Rick Ollerman remembers the spinning racks of paperback novels and their vivid painted covers. Men with chins like fists and fists like bludgeons, and always a gun in somebody’s hand. And the titles! Time Enough to Die; Devil on Two Sticks; One for Hell. “I was drawn to them because they were colorful,” Ollerman says […]
Lynn: Charlie Tickler’s awful parents dump him wherever and whenever they can to go off and save an animal. This time around, it’s the Golden Mole, and Charlie is stuck with his TV-obsessed grandparents in the village of Castle-on-the-Hudson, the home of a famous school for the deaf. “Why have a nanny when there are grandparents […]
Cindy: A pair of recent Southern historical mysteries raises the issue of racism. I read the first, Bobby Lee Claremont and the Criminal Element (2018) by Jeannie Mobley, on a recent destination wedding trip to New Orleans. I like coordinating book settings with my travel, and I was on deadline for Booklist’s #MysteryMonth, so this novel […]
Lynn: Maureen Johnson sets her latest mystery, Truly Devious (2018), at Ellingham Academy, a unique private school in Vermont where all the students have a “spark.” “If interested,” reads the school literature, “[just] get in touch.” Ellingham Academy is famous for more than its unique approach to education: It is the site of a famous, unsolved 1936 kidnapping […]
Title: Mindhunter Starring: Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, Hannah Gross, Anna Torv, Cotter Smith; featuring Sonny Valicenti First Aired: 2017 Where you can watch it: Netflix (a second season is currently in production) By 1977, crucial things had changed about postwar American life: decor had taken a turn towards wood paneling, and a […]
Lynn: Many mystery fans will happily follow the trail of a good mystery into a wide variety of other genres. Mystery and fantasy fans take note: Makiia Lucier’s Isle of Blood and Stone (2018) is right up your dark alley! In the prologue, we learn of the tragedy that has befallen the island nation St. […]
A week from now, Booklist will embark on our most exciting ritual: Mystery Month! This year marks the ninth annual, month-long celebration of all things mysterious. This Thursday, April 26, we’ll host the first of two Mystery Month webinars at 1pm CST. Annie Bostrom, Booklist’s associate editor of adult books, will preview forthcoming mysteries, thrillers, and espionage […]
On Saturday, March 17, more than 30 crime writers will highlight the second-annual Murder and Mayhem in Chicago conference, showing off the varied landscape of the Midwestern murder mystery. The Midwest is a hotbed of crime. It’s not necessarily that our region is more criminal than others, or that more terrible things happen here, […]
Lynn: Well, Brian Selznick has done it again: reinvented a format, that is. This time, it’s a whole new incarnation of an early chapter book, and what a delight it is! Selznick and David Serlin’s enchanting Baby Monkey, Private Eye (2018) has 192 pages—long for the format, but in these innovative hands, it works so […]
This weeks BTT features Maureen Johnson’s Truly Devious (HarperCollins / Katherine Tegen), a novel for teens described by one Booklist reviewer as a “suspenseful, attention-grabbing mystery.” True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell begins her first year at the prestigious Ellington Academy intending to solve the 1930s kidnapping (and presumed murder) of the proprietor’s wife and daughter. Unhindered […]
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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