Jessica Fries-Gaither 

It has been a terribly exciting week. On Monday, the SpaceX CRS-12 Dragon spacecraft was launched from Kennedy Space Center. In its 6,400 lbs of cargo was a very important book - Notable Notebooks! I wasn't able to travel to Florida for the launch, so I watched the launch from my classroom with a few colleagues and friends. If I couldn't be there in person, at least I had good company! Here's a video of the launch and subsequent landing of the first stage of the spacecraft. I

Last year, I discovered a community on Google+ called Picture Book 10 for 10. It's a site where, twice a year, members share 10 favorite picture books on a theme of their choosing. #pb10for10 happens in August, and #nf10for10 (focused on nonfiction) happens in February. Naturally, I had to join and participate! Yesterday was the day, and I wasn't sure what theme I wanted to use for my books. This morning, I had the idea to select 10 picture book biographies for STEM classes.

Notable Notebooks: Scientists and Their Writings made the front page of the Life & Entertainment section of the Columbus Dispatch today! The article profiles both my book and another NSTA Kids book, Next Time You See a Sunset by Emily Morgan. Both books have been selected for the Story Time from Space program and will be sent to the International Space Station aboard the SpaceX-12 resupply mission. The books will be read aloud by a crew member and recorded for use in classroo

Head on over to the wonderful blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, for a guest post I wrote on Notable Notebooks and how my students use their science notebooks in our class daily. You can also enter to win a copy of Notable Notebooks: Scientists and Their Writings by posting a comment by September 1, 2017! And while you're there, take some time to check out the other wonderful guest posts, as well as Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's (the blog's creator) poetry books - both published and for

I've been thinking about creating out a little home on the internet for myself for some time now. It's most certainly a work in progress. The foundation has been poured; the walls, windows, and doors are in place. Things aren't quite finished, but I'm rolling out the welcome mat anyway. I hope you'll return to visit and marvel at the progress along with me. I plan to use this space for many things - news about my own books, favorite new titles, and musings about science educa