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: It is only fair to warn you – if you have deadlines, important obligations or responsibilities, don’t start The Name of the Star (Penguin/Putnam 2011)!  I guarantee that once you start reading, you will set aside everything else.  Damn the deadlines, full speed ahead!  I won’t disclose all the major tasks I ignored but [...]

Cindy: “Most folks my age and complexion don’t speak much about the past. Sometimes it’s just too hard to talk about…So it’s important that you pay attention, honey, because I’m only going to tell you this story but once.” Fortunately for us, the story has been captured in a gorgeous book so we can read [...]

Cindy and Lynn: Author Paul Zindel once set off noise makers that sounded like firecrackers in our library during a presentation to our students. He told them that stories should start with a “Bang!” The added sound effect got the point across to our middle schoolers. We’ve always been on the lookout for good opening lines [...]

Cindy: I was excited and a little nervous when I heard there was to be a new Shel Silverstein collection. Post-humous publications often disappoint, but this one is successful. Every Thing On It (Harper 2011) has over 130 poems with his trademark line drawings, selected by his family from his archives and published her for [...]

Lynn: Mo Willems is a national treasure.  He is a gladsome spark of brilliance for parents and grandparents of preschoolers/ beginning readers everywhere – providing that miracle of miracles:  books that can be read/listened to a zillion times without driving the grown-up screaming from the room.  Mr. Willems – thank you!  As the grandparent of [...]

Lynn: Oh that I-can-do-it-myself stage!  We want our little ones to become independent but it’s bitter sweet too.  And every child that proudly dresses himself or pours his own cereal still wants to be reassured that mom or dad, nana or papa are there just in case.  Ann Stott and Matt Phelan have wonderfully captured [...]

Cindy: The 7th graders that I booktalked Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition (Roaring Brook 2011) to last week were shocked that alcohol was once illegal. They are quite familiar with medical marijuana legislation but only one student in eight classes could tell me what the word “prohibition” meant. One girl did [...]

Lynn: Hazel and Jack have been like two peas in a pod ever since Jack moved in next door when they were six.  He was wearing a pirate patch and was the only person she knew “who saw things the way they could be instead of just what they were.”  Years later, when he suddenly [...]

Cindy: Our middle school students demanded a reserve list for Christopher Paolini’s new book Inheritance (Random/Knopf 11-8-2011) last school year the minute the publication date was announced. It was 7:30 a.m. yesterday when the first student asked if we had the book yet! Um, no…the bookstore isn’t open and our UPS delivery of the preorders [...]

Lynn: It’s waaay too early to begin making lists but Balloons Over Broadway:  The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade (Houghton 2011) is already one of my favorites for this year.  First there is the fascinating story of how the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade came to have its signature giant balloons.  Then there [...]