February 17, 2013

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Pick of the Day: Spirit Seeker: John Coltrane’s Musical Journey

By on December 26, 2012 Leave a Comment
blue greens to right, musician to left

GOLIO, Gary. Spirit Seeker: John Coltrane’s Musical Journey. illus. by Rudy Gutierrez. 48p. bibliog. discography. further reading. websites. Clarion. 2012. RTE $17.99. ISBN 978-0-547-23994-1.
Gr 4-6–A well-conceived marriage of art and text breathes life and passion into this picture biography. Swirling strokes of vibrant colors give the book an almost cinematic quality, animating Coltrane’s passionate journey from a joyous, nurturing early childhood with a loving extended family to the despair of losing too many loved ones in a short time. The [...]

Filed Under: Featured, Grades 5 & Up, Pick of the Day, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Pick of the Day: Blue Clouds (CD)

By on December 21, 2012 Leave a Comment
A baby sitting on a red flower

Blue Clouds. CD. 39 min. with booklet. Smithsonian Folkways. 2012. ISBN unavail. $11.99.
PreS-Gr 3–Beautiful harmonies and Elizabeth Mitchell’s lovely, sweet voice are the hallmarks of this outstanding collection of traditional and original songs. She’s joined by her husband, Daniel Littleton, and daughter, Storey, as well as others. Mitchell has breathed new life into these traditional songs and has transformed several classic rock numbers into folk style with elegant and simple arrangements. In addition to the top-notch vocal performances, the band [...]

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Pick of the Day: Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku (Audiobook)

By on December 20, 2012 Leave a Comment
Grey cat with blue eyes

Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku. By Lee Wardlaw. cassette or CD. 15 min. Recorded Books. 2012. cassette: ISBN 978-1-4640-4565-3, CD: ISBN 978-1-4640-4571-4: $15.75; hardcover book, ISBN 978-1-8050-8995-0: $16.99.
Gr 1-4–A cat sits in a shelter. There are other cats around him, yet he is alone. Will anyone choose him? Yes! But adjustments must be made…mostly by his new owners because, after all, he IS a cat. Wardlaw’s book (Holt, 2011) strikes just the right notes. Written in clever [...]

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A Brief Hiatus

By on December 19, 2012
A Brief Hiatus

Dear Readers: Thank you for following our blog.  Beginning Wednesday, December 19th, the School Library Journal blogs are being migrated to a new server. Therefore, we will not be able to post for an extended period, perhaps until 2013. The same goes for commenting – if you try to post a comment after midnight December [...]

Filed Under: Adult Books 4 Teens, SLJ Blog Network

Booklist Editors’ Choice, 2012

By on December 19, 2012
Booklist Editors Choice, 2012

Booklist is the only other review source that publishes a best of the year list in our category. The Booklist Editors’ Choice: Adult Books for Young Adults, 2012 was released yesterday. Let’s compare to the AB4T Best Books of the Year, shall we? FICTION Of the 12 fiction titles chosen by Booklist, we overlap on 4 [...]

Filed Under: Adult Books 4 Teens, SLJ Blog Network

Pick of the Day: Abe Lincoln’s Dream

By on December 19, 2012 Leave a Comment
white house, lincoln flying over it

SMITH, Lane. Abe Lincoln’s Dream. illus. by author. 32p. Roaring Brook. 2012. RTE $16.99. ISBN 978-1-59643-608-4.
Gr 2-5–A picture book that transforms the 16th president from a seemingly austere, severe figure into a sympathetic character. A young African American girl named Quincy encounters the ghost of Abe Lincoln on a school tour of the White House. He tells the child about a recurring dream in which he is sailing a ship on a stormy sea, unsure of where he’s heading. (The [...]

Filed Under: Pick of the Day, Preschool to Grade 4, Reviews Tagged With: , , ,

Pew & Berkman Report: Parents, Teens, and Online Privacy

By on December 19, 2012 Leave a Comment
Pew logo

The Pew Internet & American Life Project, in collaboration with the Berkman Center at Harvard University, has recently released “Parents, Teens, and Online Privacy”. The report—the first in a Pew/Berkman Pew logoseries with a focus on youth privacy issues—combines a number of quotes taken from focus group interviews conducted by Berkman’s Youth and Media team with Pew data from a nationally representative phone survey of parents and their teens, with a focus on the use of social networking sites. The report is fully downloadable, and may be searched online as well.

