With Booklist‘s celebration of the 50 Best Middle-Grade Novels of the Twenty-First Century well underway—and our tenth annual Mystery Month fast approaching—now is the perfect time to revisit this collection of gutsy girls in middle-grade mystery novels, originally published in the January issue of Booklandia. There’s a proud tradition of girl detectives in middle-grade lit. […]
An unexpected perk of being a school librarian has been the opportunity to work with amazing women in the library throughout my career. Since today is Galentine’s Day, the holiday made up by Parks and Recreations’ Leslie Knope to celebrate the amazing women in her life, I thought I’d celebrate a few in mine. When […]
Cindy and Lynn: We had so much fun giving out last year’s 2017 Bookends Awards, this year we’re announcing a new batch for 2018’s publications! We’re not talking about Newbery, Caldecott, or Printz Awards; we’ll leave those to the official committees. We’re off to Seattle this week for the 2019 ALA Midwinter Meeting, and we can’t wait to learn who […]
Hip is a bunny who raps super fast, while Hop is a turtle who raps super slow. Apart, their rapping doesn’t catch on with the crowd, and it is only by teaming up that they can grab the attention of the residents of Oldskool county. Hip and Hop in the House! collects both Hip and […]
The box office success of Crazy Rich Asians (the sequel has already been announced!) has the interwebs a-twitter with discussions of how one movie with a fabulous all-Asian cast has increased diverse representation in Hollywood. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, released just two days later on Netflix, features a trio of Korean-American sisters and […]
Sally Green, author of the internationally bestselling Half Bad series, makes her triumphant return with The Smoke Thieves (Viking). The first in a new trilogy, it follows five protagonists—a princess preparing for a political marriage, the soldier she loves, a servant hatching a plot against his prince, a wayward thief, and a young demon hunter risking […]
Every weekday we feature a different review on Booklist Online. These reviews are notable for different reasons—they may be starred, or high-demand, or especially relevant to the current issue’s spotlight. We’ve collected the reviews from July 9–13 below. Monday, July 9 Illegal, by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin, illustrated by Giovanni Rigano Ten-year-old Ebo and his older brother, Kwame, endure a harrowing […]
From Colin Meloy, a musician best known for his work with indie-folk band The Decemberists, and illustrator Nikki McClure comes The Golden Thread (HarperCollins / Balzer+Bray), a folksy biography of the late, great folk musician and activist Pete Seeger. Music was the “golden thread” that tied Seeger to his community and work as an activist, and […]
From author Susan Verde and illustrator Matthew Cordell comes a cheerful ode to the creative-at-heart. With her school talent show approaching, the young protagonist of Rock ‘n’ Roll Soul (Abrams) muses upon the seemingly infinite ways to showcase her musical potential. Will it be through a psychedelic guitar solo, or her very own symphony? Despite the fact that […]
In Melissa Albert’s debut novel, the fine line between reality and fantasy is faintly and discreetly blurred. Seventeen-year-old Alice cannot even pretend to be interested in her grandmother’s famous book depicting a fairy tale land quite apart from her own. All her attention is on her very real life on the road with her mom. […]
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