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: Who knew garbage could be so much fun? If you’re looking for a different spin on “green” literature, try Here Comes the Garbage Barge! (Random / Schwartz & Wade, 2010). Before I even read the story I was sidetracked by the cover tease telling me to look inside the book jacket to learn how [...]

Lynn: The publication of a new book in the Thief of Attolia series is exciting news and the latest, A Conspiracy of Kings (Harper/Greenwillow, 2010) will publish in April. We were very lucky and received arcs in December and of course we sat down and read them instantly. We normally don’t like to blog new [...]

Lynn and Cindy: The Finalists for the 2009 LA Times Book Prize were announced Monday and we are really excited! Four of these were in Lynn’s Top Ten. Here are the finalists: James Cross Giblin. The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy Frances Hardinge. The Lost Conspiracy Deborah Heiligman. Charles and Emma: The Darwin’s [...]

Lynn: If we were as clever as Marilyn Singer, we’d write this blog in reversible lines in honor of her wonderful new book, Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse (Penguin/Dutton, March 2010). There is a reason she is a writer and we are reviewers though so we won’t try. I’ll resort to saying that [...]

Lynn: We first met Rapunzel and Jack as they joined forces to clean up the mess at Gothel’s Reach in Rapunzel’s Revenge (Bloomsbury 2008). The main focus shifts to Jack in this second volume, Calamity Jack (Bloomsbury, 2010), and he wants to impress Rapunzel and show his mother that he is more than a scheming [...]

Cindy: I’m a big fan of British author Boyce’s books (Millions and Framed) so I was eager to read Cosmic (Harper/Walden Pond Press, 2010) even before it racked up five starred reviews. This one will be even more accessible to American children than its predecessors. The book opens with 12-yr.-old Liam feeling Completely Doomed on [...]

Lynn: Cindy saw a review of Lights On Broadway: A Theatrical Tour from A to Z (Blue Apple, 2009) and we got excited about it but somehow it dropped off our radar until we saw it in the booth at Midwinter and got excited all over again. This eye-catching high-voltage picture book defines theater terms [...]

Lynn: So – Cindy and I are reading the great new 2010 arc’s as fast as we can turn the pages but we don’t want to move on without wedging in some of the outstanding late 2009 books. Raiders’ Ransom (Scholastic/Chicken House, Dec. 2009) is one I don’t want anyone to miss. It’s 23rd century [...]

Cindy and Lynn: Scholastic has announced the title (Mockingjay) and cover art for the final book in the Hunger Games trilogy over at their blog, On Our Minds @ Scholastic. You don’t want to miss the humor in this press release news. It will have to satisfy you until August 24, 2010, the release date [...]

Lynn: In December it was my great pleasure to meet Paula Young Shelton during her book tour through Ann Arbor. Mrs. Shelton, a first grade teacher in Washington, D.C., talked about the Civil Rights History unit she taught each year and the difficulty in finding materials appropriate for her young students. Every year she told [...]