Outstanding Books of the Month – April 2024 Each month we post an annotated bibliography of books that were rated ‘Outstanding’ at our previous meeting and nominated for our year-end Distinguished List. You can see [continue reading]
April 2024
Teachers Storytime – Revised
Teachers Storytime – Revised Teachers are a great topic for a community helper storytime, since most young children know what a teacher does even if they haven’t started school yet. For a craft project, [continue reading]
Princess Storytime – Revised
Princess Storytime – Revised Many picture books feature strong, independent princesses, which is a great theme for a storytime! For a craft project, make cardboard crowns or popsicle stick wands: 22 Charming Princess [continue reading]
Programming Ideas: “Read, Renew, Repeat”
Programming Ideas: “Read, Renew, Repeat” Summer Reading Program The California Library Association offers free resources for a summer reading program each year. With a focus on Building Equity-Based Summers: iREAD Summer Resource Guides – California [continue reading]
Exclusion and the Chinese American Story Review
Blackburn, Sarah-SoonLing. Exclusion and the Chinese American Story. Race to the Truth. Random House/Crown, 03/2024. 288pp. Nonfiction. Trade $12.99. 978-0-593-56764-7. Paper $8.99. 978-0-593-56763-0. GRADES 5–8. LOW ADDITIONAL. What is the story of Chinese American history told from a Chinese American perspective? In an effort to expand the narrative [continue reading]
Remember This Review
Polak, Monique. Remember This: The Fascinating World of Memory. Valéry Goulet, Illus. Orca, 03/2024. 96pp. Nonfiction. Trade $26.95. 978-1-4598-3412-5. GRADES 5–7. UNSATISFACTORY. Thirteen chapters packed with intriguing information and diverting examples attempt to explain how memories work, what happens in the brain, why some things are [continue reading]
When Forests Burn Review
Marrin, Albert. When Forests Burn: The Story of Wildfire in America. Knopf, 03/2024. 256pp. Nonfiction. Trade $24.99. 978-0-5931-2173-3. GRADES 8–12. HIGH ADDITIONAL. You might think a book about wildfire would start with flames, and it does, but before the story gets going our conversational narrator [continue reading]
Kill Her Twice Review
Lee, Stacey. Kill Her Twice. G.P. Putnam, 04/2024. 400pp. Fiction. Trade $19.99. 978-0-593-53204-1. GRADES 7–12. ADDITIONAL. In 1932 teenaged Gemma Chow, like many Angelenos, burns with a spirit of reinvention, but with her dad ill and her mother expecting, practical matters rule until Gemma, and [continue reading]