Frances’s Substack

one more camp tale

Frances — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 14:56:48 GMT

Another lesson that I learned from Great Books Summer Camp, if I can keep it to even just a few more, was that books continue to be something that bring people together, across all kinds of divides.

I made such good friends with my fellow administrators and academic directors and counselors, as well as a few campers who wanted to bond. Everyone carried around books and no time was spent idle. This was in addition to, or perhaps despite, all of the assigned reading! It was all reading, or talking about reading, or talking about what to read next or what they’d most recently read that they’d loved. For class or for fun!

It was fascinating to see what these young people (and I’m lumping in the college-aged counselors here) were reading. On my first day I overheard someone who might be 15 talking about how they’d just finished and absolutely loved Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. I was taken aback because that book is intense! I’m not sure an early teenage Frances would have known what to do with Kingsolver’s epic. But these young readers were gushing over the experience, and I loved hearing from afar the further bonding that they got to do about the book. Books like that need to and deserve to be talked about.

I also loved seeing how many people, counselors especially, were using their local library. I brought library books with me, though that made me a little apprehensive (what if I lost them en route?!) but it was refreshing to see that others brought library books as well. At the rate that we all read, bookstores become too expensive!

There are always alternatives, however: we stumbled upon a used bookstore in our wanderings and had such a fun time there, as well, because we as a group were able to talk about the distinct difference between borrowing books and owning them, and how there are some you just need to own forever. But used bookstores are so much more fun! Cathy’s Half Price Books in Havertown, PA: thank you for helping this group of traveling readers feel at home in their temporary dorm rooms. We loved sharing and gushing over our “hauls” and those were the perfect mementos to bring home.

summer writing

Frances — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 16:09:49 GMT

I’ve been working on a project this summer with an advisor that I’ve worked with before. She’s over in Wales, which means the time difference can make things complicated, but she is someone I get along really well with and was excited to get to work with again. The project is writing based, and there’s a lot to be said about it, but what I really wanted…

one more note

Frances — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 21:49:51 GMT

One more letter about historical fiction, if I may. I wanted to write about a really neat trend in young peoples’ literature which is the existence of amazing historical fiction and, in addition, historical graphic novels. Adults are so quick to dismiss graphic novels as not real literature, but if we assign the same truth of my learning, that it needs …

reading to learn

Frances — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 15:13:59 GMT

Last week I wrote about reading historical fiction and learning about history through story. I still think it’s important and a useful way to learn what happened in the past. I know that if I read a nonfiction text, like I did in school, stuff doesn’t stick. I won’t remember much. I remember the Defenstration of Prague, because it’s such a great word, d…

america 250!

Frances — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 23:26:21 GMT

Coming up this weekend is America’s birthday, and it’s a big one too: 250! What an exciting thing to celebrate. I, for one, am looking forward to the Boom Box Parade, a Willimantic tradition that I really love. I love seeing the community really come out, both to march and to watch. I love marching and seeing so many people I love cheering for me.

I lov…

queer joy in books

Frances — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 15:47:03 GMT

I wrote earlier this month about Pride Month and stories of tragic romance, and I wanted to take a moment to talk about stories of queer joy. Balance in all things.

Much like the movement lately to feature stories of joy in all marginalized lives in young peoples’ literature, that exists in queer stories as well. It doesn’t all have to be tragic, and tha…

plant a seed

Frances — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 16:50:25 GMT

Every year, public libraries, particularly children’s departments, work extremely hard on their summer reading programs. It’s the big moment for a children’s department, time to take advantage of kids with free time, time to entertain them with everything we can think to throw at them.

Every year, there is a theme to summer reading. Often, it is decided…

it's the end of the year (almost)

Frances — Sat, 30 May 2026 14:53:41 GMT

It’s hard to believe that it’s the end of May. Memorial Day is such a landmark holiday; summer begins, kind of, even though it doesn’t, really, because we’ve got another month of school.

