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Cindy: We attended our state school library conference (Michigan Association for Media in Education) this week. Lynn and I presented our annual list of our favorite books of the year. We provided two hour-long booktalk presentations to over 150 school librarians. One session was devoted to fiction and the other featured nonfiction, graphic novels and [...]

Lynn: Looking for a book of poems that will instantly engage students while demonstrating poetic form? Or are you looking for a gorgeous eye-catching picture book for story hour? Or are you looking for a book to enhance a research unit on animals? Look no further because the stunning In the Wild (Candlewick 2010) will [...]

Cindy: Change is hard for everyone, especially the change that a new baby brings to a family. In Pecan Pie Baby (Penguin/G.P. Putnam, 2010), Woodson captures the dread a young girl has of the impending arrival of that “ding-dang baby” who will alter her relationship with her mother. While friends and family talk endlessly about [...]

Lynn: Why did they do it? What made a group of teenage girls accuse over 144 people of witchcraft? In the end 19 people were hanged and one man pressed to death in one small community. In her brilliant new book, Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials (Harper/Balzer + Bray 2010), Hemphill [...]

Cindy: Did your mother warn you that you could harm your eyes by reading in the dark? Or that if you crossed your eyes they would stay that way? Lynn found this great informational book series from Lerner called Is That a Fact? that challenges these and other burning burning questions. We read Does an [...]

Cindy: I share a birthday with Noah Webster (October 16th) so when I saw a new picture book biography about him on display at my local public library, I had to check it out. Noah Webster: Weaver of Words (Calkins Creek) taught me a lot about the man behind one of our most popular dictionaries [...]

Lynn: I posted earlier that our focus group had grown with the addition of my new grandson. We recently had a wonderful weekend with all the family. Here is a picture of our expanded focus group. Henry is still a bit young for most of our books but it won’t be long as he comes [...]

Lynn: I’ll start this post by reminding readers that my 7-year-old twin grandsons stay with me before and after school and during the summer. Like most 7-year-old boys they love bugs and books about bugs. Cindy saw this book at ALA and I ordered Bug Zoo (DK 2010) sight unseen. Bugs: how to catch them [...]

Lynn: It doesn’t matter if you are a storytime librarian, classroom teacher or sleepy parent – Interrupting Chicken (Candlewick, 2010) will have you matching giggles and gaffaws with your audience. We all know the child in this story. He/she simply cannot listen to a story without bursting in to comment, announce the obvious or shout [...]

Lynn: Lovers of fairy-tale twists and library-related stories – have we got a book for you! The Grimm Legacy (Penguin/Putnam 2010) is the sort of clever charming book perfectly designed to curl up with at the end of a long frustrating day. It is balm for a battered soul. If only I could distill and [...]