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: When my oldest daughter first took guitar lessons, she struggled as the instructor made her pluck out the notes for ”Mary Had a Little Lamb.” My brother was disdainful of that method. He said, “I can teach her three chords and she’ll be able to play any Bob Dylan song she wants, and what more would she [...]

Cindy:  It’s no mystery that fans of the National Book Award Winner, What I Saw and How I Lied, will line up for Judy Blundell’s latest historical mood-saturated drama, Strings Attached (Scholastic 2011). Kit Corrigan learns the hard way that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Seventeen and struggling to make ends [...]

Lynn: Remember a few weeks ago when Cindy demanded more estrogen in the picture books we blog? I have JUST the book that should please her and keep our focus group happy too. Brontorina (Candlewick 2010) is about a ballet dancer AND a dinosaur. In fact it is about a dinosaur who wants to be [...]

Lynn: In his preface to Sir Charlie Chaplin (Harper/Greenwillow, 2010) Sid Fleischman relates a story of how Chaplin was asked about a movie scene in which he single-handedly captured thirteen enemy soldiers. “I surrounded them,” he answered and Fleischman goes on to say that “I surrounded Chaplin to make him the subject of this biography.” [...]

Lynn: Cindy saw a review of Lights On Broadway: A Theatrical Tour from A to Z (Blue Apple, 2009) and we got excited about it but somehow it dropped off our radar until we saw it in the booth at Midwinter and got excited all over again. This eye-catching high-voltage picture book defines theater terms [...]