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1 week ago | 
slj.com | Amanda MacGregor |Karen Jensen
As a children’s book author, I love a good mystery. Which is why, last month, after a Virginia elementary school principal abruptly cancelled my visit by email, with no explanation or interest in rescheduling or paying me, I decided to investigate. It didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out what had happened: a parent had complained because of a social media video I had made celebrating Pride month.
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1 month ago | 
slj.com | Amanda MacGregor |Kara Yorio |Karen Jensen
In this Q&A series, SLJ poses five questions and a request for a book recommendation to a debut YA author. Trisha Tobias shares about Honeysuckle and Bone in this latest installment. In this Q&A series, SLJ poses five questions and a request for a book recommendation to a debut YA author. Trisha Tobias shares about Honeysuckle and Bone in this latest installment. 1. Congrats on your YA debut! How would you describe your book to readers?
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2 months ago | 
slj.com | Emma Smith |Shelley Diaz |Karen Jensen |Molly Beth
. Jan. 2025. 32p. Tr $31.32. ISBN 9781669088622; pap. $9.99. ISBN 9781669088639. COPY ISBN Gr 3-5–A slim, kid-friendly volume on what it was like to be a child growing up on the infamous prison island. Smith takes readers on a tour of Alcatraz Island, focusing more on the families of the guards who lived there rather than on the inmates. In its heyday in the 1930s, there were approximately 60–90 families and 75–100 children living there.
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2 months ago | 
slj.com | Candace Fleming |Shelley Diaz |Karen Jensen |Molly Beth
. Mar. 2025. 160p. Tr $26.99. ISBN 9781546110286. COPY ISBN Gr 3-7–The always versatile Fleming guides kids on a quest to uncover the truth of the Loch Ness monster.
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Feb 8, 2025 | 
slj.com | Kathy Ishizuka |Karen Jensen |Kara Yorio |Jess deCourcy Hinds
Herewith, the topics that drew reader attention in an eventful first week of February 2025. Parse away. School Librarians Celebrated at Sundance Film Festival Screening of Documentary, ‘The Librarians’By Kara YorioThere were tears and standing ovations as librarians, including Martha Hickson and Amanda Jones, watched their stories of fighting against censorship chronicled in the new film. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion. Now More Than Ever.
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Jan 21, 2025 | 
slj.com | Jonathan Hunt |Karen Jensen
After writing two children’s books about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, author Debbie Levy was searching for another story about law to share with kids. She found it—and so much more. The story of the Scopes Trial—which Levy documents in her new book,A Dangerous Idea: The Scopes Trial, the Original Fight over Science in Schools—is one that highlights the debate over free speech, education, science, and religion with larger-than-life characters and less-than-pure motives.
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
slj.com | Karen Jensen
Kwesi and Nana Ruby Learn to Swim (Commeh) ©2025 Bárbara Quintino Picture BooksAndruetto, María Teresa. Clara and the Man with Books in His Window. illus. by Martina Trach. Greystone. Avery, Sean E. Frank’s Red Hat. Walker Australia. Commeh, Kobina. Kwesi and Nana Ruby Learn to Swim. illus. by Bárbara Quintino. Barefoot. Kim, Jihyun. Blue Sky Morning. Floris. Chapter BooksAhn, Angela. The Big Splash. illus. by Julie Kim. Tundra. Middle GradeCurrie, Lindsay. It’s Watching. Delacorte. Mandanna, Sangu.
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
slj.com | Amanda MacGregor |Karen Jensen
by (text) & illus. by Henry Cole . Feb. 2025. 48p. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9781682637333. COPY ISBN PreS-Gr 3–Cole takes readers on a gentle journey via this beautifully illustrated guide to a mighty oak tree’s life. He begins with where this life starts: a blue jay dropping an acorn on the forest floor. Readers follow the tree from acorn to sapling to trunk for over two centuries.
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
slj.com | Karen Jensen
CHICAGO - Rise: A Feminist Book Project for Ages 0-18, a subgroup of the ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table’s Feminist Task Force, announced its Top Ten feminist books for young readers. Rise: A Feminist Book Project for Ages 0-18 recommends well-written and well-illustrated books with significant feminist content for young readers.
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
slj.com | Karen Jensen
These books—which share stories of real and fictional people and animals who have endured wildfires—can provide information and comfort to children and teens. Picture BooksHeadstrong Hallie!: The Story of Hallie Morse Daggett, the First Female “Fire Guard” by Aimee Bissonette. illus. by David Hohn. Sleeping Bear. ISBN 9781534110618.
