Welcome to the November and December 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.

In November and December, people start thinking about and getting ready for the holidays.  For this issue, I chose titles that would make excellent gifts, and therefore almost all the new books in this issue are stand-alone titles, or they are the first book in a new series. The one exception is Goliath, which is the final book in a trilogy. I included it here because I think the complete trilogy would make a fantastic gift for young readers, and also for adult readers who have an interest in steampunk.

For this issue I have chosen to focus on books about Pirates. I know that many people think that pirate books are exclusively suited to boy readers, but this is no longer the case. It used to be that most of the main characters in books about pirates were men or boys. In many of the books I have reviewed for this feature, there are girls or women who are bold and brave pirates alongside their male brethren, or there are clever girls and women who find ways to outwit their piratical enemies. The books in this feature will suit readers of all ages because there are board books, novelty books, picture books, beginner readers, and novels.

In November and December autumn shifts into winter. During these months, we get serious about bundling up in warm clothes, toasting ourselves in front of warm fires and wood stoves, and finding ways to spend really wet or cold days. I actually really enjoy this time of year as I enjoy sitting under a warm blanket reading a book. What could be better?

For this month’s Editor’s Choice title, I selected In Search of Mockingbird by Loretta Ellsworth. When I read this book, I could not put it down, and a week after I read it, I read it again. It is a truly extraordinary account of one person’s journey of self discovery.

Don’t forget to look at the Bookish Calendar page for reviews about Claude Monet, Roald Amundsen,  the mystery of the Mary Celeste, 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.

There are several bookish events taking place in November that I would like to tell you about. They are:

November 1 is National Author’s Day (USA)

November 8th is National Young Readers Day (USA) – National Young Readers Day is a day that was created by Pizza Hut and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress in 1989 as a way to celebrate literacy in schools.

November 20th is Universal Children’s Day

For those of you don’t know already, 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, best wishes for the holiday season, and I look forward to hearing from you.