The Gaithersburg Book Festival is a celebration of the written word and its power to enrich the human experience. Our mission is to foster an interest in reading, writing and literary conversation. Since its inception in 2010, the Festival has quickly become one of the nation’s top literary events, attracting hundreds of award-winning and best-selling [...]
Back Yard Science: 17 Year Cicadas
If you happen to be blessedly unfamiliar with the 17 year cicadas, let me enlighten you. They are a species of cicada (yes, those big googly-eyed bugs that make that only exist in order to make that annoying sound so you know it’s hot all summer long) that has evolved to emerge from the ground in force on a 17 year cycle. Unfortunately for us, that doesn’t mean they only come once every 17 years. Each brood comes every seventeen years, but there are overlapping swarms of these things.
Lower Carb Italian Sausage Casserole
OR how to salvage your eMeals recipe after a well-known, popular grocery delivery service brings you such badly damaged zucchini that you can’t make grilled stuffed zucchini boats after all. (Yes, we have huge, giant, first world problems. It weighs heavily on us.) This was not Plan A, but it was delicious and we’ll be [...]
There is nothing wrong with you!
Perhaps you saw or heard some of the furor surrounding the statement given by A&F CEO Mike Jeffries regarding why they don’t make their clothing in larger sizes. A great many people seem to be of the opinion that the biggest indictment against this statement is that it reflects a desire to make women feel [...]
I needed a quick, easy, and food coloring-free frosting recipe for a birthday playdate, and this one really came through! It works up fast in the microwave, and, as a bonus, you dirty exactly one bowl and a set of mixer beaters. (Which my guys wouldn’t lick. Because they are WEIRDOS.) To turn these into [...]
Give us what we want, what we really, really want!
Some dads I know have confided (not very confidentially) that they think the expectations for Mother’s Day are confusing, hard, and guaranteed to make sure they are always wrong. And a whole lot of moms of my acquaintance have confided (fairly confidentially, as the “insult to injury” part of the program is the need to [...]
Here it comes- the stomach bug is making its way around your kid’s school, and the school nurse just called to ask you to pick your child up. There’s only one thing you can do. Well, two things. You can either keep your sense of humor, or go under for the third time. Brace for [...]
Today I was on the mom side of the “your kid is sick” call from the school for the very first time. It made me remember how the time between when they called your mom and she came to get you was an eternity, no matter how long it actually took. We are fortunate enough [...]
Jack and the Beanstalk (plus lesson resources)
Jack and the Beanstalk simply couldn’t be a more perfect foil for hands on storytelling. First of all, Good Ol’ Jack doesn’t listen to his mother and mass chaos ensues. If you can’t make that work for you, then you just aren’t trying very hard. Secondly, he grows a giant beanstalk that turns out to [...]
The Storyteller Discussion Questions
Below are six discussion questions for the Storyteller. You may answer them all, or you may pick and choose the ones that interest you. I would recommend reading the story first before beginning to answer the questions. To answer the questions, you must click on “You are Next…Click Here to Enter”. (If you do not [...]
Kid’s Garden (plus lesson resources)
Margaret Atwood said: “In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” Well, we’ve certainly got that down. This starting new plants thing goes like gangbusters around here. The “getting them to maturity and harvesting a crop” part is touch and go. We have a big yard and easily have [...]
The Gaithersburg Book Festival is a celebration of the written word and its power to enrich the human experience. Our mission is to foster an interest in reading, writing and literary conversation. Since its inception in 2010, the Festival has quickly become one of the nation’s top literary events, attracting hundreds of award-winning and best-selling [...]
Below are six discussion questions for the Storyteller. You may answer them all, or you may pick and choose the ones that interest you. I would recommend reading the story first before beginning to answer the questions. To answer the questions, you must click on “You are Next…Click Here to Enter”. (If you do not [...]
Robin Rosenberg was nice enough to send me a copy of her newest book, Funky Yellow Bus, to facilitate our review. As usual around here, there was no higher excitement than that brought on by a new book! I opened it while Medium Size Mister was at school. The littlest mister took one look at [...]
Welcome to the Books on First Virtual Book Club! This is a virtual book club. A new discussion post goes live on the first of every month! You can choose whether to buy yourself a copy of the book or go to the library and check it out, or borrow it from a friend- then [...]
My boys do not have a sister to teach them that girls are awesome, smart, strong, funny people to be around. They have a number of friends who are girls, but I do try to at least temper the frat house atmosphere around here by introducing female characters in the books we read. The difficulty [...]
A bookcrossing neighbor was kind enough to give my son a copy of Old MacDonald Had a Dragon. Amazon describes the book this way: Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O! And on that farm he had . . . a dragon? The animals aren’t happy that there’s a dragon on the farm. But Old MacDonald [...]
Mrs. Mallard was sure that the pond in the Boston Public Gardens would be a perfect place for her and her eight ducklings to live. The problem was how to get them there through the busy streets of Boston. But with a little help from the Boston police, Mrs. Mallard and Jack, Kack, Lack, Nack, [...]
Welcome to the Books on First Virtual Book Club! This is a virtual book club. A new discussion post goes live on the first of every month! You can choose whether to buy yourself a copy of the book or go to the library and check it out, or borrow it from a friend- then [...]
This book is full of rich, layered content that will hold your interest as well as appeal to the child. References to famous fictional and historical characters (on both the Pirates and the Cowboys teams) are appealing and provide the opportunity to extend this book into other areas of literature.
Although this is a chapter book, it has just enough illustrations to hold the interest of a child who can’t sit through a story that is purely text. The chapter length was just exactly right for bedtime reading over the course of several days. My five-year-old, despite having recently come home from school with the [...]
If you have a toddler, you know that they are amazing. They are great at so many things- making people smile, finding trouble, mastering new words, making friends, giving hugs… if YOUR to-do list was this full, you’d never sit still either. So how do you inspire a love of literature in your toddler? Personally, [...]
Oh, those madcaps, Mole and Rat! Planes, trains, and automobiles has nothing on these guys. It’s one adventure after another. Some parts may move too slowly for the small fry. If so, just skip them, and fill in the gaps later.