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Simon & Schuster’s recent preview of its fall children’s books in New York City was a unique, and unprecedented, opportunity for celebration this year, as librarians and teachers gathered during the event to help celebrate award-winning author/illustrator Ashley Bryan’s 90th birthday. Bryan was in attendance to present his newest book Can’t Scare Me, which debuts next month.
Following Stiff, Spook, Bonk and Packing for Mars, Mary Roach is back with Gulp, in which she maintains her punning, entertaining writing style, as well as her willingness to go to the gross-out extreme. There were actually moments in this book that made me nauseous, and there is one chapter in particular that I believe [...]
The Dork Diaries has been steadily circulating in my middle school library for some time now, but for the last 5 months, this series has been the most requested and on the top 10 list of items circulated since September. The series reads like Diary of a Wimpy Kid but actually skews to a younger [...]
I’ve been thinking about horror fiction lately. What are the secrets of its appeal? Why are teens so drawn to it? How can we know which adult horror novels will appeal to teens and which won’t? One of the reasons I’ve been thinking about this lately is because I enjoyed The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper [...]
Karyn just posted an impressive roundup of last minute reading, so I’m chiming in with some more. With Monday morning’s announcement looming large, it seems like everyone is trying to sprint through their last minute reads in order to feel prepared. Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby Houghton Mifflin, March 2012 Reviewed from an ARC This [...]
every day by David Levithan
Published by Knopf, August 2012
Reviewed from a final copy
You know a book’s a big deal when the visiting public librarian gives it a shiny booktalk and then all the students want to do is keep hearing about that book, to the exclusion of all the other books said librarian brought. [...]
Second Chance Summer, Morgan Matson
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, May 2012
Reviewed from final copy
My friends, I have failed. For the first time this season, I’m calling DNF on an auto-contender I’m meant to be reviewing.
Second Chance Summer is a fine book. But 100 pages in, I can see that the literary merits don’t [...]
Waiting, by Carol Lynch Williams
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, May, 2012
Reviewed from final copy
I love a good, sad book. A real weepie is all my joy. I’ll try to avoid reading them, I’ll say, “oh, I’m not really in the mood for reading that,” but the truth is, a book that can bring [...]
Those wishing to help school libraries and children’s collections that were damaged by Hurricane Sandy now have an array of giving options, thanks to several disaster relief programs, children’s book publishers, and charities.
You can help provide books to schools and libraries devastated by Hurricane Sandy by making a donation to the organization First Book.
