Children's Literature Reviews

The following book review sources are meant to help teachers, students, parents and librarians find and consult book reviews as an aid to book selection and scholarship. The following sources provide reviews written by teachers, librarians, scholars, parents and children. If you are interested in book reviewing, many of these sources provide opportunities. This list also includes sites where children's books have been digitized for use by teachers and scholars.

Featured SDSU Site: Book Reviews at the Children's Literature Program @ SDSU. A. Allison, ed. The Children's Literature Program @ SDSU

Sources

The ALAN Review. Electronic Archive of Past Issues. P. S. Carroll, ed.Urbana, Il: ALAN, The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE, the National Council of Teachers of English.
Signed reviews of new young adult fiction and non-fiction books. Reviews include curricular thematic tie-ins. The ALAN Review also includes author interviews and articles on young adult literature research and instruction. Searchable online version. ALAN Award recipients listed here and at the ALAN website.

Barahona Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents - Recommended Books in Spanish. L.G. Algazi, N. Diamond, et al. eds. CA: , California State University San Marcos.
Comprehensive search pages facilitate book searches. Users can search for brief signed reviews of books that have appeared in Isabel Schon's editions of Books in Spanish for Children, Recommended Books in Spanish for Children and Young Adults, and Best of the Latino Heritage: A Guide to the Best Juvenile Books about Latino People and Cultures. Listings of the Caldecott & Newbery Medal winners that have been translated into Spanishat the Baharona Center website.

Bookbird. E. B. Freeman, B. A. Lehman, L. Ratcheva-Stratieva and P. L. Scharer. Madrid, Spain : Instituto Nacional del Libro Español, The International Board on Books for Young People. The editors, along with the editorial review board and guest reviewers, review international children’s books. The journal also features articles that are centered on international themes, interests and author and illustrator profiles. IBBY awards the Hans Christian Andersen Award.

Book Links. L. Tillotson, ed. Chicago, Il: ALA, Booklist Publications.
Offers unsigned annotated bibliographies of children’s books that relate to the issues theme. Each issue focuses on a particular core curriculum area. Author and illustrator interviews and essays, and suggested activities are also provided.

Booklist. B. Ott, ed. Chicago, Ill: American Library Association. Search for Reviews will help you find reviews quickly and easily. Reviews of children’s books,electronic sources and reference materials are included. To search for articles, author interviews and related essays, SDSU students, faculty and staff may consult the online SDSU subscription to Booklist.

Book Reviews at the Children's Literature Program. A. Allison, ed. The Children's Literature Program @ SDSU at San Diego State University. Signed reviews of children's books and young adult books. Books are reviewed by faculty and students associated with the Children's Literature Program at San Diego State University. Reviews within issues are organized according to genre. Includes archived reviews.

The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books. D. Stevenson, ed. Ill: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Graduate School of Library and Information Science.
Signed critical reviews of current children’s books. The books are reviewed by library professionals and professors. Each review contains suggested reading levels and curricular uses.
Current reviews and review archives. Blue ribbons listings for best books.

Children’s Book Council Reading Lists. The Children's Book Council. The Children's Book Council, Inc. is the nonprofit trade association of publishers and packagers of trade books and related materials for children and young adults.The CBC supports bibliographic projects used by booksellers, teachers, librarians, and parents, and co-sponsors educational programs for children's literature professionals.

Children's Book Review Index (CBRI). Ferguson, D. ed. Detroit, MI: Gale. Beginning in 1965 and continuing to be updated, this source indexes reviews of thousands of children's books, periodicals devoted to children's literature,and some media based on books. Contents are extracted from Book Review Index.

Children’s Choices, Teacher's Choices, and Young Adult's Choices. Newark, DE: International Reading Association and the Children’s Book Council. Books voted on by children, teachers and young adults with the assistance of library specialists. Each list is for the previous year. Annotated bibliographies are provided by a review team. Reading level also provided. A print version of every list is available every year in the October issue of IRA’s journal The Reading Teacher. Older book list compilations of Children's Choices are available in More Kids Favorite Books, 1992-1994.Older lists of Teachers Choices are available in in More Teachers Favorite Books for Kids: Teacher' Choices 1994-1996 and in Teachers Favorite Books for Kids, 1989-1993. Annotated bibliographies of young adult books that have been voted on by young adults. Only books that have received at least two positive reviews by recognized sources are eligible. These bibliographies also appear in the November issue of IRA’s Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. Older book list compilations are available More Teens’ Favorite Books: Young Adults’ Choices 1993-1995. Also, available in the November issue of IRA’s Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy.

Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database.. In addition to 900,000+ annotated listings of books, the database includes "130,000 critical reviews of thousands of children's books, ranging from the earliest baby board books to novels and nonfiction for young adults." Selected from 25 reviewing organizations, about 1500 new reviews are added monthly. (Off-campus searching available with SDSU identification number).

