Idaho Battle of the Books® Book Club (grades 4-6)
Idaho Battle of the Books® Book Club (grades 4-6) – Saturday, December 16 & January 20 (1 pm)
It’s like sports, but with books! Participate in a fun statewide reading experience by joining a team at the Coeur d’Alene Library. IBOB is a program that brings booklovers together to compete in book-themed trivia competitions that focus on quality literature, comprehension, and teamwork. Registration is required, along with a commitment to join a 4-person team, read at least 4 of the 16 IBOB curated book titles, and attend 1pm book club meetings on the 3rd Saturday of each month from through February. Participants will be expected to attend our library’s competition in March, with the possibility of moving on to district or regional competitions where they’ll battle kids from other libraries and schools. We’ve already met a few times, but we’re still accepting new members who will choose their first book at December’s meeting.
For more information about the IBOB program, contact Sharalee Howard or Jessica Levy at the CDA Library, or visit http://idahobattleofthebooks.org.
As its name implies, The Children’s Book Review is all about book reviews of children’s literature. With huge coverage of all kinds of kid lit, The Children’s Book Review is simple to browse books by subject and books by age, along with buzzy “trending” books and “showcase” books. Your typical book review lays out the specs (intended age, page count, etc.) and provides a medium-sized review with information about the author and/or illustrator. The Children’s Book Review is one of the most comprehensive book review sites for kid lit, and it supplements its reviews with author interviews and curated lists.
Common Sense Media is an organization that reviews media (books, TV, movies, apps, games) with a special focus on educating parents and other adults on “What Parents Should Know,” vis-à-vis content warnings and age appropriateness. Some of the qualities Common Sense Media covers include “Educational Value,” “Positive Messages,” “Positive Role Models and Representations,” and “Language.” Also of note, Common Sense Media is one of the few children’s book reviews websites that rates books using a star system. If you just want to know quickly how good a book is, navigate over to Common Sense Media and find a book’s star rating.
Children’s book review magazine The Horn Book takes its name from”horn books,” which were some of the earliest books made to educate children. The Horn Book is a leading publication in print and online for finding children’s book reviews. This treasured magazine’s website is well-organized, and you can find all the reviews in an easy-to-search database. For the best of the best, browse by The Horn Book‘s starred reviews. If you buy a paid subscription, you’ll have access to the huge, searchable archive of more than 70,000 reviews, known as “The Guide.” There, you can browse book reviews by Authors/Illustrators, Subjects, Series, and Reviewers. Though some reviews cost a subscription to view, some content, like the “Book Bundles” which group together like-minded books based on themes and include bite-sized reviews, are available for free.