Filed Under: censorship, Industry News, Librarians & Media Specialists, Professional Reading, Research, Social Media, Teens & YA Tagged With:

Book Reviews from Young Adults

By Bookmarked, Patrick F. Taylor Science and Technology Academy, Jefferson, LA on December 19, 2012 Leave a Comment
Nobody But Us

Bookmarked really rallied after the Thanksgiving hiatus! We have a fabulous combination of books reviewed this issue, from mystery to thrillers to fantasy, all with a dash or more of romance. The 2012 titles are ready for reading over the holiday break, so get your holds placed now.

Filed Under: Books & Media, Students, Teens & YA, YA reviews Tagged With:

Game and Music Reviews from Young Adults

By on December 18, 2012 Leave a Comment
Breaking Dawn Soundtrack 2

Want to save Middle-earth without getting off the couch? The new Lego Lord of the Rings videogame makes that completely possible. For those that never tire of zombie hunting, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will not disappoint. And it’s just possible that the Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 Motion Picture Soundtrack could provide appropriate background music for the zombie hunters, with its “soulful sound” and “a bit of wailing.”

Filed Under: Multimedia Reviews, Teens & YA, Video Games, YA reviews Tagged With:

Pick of the Day: See You at Harry’s (Audiobook)

By on December 18, 2012 Leave a Comment
Finished milkshake on blue checkered tablecloth

See You at Harry’s. By Jo Knowles. 5 CDs. 5:49 hrs. Brilliance Audio. 2012. ISBN 978-1-4558-8958-7. $49.97.
Gr 7 Up–Twelve-year-old Fern is quiet and conciliatory, and often taken for granted. Left to take care of whatever the rest of the family members are too busy to deal with, she feels alone and resentful. Dad is constantly trying to boost business for the family restaurant, Mom is always escaping to meditate, Sarah is spending an embarrassing post-high school gap year working in [...]

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From the Trenches: Parallel Universes

By on December 18, 2012 Leave a Comment
Every Day

Wishing for everyday life to disappear and to be magically transported somewhere else does not always deliver on the promise of a happier ending. Parallel universes seem to be a popular trend these days, with quite a few books released in 2011 and 2012. For one, YA thrill-master Christopher Pike is back, veering toward fantasy with his trademark thriller plot thrown in the mix. And, in one of the most highly acclaimed books of the year, Every Day, David Levithan drops the main character into a new body, and therefore a new world, each morning. Some of the titles are serious, offering a look at how one might escape a bad home or school life. Others trend toward humor or fairy tale retellings. In all, the glimpse of “what might have been” provides readers an escape from their daily lives.

Filed Under: Collection Development, Grades 5 & Up, Read- & Watch-Alikes, Teens & YA Tagged With:

Weekly Reviews: Crime

By on December 18, 2012

In this week’s reviews, we delve into three takes on the everlasting American obsession with crime and criminals.  We start with Rob Deborde’s Portlandtown, which injects its paranormal underpinnings (and just “what is it with all this paranormal activity occurring in the Pacific Northwest?” asks reviewer Carla Riemer) with classic tropes from Western and Crime fiction [...]

Filed Under: Adult Books 4 Teens, SLJ Blog Network Tagged With:

Why Did It Happen? Books to Help Kids Cope with Tragedy

By on December 17, 2012 12 Comments
Black Rabbit on paint drizzled background

While there are no books that specifically address the events that occurred in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, there are a few titles that will ease young fears and offer listeners hope. Here you’ll find a few recommendations from School Library Journal’s Book Review staff.

Filed Under: Books & Media, Collection Development, Collective Book List, Featured, Reviews Tagged With: , ,

Debut author interviews

By on December 17, 2012

Every other month we publish an interview with a promising AB4T debut author in the SLJ Teen Newsletter. Sometimes I conduct the interview; sometimes I invite one of our reviewers to take it on. As 2012 comes to a close, I feel the urge to look back on those interviews for patterns or themes that [...]

