When I was young, my family lived that apartment life for several years before being able to afford a mortgage. I don’t remember much about the apartments, save for thin walls and scuttling roaches, but I do remember the dumpster. As one of those leave-the-house-after-lunch-come-back-for-dinner kinds of kids, I spent many a Saturday afternoon unobserved, which … … Continue reading →| Nerdy Book Club
I’m a huge scaredy cat. I don’t use this term lightly, nor without full knowledge of its meaning; I live with a seventeen-pound cat named Shiloh who is frightened of many things, including: the ven…| Nerdy Book Club
When I began writing the manuscript that would become Kat’s Greek Summer, the WIP title was Greek God Summer. I saw Kat, my fourteen-year-old protagonist, going on something of an odyssey during her summer in Greece. One where she would face metaphoric god-like characters—both good and bad—as well as endure god-like trials—again, both good and […]| Nerdy Book Club
I’m a big fan of middle grade novels with a hint of magic, stories where the world is recognizable but things happen that wouldn’t in real life (or would they?!). Magical elements can heighten the …| Nerdy Book Club
When I was fifteen-months old, my dad died in a plane crash. I was in the plane crash, too. So was my mom. My mom saved my life. It was winter, after sunset, when we crashed into a heavi…| Nerdy Book Club
Hello all you stingers and wingers out there! I’m Merrill Rainey, the co-creator and illustrator of ON THE AIR WITH DR. DOODLEBUG. Author Susan Goodman and I are so excited to finally be able to sh…| Nerdy Book Club
Last spring, I visited with schools in Charlotte, NC. My favorite part of any school visit, is the Q&A because the kids ask so many great questions! Invariably, someone will ask, “When’s y…| Nerdy Book Club
My desk faces a window looking out at an undeveloped section of parkland. In the winter I can see through the motley browns and golds to a path that winds along an embankment. In the summ…| Nerdy Book Club
We were standing outside my house when the sky opened—a blessed relief at the tail end of the Los Angeles wildfires. We pulled up our hoods, letting the rain…| Nerdy Book Club
While it is a story that explores how children relate to and see themselves in the natural world – neurodiversity and disability included – my book, Together, a Forest: Drawing Connections Between …| Nerdy Book Club
As we observe the holy month of Ramadan and celebrate Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, it’s the perfect time to highlight the incredible stories of Muslim women who have defied …| Nerdy Book Club
Nerdy Book Club Readers, I bet you’re wondering how my latest book, TRIAL AND ERROR, came about. I’m so glad you asked. Nerdy Book Club Readers always ask the best questions. As a lawye…| Nerdy Book Club
It was nearly midnight in the little village on the north shore of Loch Ness, but the sun still hung stubbornly in the sky. The loch’s placid surface was a blue-grey mirror. Seagulls cawed noisily …| Nerdy Book Club
In my informal, lifelong study of horse girls, which is widely accepted to be a gender neutral term within the community, I have found that we horse girls are usually born, not made. I wrote Presle…| Nerdy Book Club
“Some time or another, we all experience that feeling that every day is the same, the same people and places, the same conversation, the same food – and wonder about what if it wasn’t?” I’ve spent …| Nerdy Book Club
A Seance in 1887 I am a natural born skeptic. So, I wasn’t scared when I met my first psychic medium at a birthday party in 2005. I dismissed her insistence that an older man’s spirit wanted to tal…| Nerdy Book Club
I’m an immigrant kid, more or less twice over. My parents emigrated from Brazil to England, bringing the culture of their country with them. There they birthed my older sister and me. We live…| Nerdy Book Club
We loved covering the entire living room walls with our drawings. (left: my sister, right: me!) I spent my childhood in both the US and Korea and moved frequently. At one point, I attended three di…| Nerdy Book Club
As a journalist, I wrote many true stories long before the idea of writing nonfiction for children crossed my mind. I was a junior in college back in 2006 when I joined the editorial team at LasMay…| Nerdy Book Club
As adult readers, we understand how books can transport us to different worlds, open our eyes to other points of view, shift our thoughts and opinions, soften our hearts, and expand our minds with …| Nerdy Book Club
As an author my journey started from my love of books which came from my mother reading stories to my siblings and I before bed. We had mostly Caribbean readers that my mother had from Trinida…| Nerdy Book Club
My new novel, The Creepening of Dogwood House, comes out today and I’m delighted to have been able to write a scary book for kids! Those unfamiliar with the horror genre may si…| Nerdy Book Club
My maternal grandfather, dean of the engineering college, was an author, of books on math riddles and brain-teasers. One of my maternal great-grandfathers was also an author—he wrote a biography on…| Nerdy Book Club
When I sat down at my desk this morning I had definitely not intended to write a love letter to my Dad. I mean, he’s my dad; Ew. Gross. But when I think of reading; my own story with stories; books…| Nerdy Book Club
Stories are medicine. Stories heal- depending on who tells them and how. Stories are organic compounds that support various developmental milestones. Stories correct character deficiencies. Stories…| Nerdy Book Club
In first grade, I was a rule follower. I hated being in trouble. (I still do.) I was what people called “a good girl.” I behaved nicely, I did all my lessons. (I had a LOT of lessons.) And I loved …| Nerdy Book Club
I’ve always thought that the most powerful scene in The Wizard of Oz has nothing to do with wicked witches and twisters and flying monkeys. It’s the anticlimax, the moment when Toto exposes the Wiz…| Nerdy Book Club
Children’s literature has always been a reflection of the times. It’s the adults in the room who are ultimately in charge of kids lit and its rollout—of what social messages get bought and sold, ho…| Nerdy Book Club
Mrs. Petruny’s third grade classroom wasn’t just a classroom—it was a kingdom. Specifically, it was the Kingdom of Edelwon. At first, I thought this name was simply magical and …| Nerdy Book Club
Available today from Constance Lombardo and Micah Player, ITTY BITTY BETTY BLOB is a charming picture book with an important message: Being yourself is MORE than enough. Learn more about the …| Nerdy Book Club
“Names have power,” says acclaimed author, Rick Riordan in The Lightning Thief. Have you ever mispronounced someone’s name? What do you do when someone mispronounces your …| Nerdy Book Club
7972. That’s how many changes I made to my latest novel, Keep It Like a Secret. Microsoft Word has this nifty feature allowing you to compare versions of the same document, the writing equivalent o…| Nerdy Book Club
Volcanoes are awesome. They’re huge, unstoppable forces that answer to exactly zero human input or consideration. Our very home is constantly being shaped and reshaped by what’s going on far beneat…| Nerdy Book Club
I have to admit, I’m a bit of a number nerd. Even though I became a writer, and really do love the magic of words, I have a special soft spot in my heart for the wonderful language of num…| Nerdy Book Club
For years, I had been ruminating on boundaries to give myself as an illustrator-aspiring author. There were too many open-ended possibilities, and from my perspective just too many other books alre…| Nerdy Book Club
There’s nothing quite like the first day of school. That excited-nervous, jittery-joyful anticipation of new classmates, and maybe new friends. Turns out, it’s the same feeling you get when you emb…| Nerdy Book Club
Like many Deaf people, I grew up in a hearing family. Sign Language didn’t exist in our house, so I had to do things my family’s way, which meant wearing hearing aids and e…| Nerdy Book Club