Highlights:

-Recognizes books for children and teens that contribute to meaningful understanding of the Middle East.

-Awards go back to 2000.

Strengths:

-Award winners are selected each year in 3 categories -

- Picture Books, Youth Literature, and Youth Nonfiction.

-Includes a brief review of each winner.

Weaknesses:

-Does not specify the recommended age for all of the books;

- only some books include a suggested age.

Reflection: 

-One of my goals has been to add more books to our library about people from the Middle East. This will be a helpful resource for identifying those books.  

RESOURSE: "Colours of Us: All About Multicultural Books"

Highlights:

• Easy to navigate and understand

• Lots of diverse books and different age groups

• Lots of recommendations of different books with a synopsis and overview 

Weaknesses

• Some categories of the site have more selections then other categories

• Not sure how often the site is updated

• The sheer amount of books can be intimidating and one might not know where to look.

Reflection

• I have already started sharing this link to my coworkers and peers. A strong collection of resources that educators an librarians can use.

• I love how easy it was to navigate, which is a huge plus in my eyes.

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United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Highlights:

Resources for an international audience created by the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Each of the agency's 17 goals has a list of resources, such as, "Zero Hunger, Gender Equality, and Responsible Consumption and Production."

Strengths:

The site is easy to navigate and each of the 17 goals is clearly indicated with an image and description.

The sources are reliable and timely and focus on a range of resources from publications to events.

Helpful infographics on most pages.

Weaknesses:

Some goals only have 1-2 resources.

Many of the resources are not geared towards younger audiences.

There are very few books, and most are online sources and websites.

Reflection:

Not the most valuable site for deciding on book orders, but would be great for collaborating with teachers. Great resources for social studies and science classes with a broad range of topics from the environment to social justice.

The strengths of the website are in it's simplicity - it's well laid out, easy to navigate, and has tons of reviews available, including a calendar of releases which can be very helpful when planning a book order or class read, etc.

This is a great resource for anyone - school library, parent, or public library - wanting to diversify their bookshelves. There are review on amazing books from diverse authors in a variety of genres which can appeal to a wide audience. The website is easy to navigate and would be a great resources to share with older students, parents and teachers.

Highlights:

• All genres and age ranges represented.

• Gives quick reviews of books.

• Access to digital copy of magazine.

• Kirkus Prize dates back to 2014.

Strengths:

• Easy to navigate

• Quick and digestible reviews

• Age Filters

• Lots of reviews/resources

• Writer's Section

• Digital Copy of newest magazine edition

• Can create your own "bookshelf" to save book reviews that you are interested in

• Diversity Collections

Weaknesses:

• A lot of information--could be overwhelming

Reflection:

Overall, this is an amazing resource. I struggled to come up with the one "weakness". This is an excellent resource to get a quick synopsis of a book before ordering or recommending to students/patrons. I would also recommend this resource to classroom teachers as they are helping students with independent reading. Great things on this website!

Resource: The Horn Book website

Highlights:

• Easy to navigate

• Large database of book reviews

• Blog posts about books, subjects, publishing

• Author & Illustrator info and interviews

• Award lists

Strengths:

• Database is segmented into logical categories and is searchable through the use of tags

• Well-organized and easy to navigate

• Book reviews are brief and give the needed info

  
  

Weaknesses:

• the dreaded PAYWALL and paid subscription!

Reflection:

• This is a great resource with lost of info on children's literature.

• The paywall warnings and subscription asks are tiresome.

• I wish this were an open source where the community could contribute to the content, sort of like a focused GoodReads.

• I can only hope that the library at which I eventually land holds a subscription so I can dig in further to their information.

Reflection:

The Children's Book Review

Highlight/Strength:

• Easy to navigate

• Effective grouping of resources for ease of filtering relevant-to-you information.

• Vast selection of any resource type

• Multiple resource types, not just limited to books (includes audiobook reviews, podcasts, etc.)

Weakness:

• Lot's of information on page, can be overwhelming if you don't know what you're looking for.

Reflection:

After briefly exploring a number of other resources from the guide, I clicked this resource and immediately noticed how much more organized it is for the amount of information is provides. I appreciate the organization of the menu and the ability to look up books by age, find books by favorite subject/type, the additional resource types offered in addition to book reviews, and the overall functionality of the site.

For me personally, I make snap judgements of websites fairly quickly. My ADHD means my attention needs to be captured within the first 30 seconds of my browsing or else I will likely move on. If I have to spent time clicking around to see what is available, I am less likely to return or spend the time needed to get to the information I am searching for. This website kept my attention while browsing and will be a tool I save for future professional and personal use.

Resource: School Library Journal

Highlights:

Tab just for reviews!

You can sort reviews by date range.

You can search by author/illustrator or by publisher.

The reviews have the ISBN, publication date, and age range displayed first and foremost.

Interesting articles such as "23 titles to welcome little ones back to school" that highlight certain themes/topics.

