Tag archives: book lists

Friday, 5 May 2017

Books for children and young people – sources of information, recommendations, reviews and lists

IMG_4114I’m often asked how to find out about good children’s and teenage books. Here are links to websites and journals that I find particularly useful.

All these are valuable sources of book reviews, and each also has interesting articles about the wider children’s book world: Books for Keeps, School Librarian, Carousel Guide to Children’s Books and Armadillo Magazine. (I should perhaps point out that write reviews for both Armadillo and School Librarian.)

Book Trust is an invaluable source of information about books for children and teenagers. I find their Book Finder extremely helpful.

I’m also a big fan of the Scottish Book Trust. Their themed children’s booklists are excellent, as are their lists of books for teenagers.

Love Reading 4 Kids and Love Reading 4 Schools have good lists and recommendations.

Schools library services, for those lucky enough to have one nearby (find out from this list), have wonderful book knowledge and huge expertise in providing book collections geared to individual schools’ curriculum needs.

School librarians are supremely knowledgeable about good books to enthuse students about reading and to support the curriculum.

For those working in the primary sector Core Books Online contains well curated booklists and information.

Books for Topics is great for anyone seeking ideas for books to support primary curriculum topics.

Letterbox Library is a fantastic source of inclusive books. Their themed booklists are exceptionally useful.

Books can be of great therapeutic value. Healthy Books provides themed lists of children’s books on specific emotional and physical needs.

The Federation of Children’s Book Groups has lists on a variety of themes.

I recommend the School Library Association Riveting Reads. I’m proud to have contributed in a tiny way to the latest one, A World of Books in Translation.

It’s worth keeping an eye on book award winners. IBBY UK has a useful overview of major national and international prizes. The Heart of the School site has another valuable list, including local book awards.

Finally, I find Twitter enormously helpful for keeping up to date. Almost all of the sites and organisations I’ve listed have good Twitter feeds. The book review page on my website contains a book bite section, with book items that have caught my attention on Twitter, or that I have tweeted about.

Saturday, 12 November 2011

Recommended books for early years

Worth looking at this list of top thirty books for babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers on the Made for Mums website. Lots of wonderful books on it – and lots of room for debate informally and in groups about what books other
people would include.

The photo says all that needs to be said about what good picture books offer. Such lovely shared absorption here.

Monday, 13 June 2011

Books for children dealing with difficult situations

I have just had an email asking for information about books for children and young people who are dealing with very challenging situations. It occurs to me that lots of people might find these websites useful (the first two are UK sites, the last a US one):

Good Books for Tough Times
Healthy Books
Best Children’s Books: Bibliotherapy

All the sites provide lists of books under relevant headings. These are some of the headings in Healthy Books, for example:

Adoption/Fostering/Care
Behavioural problems
Bullying/Violence
Child abuse
Death and loss
Divorce/Separation
Eating problems/Obesity
Family relationships
Fears/Worries
Feelings/Emotions
Health problems and disabilities
Homelessness/Refugees/Immigration
Self-esteem/Being different