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: Do you have a way to gather reading suggestions from your children, teens, students? If not, find one. Even though the media keeps ringing the death knell for books my piles of to-read new titles has not diminished any. I do my best to sort through what the publishers generously send us, what I [...]

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: Here in Michigan we often have to wait until May for true Spring to arrive, but we are getting an early taste this year and so we’ve put away our winter books and our mittens and are moving on. If we get snow dumped on us in a few weeks, perhaps we’ll reconsider, but for [...]

Cindy: Here’s a gothic tale of mystery set in a creepy old mansion on aptly named Cough Rock Island. The Humming Room (Feiwel & Friends 2012) is inspired by Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic The Secret Garden but certainly reminds me of other books as well. Like Bod in Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, Roo’s adventures [...]

Lynn: As a child, I was fascinated by my parents’ stories about growing up during the Depression.  Neither of them, like the children in this story, ever went hungry but the scarcities and tough times shaped them for their entire lives.  My mother, at 91, still cannot bear to let anything go to waste and [...]

Cindy: If the title Z is for Moose (Greenwillow 2012) confuses you, you’re not alone, but hang on to your “H is for Hat” and all will become clear. But first some seriousness, some humor, and some tantrums before the friendly resolution. Zebra has a clipboard and a plan for this alphabet book and is determined [...]

Cindy: Months behind the rest of the book-reading world, I finally read The Fault in Our Stars (Dutton 2012). I did not preorder the book–like the thousands of other true nerdfighter fans–because I could not trust myself to have the new John Green book in my house and stay focused on my 2011 L.A. Times [...]

Lynn: OK – stay with me here.  Mr. and Mrs.  Bunny – Detectives Extraordinaire! (Random 2012)  starts when young human Madeleine wins three prizes at school and yearns to go to graduation because Prince Charles is going to hand out the prizes but she needs white shoes.  Meanwhile Mr. and Mrs. Bunny decide to buy [...]

Cindy: When Cool Animal Names (Charlesbridge/Imagine! 2011) arrived, I knew that I’d better read it fast if I hoped to ever seen it again. Once our focus group gets their wildlife-loving mitts on this, it’s all over! What a fun book. The first section has chapters that open with a photo and description of a [...]

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 [...]