Each fall, the SLJ editors and contributors look back over the entire publishing year, painstakingly discussing and debating the merits of notable and noteworthy books, DVDs, audiobooks, apps, and more. Featured in the December issue, the Best Books and Top 10 lists represent the cream of the crop of materials for children and teens published […]
What Are the Best Books of 2015…So Far?
Sure, it’s only July, but the SLJ review editors are already starting to think about the December issue, aka our Best Books issue. We typically start with our long list of starred reviews (though we do maintain the prerogative of “besting” titles we didn’t star) and whittle it down from there. So, what have been your […]
Up for Discussion: When Is It Okay to Mention “Diversity” in a Review?
We know that publishing at large and children’s publishing in particular is (yes, still) woefully white-washed. There have been tremendous strides made in the last year as a result of the We Need Diverse Books campaign. In fact, our first ever Reviewer Survey was a part of an effort on behalf of this magazine to take […]
What are your favorite chapter book read alouds?
A few years back we asked our readers what their go-to picture books were for the first day of school. We heard from both librarians and teachers who shared their favorite read-alouds, and often, their reasons for selecting the book(s). Their choices revealed some new and surprising titles. For SLJ’s upcoming Back-to-School issue we were […]
Calling All Star Wars Nerds!
Is the Force strong in you? We’ve got the new Star Wars titles by Alexandra Bracken, Tom Angleberger, and Adam Gidwitz. Not only are we looking for a few good Jedi Masters to read and review these titles, but we’re thinking about doing a broader Star Wars roundup sometime in October. If you know […]