Reviews

The winner for YALSA’s Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults was announced at Midwinter! The winner: The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World’s Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb. From my review: “In 1960, a group of Israeli spies and operatives captured the Nazi fugitive, Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann had been in [...]

With brief texts offering a touch of dino drama and some basic facts, Oceanhouse Media's "Smithsonian Prehistoric Pals" series, based on books by Dawn Bentley, have found an enthusiastic audience with young children. The developer has recently added some new titles to this list; two are reviewed today.

While the print format is still king among bookworms, those readers who favor the ebook format are more likely to read over 20 books a year (30%) than either those who read more/only in hard copy (18%), according to the poll of 2,234 adults conducted in March 2014.

This week, a new Transformer is joining the IDW comics universe as well as the Hasbro toy line. Windblade is a character that was created by fans on the Hasbro website, the first Fan-Built-Bot and created a bit of stir because of her gender. That’s right, Windblade is female, and she is joining the predominately [...]

Anyone who cares about narrative, movies, or both should be reading Matt Bird’s Cockeyed Caravan blog. He spends most of his time there deconstructing the narrative structure of Hollywood movies and explaining how and why movies do (and don’t) work. But while he only discusses movies (and usually big-budget Hollywood ones at that), his insights [...]

A selection of books to help kids navigate the social and emotional ups and downs of school yard and neighborhood play. With humor and visual storytelling, these books reinforce the importance of patience, following rules, and cooperation when dealing with one's peers.

On April 1, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers presented its Fall 2014 list of titles to librarians. Director of School and Library Marketing Victoria Stapleton kicked off the event by highlighting Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones who has written an autobiographical picture book, Gus & Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar, coming out this September. Richards’s daughter Theodora Richards, did the artwork.

History classes studying the Civil War can utilize this outstanding film for a fresh look at a well-worn topic and to contemplate how Lincoln would have used Twitter or other social media.

A look back at what I reviewed in April 2012:  Picture the Dead by Adele Griffin & Lisa Brown. From my review: “Jennie Lovell’s loved ones left to fight in the Civil War: her twin brother, Tobias; her fiance and cousin, Will Pritchett; and her other cousin, Quinn, Will’s brother. She knew the moment Toby died: could feel it. [...]