Banned Books Week started on Saturday, and this year I’m celebrating it properly!  Every day this week I’m going to post something supporting the theme as it relates to books for and about our kids. “Our” here meaning LGBT families, immediate and extended, as well as our allies.
Today I’m reposting a list of LGBT-themed [...]

In which I ask you all for your collective insights, which I know to be legion, and which I ask after all too rarely.
This Thursday evening I’ll be talking to our former (and future!) preschool director’s Children’s Literature class.  It’s offered for early childhood educators who are in the process of getting their credentials, and [...]

The beloved children’s classic The Velveteen Rabbit was made into an equally beloved holiday dance piece twenty-two years ago by ODC/Dance, one of our finest local dance companies. A week or so ago, I went to see it with the girlie, and the trips there and back were nearly as eventful as the [...]

[The American Library Association's Banned Books week  will be celebrated from September 27 to October 4.  This year, I think we should break out the sparkling apple cider early.]
You know times are tough when, at your daughter’s fourth birthday party, you and three other parents find yourselves in the middle of the lawn, ignoring the flying [...]

This week, the lil’ monkey’s preschool is on vacation. As evidenced by the yawning gaps between posts, I find myself with a bit more childcare on my hands. In between our many trips to the zoo, the arboretum, the natural history museum, the botanical garden, the planetarium, and the Museum of Modern Art, [...]

Begs the question, doesn’t it. SINCE I NEVER WANTED TO BE A PRINCESS AT ALL. Now a Prince, we can talk.
You’ll never guess which one of the above pictured items was checked out of the library when the lil’ monkey was there with Other People Who Shall Remain Nameless*, and which one was [...]

[Ed note: the following dada narrative was dictated by the lil' monkey to the beloved, who faithfully recorded it verbatim. Wee book making, with dictated narration to accompany illustrations, has become a favorite pastime. So far, the booklets -- note pad-sized pages, stapled together -- have been in dialog with some story we've read [...]

This afternoon, while listening to Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors for the seven hundred and twenty-eighth time since Christmas, the lil’ monkey drew a picture. I am noting the obvious when I say that she, like her mother, and her mother’s entire family, is an Amahl and the Night Visitors [...]