Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

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 [...]

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 [...]

Cindy: The Black Book of Colors (Groundwood, 2008) is a gem of a book that flew under the radar last year even though it garnered four starred reviews and a prize at the 2007 Bologna Children’s Book Fair. How does someone who can’t see comprehend colors? Through his other senses of touch, smell, sound, and [...]

Lynn: Sometimes books are just so special, so full of wonderful elements that I find it difficult to write about them. I don’t know where to start! The Storm in the Barn (Candlewick, 2009) is just that sort of book. This exquisitely crafted graphic novel is a wondrous blend of genres: [...]

Lynn: One of the most delightful things about writing this blog is that we get packages on our porches. Even after a lot of years on committees, I haven’t gotten over the thrill of receiving a mysterious parcel from a publisher. We try not to blog books too far in advance of publication date so [...]

Cindy: Biome research never looked so gorgeous as it does in Life in the Boreal Forest (Henry Holt, 2009). My sixth graders know this biome as the “tiaga” but Guiberson references that alternate name for this important ecosystem. The boreal forest covers most of the Northern Hemisphere and shelters so many creatures, many of which [...]

Lynn: Wow! I never thought anything would top my awed regard for Craig Thompson’s Blankets but Stitches (W.W. Norton, Sept. 2009) has elbowed through to do just that and the two stand shoulder to shoulder for me. Both books are coming-of-age stories, both explore the power of artistic expression (among other things) and both books [...]

Cindy: Poetry and collage art combine for a colorful celebration of the seasons in Red Sings from Treetops (Houghton, 2009). What’s not to love? It’s summer, so I’ll focus there. A bright yellow sun fills half a page of a summer picnic on a dock.
 
 
In SUMMER,
White clinks in drinks.
Yellow melts
everything it touches….
smells like butter,
tastes like [...]

Lynn: There are many fine books this year commemorating the July 20, 1969 landing on the moon and I have enjoyed them all. Mission Control, This is Apollo (Penguin/Viking, 2009) may be my favorite. We all have those personal memories of pivotal moments and one of mine is sitting in front of our black and [...]

Lynn: Jerry Pinkney’s splendid new book, The Lion and the Mouse (Little, Brown, Sept. 2009) may be wordless but anyone who reads it will be using a lot of words such as gorgeous, stunning, evocative, and Caldecott. This adaptation of the familiar Aesop fable clearly proves that storytelling with both power and nuance can be [...]