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: Paper or plastic? We are all familiar with that question, but I wasn’t familiar with the female inventor who gave us the machine to make a paper grocery bag. In The Bag! Margaret Knight Wraps It Up (Tundra 2011) is a delightful picture book biography of a little known inspiring woman. The book opens [...]

Lynn: Our focus group loves science and I think they share that love with lots of kids.  We’re always looking for great new science-related books for the younger set and this week we have something a little unusual – picture books that are fiction yet also present scientific topics.  These two are ideal for common [...]

Lynn: Talk about a dream team!  Caldecott winning illustrator Beth Krommes teams up again with Joyce Sidman, winner of three Newbery Honor medals in the exquisite Swirl By Swirl:  Spirals in Nature (Houghton 2011).  The result is just what you would expect – another brilliantly crafted book.  This time the subject is the ” spiral: [...]

Lynn:  My family are zoo and museum-addicts.  I freely admit it and will further admit that we have sometimes eschewed a famous site or two for the pleasure of going to yet another zoo or crazy museum.  So I was instantly drawn to Strange Creatures:  The Story of Walter Rothschild and His Museum (Disney/Hyperion 2011).  [...]

Lynn: Creators of the fabulous Babymouse series, Jennifer and Matt Holm, debut a new graphic novel series that will have readers everywhere clapping their pseudopods in glee.  Squish:  Super Amoeba (Random 2011) puts the microscopic world under the lens.  Who would have thought it?  Single cell critters go to school, eat tacos, get detention and [...]

Lynn: Cindy discovered Bug Butts (EarlyLight 2011), took one look and handed it off to me and the Focus Group straight away.  Let’s see, bugs with shooting butts, spinning butts, exploding butts, bubble butts – hmmm, need I say more about small boy appeal?  The EWWW Meter is pegged on this book and while the [...]

Lynn: Quick quiz!  What are hovering and whiffling, rumbling, ear flaps and trunk curls?  All these are among the many ways elephants communicate.  In Elephant Talk:  The Surprising Science of Elephant Communication (Twenty-First Century 2011) Downer presents not only the story of the complex story of elephant communication but also the scientific processes behind these [...]

Lynn: Energy is a topic on everyone’s minds these days and finding a way to talk about this complex issue with children is more important than ever.  So I am especially happy to write about Energy Island:  How One Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed Their World (Farrar/Frances Foster 2011) which is the first of [...]

Lynn: Most of us grew up blissfully secure in our tidy 9-planet solar system.  Then, voila, Pluto was no longer a planet and suddenly the entire 523.2 section was obsolete.  Fortunately, David Aguilar, Director of Science Information at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, is stepping up with 13 Planets:  The Latest View of the [...]

Lynn: If “ewww gross” is your idea of high praise then How They Croaked:  The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous (Walker, March 2011) is the book for you!  The opening pages issue this warning: Warning: If You Don’t Have the Guts for Gore, Do Not Read This Book I’d advise the squeamish among us [...]