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:  The lives of artists are often a challenge to write about for children and none more so than Diego Rivera.  Controversial in almost all aspects of  his life, Diego Rivera was also a towering figure in the art world (and in stature) and his work remains incredibly powerful today. Susan Goldman Rubin’s new book, [...]

Cindy: Booklist readers know that The Fairy Ring: or Elsie and Frances Fool the World (Candlewick 2012) was named Booklist’s Top of the List 2012 Youth Nonfiction winner. I had read this bizarre little nonfiction book in the fall and couldn’t believe the hoax that these two young girls pulled off, including pulling the wool [...]

Lynn:  There are times when I want to bang my head against the wall and shriek, “Why didn’t I read this sooner?”  I had Endangered (Scholastic 2012) for many months and somehow had never quite gotten around to it.  I knew I should too – there was something about the premise that just shouted “READ [...]

Lynn:  Revered writer (by me anyway) Phillip Hoose turns his attention to the bird world again with an amazing book about an equally amazing type of bird, the Red Knot, and more specifically a very special individual bird – B95.  Moonbird:  A Year On the Wind With the Great Survivor B95 (Farrar 2012) introduces readers [...]

Cindy: When Lynn and I read and posted about Martha Brooks’ Queen of Hearts a year ago, little did we know that this story set in a tuberculosis sanitorium would be the first of many TB books that would come our way this year. There was The Humming Room by Ellen Potter where a young [...]

Cindy: I finally scraped together a couple of free hours with my husband in town so we could go see The Hunger Games movie. I’ve long since gotten over expecting movies based on books to live up to my standards, but I have to admit that this one fared well. Within the obvious limitations of [...]

Lynn: I am writing this review on April 15th – the 100th anniversary of the tragic sinking of the Titanic.  The week previous has been filled with programs about the ship and it was an interesting experience to see and hear those while reading a book on the subject for young readers.  I am happy [...]

Cindy: In celebration of Booklist’s always fabulous Graphic Novel spotlight, we have a gn to share that sheds new understanding on the most famous of all teacher-pupil relationships. Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller (Hyperion 2012) really capitalizes on the graphic storytelling format to communicate the difficulties Annie faced in her work with [...]

Cindy: I love when I find a nonfiction book that does something new. Music informational books are few and far between considering how much music means to teens. Of course, by the time you purchase and process a Justin Bieber biography, it seems there’s a new kid on the block so it’s hard to keep [...]

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 [...]