Tabs for both school and public library featured stories

Weakness?

Since there is SO MUCH content, other than just reviews, the site can be a little overwhelming at first.

Reflection:

Loved this! I searched for some authors I liked just to see the reviews on some of their books. The information was easy to find and read! Would definitely use this as a resource for children's materials.

*Focuses on early readers - young adult

*Free

*Blog with themed books (I was always find these helpful)

Weaknesses:

I feel like more mainstream sources, like Common Sense Media and SLJ have more "credibility" to use when choosing book rationale.

I think some of these smaller sources are definitely worth exploring and utilizing, but ALSO in conjunction with the more mainstream sources.

This is a weakness for ALL the book review sites... but kids should be included! What do THEY think about the books, the characters, the messages?

Highlights: This is robust resource that includes things for educators, authors and illustrators.

Strengths: It is easy to navigate. The "find books" tab is especially helpful. You can search books by new release, award winners, bilingual, books in Spanish, by age and grade, by type or genre, by theme, and more. There is also a search tab to enter a title. There are teacher guides with lesson plan ideas for some books and those are free to use.

Weakness: When I put in the filter for only books 6-8 grade, only 2 books came up. But 64 pages of books came up for K-5 grade. So this is definitely geared toward elementary school.

Reflection: I was disappointed to see the lack of transparency indicating that this resource is mainly for elementary age students. I feel like it would be helpful to state that clearly on their homepage. Even on their "About Us" page, they say they include books across all grades, and while technically that is true, have 2 middle school books and only 1 page of young adult books compared to the 64 pages of elementary grades seems disingenuous to me.

Resource: Booklist

Highlights:

-The book review journal for the ALA

-Easy to find books using the search tool

-Reviews for both books and audiobooks

Strengths:

-Includes links to sites to purchase the books

-A monthly list of youth book reviews is published

-Books are of various genres and there is a big focus on graphic novels

Weaknesses:

-The website is very busy and can be hard to navigate

-You cannot filter books so that YA books and books for under 12 are in different categories

Reflection:

-I like that Booklist publishes a list each month so that librarians can easily find books to purchase that are relevant and new.

-I think this site would be great for librarians who need to recommend a book or want to read it to students.

-Some of the information appears to be behind a paywall, so if a librarian is not a member of the ALA, it might be difficult to use the information.

Resource: Coretta Scott King Book Awards Round Table

Highlights:

• Recognizes books that honor black livelihoods and experiences

• The first award was given in 1970

Strengths:

• Book covers are shown on page

• Lists a comprehensive list of past award winners

• Unique resource with a downloadable list for discussion about the award

Weaknesses:

• Does not list an image or much information for older award winners, but does for newer award winners

• The spacing of lettering on the homepage is not visually appealing

Reflection: This would be a good spot to visit to familiarize myself with titles before working with students or placing a book order, because it gives a comprehensive list of award-winners and honor books. This means these books have been read and reflected upon with care by the committee, and they are great for young readers, reflecting the unique experiences of the Black population. These books will be essential to order for my future library's collection since many of my students will feel represented by the characters in these titles.

Resource: Common Sense Media

Highlights: Common Sense Media is a nonprofit site that has a mission of providing trustworthy information to children and their families to help improve their lives. Their main purpose is to provide age-based reviews of media, including books, movies, and television series. They emphasize giving parents the tools to make positive media choices for their children.

Strengths:

-Navigation is simple; there are many categories of media from which to choose

-A large variety of media is covered, and the site is kept up-to-date

-Age ratings and reviews are clearly labeled and divided into sections that make it easy to find the information one is looking for

Weaknesses:

-Anyone can post to the site, which can make some reviews less trustworthy

-Adding on to the point above, people may have bias' and rate media with different scales in mind

-The age ratings are generalizations and may not apply to every child/family

Reflections: Overall, Common Sense Media can be a useful tool when a parent wants a general overview of the type of content prevalent in a piece of media. While there is a lot of information on the site, it is fairly simple to navigate. It is important to keep in mind that user-generated reviews may contain bias, and to seek other sources before drawing conclusions.

RESOURCE: Goodreads: Best Multicultural Books for Children

Highlights:

• Free for anyone to use and anyone can also create a free account

• Titles are put in order by popularity of votes and ratings, so you will see the highly suggested books first

• Allows you to add them to a "want to read" list so you can save titles and come back later

• Allows anyone who has read the book to write a review as long as they create a free account, so there are many perspectives to look at

• Provides title, author, publishing date, and preview/summary of what the book is about

Weaknesses:

• Only one big list with no categories to help with searching

• No filtering option to look for certain recommended ages or grade levels

• Anyone can add to the list freely (although they are subject for removal-but there is no indication on how fast a removal would be)

• Reviews would probably not be seen as very "professional" compared to other review sources that require subscriptions

Reflection:

• I think this would be a decent list to look at when picking books to read with students because I noticed a lot of good cultural books are recommended on the list. I would easily be able to find basic information on the book and get an idea of what it is about. This would be more preferable to use for getting an idea of what I might want to use for a lesson or create a wish list for new titles. I would not heavily rely on this resource for building an official booklist to put through our school SIT team for approval because of the lack of professionalism on the page. Kirkus or SLJ would be more appealing due to the stricter use of the site.