But as the school year starts to wind down, it’s time for me to do some serious thinking. What have I taught my students? More importantly, what do I still need to teac…

reading and gatekeeping

Frances — Wed, 20 May 2026 15:52:14 GMT

There are so many debates about reading and literacy. I had a recent conversation with someone who doesn’t think that the increasing popularity of romance books will do anything for the “literacy crisis” in the country. I argued that reading is reading, and reading something that makes you love reading will get you farther down the road of being a reade…

mothers day

Frances — Thu, 07 May 2026 17:16:20 GMT

This coming Sunday, May 10th, is Mother’s Day. Snuck up on me for sure! I never quite have the time for the homemade craft that I invent in my head on… the Thursday before.

One thing that brings me joy is that my kindergarten classes have demonstrated that they are responsible enough to bring books home, so they’re taking picture books home to read with…

writing poetry with students

Frances — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 21:18:21 GMT

As I’ve written before this month, it being National Poetry Month, and because I love the freedom that poetry offers, I want to write poetry with my students. It can be daunting, I know, to write original thoughts, let alone share them, but I’m going to be patient. I think they often grumble when I don’t just lean into the ‘technology’ side of my job an…

the wallace stevens poetry series

Frances — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 21:14:09 GMT

UConn has an annual event, the Wallace Stevens Poetry Series, held each year in March. My father loves to go, and this year I went with both of my parents. It was a really fascinating evening.

We had never heard of the poet of the evening, Brenda Hillman, but that didn’t stop us. It is kind of fun, we discussed on the ride home, to go into something lik…

national poetry month

Frances — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 22:54:06 GMT

April is National Poetry Month! I know I probably tell you all this every year, but here we go again. I love it, as an occasion to read and write and celebrate poetry, so I will use it as well as I can to try and encourage those behaviors.

There are many poem-a-day emails one can sign up for- I know I have at least two coming into my mailbox daily, not …

the women of libraries

Frances — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 12:50:59 GMT

It’s women’s history month! The world of children’s libraries is one full of women- and again, this is not all women, all the time. Something that I think about, though, when I think of women in the role of children’s librarians, is that image we all have in our head of the mean and terrible old lady who is going to be furious with us that our book is o…

book fair week

Frances — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 17:06:18 GMT

This week in the Windham Public elementary schools is Parent-Teacher Conferences, which also means, at Sweeney, this week is the Scholastic Book Fair. What fond memories I have of the book fair! And I don’t think I’m the only one. There are always memes and tweets about adults looking to relive the glory days of the Book Fair.

It’s a fun week, and while…

women's history month

Frances — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 01:12:19 GMT

March is Women’s History Month, and there is so much to celebrate when it comes to libraries and women’s history. Children’s libraries have long been the domain of women, similar to teaching. Not always true, of course, and lately is less and less the case, but it just tends to remain true.

There are some legendary women who were children’s librarians, w…

one quick post about Black History Month

Frances — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 14:56:26 GMT

February is Black History Month, and I always like to take a moment to write about Black authors and creators and how their work and their stories are shaping modern literature of the past and the present.

One really neat creator is Christian Robinson. He’s a children’s book illustrator that has come up in this column a few times. He’s illustrated some …

who gives a f about the oxford comma

Frances — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 17:54:03 GMT

I have some thoughts that I would like to share on the Oxford comma. I will work to make this brief and interesting, for those of you who stuck with me after the first sentence.

The Oxford comma is the comma that goes before the last item in a list. It is not required, semi optional, because after that second-to-last item, there is usually an ‘and,’ and …

on writing

Frances — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 22:13:31 GMT

I was asked recently if I’d ever want to turn writing into a job. This person hasn’t read any of these columns, or my writing that I do for and about Reframe, though I showed them how much I’ve written and posted/published over the years. I had to think about how to answer the question. It’s something I’ve wanted for so long, since writing stories on th…

adaptations

Frances — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 00:51:13 GMT

Another book I read this winter was Maggie O’Farrell’s bestseller, Hamnet. I know I’m years late to the game, but I got there, inspired in large part by the screen adaptation. I will not see a movie or a show until I’ve read the book, even if sometimes that means I read the book and never see the movie. That’s happened more than once.

I’m rarely a fan o…