Evaluate Children's Books
If you're not familiar with a children's book, it can be hard to decide if it's a good choice for the classroom, storytime, or recommending to a young reader. Fortunately, there are two kinds of tools that can help you: children's literature databases, and book review publications. Even better, the library has subscriptions to both kinds that you can use anytime!
Children's Literature Databases
- NoveList K-8 This link opens in a new windowHelps find books for children appropriate for their reading level and interests. Search for a book title in the search box at the top, and you can find a summary that includes a brief description, a roundup of reviews from expert book review sources, and its popularity on Goodreads.
Or if you don't have a book in mind yet, you can use the Browse menu in the top bar to browse books by genre, themes, or awards they've won. When you're browsing, you can also look at only books aimed at certain age ranges.
Book Review Publications
These are professional magazines that contain expert book reviews of children's books. For best results, try looking for your book in several of these, and compare the reviews!
To search for a book reviewed in any of these:
- Click the link to the magazine.
- Look for the link that says "Search within this publication" on the left side of the page, and click it.
- In the first search box on the next page, you'll see JN "[title of the magazine]". In the second box, add the title of the book you're looking for, and the author's last name. (Example: Henry's Freedom Box Levine)
- If your book has been reviewed in this magazine, you should see it in the results. If not, try another magazine.
- Book Links magazineNOTE: We only have access to Book Links issues through 2022.
- The Reading Teacher magazineNOTE: We don't have access to issues of The Reading Teacher that were published within the last 12 months.
- Kirkus ReviewsNote that Kirkus Reviews provides book reviews of all types of books, not just children's.