Evidently reading to your kids is more than just reading to your kids. And seriously pedigreed educational consultant Diane W. Frankenstein explores her concept of "conversational reading" in her excellent resource, Reading Together: Eve…
My daughter's going through a growth spurt, and any jeans without those little adjustable waist button-and-elastic dojobbies tend to sag to her rear's danger zone without an actual belt. I've spent the past several weeks plying her with …
We love Oliver Chin, author of the Tales from the Chinese Zodiac Series. In his latest book, Baltazar and the Flying Pirates , Chin teams up with illustrator (and blogger!) Justin Roth in this, um, high-flying tale of adventure and fortu…
With my daughter starting kindergarten, I've been thinking a lot about kids thinking lately. And more specifically: how to make thinking cool to my kid. Part of the problem? Pop culture surrounds kids with celebrations of the body, not t…
When I was in high school, an artist friend of mine and I wrote a graphic novel during biology class featuring the adventures of our teacher's prominent nose, thus beginning my love affair with random and edgy hilarity. If you adore the …
There's so much advice for new moms to wade through, and after being pregnant and told you can't eat spicy tuna rolls or a good brie for ten months, it would be easy to throw up your hands by the time you get around to choosing the safes…
My childless co-workers are intrigued by my ability to open almost anything with one hand. I did not possess these mad skillz when I was a new mom. So while the diaper clutches from Kristi G Diaper Bags touted the "EZ-Wipe System," I was…
After researching my proposal for my own parenting book ( Ahem, Sleep Is for the Weak , shameless plug, shameless plug ) I thought I'd read every baby handbook on earth. And, I admit it, I became really jaded and snooty about them. Let's…
My daughter recently drew a picture of herself and one of her school friends. She made herself pink and her friend brown. Neither color was exactly ... right. And as a budding artist, she was bothered by the limitations of her crayons . …
We love Melissa Conroy's Wooberry dolls. The originals are not only designed from her child's sketches, they're also handmade. And beyond adorable. In a move that touches my writerly heart, the dolls have gone meta and returned to their …
I'm from small-town Iowa, so when my daughter was born, the Quilting Ladies (as they are known) whipped up something custom, no problem. I didn't even have to ask. But fear not, Quilting Lady-less mamas, for Etsy has delivered once again…
I know, organic cotton is cool, plastic is not. But cotton gets ... wet. With the drool. And the spit-up. And the yams. I'm grossing myself out just thinking about it. Never fear, though -- Wow Baby has a new line of US made, double-line…
Linda Rosenkranz and Pamela Redmond Satran raised baby naming to an art form with their original 1988 baby-naming book, Beyond Jennifer & Jason - names that practically seem pedestrian with today's Talullahs and Artemises. Now the author…
Fellow blogger and Vanity Fair contributor Brett Berk has unleashed on the world his parenting perspective with The Gay Uncle's Guide to Parenting: Candid Counsel From the Depths of the Daycare Trenches . Berk obviously has no uterus and…
From skateboard and sneaker design to children's picture books, Australian artist Luke Feldman has created quite a cult following of his waif-like illustrated characters known as Skaffs. They hang in the Cartoon Art Museum, they delight …
The wonderful Duck! Rabbit! is the newest book from the prolific Amy Krouse Rosenthal, who you might know for children's books like Little Pea or even her wonderful adult book, Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life . In this title, she's team…
I recently got a look at Alphabetica: Odes to the Alphabet , Diana Spieker and Krista Skehan's mind-blowing alphabet book filled with multisyllabic metaphors and modern, deep-inked illustrations. This book bursts with detail. Each page c…
I bet you've wondered how we find the great children's books we review here at Cool Mom Picks. Well, we will share one hot tip: Bookmark sites like the brand new One Potato . This children's book site is like literary nirvana for book-lo…
Whether you need a last-minute Mother's Day gift or just want to appear more stylish than everyone else while waiting for the pediatrician, I love the Posh Puzzle books by The Puzzle Society. These are the people who bring you nationally…
What happens when you need to find a book on heroes the night before your kid needs it for kindergarten? After you've exhausted our favorite children's books , you can do what I did and check out the selections in What to Read When , by …
The Easter Bunny doesn't receive letters, he sends them. And evidently they're very, very small. The World's Smallest Postal Service courtesy of Lea Redmond of Leafcutter Designs can rock your kid's world with a teeny tiny letter in a te…
I don't know about you, but I can only reprise the entire Annie soundtrack for so long without wishing for amazing tricks to keep my daughter motivated to scrub. And now, I can. By whipping up amazing dinosaurs (yes, dinosaurs) with Jura…
If you're a fan of graphic-novel superstar Neil Gaiman, then you'll be doubly excited that he's teamed up with mixed-media god Dave McKeen in the children's book, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish . But even if you've never heard…
We made a trip to the emergency room recently with the wee one (everything is fine). She was scared, we were scared, and only maudlin humor would do. Fortunately, we had along Fiona Bayrock's Bubble Homes and Fish Farts , an entire nonfi…