Academia & Education:

Advice (much of it related to academia & publishing):

Academic Autobiography (usually containing some advice):

How to Find Good Children’s Books

Short Essays on Children’s Literature or Comics

Short Essays on Other Subjects

  • For Mom. The unconditional love of a parent is not a given. I was a lucky kid to have such a mom.
  • If I Were a Middle-Class White Kid, my response to Gene Marks’ well-intentioned but poorly reasoned “If I Were a Poor Black Kid.”
  • Let’s Talk About Taste. On Nickelback, Celine Dion, and the subjectivity of musical taste.  And a recommendation that you read Carl Wilson’s Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste.
  • Regarding the Pain of Racism. On the limits of empathy when considering the pain of others.
  • Running Out of Time. On the conflict between the need to create and the need to rest, the striving and the limited time we have in which to strive. First posted on my friend Alison Piepmeier’s blog, Every Little Thing.
  • That’s Life. This has nothing to do with the Frank Sinatra song. It’s actually about death, occasioned by a month (May 2012) in which many children’s authors and artists died.
  • Telemarketing Kills Charity. Why should one’s reward for donating to a charitable organization be telephone harassment from this same organization?

Occasional Mixes [mp3s no longer on-line, but playlists remain]

Recurring Subjects

Anything else I should add here?  Anything I should subtract?  Let me know.  Thanks!