Reviews+

Gods, monsters, farm animals, and bitcoin: There is a unique selection of series to choose from this season with an extra helping of mysterious and creepy titles for readers who want to learn about alien abductions, haunted locations, near-death experiences, or the Bermuda Triangle.

More than high-interest and cool topics, these science series seek to encourage young learners to explore the wide world of not only learning about science, but also being part of the scientific community through citizen science and action.

These series give children the tools necessary to help them formulate their own opinions about social justice issues and find ways they can participate in the efforts to create a more just and perfect world.

These selections seem to represent the current state of American’s minds, including children. They are ready to focus on something other than the pandemic. These series will help with that.

A commonality among the astronomy titles this season is that they all include high-quality, beautiful photographs and many try to communicate the unfathomable scale of size and distances in space along with the vast amounts of information we don’t yet know.

This season’s Spanish series cover lots of exciting, specialized topics for early readers and are well translated for settings where Spanish-only books might be especially useful.

This assemblage of dynamic books will excite and inform kiddos of all ages. From professional team sports to activities for solo athletes, there is much to pore over here, including a series that focuses on social and emotional learning in sports.

Libraries looking to ignite the spark of curiosity in future engineers need to find just the right books to keep readers informed and engaged, spanning reading levels so they can continue to slake their thirst for knowledge as they grow. 

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many children have had to adapt to distance learning and changes to their everyday life. In this ­season’s Series Made Simple, selectors will find books to help young ­readers articulate their feelings, as well as titles that examine the virus and the effort to create a vaccine. We cover perennial subjects, too, including animals big and small, fascinating natural wonders of the world, timely biographies, and a bevy of sports.