Sources For Assignment 1

Sources	Description	Compare	Contrast
The HornBook	Longtime favorite of Children’s Librarians. This book comes out twice a year reviewing the newly released books. Now there is the option of accessing the reviews online. The review provides the authors name, title, number of pages, target age group, illustrator, a concise review of the book and a bib- showing related content in the book.	Very popular, contains reviews on current and past years books.  Nice format that is easy to follow and locate the books by typing in a provided search page.	The biggest difference I found was between the print and the online versions of the source. The online reviews do not provide pictures of the books cover, which helps the librarian or parent confirm they have found the items they are looking for, providing they have seen it prior to the search.  Also to access the site one must sign up and pay a fee for a whole year.  Each entry has a number surrounded by parentheses prior to the actual review that shows how they rate the book- 1 is the best to 6 being the worst. Most books reviewed receive a rating of either 3 or 4 - 72%. Less than 10% of items reviewed receive a 1 or 2 rating and about 20% of items receive a rating of 5 or 6.
The Bulletin of the Center of Children’s Books	This site looks like it would provide the librarian or parent with nice reviews; however it is geared towards the staff that will be working on Collection Development.	Each review gives you information on book’s content, reading level, strengths/weaknesses, and quality of format, as well as suggestions for curricular use.	The opening page provides a nice overview, including a link to The Center for Children’s Books which preview the Gryphon Award Books and upcoming literature events at the college. This site lists Gryphon Award Books by year, including a brief description of the award and a short summary of the book. It also lists the yearly Blue Ribbon Books which The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books awards to books monthly. The Blue Ribbon listing includes the age/grade group the books are geared.
Kirkus	Kirkus’ does not solely review children’s books rather it covers all ages and genres. While the Kirkus website is more geared towards the library professional it is accessible to the general public.	All vital information is listed with this source along with reviews which can get rather lengthy.	While this site has reviews for books of all ages and genres not all books for accessible. Compared to the other review sources Kirkus has long, sometimes bordering on lengthy, reviews as opposed to short plot summaries. The site also has links to other sites/areas which may be of interest to the reviewer. An example of these links are as follows: Book Reviews & Recommendations, Articles & Blogs, For Authors, and For Publishers.
Booklist Online	A comprehensive site from the ALA which provides detailed yet accessible reviews on books of all genres and for all ages	This site provides all the essentials required for a review.  Including a LOC type of bibliographical listing. It even provides when the review was published.	The reviews tend towards being a bit wordy, providing detailed descriptions of the page lay outs as well as describing some of the illustrations and quotes from the book. Booklist Online quotes from the reviewed sources more frequently than the other sources I have reviewed.
School Library Journal	The website companion for the trade magazine dedicated to School Libraries. Both the website and the magazine contain many of good articles dealing with various items such as e-book usage and other hot topics in the field.	The site utilizes a well-designed search feature that brings up books with the keywords typed into the search engine.  This site is comparable to The Bulletin of the Center of Children’s Books in that a link leads you to another review site.	Once the search page pops up the researcher must read the summaries to find the book being searched for as search by title is the only search option. However, once I made my selection I was taken to a HornBook review for the particular book I was investigating. Needless to say School Library Journal’s web portal is more useful as a trade site than as a reviewing tool.

Bibliography

"Best Books for Public Libraries and School Libraries - Book Reviews from the ALA | Booklist Online." Best Books for Public Libraries and School Libraries - Book Reviews from the ALA | Booklist Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2013. <http://www.booklistonline.com>.

"Book Reviews, Sites, Children's, Fantasy, Romance, Fiction | Kirkus" Book Reviews, Sites, Children's, Fantasy, Romance, Fiction | Kirkus. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2013. <http://www.kirkusreviews.com>.

"Rating System in The Horn Book Guide - The Horn Book." The Horn Book - Publications about books for children and young adults. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2013. <http://www.hbook.com/horn-book-guide/rating-system-in-the-horn-book-guide/>.

"School Library Journal | The world's largest reviewer of books, multimedia, and technology for children and teens." School Library Journal | The world's largest reviewer of books, multimedia, and technology for children and teens. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2013. <http://www.slj.com>.

"The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books." The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2013. <http://bccb.lis.illinois.edu>.

"The Horn Book - Publications about books for children and young adults." The Horn Book - Publications about books for children and young adults. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2013. <http://www.hbook.com>.

MLA formatting by BibMe.org.