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: Thing 1 and Thing 2 have nothing on the critters in Animals Home Alone (Seven Footer Kids 2011)! As soon as the owners are out of the door, this houseful of pets and other non-human residents get busy having fun. Most of the action is wordless as mini dramas unfold throughout the book. The fish [...]

Lynn: Quick quiz!  What are hovering and whiffling, rumbling, ear flaps and trunk curls?  All these are among the many ways elephants communicate.  In Elephant Talk:  The Surprising Science of Elephant Communication (Twenty-First Century 2011) Downer presents not only the story of the complex story of elephant communication but also the scientific processes behind these [...]

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: The blizzard is piling up SO much snow here that any sane groundhog will stay curled up in his den!  Going back to a warm bed sounds SO enticing on this cold winter day but I have three energetic little boys here who slept over last night.  However, for all of us who are [...]

Cindy: We have a tradition in our house of trying to remember to say, “Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit,” on the first of each month to have good luck for the month. It is based on a British superstition that has many variations (gotta love Wikipedia). The friend who taught it to me years ago said it [...]

Lynn: Even before our school district decided to adopt the International Baccalaureate program we spent a lot of time trying to find books set in other countries or about other cultures.  Now with IB in the mix, those books are even more important for our curriculum.  So the two picture books we are reviewing today [...]

Lynn:   The books we test on our focus group come from a variety of sources.  Some arrive from generous publishers, some I buy and some I borrow.  So when the boys ask if this is a book we can keep, I know we’ve got a winner.  They were asking that on the very first page [...]

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 [...]

Lynn: Cindy and I have two cozy picture books that are perfect for sleepy bedtimes or warm cuddles on a snowy day.  I’m leading off with Denise Fleming’s wonderful Sleepy, Oh So Sleepy (Holt 2010).  Each two-page spread shows a different baby animal drifting off to sleep, safely snuggled next to a parent.  The simple [...]

Lynn: Looking for a book of poems that will instantly engage students while demonstrating poetic form? Or are you looking for a gorgeous eye-catching picture book for story hour? Or are you looking for a book to enhance a research unit on animals? Look no further because the stunning In the Wild (Candlewick 2010) will [...]