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: Talk about a dream team!  Caldecott winning illustrator Beth Krommes teams up again with Joyce Sidman, winner of three Newbery Honor medals in the exquisite Swirl By Swirl:  Spirals in Nature (Houghton 2011).  The result is just what you would expect – another brilliantly crafted book.  This time the subject is the ” spiral: [...]

Lynn:  My family are zoo and museum-addicts.  I freely admit it and will further admit that we have sometimes eschewed a famous site or two for the pleasure of going to yet another zoo or crazy museum.  So I was instantly drawn to Strange Creatures:  The Story of Walter Rothschild and His Museum (Disney/Hyperion 2011).  [...]

Lynn: “Some people think it’s just smelly swamps.”  Yezerski shows us how wrong this notion is in Meadowlands (Farrar 2011) but it wasn’t too long ago that this vibrant ecosystem nestled on the Hackensack River was poisoned and foul.  Illustrated with beautiful water color paintings, Yezersky takes us back to pre-colonial times when the wetlands [...]

Lynn: I’m probably not telling anyone anything new here but having just listened to both grandsons read me all 300 facts at least twice in the last three days, I decided to tell you anyway.  When we opened the package from the publisher with Weird But True 3 (National Geographic 2011), I was nearly flattened [...]

Lynn: Cindy discovered Bug Butts (EarlyLight 2011), took one look and handed it off to me and the Focus Group straight away.  Let’s see, bugs with shooting butts, spinning butts, exploding butts, bubble butts – hmmm, need I say more about small boy appeal?  The EWWW Meter is pegged on this book and while the [...]

Cindy: Fans of Newbery Honor title The Wednesday Wars will be delighted with Schmidt’s new companion novel, Okay For Now (Clarion 2011).  “I’m not lyin’.” Doug Swieteck is dismayed to learn that his father lost his job and is relocating the family to the small upstate New York town, “Stupid Marysville.” I hate this town. I hate [...]

Cindy: As Courtney Jones reported over at the Likely Stories Booklist Blog earlier today, the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes shortlists were announced today, including the adult novel category judged by Booklist’s own Donna Seaman. As one of the judges for the YA Lit jury, I’ve been chewing my fingernails waiting for our list to [...]

Lynn: We choose the books we blog for a variety of reasons.  Sometimes they are of outstanding literary quality or they have solid curricular connections.  Sometimes they are books especially popular with our teens or the focus group and sometimes they are books we just loved reading.  When ALL those qualities come together you’ve got [...]

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: Three words, Nic Bishop Lizards (Scholastic 2010).  I don’t suppose we really have to say anything more than that, but of course we will.  As you would expect, the photographs in this new book are stunning but they are stunning in a way that provides more than just a gorgeous picture.  Each photography reinforces [...]