The Best Children's Books
Daily Blog

Are you excited about children's books, about reading and growing and writing and learning?

This blog keeps you up to date as this site grows.

Right-click on the orange button below and to the left to subscribe to the "feed" version of this blog (instructions provided).

The items below are the most recent updates to the site (along with special notes on what you may have missed). The feed keeps you from having to come back and search what's new!

Jul 2, 2008, Stair Case - Free Children's Book by Danielle Bruckert

This free children's book by Danielle Bruckert is entitled, Big Mac and Little Dipper: The Stair Case.

Jun 30, 2008, The Edgar Awards - Best Children's Mystery Stories

If your kid has a nose for mystery, consider these award-winning children's mystery stories. The Edgars, from the Mystery Writers of America...

Jun 27, 2008, Use Book Awards to Find the Best Children's Science Fiction Books

Use these book awards to find the best children's Science Fiction books. Whether you want to help your child develop an interest in science...

Jun 25, 2008, Shelagh Watkins - Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine

I read this on your page Selling Books Online: Search engines drive most of the traffic. If search engines aren't driving traffic to your site, then

Jun 25, 2008, Cecil Paplinskie

Childrens Book Illustrations, either traditional or digital. With a Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts, I majored in Advertising; I have over eight years

Jun 24, 2008, Adults read 'em!

The truth is out! Adults secretly read children's books. So if that's one of your habits, maybe it's time to come out of the closet. Read about the grown-ups' favorite reads!

Jun 23, 2008, The Future is Now

I just discovered LookyBook. This site might change how you buy children's books.

Complete picture books are viewable online. Lots of them.

These are books that are meant for purchase, but you can view them for free. Why?

Because a picture book is something YOU should read before you buy it to add to your children's book library. Now you can do it from the convenience of your own computer.

You could also read the book to your children to see if they like it before you buy.

Why would you buy the books you see for free on LookyBook?

Because reading to your child in bed from a computer just doesn't cut it.

LookyBook is going to be a heck of a resource for both parents and children's book authors.

This could change everything.

Jun 18, 2008, Rosemarie Gillen Children Illustrator

I am a freelance professional children's illustrator. I believe there are several things that create a good children's book illustration, good use of

Jun 13, 2008, Children's Illustrations and Vignettes by Tara Case

In high school, I had a very professional and knowledgeable art teacher who taught me how to put together an effective portfolio. I'm currently

Jun 13, 2008, Good Children's Science Books Make Thinking Fun

If your child has an interest in science, take advantage! Children's science books will keep him/her fascinated. These award-winning children's...

Jun 13, 2008, Engaging Faces by Katherine A. Taylor

Water color artist who uses vibrant colors! Specializing in illustrating frogs,bugs and reptiles. Visit Katherine's

Jun 12, 2008, Lisa J. Michaels - Children's Book Illustrator

Art vs. Illustration: I take the word Illustrator very seriously. I believe there's a huge difference between an Artist and an Illustrator. Art sits

Jun 12, 2008, What a brilliant way to promote reading

This worked for one school system - a book reading quiz contest. No doubt it could work within a school...or within your home. Read the article and get some great ideas.

Jun 10, 2008, Diamond in the Rough

print on demand from xlibris i have been writing poetry and children's stories since i was young. i tried sending my stories to conventional

Jun 9, 2008, New Technology Makes It Possible

Neat article here about a mom who took a family story she told her children at bedtime and turned it into a book. She had a relative illustrate it, and now she reads from it to her children.

I'm charmed by that.

Print on Demand technology (or POD) means that if you can afford a few hundred dollars you could probably do the same with a story unique to your family.

Do you have any children's stories you'd like to memorialize in this way for your kids?

Jun 8, 2008, Great review of what sounds like a great book

This one isn't a children's book; it's about children's books.

Leonard S. Marcus's Minders of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of American Children's Literature is a history of children's books. How did we get here? It's a long fascinating road. Are books getting worse? Maybe, but they certainly used to be a lot worse.

This history of children's books is fascinating, because it's not a history of what children want to read (or have read to them). The children's book is unique in that someone else tends to buy it. A kids book is generally marketed to grown-ups, by grown-ups.

I think that's particularly fascinating.

Jun 8, 2008, Huge debate in Britain...

There's a proposal to label children's books in England with a suggested age range. The amount of rancor that's resulted is surprising. You may find it an interesting debate to read about.

Jun 5, 2008, Your child, the writer-illustrator

I'm not usually on the cutting edge of anything, but my cousin sent me this.

Wow.

I recently posted a page about a 5 and 7 year old whose wonderful grandma encouraged them to create a picture book. She then helped them self publish it - as a real book...and MARKET it!

Talk about encouraging a love of reading and showing the importance of books. These two boys have now become international reading ambassadors!

Well, now the technology to easily and affordably turn a child's efforts at storytelling into a real book has arrived. Can you think of ways to use this to promote or incentivize reading with your child? (And send self-esteem to the heavens!) I sure can.

Check out the link at the bottom of this post.

And for grown-ups who have considered publishing their own work, I'd like to take the opportunity to alert you to my new website, The Shared Self Publishing Experience.

May 29, 2008, Never Too Young to Publish

Print on Demand by Xlibris Miles Rabun and William Rabun, the 9 and 7-year-old young authors of the children's picture book, My Grandma's Backyard,

May 22, 2008, Fireman Fred and the Zoo Rescue - Free Children's Book by Jeff Sojka

This free children's book by Jeff Sojka is entitled, Fireman Fred and the Zoo Rescue.

May 20, 2008, Key to Success Multitasking/Multipublishing/

My book was published by an innovative publisher (Star Publish) so I am self published and have a POD book printed by Ingram. My life crashed in

May 18, 2008, Great article on explosion in teen reading

Figure out how to lure your teen into the action...though "action" may be the operative word here. One explanation for the explosion in teen reading is a move toward more adult content.

