Welcome to Through the Looking Glass

Welcome to the July and August 2011 issue of Through the Looking Glass Children’s Book Reviews. I have put together a wonderful collection of reviews for you for this issue, and I hope you enjoy reading the reviews as much as I enjoyed writing them.

As always, the books reviewed on TTLG are carefully chosen by the editor. We only review books that suit the scope of TTLG, and that we feel have something to offer readers. Therefore, all our reviews are positive ones. We hope this will help you to find excellent books for the young people in your lives. If you are looking for books for yourself, we hope you will find books that you will enjoy reading. Please consider buying books through this website. Your purchases help to support our work, and give us the means to improve this online resource.

For this issue I have chosen to focus on books about Seas and Oceans and the creatures that live in them. This is a very mixed collected of books that will surely have something for everyone. There are nonfiction titles about marine animals and ecosystems, and there are picture books about sea monsters.

In July and August most schools are closed for the summer vacation, and children all over the world get ready to enjoy family holidays, days at camp, and many other summer activities. When I was growing up, we would escape the heat of town by going into the mountains for a few weeks, or we would camp at the seaside. These camping trips were wonderful, and I still remember the hours I spent snorkeling, looking for pretty stones on the beach, and watching the fishing boats chug past. You will find a large collection of books about going to the beach on the Days at the beach page.

For this month’s Editor’s Choice title, I selected Enclave by Ann Aguirre. This thrilling futuristic book explores the world of a young woman who lives in a future where survival is the bottom line.

Finally, take a look at the Bookish Calendar page for book reviews about Henry David Thoreau, volcanoes, the moon landing, Amelia Earhart, and much more. This calendar is a great tool to use at home and in the classroom to help children incorporate books more fully into their lives.

For those of you don’t  already know, I also publish a blog about children’s books and the children’s book world. On the blog I post reviews, interviews with great authors and illustrators, I offer book giveaways, and I tell you about interesting contests and bookish events. Do visit the blog and sign up for the feed. I am doing something new this year. I will be reviewing a picture book for every day of 2011. Please join the 2011 TTLG Picture Book Celebration!

At the beginning of last year, I launched the new website, and all the new content for every issue is on this new website. However, a large part of the old content is still on the old site. You can still get to this content, but it is not integrated into the new site. Moving the 4,000 reviews over is going to take some time, and I appreciate your patience while I work on this.

Some of the titles I reviewed several years ago are now out of print. Though you cannot buy these books in every bookshop, many of them are still available for purchase on websites like Amazon.com.

I hope you enjoy this new issue, and I look forward to hearing from you.

All the best,