The Beginning of Your Life Book Club

21/08/2024

My kids started school. ➡️ And I started something new. 🥴 Click the new link in bio!

03/08/2024

It’s true! I did meet Justice Sotomayor! I got my photo with her too. But I am not allowed to post it to social media. But it did happen. You can ask my colleagues 🤗
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When I handed my camera and bags to the library employee who was going to take my picture I said, “watch out - that bag is heavy - it’s full of overdue library books. Sorry!” 😬 He assured me that he didn’t mind a lot of overdue library books. 😉
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And then Justice Sotomayor told me “you should check out as many library books as you want.” And I assured her “I always do - as many as I can carry!” 🤗
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Now if you’re wondering why she was in KC … it’s because will be producing the world premiere of a theatrical version of her book Just Ask. I heard from a colleague who went to the afternoon session yesterday that it is going to be SUCH a great production. I’m so eager to see it!
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Way to go, and ! And thanks for the for the event yesterday! It was great to see so many kids there to get their pictures with Justice Sotomayor!
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24/07/2024

My recos so far!! Go see/hear these before Sunday! We took the girls to the Sound Mandala and The Greatest Garage Sale Ever! 🤗 We went without the girls to S*x & Death: The Folktale Edition. Highly recommend all three. ❤️

22/07/2024

🤗🙌🏼👏🏼👊🏼💪🏼 Posted • Look who’s on the cover of my picture book YES WE WILL—our NEXT PRESIDENT!!! 😍🙌🇺🇸

29/04/2024

Every month the issues a special section for kids and every month my kids ignore it. 😕 Sometimes I read to them from it (despite the masthead saying this section is strictly for kids! No adults allowed!) and they listen in.
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But yesterday when I showed Clara this month’s issue on cicadas, she dove right in and ended up - over the course of lunch - reading about half of the entire issue to us. 😱 It was fascinating stuff BTW.
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But sometimes it can also be a little hard to listen to a kid read aloud that much. Clara is a great reader but she stumbles a little in a very peculiar way (sometimes she says she has dyslexia though I’m quite certain she does not). And at times it’s hard to be patient. But of course I always encourage her to keep reading and she nearly always powers through.
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➡️ Then this morning I read this article in the Atlantic. 😱 We should all be reading aloud all the time? 🤗 It’s a great article. I will put the link in my stories or you can just google it.
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This will be very strong motivation for me to keep listening next time Clara is reading aloud. And it’s an important reminder that kids reading aloud to parents can be just as valuable as parents reading aloud to kids. ❤️

28/04/2024

I guess technically I went to two bookstores today because does have a bookstore. I just didn’t spend very much time in the Rabbit hOle bookstore - only enough time to gawk at Jon Muth just casually standing off in a corner signing a bunch of books (😱).
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But after we left RH we went to another of my faves - a teeny tiny shop that is a powerhouse of intellectual activity - - where I picked up this book that has nothing to do with kids or kidlit but I’m telling you about it anyway because I want you all to know that I love and you all (KC residents and those of you visiting when you come to the the Rabbit hOle!) should shop at BLK+BRWN. They do have kids books, BTW.
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And everything you get there is tied up with string - one of my favorite things 😉 - though I didn’t get a photo of this book tied up with string because Sergio and I were both too eager to crack the spine.

28/04/2024

24/03/2024

This week we’re reading from The Wheel of the Year: An illustrated Guide to Nature’s Rhythms by - my favorite line is:

“Ostara is the season of buds, not blossoms. It’s a yawn: a big, full-body stretch and a wiggling of the toes as the world warms up and gets ready to come alive.”

And these illustrations are just so lovely. 🥰

21/03/2024

Sergio and I are reading Animal Farm in advance of Singin’ Book Club this Saturday. I wanted the girls to read it too but they don’t have a lot of time so I found a graphic novel version online illustrated by someone named Odyr.
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I am loving this particular illustration style in a graphic novel! I’m not used to seeing such a painterly style in a graphic novel or “comic” format. (It’s on a website called readallcomics.)
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I especially think this panel is beautiful and funny. As if to say, “Ta-da! Animalism! Yay! This is going to be great!” Oh boy. Just you wait, friends! 🙃
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I tried to get a hard copy of this book for the girls - my library had one … but only in Spanish? 🤷🏻‍♀️
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So I’m trying to turn it into a lesson in Totalitarianism AND Spanish. 😂 Interesting to say the least.

