Cindy: My Indiana Hoosiers will not be making a lot of noise in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament—you have to actually be in the tournament to do that. Without a real horse in the race, I won’t have to watch quite as closely this year, which gives me more time for basketball-themed reading. Bookends followers […]
Lynn: All of you that work in the youth-book world will understand when I tell you that the number of adult books on my personal to-read list is in the hundreds. Yup—SO many enticing “grown-up” books and NO time to read them. Still, I keep putting them on my list. This year, a series opener […]
Lynn: In Carolyn O’Doherty’s Rewind (2018), some people, known as Spinners, are born with the ability to freeze and rewind time. The general public fears the Spinners, but their unique abilities are perfect for solving crimes. Law enforcement agents take babies with this talent from their parents and bring them to training centers where they live […]
Cindy: Along with one of the best book covers of the year and a moving book trailer from Scholastic, Refugee (2017) by Alan Gratz is a current favorite with my middle-school students and teachers. In this historical novel, three young refugees from three different time periods and countries alternate telling their stories. Josef, from Hitler’s […]
Lynn: Looking for a heart-thumping thriller? Anne Sibley O’Brien’s In the Shadow of the Sun (2017) was already a great choice, but then the political situation with North Korea got even worse, heightening its timeliness and intensity. Twelve-year-old Mia Andrews and her surly older brother Simon—who we learn has been “mad since August”—are touring North […]
Lynn: Sentient pigs, Ludwig II, hot air balloons, and steampunk may sound like unusual elements for a graphic novel, but the results are high-flying fun for middle-school readers! Take a look. Castle in the Stars: The Space Race of 1869 (2017) by Alex Alice is a gorgeous, action-packed adventure with enough gadgets to make Jules Verne […]
Lynn: Cecil Castellucci’s new graphic novel, Soupy Leaves Home (2017), offers a terrific way to absorb some fascinating history. Set during the Great Depression, it tells the compelling story of Pearl, a young girl who runs away from her abusive father. Desperately unhappy and with nowhere to go, she decides to disguise herself as a boy […]
Lynn: Frances Hardinge is a spinner of words and worlds who makes magic with language. I am always so blown away by her writing that my copies of her books grow soggy with highlighted phrases. A Face Like Glass (2017) is Hardinge’s latest book to arrive in the U.S., although it was first published in England […]
Lynn: Being a reviewer and blogger is the best job ever, but there are a few drawbacks. We get so many books (I know, tough problem, right?), and keeping up can be challenging. What often happens is that sometimes later books in series get postponed till. . . well, later, and sometimes never. So it says […]
Lynn: I need to start this post about Eyes of the World: Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and the Invention of Modern Photojournalism (2017) with a disclaimer: Cindy and I had the privilege of watching part of this book’s creation. Marc Aronson shared some of his early ideas with us when we all spoke at a conference […]
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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