Joshua Van Laningham

[Watch List] Rainbow Magic – Return to Rainspell Island So I wasn’t planning on making another new article type this year, but then I realized: there’s actually a decent amount of movie adaptations of chapter books. And TV shows. Even stage …

Did you know Rainbow Magic had a movie? Find out more here!
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[Book Smarts] Sophie Mouse 22 – Sunflower Hour So I’ve talked about Sophie before, but there’s been a couple books since then. This being the second one. And it’s really good. Let’s Be Real… Every Sophie book is go…

This month I talked about the new Sophie Mouse book. Spoilers: It's good.
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Parents are mentioned in most kidlit stories, but you might be surprised how often they're actually relevant.
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The cover arts for Judy Moody have evolved quite a bit over the years. Check them out here!
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[Series Spotlight] The Adventures of Sophie Mouse (1-20) So as you may have read in my intro post, Sophie here is what got me back into kidlit. Just look at that art and those characters. How can you not read that? Everything looks so nice. Premise We fo…

The chapter book series that got me into chapter books. Check out Sophie if you haven't already:
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This month I talk about the wide world of activity books related to chapter books!
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[Series Spotlight] Junie B. Jones (1-28) Happy new year everyone! What have I been doing over the holiday season? Oh not much just finishing all of Junie B Jones. I’m not even done yet, but I’ve read all the mainline books and…

Junie's been around for a long time. She's still in print, so she must be doing something right!
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[Cover Story] Magic Tree House So recently a friend of mine made the mistake of informing me that Magic Tree House was a thing. Like, one the best-selling chapter book series of all time kind of a thing. Sixty-six books not coun…

Maybe you've read Magic Tree House by now, but have you looked at all the cover arts? What about the covers in other languages?
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Consistency and Continuity in Chapter Book Series Chapter books tend to be in series, but how much does that really matter? If a kid is expected to be able to pick up any book in a series and not be missing anything, what do you need to repeat? Wh…

Chapter books are a series-based format. What does that mean for the prospective author?
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[Series Spotlight] Magic Tree House (1-38) Series art by Sam Murdocca (1-28) and A.G. Ford (29-38) So I don’t know how I’ve gone my whole life not knowing about this series. I’ve had a lot of friends and coworkers go &#822…

You've probably heard of Magic Tree House, but have you read one? How about thirty-eight of them?
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[Series Spotlight] Rainbow Magic – The Night Fairies Yep, I finally got there. It’s Rainbow Magic time.So Rainbow Magic is a Heckelbeck-level lengthy chapter book series that I’ve been avoiding for a while. But sometimes you find a near-m…

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This month I finally get into Rainbow Magic! One of them at least.

15 Common Topics In Chapter Books When writing for a specific age group, you want to be relatable. If you’re writing a chapter book series, you’re going to have to be relatable a lot. Can you cover ten topics? Twenty? H…

Chapter books cover a wide variety of topics. Here's some of the more common ones:
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[Series Spotlight] Dragon Masters (1-25) Yeah yeah, I’m talking about Dragon Masters again. That series I previously mentioned I had no idea why I liked it. Well I’ve read over twenty-five books now, so I’d better figure…

Somehow still haven't read Dragon Masters? Maybe you should!
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[Series Spotlight] Isadora Moon (1-20) It’s finally time! I’ve talked a bit about everyone’s favorite vampire-fairy in a lot of my past articles. She just hit twenty books (and a TV show) which is my baseline for Serie…

Isadora Moon Day was in February, but that doesn't mean you still can't read it. If you're based in the US, you might not realize how many books she has!
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[Double Booked] Owl Diaries & Unicorn Diaries I promised multiple new blog categories this year, so here’s the second! Double Booked compares two very similar series to each other. In case you were confused. Or just wanted to know the di…

This month I compared two similar chapter book series: Owl Diaries and Unicorn Diaries. How similar are they? Read on to find out!
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[Cover Story] Star Friends So Star Friends is pretty cool. It’s a chapter book series for ages 6-9. It’s got twelve books and counting. You can find it in every Target across the US. Pretty popular. One of the on…

You may have heard of Star Friends, but have you seen these awesome cover arts? All of them?
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[Series Spotlight] Desmond Cole Ghost Patrol (1-23) I couldn’t stay away from another series review for long, because Desmond Cole Ghost Patrol is that good. Every monster trope in the world? Flashbacks every book? How is this ages 5-8? Rare m…

Come find out about one of the best spooky chapter books on the market!
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Chapter Books 101 I get enough questions about chapter books, so I’ve put together a short list of information regarding the format. I might update this from time to time as I learn more, so check back every o…

Interested in writing chapter books? Check out this short overview of the format and see what you're getting into!
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Mean Girls In Chapter Books So I’ve done this before, but last time we weren’t so chapter book focused. It seems almost every chapter book features a mean girl eventually. If you read that past article, you’…

Last month I talked a bit about mean girls in chapter books. Come see what character traits make a girl mean with examples from well known series!
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Cover Story: Top 10 Chapter Book Covers I didn’t cover this in my anniversary post, and it lets me talk about books and series I normally might not cover. I’m gonna try to keep these to English only covers, because foreign co…

This month's post is on some favorite chapter book covers of mine!
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