Imagination Soup

Happy birthday to Tova’s Sweet Solution, a picture book for children about food allergies, problem solving, and growth mindset. Tova’s Sweet Solution is about a bear named Tova who learns she’s allergic to a made-up food called honeygrain.

Melissa loves to talk about writing and storytelling. As a former elementary teacher, she loves school author visits to inspire and connect with kids!  She offers both in-person and virtual visits, presenting to grades preschool through middle school. Author school visit presentations are tailored to the particular age group and size of the group. Melissa can present to a large audience of students or teach smaller, classroom-sized writing workshops.

How can you introduce food allergies to children? If you have a child who is newly diagnosed with a food allergy or children who are around the food allergy kid, you’ll want all of them to understand more about keeping safe and healthy.

As the year wraps up, it’s time for me to share my favorite middle grade books of 2025. These are compelling, engaging, well-written books for ages 9 to 12 that will hook you and your readers on their stories, powerful character arcs, and immersive worlds.

The best chapter books have engaging narrative stories with memorable characters and zippy pacing.

I’m SO impressed with the 2025 children’s nonfiction books! The writing is engaging, informative, unique, and interesting. These books belong on every school library bookshelf, but will make great gifts for your home and classrooms as well.

I’m a fan of picture books with humor, great writing, interesting stories, unique approaches, and entertainment that make great read alouds and are rereadable! If you’re like me, then you will want to check out this book list of my favorite, best picture books of 2025! I Am Not Happy written by Caroline L. Perry, illustrated by Sydney Hanson HUMOR Narrated by the misunderstood quokka, this is a cheeky romp about judging someone by their appearance.

written by Dr. Elizabeth DeWitt Children spend a lot of time in school, but the support they get at home is what helps their literacy skills grow. As a parent or caregiver, you’re a key part of that team. Feeling unsure about how to help? Don’t worry. Literacy today may look different from what you learned as a kid, but supporting it at home doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t need a classroom setup. Instead, weave reading, writing, and conversations into everyday life.

Ya’ll, this book. This author. These answers. Wow. Let me explain… Dusti Bowling, one of my FAVORITE middle grade authors just released yet another outstanding, heart-tugging, memorable book that captivated me from beginning to end: Holding on for Dear Life. So when her publicist asked if I would interview her, I JUMPED at the chance. (I had SO many questions.) In fact, there were so many questions that I told Dusti to pick and choose the questions. But wouldn’t you know it, she answered them all.

written by Sydney Dunlap At a book signing last weekend, a reader asked me how I came up with the ideas for my novels. At first, the answers seemed pretty simple. My debut, IT HAPPENED ON SATURDAY, grew out of my volunteer work with child trafficking survivors. After I learned that eleven-to-fourteen-year-olds are especially susceptible to being lured or forced into trafficking, I decided to write a novel for this age group.