Filed Under: Adult Books 4 Teens, SLJ Blog Network

Pick of the Day: Mice

By on December 17, 2012 Leave a Comment
mice

FYLEMAN, Rose. Mice. illus. by Lois Ehlert. 40p. S & S/Beach Lane. 2012. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-1-4424-5684-6; ebook $12.99. ISBN 978-1-4424-5686-0. LC 2011020555.
PreS-Gr 1–This storytime winner brings a new twist to the classic poem. The simple verse describes mousey attributes: “their tails are long,/their faces small,/they haven’t any chins at all.” Ehlert’s quirky, handmade paper-collage rodents (resplendent with hot pink circle ears, big front teeth, and string limbs) demonstrate by holding up a ruler, crafting a self-portrait, and peering into [...]

Filed Under: Featured, Pick of the Day, Picture Books, Preschool to Grade 4, Reviews Tagged With: , ,

Pick of the Day: The Diviners (Audiobook)

By on December 14, 2012 Leave a Comment
Blue cover with eye

The Diviners. By Libba Bray. 15 CDs. 15:15 hrs. Prod. by Listening Library. Dist. by Listening Library/Books on Tape. 2012. ISBN 978-0-449-80875-7. $60.
Gr 10 Up–Printz winner Libba Bray’s latest literary masterpiece (Little, Brown, 2012) is stunning, suspenseful, and sure to leave listeners utterly breathless. Thoroughly modern flapper Evie O’Neill’s psychic ability to divine secrets from inanimate objects gets her exiled from her stuffy Ohio town. Sent to stay with her Uncle Will in Prohibition-era New York City, the last thing [...]

Filed Under: Audio Reviews, Featured, Multimedia Reviews, Pick of the Day Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Movie Review: The Hobbit

By on December 14, 2012 Leave a Comment
Sir McKellen as Gandalf. Photo credit: Warner Brothers Pictures.

In “The Hobbit,” Peter Jackson’s follow up to his epic “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, Bilbo Baggins begins his journey to defeat the dragon Smaug.

Filed Under: Featured, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Pick of the Day: Crush: The Theory, Practice and Destructive Properties of Love (CD)

By on December 13, 2012 Leave a Comment
Illus of boy holding crushed bouquet behind his back

Crush: The Theory, Practice and Destructive Properties of Love. By Gary Paulsen. 2 CDs. 2:28 hrs. Brilliance Audio. 2012. ISBN 978-1-4692-0311-9. $39.97.
Gr 5-8–Once again, Kevin Spencer (Liar, Liar and Flat Broke) tackles the problems of his world, this time with careful, scientific logic, and no lies. Kevin still has a crush on Tina Zabinski,. He’s sure that he is her perfect match, but he won’t approach her until he’s 100 percent positive that he can win her heart. This doesn’t [...]

Filed Under: Audio Reviews, Multimedia Reviews, Pick of the Day Tagged With: , , , ,

Nostalgia

By on December 13, 2012

Back when I asked our reviewers what they look for in terms of teen appeal, Sarah Flowers said something intriguing that I couldn’t fit in that post, but I’d like to talk about at greater length. Here’s what she said:
“Is there an important teen character or characters, and do they sound like teens? That [...]

Filed Under: Adult Books 4 Teens, SLJ Blog Network Tagged With:

Pick of the Day: The Encyclopedia of Me

By on December 12, 2012 Leave a Comment
girl standing on books

RIVERS, Karen. The Encyclopedia of Me. 248p. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine. 2012. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-0-545-31028-4; ebook $16.99. ISBN 978-0-545-46951-7. LC 2011046292.
Gr 5-8–Diminutive, biracial, freckled Isadora “Tink” Aaron-Martin is grounded for most of the summer after an incident with her best friend. She decides to write an encyclopedia, and in spite of the artificiality of the alphabetical format, Rivers has created a warm, funny, fast-paced story about an endearing middle schooler who keeps her cool and sense of humor when events [...]

Filed Under: Featured, Grades 5 & Up, Pick of the Day, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,
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