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: It’s that time of year…if you don’t have a cold yourself, there’s someone nearby ready to sneeze on you to be sure you get one soon. The Sniffles for Bear (Candlewick 2011) will make you smile no matter how sick you are. Bear was sick, very, very sick. His eyes were red. His snout [...]

Lynn: Growing up, I was fascinated by my parent’s stories of WWII.  My father could always be coaxed into talking about the history and politics of the time and I’ve never lost my interest in the period.  There was always high demand for books on WWII in my middle school library.  However when I saw [...]

Cindy: Grab your tissue box and some popcorn and settle in to read The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (Harper 2012). I initially picked this up based on the cover art and out of a curiosity for what Animorphs author Applegate was up to these days. I was not prepared for what I [...]

Lynn: Excuse me while I hop in my dirigible and zip down to the coffee shop.  This was Alberto Santos-Dumont’s preferred method of getting around Paris and the doormen were used to tying his airship to posts while Alberto shopped or visited with friends.  In the Fabulous Flying Machines of Alberto Santos-Dumont (Abrams 2011) readers [...]

Cindy: I’m reading a classic. Don’t faint. You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings. No, that quote is not about me reading a classic, although it could be. It’s the opening of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Last fall we read [...]

Cindy: Here in Michigan we aren’t getting any snow, so we have to read about it in books! Red Sled (Atheneum 2011) is a delightful nearly wordless wild ride. A young child props a red sled against the wall of a cabin and goes inside for the night. Along comes a bear who borrows the [...]

Lynn: Cindy deliberated with her YA Lit Jury last weekend for the L.A. Times Book Prize while I gleefully immersed myself in books I couldn’t take time for last year plus an outrageously tempting stack of shiny new 2012 arcs.  So we’re batting a little clean-up here on Bookends before leaping into posts on the [...]

Cindy: If I say, “Board Book,” I’m guessing that you might think of yellow duckies and furry puppies. The last thing that might come to mind is a set of NHL© concept books that use the players and trappings of NHL© teams to teach colors and numbers and animals. Christopher Jordan’s set, My First NHL© Books (Tundra [...]

Cindy: I’ve been immersed in teen lit this year but being the klutz I am, I couldn’t help but notice the cover of E-mergency! (Chronicle 2011) with poor E slipping on a flight of stairs headed straight for O. Oh-no! The importance of the most frequently used letter E is made perfectly clear in this funny story [...]