05/03/2024

I told you all how the Hallmark library was giving away some of its books, right? Well, this is one I grabbed without browsing it much. I just know enough about to know this is something we might want in our house.
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Julia spotted it in my stash and immediately judged this book by its cover saying, “oh can I have this one?” She thought it looked cool. She has no knowledge of but kudos to the book designer who made this cover. 🙌🏼
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She’s been enjoying it - sharing it with friends, teachers, her therapist - wants to buy a copy for her cousin. ❤️
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I asked her what she liked about it and she said that she likes its different formats. It has some poems, some essays. And conversations that looks like an interview or script and another that looks like interviews via text. Oh! And it has a piece by Alessia Cara whom Julia loves loves loves.
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What she didn’t say but what I suspect (based on the poem she showed me that she likes) is that she also likes the fact that it’s about love. 💕
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Julia’s 13 and I suspect she’s reading a little above her age so just a heads up that I don’t know if the content is totally appropriate for all 13yos. But also a heads up that the content is 100% appropriate for 44yos. 🤗

23/02/2024

A trio of recommendations for you here in this final week of Black History Month (with a reminder that any time of year is a good time to explore Black History!)
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First the movie Selma. Sergio suggested we watch it with the girls on MLK day in January and we did. It is a great movie (and good to watch with an 11- and 13-yr-old). What I thought I knew about the civil rights movement came to light in a new way through this movie and the close in look just at Selma.
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Of course this reminded me of John Lewis’s March trilogy which I have but had only read the first of - so I went ahead and reread 1 and then read 2 and 3. It’s a great companion piece to the film. It’s definitely a graphic novel for an older set. Many concepts are hard to understand. I haven’t gotten my kids to read these yet but I will try again another time.
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Then, I was curious about Rev James Reeb whom you see in the movie. He was a white clergyman from Boston who answered MLK’s call for clergy from around the country. He came to Selma and was killed for his participation in the march. I found this NPR podcast all about Rev Reeb’s murder, the way his killers went free, where they are today, and how Alabamians today deal with their history. It’s such a good podcast.
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Do yourself a favor and go on this Selma journey for yourself. Take your kids with you if they’re old enough. I think the podcast would be fine for children if you don’t mind them hearing cussing. It was a very informative deep dive into something I thought I already knew about. But I had no idea.
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19/02/2024

I did not attend the event last Wednesday where a million people gathered to celebrate our home town football team with the racist name. I did not watch the Super Bowl. And I avoided the news coverage about both the game and the parade.

Until a coworker told me there’d been a shooting. Then I watched the news unfold on my phone with my 13-year-old. That was weird. And horrifying. As she texted with friends in attendance.

No one in a position of power will do anything (politicians, football players, celebrity girlfriends) to actually change gun laws. They never do.

No one seems worried that the gun”men” are children. That their lives are ruined too.

And Missouri is a special dumpster fire of a place. I think I will just move to the moon.

11/02/2024

Repost from We’re ready for it, and the game day vibes are unbeatable!
+ We can love the game, but it’s
FINALLY time for the Kansas City Chiefs to and stop the racist imagery and fan behavior.
Scroll through, share, and let the know .
Chief

07/02/2024

I have been meaning to tell you all - a few weeks ago I got to spend three days in the Hallmark Creative Library sorting through books. I was combing the stacks for what to keep (for our new smaller library space at work) and for what to donate. It was bitter sweet. The library has been a fixture there for so long. It won’t be the same in its new space.
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BUT there were many helping hands and creative brains helping with the sort and making sure the right books go to the right places.
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Like, for instance, ! I had such a great day in the stacks with Deb from the Rabbit hOle and my friend - Deb plowed through our wealth of picture books and selected what she needed while Alison and I boxed things up. It was a great way to spend the day.
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And I can’t wait to see these books in their new home where they will be so loved, appreciated, read, and enjoyed. ❤️📚🤗




Posted • This week we received a generous donation of books from ! These pallets of boxes are full of many different titles (including lots of classic and vintage ones) and they will have a new home and life at The Rabbit hOle in our Library and other areas of the museum.

22/01/2024

This was such a fun puzzle! I want to go to all of these bookstores! Which ones have you been to? Which are your faves? Around here I like … but also I had no idea how many more there were that are close enough for a day trip! 📚❤️

03/01/2024

Yesterday Sergio and I celebrated 21 years of marriage. Clara, who had been listening to us make reading goals for 2024, gave us 21 bookmarks for our anniversary. ❤️📚☺️

25/12/2023

All the whos down in Whoville
Have waited so long
For the very next verse
To this classic Seuss song.

