September means new backpacks and football kickoff and pumpkin spice everything, but mid-month, September becomes Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 - October 15). So we've put together some of our very favorite children's books, midd…
I want to be cynical, because you know, Barbie , but something moves me about the new Barbie Inspiring Women set of collector's dolls that I stumbled on last night as I browsed the Target site. To think that in my childhood, Barbie was..…
Fair warning: This is not so much a review of the new In the Heights Movie , opening tonight, as it is a love letter. I am a movie person , as any longtime reader here knows. I'm also a Broadway person, a Lin Manuel person, and a proud n…
When three of the five nominees for this year's Children's Grammy awards declined to accept their nomination due to a lack of diversity in the nominations, the tight-knit world of kids' music rallied around the artists in support. Cool M…
Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 – October 15 each year, and our favorite way to honor the occasion is by sharing some of our very favorite children’s books honoring Hispanic heritage . So this year. I've picked five brand …
With July 4th coming, up, this is a time my family often discusses what it means to be American, how we can make the country better, safer, and more equitable for other Americans, and what we can do to help live up to our nation's promis…
There is so confusion about the difference between Latino and Hispanic, whether you can use the terms interchangeable, and whether they're two different things. So with this week kicking off Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October …
We talk a lot about how to create more kindness and empathy in our kids, when it comes to all sorts of people they encounter in their lives. But top of mind right now for so many of us, are immigrants. I feel so grateful that my kids are…
Exposing our children to multicultural music, art and culture is a simple way to help raise globally minded, compassionate, and empathetic adults . Just as in children’s literature , family music artists -- or kindie groups, as they've b…
As avid advocates of diverse books of all kinds, but especially diverse children's books, we work hard to share carefully curated lists of children's books. Our amazing writers have shared impressive lists of wonderful books about divers…
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! - Emma Lazarus After yesterday's racist, hateful, and decidedly non-presidential presidential "shithole" characterization of immigrants to America fro…
This is my favorite recurring post every year on Cool Mom Picks, in which we collect all the best children's books of 2017 lists from all over the internet -- from big publications like the New York Times to our favorite indie bloggers w…
With Día de Los Muertos coming up on November 1 and the Pixar film Coco premiering November 22 -- my kids are so excited to see it! -- I've been seeking out some fun sugar skull crafts for the family to work on together. It's such a nice…
The 2017 National Book Awards have just been announced, in time for those crisp autumn nights cuddling up with a good book. And while you should check out all the finalists in the fiction and nonfiction categories, we're sharing the Youn…
One of the best ways our kids can learn empathy and celebrate diversity is to see the myriad of ways different people live their lives all around the world. Which is why I am loving the brand-new children's book, This Is How We Do It , b…
I'm a child of an immigrant. And so I jumped at the chance to put together a list of some of my favorite children's books about the immigrant experience. I know first-hand just how difficult it is for someone to get to America for a bett…
Today, there's excitement about the Oscar nominations, but yesterday was the Academy Awards for book lovers. The ALA made its big announcement of the books worthy of the annual Caldecott, Newbery, and Coretta Scott King medal winners, as…
Once again, we're happy to have compiled the best lists of all the best children's books of the year, curated by the top publishers, reviewers, organizations, and bloggers we respect. And boy, was it a fantastic year for children's liter…
As the year comes to a close, we're looking back at our picks for the best children's books of 2016 -- according to our editors, writers, and of course our children! What a perfect way to kick off our Editors Picks of the Year . As our r…
We've loved our annual new year tradition of compiling the best kids' books of the year, thanks to all the major (and not entirely major) best-of lists and big children's book awards of 2015 from publications, experts, and organizations …
Thousands of books are published for children each year, and it seems like there are thousands of "best of" lists published too. If you're shopping for kids books for Christmas like we are, you'll want to check these lists out for some g…