
Teen Librarian Toolbox
October 8, 2021 by Betsy Bird
Chunky doesn’t really look or act like any of the other comics out there today. It’s good-natured, peppy, dealing with some serious issues but with a light hand.
March 31, 2021 by Betsy Bird
A smartly plotted dip into the Gullah-Geechee culture of early 60s rural South Carolina, this book weaves family, history, and spooky stuff together like a braid.
March 12, 2021 by Betsy Bird
Funny and smart, with a sly sense of humor that’s entirely its own, prepare for a series that you’ll want to see much more of in the future.
January 14, 2021 by Betsy Bird
From what I can tell, this title is going to make a lot of kids into fans of exciting works of history. That is, if they can wrench this book away from their grown-ups. Because if there’s one thing I know, an enticing unsolved mystery is good but a fantastically rendered unsolved mystery is irresistible.
October 6, 2020 by Betsy Bird
A book that shows in the most eloquent way possible how family trauma lives on, from generation to generation, taking shape, forming us one way or another. The elements that make a great novel for children aren’t difficult to understand. Hanna Alkaf has laid them out for you.
July 29, 2020 by Betsy Bird
Gorgeously wrought and tenderly rendered, this feels like a labor of love that will snuggle itself deep into the hearts and minds of kids everywhere. Regardless of whether or not you even like cats, you will find much to admire and love (not necessarily in that order) in this gutsy little book.
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July 9, 2020 by Betsy Bird
The true story of the man responsible for keeping key American documents out of the hands of the invading British in 1812. A book about the rescue of ideas put to paper.
March 4, 2020 by Betsy Bird
I've read snail picture books before, but few have plumbed their humor quite as well as Tabor has in "Snail Crossing". Less a story of persistence than a lesson in karma, this may well be the first snail-adjacent picture book that has ever made me AND my kids laugh out loud for long periods of time. I can think of not better praise than that.
October 5, 2019 by Betsy Bird
You know why you haven’t heard more people talking about this book? Because nobody knows how to sell it. Well, sorry folks, but the secret is out now. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read for kids, and maybe the best school rated children’s novel I’ve encountered period. This, right here, is the book of our times.
September 12, 2019 by Betsy Bird
Set in contemporary Seattle with a Suquamish/Duwamish protagonist, Day (Upper Skagit) highlights a historical injustice by writing a book a kid might actually enjoy reading. No mean task. I think I may have devoured it entirely in one sitting.
Teen Librarian Toolbox
by Amanda MacGregor
The Classroom Bookshelf
by Denise Davila
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