Abby the Librarian

Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass. (Grades 5-8.) Life changes for Jeremy Fink when, a month before his thirteenth birthda...

The Naked Mole-Rat Letters by Mary Amato. (Grades 4-7.) Frankie can't believe that her dad went on a date. Not only a date, a secret ...

All the Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Downing Hahn. (Grades 4-8.) Travis and his sister Corey aren't the most well-behaved children in the ...

Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman. (Grades 4+) Okay, so you knew about Rosa Parks. But did you...

Crossing the Wire by Will Hobbs. (Grades 5-8.) Ever since his father died, Victor Flores has been the man of the house. He plants and sel...

The Thing About Georgie by Lisa Graff. (Grades 4-6.) The thing about Georgie is that he's a dwarf. The thing about Georgie's mom ...

The White Giraffe by Lauren St. John. (Grades 4-6.) When 11-year-old Martine's parents are killed in a house fire, she's shipped ...

My sources just texted me (thanks, J*!) and I'm happy to announce the winners of the 2009 Monarch Award and Rebecca Caudill Award . Th...

A Small White Scar by K.A. Nuzum. (Grades 5-8) Ever since Will's mom died, Will's been the one to look out for his feeble-minded ...

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis. (Grades 4-7) I listened to the audio recording of this one on my way back from Sp...

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt. (Grades 5-8.) This is more of a plot summary than a review, but here's what I wrote after read...

The Mozart Question by Michael Morpurgo, illustrated by Michael Foreman. (Grades 5+) A young journalist has an unexpected assignment: to ...

Shark Girl by Kelly L. Bingham. (Grades 7+) Shark Girl may be the easiest book to booktalk ever. I mean, who doesn't want to read a ...

Shooting the Moon by Frances O'Roark Dowell. (Grades 5-8.) The Vietnam War seems to be a popular topic on the Caudill lists lately. T...

Woohoo! The 2010 Rebecca Caudill Master List has been posted!! (Link opens a PDF.) This looks to be another great list and I can't wait...

Looking for the 2010 Rebecca Caudill nominees? Go here ! I was right about three of my predictions! - AtL, Feb. 4, 2009 Predictions for the ...

Heat by Mike Lupica. (Grades 4-8) Twelve-year-old Michael Arroyo has had one dream since before he came over to America on the boat from Cu...

Project Mulberry by Linda Sue Park. (Grades 4-7) Julia and Patrick have been best friends ever since Julia moved to Plainfield several year...

The Lightning Thief by Percy Jackson. (Grades 4-8) In this twist on Greek mythology, Percy Jackson discovers that he is a demigod, son of P...

One of my colleagues is at the Children's Literature Conference at NIU as I speak and he just texted us the results of the 2008 Rebecca ...