Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

Cindy: I came home a few weeks ago to find a wild turkey strutting through my front yard. I frequently have to slow down and wait for a flock to saunter across the road on my way to work, but that was the first one to walk my garden path. Jim Arnosky’s new picture book, [...]

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 [...]

Cindy: I don’t know if I am up to the challenge of describing this delightful book. The Bog Baby (Random/Schwartz & Wade, 2009) has curled itself around my heart like the fiddle head ferns that line the squelchy edge of the magic pond in these pages. When two sisters lie to their mother and sneak [...]

Cindy: This time of year makes me really miss my public library days. Halloween storytimes were so much fun. Sally Walker’s new Halloween pour-quoi tale, Druscilla’s Halloween (Carolrhoda, 2009) offers an explanation for how witches came to ride brooms. Aging Druscilla can no longer quietly sneak up on children by tiptoe to scare them–her [...]

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 [...]

Lynn: I’m convinced that our house has a sign clearly visible to all animal species that says, “Hopeless sucker lives here.” A mind-boggling array of creatures have wandered in over the years and many of them stayed. So with that and the fact that one of my sons served in Iraq, I knew I might [...]

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: “You gotta be kidding! You never heard of Sandy Koufax?” says the unseen fan narrating this strikingly different picture book. Readers drawn to the “lenticular” cover (lenses creating the illusion of movement) will be fascinated by the story inside. The enigmatic Sandy Koufax was, arguably, the greatest left-handed pitcher ever to play [...]

Lynn: I have a woeful gap in my picture book knowledge, having spent most of my working years focusing on YA literature. Having grandsons and writing this blog is helping me to fill in the blanks and one of many delightful surprises is how many great YA authors also write wonderful picture books. In my [...]

Lynn: Meet the kindergarten class at Wolong Nature Reserve - sixteen adorable baby pandas. Small humans will be enchanted by the irresistible photographs of these furry students as they pursue their lessons of playing, eating, napping and exploring their world. Panda Kindergarten (HarperCollins, 2009) is ideal for story hours or quiet time after a busy [...]