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: Alex Flinn’s Beastly and A Kiss in Time are very popular in my middle school libraries and her latest romance featuring lesser known fairy tales, Cloaked (HarperTeen 2011) is sure to be as well. Let’s start with The Elves and the Shoemaker: Johnny is a shoe-repair expert working in a small shop in a [...]

Cindy: Dana Reinhardt gets better with every book and The Summer I Learned to Fly (Random/Wendy Lamb 2011) is no exception. Last year’s The Things a Brother Knows was a piercing look at the relationship between two boys and the impact of war. In this story, Reinhardt examines the intricacies of mother-daughter relationships and perfectly captures [...]

Lynn: One of the frequently heard laments from our book club teens is, “Why doesn’t anyone ever write about NORMAL teens?”  Pete Hautman must have been listening because his new book, The Big Crunch (Scholastic 2011) is exactly that.  No one is a vampire or werewolf, no one is dead, struggling with a deadly disease [...]

Lynn: Already racking up 6 starred reviews, Chime (Penguin/Dial 2011) is winning admirers everywhere. I am one of the throng and if Bookends gave stars we’d add to the count.  It’s been a while since a book hooked me so thoroughly or kept me so spellbound.  I could probably save a lot of writing time [...]

Cindy: I’ve always been a fan of Candlewick Press. I love the beauty and attention they put into their bookmaking with special and expensive production attention to details. I admire their cadre of authors like M. T. Anderson and Adam Rapp and Sonya Hartnett and many other favorites that write unique and challenging books. Even [...]

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: What is your schedule like – crazy busy or have you got a little time? Before you pick up Possessed (Scholastic/Point 2010) or recommend this to someone make sure it’s the latter because this is one of those deliciously addictive books that you won’t be able to put down. Trust me, you’ll be staying [...]

Lynn: Kristin Cashore is a gifted storyteller – one of those remarkable writers who spin a web of words that wraps around readers, capturing them completely with a tale. I’d wager my classic sf collection that every reader coming to the end of the first book, Graceling (Penguin/Dial, 2008), immediately asked when the second volume [...]

Cindy: I think of this series of delightful books every August as my summer vacation winds to an end. In The Exiles (Margaret K. McElderry, 1991), the four Conroy sisters, Ruth, Naomi, Rachel, and Phoebe are excited when their parents come into an inheritance and they gleefully begin plotting how to spend their share. Their [...]

Cindy: We can’t let any more summer slip away without blogging this perfect beach read. Lynn and I are both fans of Han’s first book, Shug, about a 7th grade girl grappling with middle school and the transition from child to adolescent. The Summer I Turned Pretty (Simon & Schuster, 2009) features an older girl, [...]