Find The Best Children's Book Reviews

As usual, everyone has an opinion

How many web pages contain the phrase, children's book reviews? One popular search engine reports 72,000. Ready to start reading?

Which reviews should you respect? Which shouldn't you?

It's hard to know. Tastes are personal. But here's a thought. If you can find a reviewer whose tastes you share regarding a book you know about, then maybe you can trust that reviewer's taste on books you know nothing about.

That's what reviewers are for. (Here's one I think highly of.)

But how do you find that reviewer? Go to your favorite search engine. Type the name of a book you have strong opinions about in quotes, i.e. "name of book"

Now type the phrase book reviews in quotes. Click Search.

You should now have a list of pages containing children's book reviews of the book you named.

Next, surf until you find a review of the book that you agree with. Could this be your reviewer of choice? Maybe...

Now find another children's book review they've done on a book that you're familiar with. Do you respect their opinion on that one? If so, you've found your reviewer!

Professional Children's Book Reviews

Okay, maybe you want to hear what Publishers Weekly, Booklist, School Library Journal, and Kirkus Reviews have to say. Well, you can check out each of their publications or websites. Or...

The bigger online bookstores tend to compile these children's book reviewers on the web page devoted to each book. The one that seems to do the best job of it is Barnes & Noble.

The professional children's book reviews they post tend to be more complete. (Amazon often posts excerpts, which raises the question of whether the excerpt reflects the tone of the whole review.)

Also, if the book is reviewed by The Barnes & Noble Review, then that review is posted as well and it far exceeds the promotional text that Amazon tends to use as their description of a children's book.

Where Amazon is better

Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble post buyer reviews and ratings by children's book buyers. The reason Amazon comes out on top in this regard is because they have so many more children's book reviews and ratings by buyers than Barnes & Noble does.

So Amazon is worth checking out too.

Keep this in mind though about children's book buyers' ratings and reviews: they are always inflated.

In other words, people buy the book because they expect to love it, or because they've already read it and want to own a copy. Of course they're going to give it a high rating.

So when you check out user reviews, keep in mind ratings inflation! A "five-star" book may be more realistically a three star. And...

...a disappointed children's book reviewer may be worth paying more attention to than a thrilled one. (Who may be the writer's mom!)

Children's Book Reviews...by Children!

I wanted to let you know about one other kind of reviewer site that you may not have known about. There are sites now that feature reviews by kids. That's right - kids say what they think the best children's books are. This can be a wonderful resource if

1. Your kid isn't wowed by your taste in children's literature, and
2. Your kid is already reading

So sit your princes and princesses in front of the computer and let them do their own research. How empowering will that feel for them to read children's book reviews written by their own peers!

The children's book reviews by children site I've fallen in love with is completely non-commercial too, so you don't have to worry about your kids clicking on links and costing you money!

The Spaghetti Book Club - Children's Book Reviews By Children! claims to be "the largest site of book reviews written and illustrated by kids for kids," and I believe it! It's huge, well-done and built for children.

It's from a non-profit program based in New Jersey, "supporting literacy and the meaningful use of technology among elementary school children."

Check out their "About..." page before handing the computer over to your child. It might give you some ideas about what you can do to support children reading in your own community!

Other ways to find the best children's books on this site

To find the best children's books using children's book awards, children's book lists or children's book best-sellers as criteria, start here.

Best Children's Books - Find, Read or Write Home Page