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

Lynn: Talk about a dream team!  Caldecott winning illustrator Beth Krommes teams up again with Joyce Sidman, winner of three Newbery Honor medals in the exquisite Swirl By Swirl:  Spirals in Nature (Houghton 2011).  The result is just what you would expect – another brilliantly crafted book.  This time the subject is the ” spiral: [...]

Lynn: I’ve always cheered for the underdog (as can be seen by my life-long support of the Chicago Cubs) and I think a lot of kids share my tendency to root for the little guy.  The tortoise and the hare is a favorite tale for both me and the focus group and The Great Race [...]

Cindy: Can I just steal Daniel Kraus’ review for my blog post of  This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein (Simon & Schuster 2011)? Okay, not the whole thing, I need to earn my keep, but how about the opening? That Victor Frankenstein must’ve been a handful as a teen, eh? The latest entry [...]

Cindy: When my oldest daughter first took guitar lessons, she struggled as the instructor made her pluck out the notes for ”Mary Had a Little Lamb.” My brother was disdainful of that method. He said, “I can teach her three chords and she’ll be able to play any Bob Dylan song she wants, and what more would she [...]

Lynn: Everyone has a theory about Harris Burdick, but Lemony Snickett, never known for his lack of opinions, asserts in his introduction to The Chronicles of Harris Burdick (Houghton 2011) “that these are the actual stories written by Harris Burdick, given by Burdick to the various authors who are pretending to write them.”  Well, I’m always [...]

Lynn: “Those DARN squirrels” is a cry that echoes frequently through our house  – or at least words to that effect.  Here in Michigan bird feeders are everywhere and the constant battle with squirrels is just as common.  Our feeder bristles with complicated gadgets my engineer husband has added, hoping to baffle the squirrels who [...]

Lynn: Halloween is a BIG deal with our focus group despite the current politically correct efforts in our local school to homogenize it.  The boys start planning their costumes the minute the first leaf falls and have lofty schemes for decorating the front of my house this year.  They also love to cook so when [...]

Cindy: Well, we can’t be at New York Comic Con this weekend, but we can blog about a graphic novel to join the party from afar. Anya’s Ghost (First Second 2011) is perfectly executed and is perfect for the pre-Halloween season although it will be enjoyed year-round. Anya has self image problems and struggles to [...]

Lynn: I really shouldn’t reveal how clay-like my reviewer’s feet are but I seem to confess my failings in this blog all the time.   This clearly has to stop but before I talk about Martha Brook’s new book, Queen of Hearts (Farrar 2011), I need to say that I usually dislike books about people [...]

Lynn: One of the best – and most humbling – benefits of being a book reviewer is the constant collision with new knowledge.  As an adult I’ve come to appreciate Dickens’ writing much more than I did in my high school years when we painfully dissected his novels in class.  I knew only a little [...]