The Children's Literature Program @ San Diego State University. Reviews. Allison, A. ed. CA: San Diego State University.
Check out information about the Children's Literature Program in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at San Diego State University on this page. Scroll down a little to see a link to book reviews. Presents signed and unsigned critical reviews of children’s, young adult’s and teacher resource books. Most reviews are written by faculty and select students.

The Horn Book Guide. Flynn, K. The Horn Book Inc. This print source includes signed critical reviews of hardcover trade children’s books published in the United States not appearing in The Horn Book Magazine. Gives a rating from one to five and a suggested reading level. Includes a subject index

The Horn Book Magazine. Sutton, R. ed. The Horn Book Inc.
Signed reviews of the best children’s and young adult books. Reviews appearing in the magazine are for those books submitted and judged to be the best by Horn Book reviewers. Reviews for books that don't make it into the magazine appear in the Horn Book Guide (see above listing). Include suggested reading level. Author articles and editorials to help professionals keep current in children’s literature field.

International Children's Digital Library. A Project of the University of Maryland.
Digitized, full-text children's books published in many countries and in many languages. The International Children's Digital Library (ICDL) is a five-year project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to create a digital library of international children's books. This database will be a collection of more than 10,000 books in at least 100 languages that is freely available to children, teachers, librarians, parents, and scholars throughout the world via the Internet.

Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. Goodson, T. DE: International Reading Association.
Offers signed critical reviews of new young adult books and student and teacher resources. Includes author interviews and articles which offer “class-room tested advice grounded in research and theory.”
Audience: Teachers of adolescents and adult learners.

KIRKUS Reviews. Breen, K., Children’s Editor. NY: KIRKUS Service, Inc.
Offers critical unsigned reviews of books with one section dedicated to children’s books. Reviewers selected based on their knowledge in their particular fields. Helpful for “librarians, publishers, agents, booksellers, and the story departments of major movie and television studios.”

Literature for Children. A State University System of Florida PALMM Project.
Digitized full-text collection of children's literature published largely in the United States and Great Britain from before 1850 to beyond 1950. Especially useful for researchers of historical children's literature, the collection comprises books from the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature, housed in the Department of Special Collections and Area Studies at the University of Florida. Also included are books from the Departments of Special Collections at the Florida Atlantic University, Florida State University, and the University of South Florida. The project is supported by by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

The New York Times Book Review. NY: New York Times Co.
Signed critical reviews of books with one section dedicated to children’s books.
Online with free registration.

Publisher’s Weekly. Rawlinson, N. ed. NY: R.R. Bowker Co.
Offers signed critical reviews of books including children’s and young adult books. Provides book news, industry data and statistics. For bookstores, librarians, publishers, studio executives, and movie studio executives.

Recommended Literature: Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve
CDE Staff, Lott, D. & Wheeler, M. CA: California Department of Education.
Free online source. Recommended books for children and adolescents selected by children’s school and public librarians, teachers, parents, administrators and curriculum planners, and college professors. Users can search for books based on grade level, language, culture, genre, classification, curriculum connection and awards received. Print version of Recommended Literature: Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve with database contents available in the library's reference section.

School Library Journal. St. Lifer, E. ed. NY: R.R. Bowker Co.
Signed critical reviews of new general trade and paperback books, web sites, videos, and audio materials for children and young adults. Reviews provided by current children’s and young adult librarians and children’s literature educators. Book purchase information and library management information provided. Some access to archived and current reviews of SLJ's Book of the Week and omnibus themed review articles.

Science Books and Films. Sosa, M. ed. Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Offers signed critical reviews of print and non-print materials for all ages in all the sciences. Reviewed by professionals in the area of science, educators and librarians. Another source for review of science books is Appraisal: Science Books for Young People.

Spaghetti Book Club. Founder: Julie Rosemarin. The Spaghetti Book Club
This is a good source of reviews written by select children. The Spaghetti Book Club is a curriculum project schools may join. The project curriculum leads students to meet language arts standards through the process of reading books and writing book reviews. Once the project is complete, the children's signed reviews are added to the Spaghetti Book Club site.

VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates) MacRae, C.D. ed. MD: Scarecrow Press.
Offers signed critical reviews of books for young adults divided in literature categories and reviewed by grade level interest, popularity, and strength of writing. Source also reviews graphic novels, videos, websites, and audiobooks for young adults. Interested in becoming a reviewer of young adult books? This is a great place to start! A reviewer application form is available online at http://www.voya.com/

Young Adults’ Choices MD: International Reading Association.
Annotated bibliographies of young adult books that have been voted on by young adults. Only books that have received at least two positive reviews by recognized sources are eligible. These bibliographies also appear in the November issue of IRA’s Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. Older book list compilations are available More Teens’ Favorite Books: Young Adults’ Choices 1993-1995. Also, available in the November issue of IRA’s Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy.

Search This Site

Send Feedback

This page http://infodome.sdsu.edu/research/guides/clreviews.shtml is maintained by Linda Salem. Please use our Feedback Form for your questions, comments, and suggestions.

File saved 08/03/07 10:15 PDT