Aretha Franklin has died. In her lifetime, the musical giant inspired a trove of books about or inspired by her outsized legacy. In tribute, we offer this bibliography of recommended titles linked to their excerpted Booklist reviews—a small fraction of the books in which Franklin appears as a key figure in Black history, Civil […]
When the amazing cover for the new story collection from Kevin Wilson (of Family Fang fame) popped up in my Twitter feed, I did a double take: as arresting as it is, I could have sworn I’d seen something like it before. Then it occurred to me: Hanif Abdurraqib’s They Can’t Kill Us until They Kill […]
Last month, Paramount announced a feature-length adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” a famously chilling short story that featured a sacrificial lottery, children-on-children violence, and a cruel, opaque government 60 years before the The Hunger Games. This marks the fourth time the tale has been made into a movie; the penultimate time, NBC cast Keri Russell […]
Cindy: We recently discovered two stunning picture books, both from small presses, featuring jungle animals and stories that read like modern folktales. One is Lantana Press’ You’re Safe With Me (2018), by Chitra Soundar & Poonam Mistry. Thank you, Lerner, for distributing this gorgeous picture book in the U. S. and Canada. I was drawn […]
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 August 6–10 below. Monday, August 6 The Witch Elm, by Tana French French, author of the award-winning Dublin Murder Squad series, delivers a spellbinding […]
Lynn: Veera Hiranandani puts the well-loved structure of the fictional diary to exquisite use in her latest novel. InThe Night Diary (2018), 12-year-old Nisha receives a diary as a birthday gift from Kazi, the family servant who has raised and cared for Nisha and her twin brother after their mother died giving birth to them. Nisha […]
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before starts streaming on Netflix on August 17. The film—whose trailer (above) has accrued more than four million views at the time of this writing—began as a 2015 novel from Jenny Han, which imbues a night-sweat inducing scenario (all your secret crushes find out!) with humor, charm, and swoon-worthy romance. […]
The ominous disappearance of a 13-year-old girl from an English village is the catalyst for Jon McGregor’s remarkable novel in linked stories, The Reservoir Tapes, originally broadcast on the BBC and out this week in the U. S. from Catapult. I talked with him about writing for radio, village life, and fascination. MICHAEL CART: Would you describe […]
The following books, published this week, received starred reviews in Booklist. Want to read our starred reviews before the books go on sale? Subscribe to Booklist! Adult Fiction Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine, by Kevin Wilson Belleweather, by Susanna Kearsley The Bouncer, by David Gordon Conscience, by Alice Mattison The Court Dancer, by Kyung-Sook Shin The Distance Home, by Paula Saunders If You […]
Cindy: I’ve been fascinated by the Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi ever since I read Susan Vreeland’s novel, The Passion of Artemisia (2002), while serving on the Best Books for Young Adults YALSA committee when it still included adult books in its charge. When I learned about the new debut YA novel Blood Water Paint (2018) […]
Encouraging Middle-Schoolers to Choose Books
There’s been a lot of discussion among the librarians I know about what to do with middle-schoolers: they just don’t seem to read as much as they used to. I know that here in Chicago, we have a unique perspective on this situation, since our schools run K–8. In my former school system in Maryland […]
Getting Started with the Global Read Aloud
The 2017 Global Read Aloud kicked off yesterday, and I’m here to help. Author and educator Pernille Ripp founded the program as a way to connect students and teachers from different locales around the topics of books. (Think One Book One School or One Book One City, but on a global scale.) Each year, Ripp […]
TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: Practice Recognizing Fake News
Cindy: There have been a number of YA fiction books with the title “Two Truths and a Lie,” but we’ve found a creative, informational book for middle-grade students that reinforces evaluating information for truth. Fake news, anyone? Two Truths and a Lie: It’s Alive (2017) by Ammi-Joan Paquette and Laurie Ann Thompson is the first […]
Encouraging Middle-Schoolers to Choose Books
There’s been a lot of discussion among the librarians I know about what to do with middle-schoolers: they just don’t seem to read as much as they used to. I know that here in Chicago, we have a unique perspective on this situation, since our schools run K–8. In my former school system in Maryland […]
Getting Started with the Global Read Aloud
The 2017 Global Read Aloud kicked off yesterday, and I’m here to help. Author and educator Pernille Ripp founded the program as a way to connect students and teachers from different locales around the topics of books. (Think One Book One School or One Book One City, but on a global scale.) Each year, Ripp […]
TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: Practice Recognizing Fake News
Cindy: There have been a number of YA fiction books with the title “Two Truths and a Lie,” but we’ve found a creative, informational book for middle-grade students that reinforces evaluating information for truth. Fake news, anyone? Two Truths and a Lie: It’s Alive (2017) by Ammi-Joan Paquette and Laurie Ann Thompson is the first […]
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