glaciers are melting and extreme weather is the norm, it seems only reasonable to review the iconic environmental advocacy book, The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss. Also, my consideration of children’s books …
I learn more about an artist from a book written for youth than I do from a book written for adults. If I think about it, the reason is that the authors of books for youth work much harder to illustrate their points with pictures while the adult books seem to rely more on words …
Originally published in 1964, I reread The Pushcart War to prepare for a summer trip to New York City. This is the story of how the owners of the small wooden pushcarts that sell anything and everything on New York City streets won the “war” against the truck owners who were trying to have them banned …
Last Monday I wrote a blog about activism and supporting young activists. One of the best ways that activists can be supported is by ensuring that they are well-nourished. This is the background to Julia Turshen’s book Feed the Resistance: Recipes and Ideas for Getting Involved. Turshen outlines the logic regarding this at the start …
This week’s book recommendation is for Charlotte in London by Joan MacPhail Knight and illustrated by Melissa Sweet. This book documents the diary of a young American girl on a trip from Giverny where her family is living to London one spring and summer in 1895. While the book is recommended for young people aged …
Do you remember warm summer nights that you spent reading when you were a teen? Can you remember being in a nice soft chair or a hammock and losing all sense of time as you read a wonderful story? The pages turned, almost without you being aware that it was you doing this. This is …
