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: When I saw Come See the Earth Turn (Tricycle Press 2010) I knew I had to read it. My daughters both recently graduated from Grand Haven High School (Mich.) a school that has a Foucault pendulum in it’s main entry. I’ve often joked that it was installed there to remind the students each morning [...]

Lynn: I think in my next life I’d like to be Sally Walker.  First she’s a terrific writer, second she’s investigating the most fascinating subjects and meeting amazing people and third  she’s turned her curiosity into her work.  How cool is that?  Frozen Secrets:  Antarctica Revealed (Carolrhoda 2010) is the award-winning Walker’s latest book and [...]

Lynn:   The books we test on our focus group come from a variety of sources.  Some arrive from generous publishers, some I buy and some I borrow.  So when the boys ask if this is a book we can keep, I know we’ve got a winner.  They were asking that on the very first page [...]

Lynn: Three words, Nic Bishop Lizards (Scholastic 2010).  I don’t suppose we really have to say anything more than that, but of course we will.  As you would expect, the photographs in this new book are stunning but they are stunning in a way that provides more than just a gorgeous picture.  Each photography reinforces [...]

Lynn: I am writing about the two new entries in Houghton’s Scientists in the Field series today.  Seriously people – just put this series on standing order and be done with it!  Each book is a treat and you don’t want to risk missing one.  I’m an unabashed fan of the series.  The books focus [...]

Cindy: Did your mother warn you that you could harm your eyes by reading in the dark? Or that if you crossed your eyes they would stay that way? Lynn found this great informational book series from Lerner called Is That a Fact? that challenges these and other burning burning questions. We read Does an [...]

Lynn: I’ll start this post by reminding readers that my 7-year-old twin grandsons stay with me before and after school and during the summer. Like most 7-year-old boys they love bugs and books about bugs. Cindy saw this book at ALA and I ordered Bug Zoo (DK 2010) sight unseen. Bugs: how to catch them [...]

Lynn: We have a great friend currently serving on Notable Children’s Book committee that we get together with every month to happily discuss books. Ed Spicer often generously lends us books that we haven’t seen yet. Recently I came home with a whole stack and they were all so enticing I hardly knew where to [...]

Cindy: Want to hook young readers on the genre of biography? Give them All Aboard! Elijah McCoy’s Steam Engine (Tundra, 2010). The opening scene shows a 6 year-old Elijah happily running to fix his father’s broken horse-drawn mower. His talent and love of working on machines started early. In 1866 Elijah returned to his ex-slave [...]

Cindy: The BP oil spill is sure to be incorporated into many curricular lessons this school year with its wide-spread environmental and economic impact. Libraries would be wise to be prepared with books to support the lessons to be learned. One of the many tough things to watch has been the growing impact on the [...]