Thank You to Great Kid Books!

Last fall 5 children’s library bloggers generously donated their time and blogs to help promote the new Bell Awards by talking about books they liked for each of the five Bell Award categories. This week I’m finally posting my belated thanks. Each day I will highlight one of the great blogs from the tour, link to what they wrote for the tour, as well as some posts I like from each blog.

Mary Ann is a reviewer extroardinaire at Great Kid Books, and wrote a post about her picks for the talk category.

If you’re wrestling with learning more about Common Core so you can better serve your patrons, check out her practical series Common Core IRL, which not just recommends strong titles, but links them specifically to the actual Common Core standards statements, which I find very helpful.

Mary Ann’s book reviews are always thoughtful, and reference her experiences sharing them with the students at her elementary school library. I especially appreciate when she links to further resources that give me a better context for my own assessment of the title, like she does in this review of Phillip Pullman’s Tales from the Brothers Grimm.

This past year Mary Ann served as the Book Apps Chair for the 2014 Cybils awards, and she posted the finalists on her blog earlier this month. I am always grateful for knowledgeable app reviews, and if you’re the same way, read the more in-depth reviews of each finalist under the Cybils 2013 tag on her blog!

Thank you, Mary Ann!