May 4, 2008, Big News at Best Children's Books

Our web host is honoring us for traffic that puts us in the top 1% of websites! Yee-ha.

Click the link, then page down to Miscellaneous. (Children's Books are Miscellaneous, I guess.) You'll see us there, near the bottom, but still in the top 1%. Thanks for helping!

(And drop me a line if you're wondering what it takes to get IN the top 1%.)

May 4, 2008, Two Sites For The Price Of, Well, One and a Third

I get a lot of inquiries about building websites, and I always recommend the same outfit I use. They aren't just a web host, they're a show-you-how-to-do-it-and-give-you-all-the-tools-to-do-so outfit.

I mention this because right now they're offering a "Mother's Day" deal where you can get a 2nd site - for a year - for one third of the usual price...assuming you buy the first one.

I explained that poorly. What I mean...

You buy the first site for the regular price, you get the second for 1/3 the price. Do it ONLY if you know someone else (a mother maybe?) who wants to build a site. You should NOT try to build two sites of your own at once.

May 4, 2008, Mike Motz - Children's Book Publication Services

Award-winning illustrator Mike Motz and his talented group of 20 illustrators work in a wide variety of illustration styles with a style and a price

May 3, 2008, Out of the drawer and into a book!

Print on Demand by Troy Book Makers Self-publishing is a liberation - it has set me free - to see my project finished, get the book out of my drawer

Apr 29, 2008, The Dreams of Timothy - free children's book by Anthony Nicosia

This free children's book by Anthony Nicosia is entitled, "The Dreams of Timothy."

Apr 25, 2008, The How to Write a Children's Book Exercise is like a free writing course

A site visitor praises the How to Write a Children's Book exercise as a great, free writing course. "I am on step 6..."

Apr 23, 2008, KD Novelties

KD Novelties has been in business for over seven years offering a wide variety of personalized children’s books and music. We have over 100 titles to

Apr 22, 2008, Using the blogosphere for publicity

Great story about how a self publisher got in contact with popular bloggers covering his subject matter. Things took off from there.

Apr 15, 2008, Spider-Man comes to books

This strikes me as a decent idea.

Marvel Comics is bringing Spider-Man to all kinds of reading material, not just comic books.

If reading doesn't interest your little boy, but Spidey does, this might be a great tool for putting books in your child's hands.

Apr 15, 2008, Distinctive, weird and whimsical book illustration

I've provided illustration for a wide variety of publications since the late 1980s. My specialty is whimsical, comical art - sort of Dr. Seuss mixed

Apr 14, 2008, Independent Publishing Done Right, Now on to the Marketing

AdventuresOfSammy.com was born from the devastating reality of childhood obesity statistics being high and on the rise. It also disturbed me that the

Apr 13, 2008, The Adventures of Blue, A Helpful Bluebird - free kids' book by Anthony Nicosia

This free children's book by Anthony Nicosia is entitled, "The Adventures of Blue, A Helpful Bluebird."

Apr 12, 2008, Writing content for the web

Steve, I read through your site and I absolutely love it! It’s very informative and you go into great detail about how to write for the web. My

Apr 12, 2008, Self-publishing My Way out of Frustration

Print on demand by iUniverse I am a freelance writer who earns his living mostly from contract writing and magazine articles and columns. However, my

Apr 12, 2008, Professional experienced illustrator looking for Hire!

hello, if you are a children's book author and looking for an illustrator, i'm up for the job. I have been asked to illustrate for a number of

Apr 7, 2008, My Dog Smiles - free children's book by Tricia Blake

This free children's book by Tricia Blake is entitled, "My Dog Smiles." My dog's name is Lucky...

Apr 2, 2008, Steve, your children's books are like none I've seen before!

Some generous comments from a parent who likes my children's books.

Apr 2, 2008, Wes Lowe Illustrations

Wes has been an Illustrator for many years. He has Illustrated for Children's Book Publishers and also for agencies such as National Geographic. Wes

Apr 1, 2008, Why Not Truly Self Publish?

Award-winning author and publisher Carol A. Miller is truly self publishing and d/b/a Defiance in Print, which is not an easy task. The publishing

Apr 1, 2008, Publishing a book step by step

Here is how I created and published my picturebook step by step. If you follow these steps you won't have any problem creating your own book and

Mar 25, 2008, Life is Good and other reasons for rhyme

If you have a project, I have the time, To draw you pictures, or write you a rhyme. Inspired by the lyrical genius of John Lennon, the nonsensical

Mar 25, 2008, Dennis Arneson - Illustrator of many styles in and out of the box

I am a professionally trained illustrator/designer with more than 30 years experience. I excel in creating 2D technical illustrations, medical

Mar 24, 2008, The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

Self published, printing by Stellar-Grafix, Singapore As an Author I give my full, undivided attention to the task of absorbing myself in my

Mar 21, 2008, Best Children's Books Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy.

Mar 20, 2008, Illustrations by the Mother of Family Ideas

Kas Winters, the mother of family ideas, relates well to children. As a mother, grandmother and someone who has been involved with scouting and

Mar 19, 2008, Self-publishing, a passionate way of life!

Self published (lots of times) with printing by: Net Publications TWP Singapore/TWP America Central Plains Publishing Local, Kwik Kopy printer Local,

Mar 18, 2008, A dialogue about "Meta Tags"

This dialogue began when I alerted a poster to this site about some website problems on her site. Steve, Thanks for the info, but I'm afraid I have

Mar 17, 2008, site build it question (monetize)

Hi, I read through your site build it information and it is really appealing. Sorry if this is too personal, but I was wondering what you have made