“Are you finished with that book you’re working on yet?” It’s a question I get asked over and over again. I suspect that, lurking behind that question are other unspoken ones, like “Do you perhaps have procrastination issues?” or “Are you really writing a book or just putting us all on?” It’s hard to explain… [Read More]
Work in Progress #19: Warming Things Up For My Emily Post Biography
July 21, 2015 By
As I begin chapter 11 of my Emily Post biography and survey the material I have to work with, it all looks a little cold to me. It’s the 1930s, and the pinnacle moment of Emily’s life (the publication of her etiquette book) took place in the last chapter. Now I have to figure out… [Read More]
Vegetables in Underwear by Jared Chapman Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
July 13, 2015 By
Vegetables in Underwear by Jared Chapman; illustrated by the author; Abrams/Appleseed, 2015. 32 pages; $14.94 (hardcover); reading level: ages 4 and under. What item of clothing is more fascinating to a potty-training-aged fashionista than underwear? And what food is more on the minds of the fashionista’s care-givers than vegetables? Chapman gives a nod to both… [Read More]
Work in Progress #18: The Moving Light at the End of the Tunnel
July 6, 2015 By
I am three quarters of the way through my Emily Post biography…maybe (dare I hope it???) even further. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Except for the fact that writing a longer piece always goes slower and slower the further I proceed because I realize with every sentence I write… [Read More]
Things to Do With Children This Summer – Slow Down and Read To Your Kids. See Reasons Why…
June 30, 2015 By
The message that parents should read to their kids is getting out, I know. But how many of us who take that message seriously could list 10 compelling reasons why it’s so important? Below are a number of common sense reasons why the parent-child reading experience affects so many areas in a child’s life so positively…. [Read More]
If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
June 16, 2015 By
If You Plant a Seed; words and paintings by Kadir Nelson; Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins, 2015. 32 pages; $18.99 (hardcover); reading level: ages 3-8. Seeds – both real and metaphoric – are the subject of this stunning, oversized picture book. The biblical adage of reaping what you sow (carrots…selfishness…kindness) is conveyed in a restrained text that… [Read More]
Work in Progress #17: A Quote File
June 1, 2015 By
I keep a quote file on my desktop where I can record interesting tidbits from the things I read. I’ve developed a list of categories to file them under so that I can access them when a particular subject comes up in a piece I might be working on: “aging,” “being/becoming,” “freedom,” “history-writing,” “self,” “superficiality,”… [Read More]
Book Launch! – Journey From An Idea To Publication
May 26, 2015 By
A while back, I traveled to the Blue Marble Bookstore in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, for the book launch of Like a River by Kathy Cannon Wiechman. Book launches are exciting affairs. Of course, they’re really exciting if it’s your own book that’s being launched. But the journey from idea to publication is such a long… [Read More]
How It All Began by Penelope Lively Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
May 18, 2015 By
How It All Began by Penelope Lively; Penguin Books, 2012. 229 pages; $16.00 (paperback); reading level: adult. It all began when 77-year-old Charlotte Rainsford was mugged; which meant she had to move into her daughter Rose’s house, where she tutored Anton, her adult literacy student, while her broken hip mended; which meant Rose noticed Anton’s… [Read More]
Best Children’s Book Ever!
April 27, 2015 By
According to dozens of critics from around the world, Charlotte’s Web is the best book ever published for children aged 10 and under. If I had been asked to come up with the best children’s book ever, dozens of titles would have come to mind: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble for one (a darling of anti-establishment… [Read More]