The Schu Shelf

    12 New Read-Alouds Every Quarter! Welcome to the Schu Shelf — a collection of 12 fabulous new read-aloud books curated each quarter by John Schu, the Children’s Librarian for Bookelicious! A part-time lecturer at Rutgers University, and a former classroom teacher and teacher-librarian, John is also the author… Read More

    August 1 is National Spider-Man Day

    According to CNN, five million people every month search Google for “Spider-Man” – far more searches than for any other superhero.  When is National Spiderman Day?... Now you know. It's August 1st. Who is your favorite superhero?... Celebrate National Spider-Man Day with these great stories featuring other well-known (and not so well-known) superheroes. Read More

    July 15 is National I Love Horses Day

    Lis Hartel was only 23 years old in 1944 when polio left her paralyzed from the knees down. Determined to still compete as an equestrian, Lis taught herself to ride again. In 1952, she earned a silver medal in dressage at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki – the very first year women were welcome to compete at the Olympic Games, and eight years before the first Paralympics (the largest international sports competition for athletes with disabilities) was held in 1960. Celebrate National I Love Horses Day with these great nonfiction books about horses and riders, including Jubilee: The First Therapy Horse and an Olympic Dream!   Read More

    July is National Ice Cream Month

    Ice cream has been a favorite food in the United States since the 1700s. In the 1800s, an ice cream maker was invented – it allowed people to hand-crank the ice cream inside a bucket of ice, mixing the ingredients until they slowly froze.  Today, there are electric ice cream makers, and huge ice cream factories make almost a billion gallons of ice cream in the U.S. every year! However, (according to our friend Google) you can actually make ice cream without an ice cream maker (electric or otherwise), if you have a few simple ingredients plus ice, salt, and two plastic bags. Here are some great books about making and enjoying ice cream. Yum! Read More

    Celebrate World Music Day!

    Dolly Parton began singing professionally at age 10, and has gone on to write and perform almost 3,000 songs. Inspired by her father’s inability to read and write, Dolly founded the Imagination Library to give books to children ages 0-5 years. Since 1995, the Imagination Library has gifted more than 175,000,000 books to children! In honor of World Music Day, learn more about musicians like Dolly Parton, Jimi Hendrix, Selena, and “V” from BTS, by checking out these great books: Read More

    June is Pride Month

    Learn about the meaning behind the other colors of the Pride flag in Our Rainbow by Little Bee Books, and celebrate Pride Month with these great titles about important moments and people in LGBTQ history. Read More