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Lynn: You are all book lovers out there so I know you will understand when I say that there are some books that I just want to clutch tightly to my heart when I’ve finished them. I can hardly bear to put them down and break the reading spell. Snook Alone (Candlewick 2010) is one [...]

Cindy: I am so grateful for Margarita Engle’s recent books that shed light on Cuba’s history. The Poet Slave of Cuba (2006) and 2009′s Newbery Honor book The Surrender Tree were both excellent, but The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette’s Journey to Cuba ( Henry Holt, 2010) is my favorite to date due to its themes. [...]

Cindy: 100 Scope Notes is hosting today’s Nonfiction Monday blog round-up highlighting youth nonfiction and Travis has thrown down a creative challenge for us to blog a book in a Nontraditional way. He had a lot of intriguing (and hilarious ideas) in a recent video post of his own and I’m eager to see what [...]

Cindy: Am I the only one who sometimes pays dearly for not reading a book’s flap copy before reading the book? If I’m looking for a book to read I’ll read the flap, but if I already know I want to read a certain book, I don’t like to know too much about it before [...]

Cindy: Bookends is pleased to be today’s host for the children’s Nonfiction Monday blog round-up. If you have a blog post to share, please post to the comments below and we will add them to today’s post throughout the day. Ubiquitous (Houghton, 2010) is another fine collaboration from Joyce Sidman and illustrator Beckie Prange, this [...]

Cindy: Every April I lament the end of March Madness and my college basketball tv habit. It gives me more time to read again, but I miss the game. Do I have a treat for those of you in my hightop shoes! Losing Season (CavanKerry Press, 2009) is a collection of basketball poems by poet [...]

Cindy: Over at 100 Scope Notes Travis is building a gallery of book spine poems. I was fascinated by this idea and had to try it out. Since this is Women’s History Month I decided to build on that and my love of storytelling. Here’s my found poem, “Every Girl Tells a Story.” Read down [...]

Cindy: We don’t let our teens in book club get away with this, but I just want to say “I really, really, reaaaallly like this book.” Ok. So you probably want details about The Sky is Everywhere (Dial, 2010). Lennie’s older sister, Bailey, died suddenly of an arrhythmia and Lennie feels like “someone vacuumed up [...]

Lynn: If we were as clever as Marilyn Singer, we’d write this blog in reversible lines in honor of her wonderful new book, Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse (Penguin/Dutton, March 2010). There is a reason she is a writer and we are reviewers though so we won’t try. I’ll resort to saying that [...]

Lynn: If you like your poetry served up with a smile, this is a book for you. The cover of A Whiff of Pine, a Hint of Skunk (S&S/Margaret McElderry 2009) pulled us in immediately as the boys and I had to see where that skunk was going. We sampled one poem and then another, [...]