Review: HERE COME THE AUNTIES! by Cynthia Leitich Smith, illustrated by Aphelandra Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Here Come the Aunties! (Heartdrum / HarperCollins) is a warm, delightful picture book celebrating Indigenous heritage as expressed through the ubiquitous presence of Aunties…

New #picturebook review What’s Not Wrong? HERE COME THE AUNTIES by @cynleitichsmith.bsky.social illus by @aphelandraw.bsky.social #nativeamericanlit #indigenouslit #kidlit whatsnotwrong.wordpress.com/2026/04/16/r...

My ten favorite books read in 2025 in no special order:
*John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs
*People of Means
*On the Bright Side
*The Let Them Theory
*Living the Life of a Writer
*Tonight in Jungleland
*Small Things Like These
*Safe Harbor
*One Tooth’s Journey
*The Correspondent

Happy New Year to you up there too!

Seeing the Beatles (Sort Of) and Other 2025 Live Music Highlights A goal for my soul is to see live music at least once a month. 2025 provided so many great experiences and moments, and I’d like to share a few highlights here.   Did I see The Beatles?&n…

My year in live music …

@nathaliealonso.bsky.social @brandonterrell.bsky.social @joeposnanski.com

Eleven Baseball Book Reviews for the Early Off-Season Now THAT was a World Series! World?  Yes!  The season that began in Japan ended in Canada.  The players involved were born in nine different countries on three continents.  The …

Who else misses baseball? Read your way through the offseason!whatsnotwrong.wordpress.com/2025/11/27/eleven-baseba...

Quiet, Piggy.

Official Heartdrum teacher guides are created by Indigenous educators. Scroll to view: www.harpercollins.com/pages/childr... @harperstacks.bsky.social @epicreads.bsky.social @weneeddiversebooks.bsky.social #KidLit #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth

Review: LIVING THE LIFE OF A WRITER: 6 PRACTICES STUDENT WRITERS HAVE, KNOW, AND DO by Jen Vincent Jen Vincent is one of the best writing teachers ever, so her new book Living the Life of a Writer:  6 Practices Students Writers Have, Know, and Do (Routledge, 2026) is  cause for celebration.  And…

Excellent book for those who are or want to be teacher-writers … @storyexploratory.bsky.social #lifeofawriter

Who’s with me on this? Teachers should not be responsible for finding their own subs. We don’t want sick teachers coming to school because they can’t find a sub. Staffing the classroom is an administrative responsibility.

Where the heck is Kornacki?

Review: KING OF THE NEURO VERSE by Idris Goodwin In Idris Goodwin’s forthcoming young adult verse novel King of the Neuro Verse, it’s 1999 and Pernell is in summer school, again. His English teacher, Ms. Harding, dismisses his attention deficit d…

Forthcoming verse novel from Idris Goodwin with neurodiversity representation — KING OF THE NEURO VERSE: whatsnotwrong.wordpress.com/2025/08/23/r...

The ‘courageous decision’ that links an Arlington Heights high school to the Hiroshima bombing Bruce Janu admits nuclear proliferation wasn’t on his mind on graduation day 1986 at John Hersey High School, when the Arlington Heights school’s namesake returned for a final time to speak at com...

www.dailyherald.com/20250805/new... #johnhersey #hiroshima #highschool #journalism #arlingtonheights

Three is both 9 and 2. #BaseballLogic @boomersbaseball.bsky.social

Student journalist’s investigation into Prospect’s first principal prompts review of honorary naming A student journalist for Prospect High School’s newspaper uncovered former Principal Alvin Kulieke’s ties to a fringe religious group and its early embrace of eugenics principles. Now Northwest Su...

Another brave, talented, high school student: www.dailyherald.com/20250531/new...

The verdict is still out on those items, but we might be remodeling a famous dilapidated prison and getting an expensive airplane for free!

I stand with Springsteen, literally.

Review: ON THE BRIGHT SIDE by Anna Sortino On the Bright Side is Anna Sortino’s brilliant 2024 young-adult, dual-narrative novel that opens with Elle’s junior year ending as her fully immersive Deaf boarding school closes due to budget cuts…

Looking for an excellent YA summer read? Get ahold of ON THE BRIGHT SIDE by Anna Sortino! @annaksortino.bsky.social whatsnotwrong.wordpress.com/2025/05/12/r...

Review: BRAVE by Weshoyot Alvitre The narrator of Weshoyot Alvitre’s picture book Brave (Kokila, 2025) is a young Native boy wrestling with the importance of his long, braided hair. During his mother’s uncomfortable daily unknottin…

New review of an excellent picture book with Native representation on my What's Not Wrong? blog: whatsnotwrong.wordpress.com/2025/05/04/r... @penguinschoollib.bsky.social #nativeamericanliterature

New post on my What’s Not Wrong? blog: whatsnotwrong.wordpress.com/2025/04/22/a... #freadom

Native American mascot ban heads to Illinois Senate floor According to legislators, 90 schools throughout the state use these references and will be required make the switch.

“Native American mascot ban heads to Illinois Senate floor”

www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/n...

Gary Anderson's review of Sons of Baseball In Sons of Baseball: Growing Up with a Major League Dad, author Mark Braff recounts the careers of eighteen major leaguers, followed by interviews focused on what it was like to be the son of a profes...

www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Dear teacher friends — @theatlantic.com offers deeply discounted subscriptions to students and educators. I just got mine.

Gary Anderson's review of Instructions for Traveling West ”For starters, your soul will get bigger. / Your love, more terrible and luminous.” – from “Why Read Poetry If It Won’t Make You Rich?” (71) Joy Sullivan’s debut poetry collection Instructions for Tr...

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Gary Anderson's review of Love & Saffron Love & Saffron isn’t the kind of novel I usually choose, but one of our local librarians made it sound so enticing in an online post that I took a chance on the audio version. The book is letters from...

www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Gary Anderson's review of No Vulgar Hotel This tribute to Venice written by the self-described Venetophile Judith Martin explores Venetian history and culture past and present; Venetian representations in film, art,and literature; the city’s ...

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Gary Anderson's review of How We Learn to Be Brave Mariann Edgar Budde is the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, perhaps best known for challenging President Donald Trump when he posed with a Bible (held upside down) in front of St. John’s Church after i...

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Gary Anderson's review of The Travel Bog Diaries Liz Deacle is a Londoner transplanted to New Zealand who traveled around the world with her husband and two teenage children and blogged about it. Her blog then morphed into her first book, The Travel...

www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Today’s class journal topic: Begin with this —> I want to be ____ because _____. #WNW2425