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: With March Madness upon us, I was excited to find All Access: Your Behind-the-Scenes Pass to Sports, Stars, Locker Rooms, and More! (Time 2010) on display at my local public library. I knew I had to take it home when I flipped it open to find Shaquille O’Neal’s ginormous hand reproduced on a cellophane [...]

Cindy: If you didn’t get enough haiku with our recent post about Guyku, then have we got a treat for you in Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku (Henry Holt 2011). The story opens with cats in separate cages in an animal shelter: Gypsy on my left. Pumpkin, my right. Together, we are [...]

Lynn: In I Dreamed of Flying Like a Bird:  My Adventures Photographing Wild Animals from a Helicopter (National Geographic 2010) the subtitle says it all.  Veteran photographer Haas writes about his fascinating and dangerous job photographing wildlife from small planes and helicopters.  Each page turn yields another unique and beautiful photograph with commentary by Haas [...]

Cindy and Lynn: We are in the holiday spirit and are avoiding our own holiday preparations to prepare a gift for our Bookends readers. We have assembled an annotated list of recent books that would make great gifts for young readers this holiday season. It is organized by broad age level from preschool through high [...]

Lynn: You are all book lovers out there so I know you will understand when I say that there are some books that I just want to clutch tightly to my heart when I’ve finished them. I can hardly bear to put them down and break the reading spell. Snook Alone (Candlewick 2010) is one [...]

Cindy: Thaddeus K. Fong is NOT amused to have a new baby sister. “My mother’s womb is a Trojan horse, I tell you.” Like many older siblings, he is resentful of the attention given to the slobbering baby whose only vocabulary is “ga.” When his math teacher explains prime numbers to Thaddeus’s advanced third grade [...]

Cindy: Bookends is pleased to be today’s host for the children’s Nonfiction Monday blog round-up. If you have a blog post to share, please post to the comments below and we will add them to today’s post throughout the day. Ubiquitous (Houghton, 2010) is another fine collaboration from Joyce Sidman and illustrator Beckie Prange, this [...]

Lynn: Tell a teenager that you grew up in a house that for years had one TV and one radio and they will look at you as if you have tree roots growing out of your nose. Mark Stamaty tells it like it really was and this bright musical memoir really struck a chord with [...]

Lynn: Cindy saw a review of Lights On Broadway: A Theatrical Tour from A to Z (Blue Apple, 2009) and we got excited about it but somehow it dropped off our radar until we saw it in the booth at Midwinter and got excited all over again. This eye-catching high-voltage picture book defines theater terms [...]

Lynn: When PBS aired The National Parks: America’s Best Idea in September I was glued to the television. I had my popcorn and I sat for six glorious nights marveling at what I was seeing and hearing. In true librarian fashion, I had checked out a copy of the accompanying book ahead of time. I [...]