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:  Count me as one who never tires of immigration stories!  They are the heart and soul of who we are as a nation and each one brings a new version of the experience.  There are so many good ones but Paul Fleischman and Bagram Ibatoulline have teamed up to give us something special in [...]

Cindy: I was totally sucked in by the cover of Zebra Forest (Candlewick 2013). Add the promise of family secrets and I’m in. Annie and Rew live with a grandma who has good days…and bad. Annie has three wishes: 1. Get tall. 2. Have an adventure. 3. Meet my father. She realizes her chances are [...]

Cindy: When Lynn handed over her latest public library find,  (Atheneum 2012), I wasn’t quite sure where the story was going to lead me when I read the opening page: The fox had been stepping into stories since the beginning of time. Important stories, everyday stories, stories that only mattered to one or two people. [...]

Lynn: If there was ever a book designed to go straight to a booklover’s heart it is this gorgeous sweet picture book, The Lonely Book (Random/Schwartz & Wade 2012). Once there was a brand new beautiful book and on the cover was a picture of of a girl under a toadstool in a forest.  The [...]

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: Mo Willems is a national treasure.  He is a gladsome spark of brilliance for parents and grandparents of preschoolers/ beginning readers everywhere – providing that miracle of miracles:  books that can be read/listened to a zillion times without driving the grown-up screaming from the room.  Mr. Willems – thank you!  As the grandparent of [...]

Lynn: Hazel and Jack have been like two peas in a pod ever since Jack moved in next door when they were six.  He was wearing a pirate patch and was the only person she knew “who saw things the way they could be instead of just what they were.”  Years later, when he suddenly [...]

Lynn: I really shouldn’t reveal how clay-like my reviewer’s feet are but I seem to confess my failings in this blog all the time.   This clearly has to stop but before I talk about Martha Brook’s new book, Queen of Hearts (Farrar 2011), I need to say that I usually dislike books about people [...]

Lynn: Move over Philip Marlowe, a new gumshoe is in town.  Meet J.J. Tully, former search and rescue dog  – now turned out to grass in his retirement.    And sister, there’s chickens in that grass.  J.J. has barely settled in when trouble comes knocking – trouble in the form of a pretty tough bird.  [...]

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 [...]