Field Trippin'!

"I never teach my pupils;

I only attempt to provide

the conditions in which they can learn."

~ Albert Einstein

Ask a reader, "When is the last time you took a field trip?" and the answer will be, "Yesterday." or, "This morning." After all, we travel to other places and spaces every time we open a book! When it comes to field trips of the school variety, kids don't have as much say. My child has traveled to see the high school robotics team, the Crooked Tree Arts Center, the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, the Manna Food Project, the Enrichment Choir, and the Thorne Swift Nature Preserve this year, and I couldn't be more thrilled. Each visit has brought her a new experience, point of view, and enhanced her education. When I asked my hand therapist if she thought the kids could come see what they do there, she looked at me like I was crazy. Long story short, it went like this:

Her: "Why would they want to do that?"

Me: "Are you kidding me?! Look around! Your office is a world of learning opportunities!"

In April, they will go learn what an occupational therapist does all day, and to learn about the anatomy of the hand. I'm not sure if I'm more excited or my daughter.

I'd love to hear some of your great field trip ideas! And I'd love to hear about your weirdest field trips! Just click "reply" and everyone who response will be entered to win another pile of free books! I'll share the weirdest/most original ideas in our next email.

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Staff Picks!

This Week From

Maris:

Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson

A modern day Downton Abbey with a twist of Crazy Rich Asians and a hint of Arrested Development. Pineapple Street has wit and charm that will leave readers grinning from ear to ear. I picked up this book after a deep binge of a fantasy series (Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass) and was in need of something completely different to help heal my soul from having no more Maas books to read. This book was the perfect cure! A bright and entertaining read about an upper class, old money family in New York struggling with what we all deal with regardless of our net worth: life. Infused with humor while also tackling topics that are extremely relevant in our world today. Pineapple Street will have you humming along to Cyndi Lauper’s Money Changes Everything and leave you thinking on how money can change things for the better and the worst all at the same time.

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

Never has the infamous line, “What’s in the box?!” felt more on point for a book. Adelaide Henry is a young black woman, born and raised on a farm in California who sets out to escape her past one morning by setting her family home aflame with the deceased bodies of her parents inside. All she takes with her is a bag and a large steamer case that holds within it the secret that she’s been keeping since birth, a secret that won’t let her escape her past no matter how far she flees. A terrifying and wild ride of a novel that will leave readers in awe of Adelaide and her dark, dangerous, inescapable past. It's a western, historical fiction, and a dash of horror all in one. Lone Women is a powerful tale of what it truly means to be just that, a lone woman, coming to terms with her past and making a life for herself amid a world of monsters and men.

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

I read this book in two days. I only put it down on day one because it was getting late, and I'm not a night-owl. But when I laid down, I could not for all the sheep in the galaxy stop thinking about the characters and their story. Needless to say, the first thing the next day, the book was in my hand, I was in my reading chair with my cat on and off my lap, and I finished the book. To say it felt like I was watching a soap opera feels wrong, like I'm calling the story tacky or overly dramatic. It DID feel to me like a soap opera, but done in a tasteful, endearing and raw/real way. My heart sang for the Padavano family and the triumphs and tragedies that they endured over the span of many decades. It’s a story of love, of life and loss, of family and forgiveness. Of what it means to be human. Hello Beautiful is just as its title entails: beautiful.