Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

Cindy: I came home a few weeks ago to find a wild turkey strutting through my front yard. I frequently have to slow down and wait for a flock to saunter across the road on my way to work, but that was the first one to walk my garden path. Jim Arnosky’s new picture book, [...]

Cindy: We haven’t gotten over our fall fascination with the National Parks and so this week for Nonfiction Monday we are headed to California to explore the mighty redwoods. According to Redwoods (Roaring Brook/Flashpoint, 2009) since 1850 and the advent of large-scale logging “more than 95% of the original redwood forests have been destroyed. [...]

Lynn: We are having a stretch of unusually warm sunny days. Our gray Michigan winter will be here soon though. To help get ready we have two charming books that celebrate wintry fun.
One of our new favorites is Waiting for Winter by Sebastian Meschenmoser (Kane Miller, 2009). Deer tells Squirrel that [...]

Cindy: I don’t know if I am up to the challenge of describing this delightful book. The Bog Baby (Random/Schwartz & Wade, 2009) has curled itself around my heart like the fiddle head ferns that line the squelchy edge of the magic pond in these pages. When two sisters lie to their mother and sneak [...]

Cindy: This time of year makes me really miss my public library days. Halloween storytimes were so much fun. Sally Walker’s new Halloween pour-quoi tale, Druscilla’s Halloween (Carolrhoda, 2009) offers an explanation for how witches came to ride brooms. Aging Druscilla can no longer quietly sneak up on children by tiptoe to scare them–her [...]

Lynn: I’m convinced that our house has a sign clearly visible to all animal species that says, “Hopeless sucker lives here.” A mind-boggling array of creatures have wandered in over the years and many of them stayed. So with that and the fact that one of my sons served in Iraq, I knew I might [...]

Lynn: Meet the kindergarten class at Wolong Nature Reserve - sixteen adorable baby pandas. Small humans will be enchanted by the irresistible photographs of these furry students as they pursue their lessons of playing, eating, napping and exploring their world. Panda Kindergarten (HarperCollins, 2009) is ideal for story hours or quiet time after a busy [...]

Cindy: There’s nothing scarier than navigating your first school bus ride, unless it is working as a middle school bus driver! Talk about an underappreciated profession! I’m Your Bus (Scholastic, 2009) is a book to soothe young children and to give to your favorite bus drivers as a thank you gift. The digitally designed, [...]

Cindy: My sentiments exactly! I Don’t Want to Go to School! (Random House, 2009) I love my job, but the week before school starts, when the weather always turns its most glorious, it’s hard to say goodbye to summer vacation. Simon the Super Rabbit says “No Way” to his parents’ variety of attempts to get [...]

Cindy: Oh, we’ve all seen the toddler in the grocery store having a melt down (usually in back of us when we are in a really long line). Or we, ourselves, have woken up and everything is just WRONG about the day. Elliott captures that drama perfectly in Finn Throws a Fit (Candlewick, 2009). Finn [...]