Resource: Children's Book Review

Strengths: This source was very user friendly and fairly easy to navigate with being new to looking at book review. It had several relatable categories to look at for children. It also had plenty of diversity to choose from as well. I liked the setup of the page as well.

Weakness: It would be neat if they could add a way to filter while you were under the tabs already pre-created. Has a lot of information in some sections that could lead for newbies to become overwhelmed.

Reflection: This site would be very helpful, and I can see myself using this to help me find books for my school library in the near future.

Disability in KidLit

NOTE: This resource is "on indefinite hiatus" according to their "About" page :(

Highlights:

• Reviews and recommends books featuring characters with various disabilities

• Reviews and recommendations "vetted by disabled readers" (according to their FAQ page about their process)

Strengths:

• Authentic reviewing process and stringent requirements for who reviews books

• Has an "Honor Roll" page with an ongoing list of books they recommend for young adult and middle grade readers

• Transparent information about the reviewers and their disabilities

• Search tool by genre and disability

• Outside reviews allowed after being vetted, so more perspectives than just the 5 founding members

Weaknesses

• On "indefinite hiatus" as noted above, so is missing recent titles (no date for hiatus posted)

• Would be great if the recommendation (Yes, no, maybe, etc.) and the age range for the book was clearer, rather than buried in the long review

Reflection

Seems like a useful resource for finding books about specific disabilities with their search function or for diversifying a collection. Even though it's missing the most recent titles, there are many reviews available to use. I'm very sad to see that it's on hiatus. I wonder if it's a personal choice for the founders or related to recent Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion backlash.

Resource: American Indians in Children’s Literature – “Best Books” section

Highlights

• The "Best Books" lists are curated annually and include books by Native authors, ensuring authenticity and cultural accuracy.

• Titles are categorized by year, making it easy to find contemporary, relevant books.

• Features annual Year-in-Review posts, which highlight broader trends in Indigenous representation in publishing.

• The site actively addresses important social issues, such as stereotypes, mascots, and Native invisibility in literature.

Strengths:

• Indigenous-led authority: Created by Dr. Debbie Reese (Nambé Pueblo) and co-edited by Dr. Jean Mendoza, both respected scholars in Native literature.

• Culturally responsive and ethical lens: Evaluates books based on Indigenous values and perspectives, not just mainstream literary merit.

• Educational value: Offers resources beyond booklists, including guidelines for evaluating content, critiques of popular titles, and teaching strategies.

• Reputable and widely cited: Frequently used by educators, universities, and libraries as a go-to resource for authentic Indigenous literature.

Weaknesses:

• Blog format: The site’s layout and navigation are not as streamlined as modern websites; users may need time to find specific information.

• No direct links to purchasing or reading level data: You’ll need to use other tools to find Lexile levels or availability.

• Not searchable by genre, age level, or theme, which can slow down users seeking quick book matches.

Limitations:

• May feel overwhelming to new users unfamiliar with Indigenous literature or critical theory, due to its in-depth academic tone.

• Content varies in depth some books have detailed critiques, while others are simply listed without explanation.

• Not geared for quick browsing requires intentional reading and exploration to make full use of its offerings.

Reflections:

Yes, this would be an excellent site to visit before working with students or placing a book order. Especially if you're aiming for culturally accurate and respectfully written materials. While it's not the most user-friendly for quick searches, the integrity of its content and the Indigenous perspectives it centers make it invaluable for building inclusive classroom and library collections.

Highlights:

-Provides resources and booklists broken down into specific categories related to different identities

-Has additional information on how to handle book challenges as well as more specific information and resources connected to indigenous books and authors.

Strengths:

-Fairly comprehensive lists that allows for the actual book recommendations to come from many different places as opposed to one organization

-Includes different blogs as well as award lists

-Asks for input in order to always be changing and updating

Weaknesses:

-A little overwhelming if you looking for more general concepts that incorporate representation

-No way to know majority of the age ranges from each source

-Some sections only have YA book recommendations from the different sources

-Given the wide variety or resources and book reviews it provides, the general goal of credibility especially for a librarian that may need to argue for a title is more challenging then books on SLJ or other organizations known for their credibility as opposed to a blog or organization this site sends you to

Reflection: 

-This is a source I have used in the past but have not in a while. This reminded me that I need to go back to using it. It would be certainly useful during the times I am looking specifically for more books to represent one particular identity, but it is more challenging to navigate if you are looking for a particular type of genre or book that includes diverse representation.