Authors’/Illustrators’ Websites

• Alice McLerran
• Allen Say
• Anna Grossnickle Hines
• Audrey Wood
• Bertrand R. Brinley – Mad Scientist Club
• Betsy Byars
• Charlotte Zolotow
• Eric Carle
• Ezra Jack Keats
• Han’s Wilhelm’s Children’s Books Forever
• Jack London
• Jacqueline Woodson | Jacqueline Woodson @ Teaching Books
• Jan Brett
• Jane Bregoli
• Jean Craighead George
• Judy Allen
• Kay Chorao
• Kevin Henkes
• Lois Lenski
• Lois Lowry
• Loreen Leedy
• Lynne Cherry
• Mem Fox – learn about the stories behind the stories and hear Mem Fox read aloud!
• Michael Morpurgo – we ADORE his books!
• Michelle Magorian – really really liked Goodnight Mr Tom
• Miroslav Sasek
• Molly Bang
• Nancy White Carlstrom – author of the lovable Jesse Bear books and many other gems
• Patricia Polacco
• Peter Reynolds
• Rebekah Raye
• Robert Munsch – you can listen to his stories here
• Ted Lewin – ma shaa Allah, lovely illustrations from him!
• Tomie dePaola
• Toni Buzzeo – we love her book The Sea Chest
• William Joyce

I went shopping for more home-ed materials. I know, I have no business doing this when my part of the house is practically busting at the seams, but when you have a Math-phobic daughter, how can you resist books like Super One-Page Math Comics??

Never had online shopping been such an excruciating experience. First, the cart kept showing normal prices instead of sale prices – I got pretty bug-eyed when my total came to $158. OK, just a technical glitch. No worries… bear with it, I told myself. It’ll be worth it in the end. So I persevered and emailed customer service.

The next day, I tried again only to find that my cart had been emptied. I had to sieve through some 500 books again to make my purchases. I tried to be sanguine about it – I needed to prune down the cart anyway so it was all good, right? But darn it all if sale prices were still not reflected! Another email to customer service.

Hours later, my purchases were showing sale prices – my cart had been emptied again but woo hoo anyway! I made my purchases again (swallowing my annoyance – hey! I was getting books at $1 a piece!) and checked them out. There must have been an evil gnome at Scholastic messing with me because this time, the page stalled and wouldn’t get redirected to Paypal. My kids took one look at me and backed away slowly – they knew an apoplectic fit was imminent. Another email to customer service, asking them why they didn’t seem to want my business.

I finally got my items checked out – I had to do it in batches. I don’t even want to talk about how long it took to download the materials. (My kids just ran outside, deciding that their cat Rocket was safer company.) Alhamdulillah, I finally got them all and that is all that matters I guess:)

So, if you haven’t already, you still have time to shop there. The offer expires on 31 January 2011.

Just watch out for that evil gnome.