Lynn: Choosing our list of annual favorites is SO hard! Cindy is right that I seldom can keep to the limit, but please remember she chose 16! This was an exceptional year and there are so many I wish I could include. Please stay tuned as we will soon post our Bookends Pre-Midwinter Awards which […]
Cindy: Once again, Lynn and I are going to share our favorite books of 2018. I hope some of them end up winning awards, but that is not in our criteria for selecting them—these are the books we most enjoyed reading. I suggested limiting ourselves to 10 but then ended up listing 16. We both have […]
Lynn: Sy Montgomery is a familiar name to nature-loving readers of all ages. The author of more than 20 books, she is a National Book Award finalist and the recipient of many awards including the Sibert Award, the Henry Bergh Award for Nonfiction, and others. Her most recent book, How to Be a Good Creature: A […]
Lynn and Cindy: Happy New Year from Bookends! ALA Midwinter and the big Youth Media Awards for the 2018 publishing year are just a few weeks away. Here at Bookends, we are simultaneously winding up our 2018 reading recommendations and ramping up for hot-off-the-press 2019 books. Watch for our annual “Bookends Favorites” lists, which are […]
Lynn: Don’t get me wrong, I love having maps on my phone and a GPS in my car. Using these tools, we’ve managed to easily locate rental apartments in the twisting, narrow streets of many a small village instead of wandering around lost! There is a downside to electronic dependence, however. I clearly remember our […]
Lynn: Can a picture book take on the enormously complex concept of the big bang theory—the origin of all things—and do it well? I would have said no, but I know by now not to underestimate the talents and artistic mastery of those working in the picture-book world! In The Stuff of Stars (2018), author Marion […]
Lynn: “There is a people in our forest,” Nix, “the foulest of fairies,” worriedly announces in the first chapter of Lena Coakley’s Wicked Nix (2018). Left behind when the other fairies went home to the Summer Country, Nix has lived in the forest alone for almost a year. Was he left to protect the forest for the Fairy […]
Lynn: I’m not usually one to gush nostalgically, but Emily Jenkins and Paul O. Zelinsky have me doing just that. Their new picture book, All-of-a-Kind Family Hanukkah (2018), is a joyous celebration of both the holiday and one of my all time favorite series. As a child, I adored Sydney Taylor’s original All-of-a-Kind Family books […]
Lynn: Like the picture books in our earlier post, several graphic novels published this year also offer the opportunity to walk in the shoes of refugees and immigrants. Aimed at middle-school and teen readers, these books combine outstanding text and dramatic visual images to provide reading experiences that make a deep emotional impact. The Unwanted: […]
Lynn: How do we talk to children about refugees, immigrants, and all the related issues dominating the news? It seems to us a large number of adults don’t even understand the horrifying situations that have forced masses of desperate people to flee their homelands—so how can we help young people understand this serious issue while […]