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: “Most folks my age and complexion don’t speak much about the past. Sometimes it’s just too hard to talk about…So it’s important that you pay attention, honey, because I’m only going to tell you this story but once.” Fortunately for us, the story has been captured in a gorgeous book so we can read [...]

Lynn: I love books that start out with warnings to the reader!  “The Editors” caution us on the first page: Be advised that the author of this book, Huckleberry Finn, is NOT A WRITER! The stage is set, the tone established and the fun begins as Huckleberry Finn himself (with considerable help from Robert Burleigh [...]

Cindy: “It’s funny how you can be in a story but not realize until the end that you were in one.” Zora and Me (Candlewick, 2010) spins the story of author Zora Neale Hurston’s childhood in Eatonville, Florida, the first incorporated black town in America. Told from best friend Carrie’s perspective, the novel begins with [...]

Lynn: I have been clear that I really don’t like books that make me cry so the fact that this one did and I am recommending Layla, Queen of Hearts (Farrar 2010) anyway should send a loud message! Layla Elliot has a problem. Senior Citizen Day is approaching fast for her third grade class and [...]

Cindy: Jack tales have to be among my favorite folktales and when you have one written by a special author and combine that with a tribute to storytelling and feature dessert, you know up front how I will feel about this book! Clever Jack Takes the Cake (Random House/Schwarz & Wade, 2010) is an original [...]

Cindy: Dragons? Who cares about dragons? I was beginning to think there was no such thing as a tightly written adventure story with great characters, brilliant writing, and a well-paced plot anymore. Thank you, Philip Reeve, for No Such Thing As Dragons (Scholastic, 2010). Take one con-artist dragon hunter who doesn’t believe in dragons but [...]

Lynn: I adore David Almond’s books. I don’t think I’m smart enough to always understand them but I relish the reading experience and the places he takes me with his writing. Still, for all my unabashed fascination, I wouldn’t have said that his writing would work well for young children. I was so wrong! The [...]

Cindy: Last year Gaiman gave us a boy named Bod. This year, “there was a boy called Odd, and there was nothing strange or unusual about that, not in that time or place.” Odd meant the tip of the blade and it was a lucky name.” But like most folktale heroes, Odd is not lucky, [...]

Lynn: This quiet little masterpiece is one of my favorite books this year. When the Whistle Blows (Penguin/Philomel 2009) may be a debut novel but Slayton writes with a polished skill that many a veteran author would envy. The novel has an interesting construction – seven complete short stories that build upon each other, adding [...]

Lynn: “I tried to make August last because September, and school, didn’t look good. We were not only newcomers, but we were P.K.’s – preacher’s kids. So everybody’d be gunning for us, and we’d be living in a fishbowl.” 11-year old Bob has a lot to worry about. Not only is his family new in [...]