By Domenica Di Piazza, Editorial Director, TFCB My maternal grandmother (at left, with bow in her hair) was very close to her mother’s cousin, Fern (at far left, wearing hat and gloves). Fern and my grandmother’s mother (Virginia) were raised by Fern’s mother (Virginia’s maternal aunt) after Virginia’s parents died, one right after the other, […]Read more "‘Neath the Warbling of Bluebirds"

By Carol HinzEditorial Director, Millbrook Press Brian P. Cleary has been publishing books with Lerner Publishing Group for more than a decade. He’s the author of the best-selling Words Are CATegorical series as well as the Math Is CATegorical, Adventures in Memory, and Sounds Like Reading series. The über-productive Cleary has also written the picture […]Read more "The Punctuation Station Q&A with Brian P. Cleary"

By Sara HoffmannSenior Editor What are the children’s books of your generation? You know the ones I mean. The ones that lined the display cases in your elementary school’s library. The ones your teachers read to you when you were growing up. Here’s my (partial) list. See if anything on it brings back memories. Alexander […]Read more "Generation-Defining Books"

I’ve just returned from The Big Apple and the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference. As I got back and reviewed my notes and twitter stream from the past 3 days (@terrireden), my mind is processing, processing, processing. The conversations were fascinating, eye-opening, and energizing. My role, like almost everyone at TOC, is hybrid–mine […]Read more "This is my brain on TOC"

.. baseball season is upon us. It’s not even ten degrees here and, with two feet of snow on the ground, I don’t think I’ll be shelving my skis anytime soon, but nonetheless, it’s definitely baseball season. The shadow of the new Minnesota Twins ballpark looms just beyond the view from my office window, ready, […]Read more "Despite all meteorological indications . . ."

As an educational publisher, we at LPG follow teaching trends and challenges. These days, the challenges involve time, money, quality of teaching, and testing cycles. Except for the last, these challenges are old news. Another radio program from BackStory talks extensively about public education. You can access the podcast here: BackStory with the American History […]Read more "U.S. Education"

By Anna CavalloAssociate Editor In creating K-12 nonfiction, we’re always trying to balance the big picture with the details—taking care with the little stuff without losing track of the big stuff. It’s the details that sometimes need careful fact-checking, and I think the details will often stick with a reader—a “fun fact” that piques an […]Read more "It’s in the Details"

I’ve been thinking about movie adaptations of literary works lately. Last weekend, I saw the Jungle Theater’s production of Blithe Spirit, the Noel Coward play about a writer haunted, literally, by past loves. The play was so much fun that I put the 1945 David Lean movie version on my to-see list. The movie was […]Read more "Literary Movies"