Booklist Online: More than 130,000 book reviews for librarians, book groups, and book lovers - from the trusted experts at the American Library Association

Cindy: My sixth grade students research scientists and inventors every year and Philo is on their list of choices, so I’m delighted to have Kathleen Krull’s new picture book biography of his life and work. The Boy Who Invented TV (Random/Knopf, 2009) starts with black and white end pages full of photos of various television [...]

Cindy: The hunt for holiday gifts has begun in earnest, and our teen BBYA club members have long lists that include books that they want Santa to deliver. Our group is so big this year that we’ve begun dividing them into two groups for more discussion opportunity at our meetings. Last week I had the [...]

Lynn: There is nothing more irritating than pouring a bowl of cereal and discovering there is no milk. Not only is the chicken family in Put It On the List (Penguin/Dutton 2009) out of milk, they are also out of syrup, diapers, cheese, jelly and, worst of all, toilet paper. Something has to be done! [...]

Lynn: Most children love animal books and with Life-Sized Zoo (Seven Footer Kids, 2009) you can bring a zoo right into your lap. Komiya gives readers extraordinary photographs that are truly up close and personal. Subjects range from an elephants’ eye to an unnervingly close view of a tiger’s tongue – all life-size and all [...]

Cindy: Ok, so I don’t have a whole room in my house dedicated to my Star Wars collection like a certain friend’s husband does, but I have a lot of geek traits that prompted me to seek out Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd (Little, Brown, 2009). YA authors Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci spawned [...]

Cindy: I came home a few weeks ago to find a wild turkey strutting through my front yard. I frequently have to slow down and wait for a flock to saunter across the road on my way to work, but that was the first one to walk my garden path. Jim Arnosky’s new picture book, [...]

Cindy: We haven’t gotten over our fall fascination with the National Parks and so this week for Nonfiction Monday we are headed to California to explore the mighty redwoods. According to Redwoods (Roaring Brook/Flashpoint, 2009) since 1850 and the advent of large-scale logging “more than 95% of the original redwood forests have been destroyed. Only [...]

Cindy: Lonnie Collins Motion (Lo-Co-Motion) is back in this sequel to the Coretta Scott King author honor winning Locomotion. In Peace, Locomotion (Penguin/Putnam, 2009) Lonnie continues his story of life in a foster home with Miss Edna, separated from his sister Lili, in another foster home. I like the letter format of this installment even [...]

Lynn: We are having a stretch of unusually warm sunny days. Our gray Michigan winter will be here soon though. To help get ready we have two charming books that celebrate wintry fun. One of our new favorites is Waiting for Winter by Sebastian Meschenmoser (Kane Miller, 2009). Deer tells Squirrel that snow is coming [...]

Lynn: Ok – it is long past time for a rant. I’m sad and irritable this week but I’ve been grumbling for months about this issue and it is time to RANT! A listserv that I have long subscribed to is being ravaged by a dreadful disease. No I don’t mean H1N1, I mean Librarianship [...]