Category: Book Reviews

Reader’s Advisory – Young Adult: The Booklist Reader

Leave a comment

The Booklist Reader blog was in our course document as a Collection Development resource, but I also thought it would be a great resource for Reader’s Advisory. It’s a great site, as it is very current for a book review blog, and it is written by two YA librarians who really know their stuff!

I think this blog would be a great way of generating recommendations for Young Adults, especially because they do a lot of posts on trends and subjects. For example, they had one in March on March Madness, which highlighted YA books about basketball (a great reluctant reader subject!).

image

I also like how they do “Cover Trends” posts, which feature books with similar covers. For a reader who doesn’t know exactly what they want to read next, a cover similar to something they’ve responded to positively in the past could be a great starting off point! Chances are, the publishers know what they’re doing and it really is a similar read.

Cindy and Lynn also do their own “Best Of” lists, and annual “Book Awards” with really fun, unconventional award topics such as “The Book that Had the Most Holds at One Time (even before the author appeared on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah).”

Reader’s Advisory – Young Adult: The Booklist Reader

Collection Development for Early Childhood – Board Book Buzz | Editors’ Picks

Leave a comment
image

When I was researching resources for early childhood collective development, I was excited to come across this annotated list (published by School Library Journal), of 50 “buzz-worthy” board books.  It was published in July 2017, so includes primarily titles for babies, toddlers, and preschool readers that just came out in the past year.

After working in the Strand Book Store’s Children’s Department, I know just how particular parents can be about picking books out for even the littlest readers! Parents and educators look for books on a variety of topics: feelings,  animals, New York City, opposites, colors, counting… the list goes on. Interactivity (such as lift-the-flap and textures), as well as how the book reads (does it rhyme? can you sing it? is it bilingual?) are also super important factors to consider.

Which is why this list is great – the ‘annotations’ give a small summary of the book’s topic or theme, the suggested age, as well as info on how it reads and any special features! (such as this one that uses actual Picasso sketches to teach animal recognition). Also, it features books by diverse authors, as well as several bilingual choices. I think this collection of board books would be an excellent resource for anyone wanting to build a current early childhood library collection.

Collection Development for Early Childhood – Board Book Buzz | Editors’ Picks