Book Bonding: Building Connections Through Family Reading

The perfect holiday gift for parents, readers, and communities.

A collection of essays about family, reading, and bonding with others through books. From children’s literature educator and children’s book author Megan Dowd Lambert.

This poignant, funny, and touching essay collection invites readers to consider how they bond with children, other family, friends, and students through shared reading. 

Divided into 4 sections organized around themes of parenting, adoption, race, and healing, this 21-essay collection with its joyous and colorful illustrations is perfect gift for parents, grandparents, librarians, educators, and anyone who spends time with children or reading together with others. 

The author's experience as an educator and as a parent in a blended family that includes seven children of various racial backgrounds (four of whom came home through adoption) adds depth and breadth to her expertise about how people read and respond to books. 

"I grew up with a mother who loved to read, and what a sustaining gift that has been to me. If you are holding this book, it’s a good bet that you love to read, too. Read on, and let Megan show you how to make your love for books and your love for the children in your life add up to something special."
--Roger Sutton, Editor Emeritus, The Horn Book, Inc., from Book Bonding's foreword

Megan Dowd Lambert is the author of A Kid of Their Own, A Crow of His Own, Real Sisters Pretend, and Reading Picture Books with Children. Her experiences as a white mother of seven children in a blended, multiracial, queer, adoptive family inform her work as an author, reviewer, and educator. A former children's literature instructor at Simmons University, Megan reviews and writes for Kirkus and Horn Book; is a consultant with EmbraceRace, a community focused on race and kids; and serves on the curation team of Our Shelves, a subscription box service that features racially diverse, LGBTQ+, and feminist characters and families.

Mia Saine is a nonbinary Black creative seeking to share a more positive, inclusive narrative. Since graduating from Memphis College of Art in 2017, they have specialized in commercial illustration, branding design, advertising design, and environmental design. They live in Memphis. 
www.agoodson.com/illustrator/mia-saine