Every year, the Nova Scotia Children’s Literature Roundtable hosts the New Book Bash, a group launch celebrating the year’s releases. Every author gets 5 minutes to talk up their new titles. I’ll be there presenting Gene Therapy, Living With ... Read More  

One of the most interesting pieces of research I came across while writing Living With Obesity was the Marshmallow Test. Originally conducted by Walter Mischel’s team in the 1960s, the test involved young children and a simple choice: eat ... Read More  

… I decided to cheer myself up with cute videos of fennec foxes. This is a good way to lose an hour to the internets… http://youtu.be/IoSu0rPvEEQ Are things starting to look spring-like where you are? Read More  

Best friends Tamanna and Yasmine cannot believe their good fortune when a school is set up in their Afghan village; however, their dreams for the future are shattered when the Taliban burns down the school and threatens the teacher ... Read More  

My family is not particularly religious, so when I was a kid, Easter was more about presents than prayer. My brother and I looked forward to getting new books to read and never quite figured out why my grandparents ... Read More  

I lived in Yellowknife for a couple of years during junior high, right around the time I got old enough to babysit for people other than my parents. On more than one occasion, I’d sit in the warm car ... Read More  

The American Library Association has released its top 10 challenged books of 2013: 1) Captain Underpants (series) by Dav Pilkey 2) The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison 3) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie ... Read More  

When I was in grad school, I worked part time as a teaching assistant.  One semester, I gave my lab students a vocabulary quiz in the form of a crossword puzzle; they responded with unanimous outrage.  As one put ... Read More  

It all started when we realized that one of our cats was getting a little tubby. We have two cats, who are also litter mates. Jagular is graceful and lithe, and was named after the mythical-but-actually-Tigger character in Winnie-the-Pooh ... Read More  

Sooooo funny. Although parents of very young viewers should be warned there is one bad word and a story that’s probably not appropriate for the under-eight crowd (other installments in the series should definitely be previewed by parents first). ... Read More  

And it’s so pretty! This is the work of Michael Penman, who also designed Fox Talk. I can’t recommend him highly enough – he’s not only talented, but a pleasure to work with. My contribution was locating just the ... Read More  

I mean, right? After all, they are basically the cockroaches of the sea. And they fight back. And then they LOOK at you while you’re eating them. What’s another delicious food you can’t believe someone actually ate for the ... Read More  

For today’s edition of Anything Can Happen Thursday, I’m welcoming award-winning children’s author, Mary Cronk Farrell. Mary’s passion is little-known heroines of American history, and her newest book is Pure Grit: How American World War II Nurses Survived Battle ... Read More  

By a strange twist of fate, I’ve been reading and watching a lot of stories that feature scientists lately, and I have determined that there are only two types of scientists in fiction: 1) The mostly-harmless/absent-minded professor/mad scientist type ... Read More  

My dad is a baby magnet. Kids absolutely love him. We’ll be out at a restaurant, and every child in the room will stare at him like he’s been dipped in sugar and covered in Tonka Trucks. Which is ... Read More  

Nix Humbolt doesn’t talk much. Though at fifteen he’s taller and leaner than in his "Fatty Humbolt" days, he still lies low at school. At home Nix finds refuge in his father’s workshop where he builds intricate boxes and ... Read More  

Although there were several days when death, or at least, unconsciousness, seemed like a much better alternative than continuing to experience the virus from Hades. This was me for the last two weeks: only I was considerably less attractive, ... Read More  

I can’t post the video here because it was illicitly uploaded to YouTube, but I highly recommend you take 6.5 minutes to watch this Disney Cartoon in which Donald Duck explains some exceptionally cool math relating to the Golden Mean ... Read More