The Back Story

This website aims to provide a resource for parents to choose good bedtime stories to read to their children. I enjoy reading to my child every night but got frustrated with our collection or short little kid's books that were over before his eyes were even closed. So we went to the library - but where to begin? As he entered Kindergarten I decided that we would work our way through all the Newbery Medal winners beginning with the first book in 1922.

In my reviews you may notice a bolded red #y#m which indicates the year and month age of my son at the time we read the book. Not that it matters much - because the age of a child is not a uniform indicator for when they are ready for a particular story. I've known really wimpy 8 year olds and I've known really brave 4 year olds. YOU know your child best.

I hope that you will use the detailed information I provide to make your own informed decisions and enjoy some memory making at bedtime. For this purpose I usually provide several lengthy quotes in each review. Not because I'm too lazy or unable to summarize the story on my own - but because I want to give you a really good sample of the writing style, language and content. I also know that the things I might find objectionable in a book might not be to you - and vice versa. So I try to flag anything that might be slightly controversial but hope that, in the process, I don't get too nit-picky or bogged down in the details.

Over the past two decades I have worked as a training writer in Corporate America and as a freelance writer - including book and movie reviews for a conservative (now defunct) website. I have two grown children away in college and living on their own and the little guy who I read all these stories to (born in 2005). I consider myself a Democrat. I attend church regularly but respect the differences of each individual. I like to think I'm conservative - because I like traditional things but at the same time I'm very liberal and proud to be open-minded. I speak three languages very well, and a few others not so well. I really like to travel but don't do it as much as I'd like. And my greatest dream is to write a novel (it's all in my head - I just have to get it out).