After 66 years
The long wait is up.
The Grinch is back
With the whos (and his pup!)

Max gets better treatment
The Grinch isn’t so mean.
The Whos all celebrate
With their friend who is Green!*

And in the end of the book
You’ll be delighted to see
Who happy the Whos are
And how happy you’ll be
With an ending as sweet
Just as sweet as can be!

Merry Christmas to all and apologies to Dr Seuss - I’m not as skilled as ! 😉

* Y’all know the Grinch wasn’t green in the original book, right? 😉 Fun fact!

14/12/2023

I ordered this lovely book - a gorgeous illustration of the classic song - from my friendly neighborhood artist (one of my coworkers!) and I was so delighted when it arrived. It happened to come to me on a day when I was sick in bed and it was such a bright spot.

My favorite part? The “pipers” are pipe smokers, not instrumentalists! Of course I immediately sent this over to - obvi!

Congrats .m.morris on a lovely book! Your illustrations are delightful!

02/11/2023

Any fans? We sure are. So much so that when Clara said she wanted to be a gummi bear for Halloween, we decided to make her a bag of “gelatinous predators” instead. If you’ve seen the show, you know. 😉

And for Julia and Sergio’s costume? Death and Taxes! I ended up wearing the taxes costume out and about while Sergio stayed home to hand out candy. I got lots of long looks and compliments - everyone said I was the scariest. 😂

Happy Halloween!

27/10/2023

This book is really something special. Gorgeously illustrated by and written by - it’s geared towards kids and families (though relevant for all ages!) and our lil family has already positioned it in a place of honor in our home. By which I mean that Sergio pulled out the gorgeous wooden carved book stand and set it up on the coffee table and propped the book open to Samhain.

If you are someone like my friend who marks the solstices and the equinoxes, I think you would love this book. And Charlotte I’m so certain you would love it that I’ve already ordered you a copy and it’s on its way to your house. 🙌🏼 (I think it might fit in your important stuff book basket in your dining room!)
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BIG, BIG thanks to for sending me this book after I stopped at your booth at the and ooohed and aaahhed over Jessica Roux’s tarot cards! THANK YOU!

22/10/2023

Posted • .informed and

💔💔💔

11/10/2023

Who would make such an awful comment?! We love love love the new Lego friends in our household! ❤️

08/10/2023

The first day after she gets a new book she’s hooked. But it doesn’t last because - anyway she brought this book with her to the Walk to Defeat ALS this morning where we remembered Grandma Joyce and wished that she were with us. 💛

05/10/2023

YOU GUYS!!! Who of my KC friends is going to the this weekend?!? Anyone? I’m especially keen to hear and Clara really really wants to get his book Invisible Things! 🤗
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There are several events Friday AND Saturday. Maybe I’ll see you there?!?

Posted • We're excited to host one of Andy J. Pizza's well known Creative Pep Talks! Join us October 7 at 11am to hear about creativity and life as an illustrator!

Andy J. Pizza, based in Columbus, OH, is an American illustrator who has worked for clients such as The New York Times and LEGO, as well as illustrated picture books like, “A Pizza With Everything On It.” His podcast, Creative Pep Talk, hosts guests like comedian Abbi Jacobson and poet Morgan Harper Nichols. Andy is a storyteller, often pep talking teams at creative hubs like Warby Parker and Sesame Street.

This event has limited capacity; secure your spot now! RSVP at the link in our bio.

21/08/2023

I read this book this weekend (though I had to pause half way through so Julia could read it because I kept raving about it and she wanted in on the action). It is so good!!
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The girls and I agreed that we couldn’t imagine the predicament of parents having to leave their kids in one country while they went back to another. What a formidable challenge for both the parents and the kids!
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And I feel embarrassed that I didn’t know that that was so common that it had a name - “parachute kids.”
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I highly recommend this book!! betty

15/07/2023

How grateful I am to be t r a v e l i n g once again this year. Between the pandemic and my mother-in-law’s illness, the last three years have been a whole lot of home. A week ago we came home from Chicago (more on that later) and this weekend I’m in Boston (and New Haven) seeing friends.
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My friend in Boston has these two books on her shelf and they are fun, stylized, bold renderings of two of my fave cities in rhymed and metered verse. The Chicago one especially, hit all the highlights of our trip so … I’m thinking I need to buy it to commemorate our family vacay there. 🙌🏼
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