Smith, Pauline Vaeluaga. Dawn Raid. Fiction. Levine Querido, 03/2021. 217pp. $17.99. 978-1-64614-041-1. OUTSTANDING. GRADES 4-7. Sofia, whose father is Maori and mother is white, is intrigued by her older brother’s involvement with the Polynesian Panthers [continue reading]
Beatty Award Announced
Land of Cranes Wins Beatty Award: The Land of the Cranes, written by Aida Salazar and published by Scholastic Press, has been selected as the 2021 recipient of the California Library Association’s John and Patricia [continue reading]
OUTSTANDING! – March 2021
Each month we post an annotated bibliography of books that were rated ‘Outstanding’ at our previous month’s meeting and nominated for our year-end Distinguished List. Members can see full reviews of these books and many [continue reading]
Special ACL Meeting Friday, April 9, 9:00-11:00am
Special ACL Meeting Friday, April 9, 2021, 9:00-11:00am for Mosaic Project training. This Oakland nonprofit provides anti-racism training to “build a more peaceful future by uniting people of diverse background.” This will be the first [continue reading]
Gone to the Woods Review
Paulsen, Gary. Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood. Biog. Farrar, 01/2021. 357pp. $17.99. 978-0-374-31415-6. OUTSTANDING. GRADES 7-12. Gary Paulsen, author of Hatchet (Atheneum, 1987), offers this unusual episodic memoir written in third person [continue reading]
Author Beverly Cleary Dies
Award-winning author Beverly Cleary has died at age 104 on March 25, 2021 at home in Carmel Valley, California. Best known for the “Beezus and Ramona” books, as well as Newbery Medal winner Dear Mr. [continue reading]
Spring Board Book Round-up
SPRING BOARD BOOK ROUND-UP New Original Board Books Borando, Silvia. Black Cat, White Cat. Candlewick, 12/2020. [36p.] $8.99. 978-5362-1603-5. Black cat only goes out during the day, and White cat only goes out at [continue reading]
Elatsoe Review
Little Badger, Darcie. Elatsoe. Rovina Cai, Illus. Fiction. Levine Querido, 08/2020. 368pp. $18.99. 978-1-64614-005-3. OUTSTANDING. GRADES 7-12. Ellie is a Lipan Apache teen with the hereditary gift of raising spirits, but primarily the spirit of [continue reading]