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: Full disclosure. I consider myself a pretty strong feminist and also a Barbie fan so I was intrigued by Stone’s latest nonfiction offering, The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie: A Doll’s History and Her Impact on Us (Viking, 2010). She begins the book with basic biographical information about Ruth Handler, Barbie’s “creator,” and readers who [...]

Cindy and Lynn: Okay, we know the turkey tryptophan is really just an excuse, but Bookends just ate too much yesterday to adequately blog today. We have taken two anti-acid tablets (each) and are recovering on our respective couches with a towering stack of books to tell you about in upcoming weeks…but first…perhaps a nap. [...]

Cindy and Lynn: As many families gather together and are reminded to give thanks for the good things in their lives, we at Bookends would like to offer our list of things we are grateful for and wish to celebrate.  In our rushed and harried world it is easy to focus on complaints and we [...]

Lynn: Occasionally our focus group takes the editorial reins in their hands and dictates the subject of our post.  That is the case with today’s post.  Generous publishers have sent us a number of wonderful pop-up books this year that the boys have especially enjoyed.  They’ve gone from asking politely if we’ve blogged about these [...]

Lynn: Talk about an early holiday gift!  One of my favorite literary characters, Bartimaeus, is back!  Bartimaeus –   snarky, egotistical, irreverent, utterly disrespectful of authority and just as utterly unable to control his smart mouth, king of the footnotes, djinn of the Fourth level – is back.  Hurray!  In The Ring of Solomon (Hyperion [...]

Cindy: “It’s funny how you can be in a story but not realize until the end that you were in one.” Zora and Me (Candlewick, 2010) spins the story of author Zora Neale Hurston’s childhood in Eatonville, Florida, the first incorporated black town in America. Told from best friend Carrie’s perspective, the novel begins with [...]

Cindy: Young readers who hear music in street noises or other environmental sounds will appreciate this look at the formative years of guitar legend, Jimi Hendrix. The first thing readers may notice about  Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow (Clarion, 2010) is the stunning artwork by Javaka Steptoe. He walked in the legendary steps of Jimi through the old [...]

Lynn: Dinosaur is back!  This time in Dinosaur vs. the Potty (Disney/Hyperion 2010) the foe is really formidable.  “Roar,” says Dinosaur, “I don’t need to use the potty!” Dinosaur puts that statement to the test with lemonade, a three juice box lunch AND splashing through puddles.  Dinosaur WINS!  But then a victory dance turns into…a [...]

Lynn: I love this job!  I get paid to read and right now you should see the books on the top of my to-read stack.  I am in sequel heaven!  There are so many awesome books that I couldn’t chose between them so I closed my eyes, mixed them up, made a stack and am [...]

Lynn: I am writing about the two new entries in Houghton’s Scientists in the Field series today.  Seriously people – just put this series on standing order and be done with it!  Each book is a treat and you don’t want to risk missing one.  I’m an unabashed fan of the series.  The books focus [...]