The coveted national book awards have just been announced! The Caldecott medal winner (which is awarded to the best of the picture books) is “A Ball For Daisy”, by Chris Raschka.  And the honor winners (which are the runners-up) are “Blackout”, by John Rocco, “Grandpa Green”, by Lane Smith and “Me…Jane”, by Patrick McDonnell.  The [...]

The renowned Newbery and Caldecott awards were announced last week and here are the Newbery winners: Medal winner – Moon Over Manifest, by Claire Vanderpool; Honor awards – Turtle in Paradise, by Jennifer L. Holm, Heart of a Samurai, by Margi Preus, Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night,  by Joyce Sidman, and illustrated [...]

The Newbery and Caldecott Awards were just announced.  I’ve been discussing in my various school presentations the books that I thought would be winners. Well, “When You Reach Me”, by Rebecca Stead, actually won the medal award! I also picked one of the Caldecott awards, “Red Sings From Treetops: A Year in Colors”, illustrated by [...]

Last year was a terrific year for great books and I’ve listed my top favorites of the many books I reviewed during the year.  All of these would be great to read aloud and all but the first two books are geared for ages 9 and up. The first two books are geared for ages [...]

The Newbery awards were just announced and the winner is:   The Graveyard Book , by Neil Gaiman.   The Honor Books are:   The Underneath , by Kathi Appelt; The Surrender Tree:   Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom , by Margarita Engle; Savy , by Ingrid Law; and [...]

Here is my annual “best of the best” list from 2008.   The first 11 books are geared for ages nine and up.   The last four are my top picture books of the year.
We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball , written and illustrated by Kadir Nelson, is an oversized [...]

School is ending and it’s time to celebrate the summer season by reading for enjoyment and not because it’s an assignment.   Here is a list of my favorite great books reviewed during this past school year:
I’ll begin with my favorite books geared for ages nine through adult.   The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by [...]

I’ve just compiled my annual list of favorite books from 2007!   Even though I only review the best books every week, I still develop my top favorites because they are so good.   Most of these books have inspiring messages within them.
I’ll begin with picture books that are great for all ages .   [...]