Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

Guide makes it easier to find the right books to give children

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Holiday shoppers hoping to please the youngsters on their gift lists can turn to the “Guide Book to Gift Books” published by the Center for Children’s Books at the University of Illinois. The annual guide, compiled by Deborah Stevenson, the editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books – a leading book review journal for school and public librarians – provides one-sentence descriptions of more than 350 of the best recently published volumes of youth literature, along with both traditional and e-book prices.

The guide can be downloaded, free of charge, at bccb.lis.illinois.edu, making it convenient to consult on a smartphone or tablet while browsing at a bookstore.

The guide begins with picture books, including board books for infants and toddlers and books to help little ones prepare for a new sibling or pet, conquer potty training or drift off to sleep. There are books featuring all manner of animals, from the requisite bears, monkeys, owls, ponies and rabbits, to beavers, seals, sharks, slugs, spiders, worms and walruses. There’s even a book for girls who don’t like the color pink (“Olivia and the Fairy Princesses,” by Ian Falconer) and another book targeting girls who do (“Pink Me Up,” by Charise Harper).

Stevenson has arranged the guide by age groups, ending with books for seventh graders through high school. This section includes an abundance of mysteries, horror stories and tales of young love (of the first, unrequited, and doomed varieties), and books on substantive topics such as sexual identity, illness (cancer, multiple sclerosis and Asperger’s syndrome) and death. There’s also a plethora of books based on twists of the classics, such as “Little Vampire Women,” by Louisa May Alcott and Lynn Messina; “Jane” (April Lindner’s modern retelling of “Jane Eyre”); “This Dark Endeavor” (Kenneth Oppel’s prequel to “Frankenstein”); and “The Odyssey,” told in graphic novel form by Gareth Hinds.

[ Email | Share ]

Read Next

Life sciences Portrait of the research team posing together.

Minecraft players can now explore whole cells and their contents

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists have translated nanoscale experimental and computational data into precise 3D representations of bacteria, yeast and human epithelial, breast and breast cancer cells in Minecraft, a video game that allows players to explore, build and manipulate structures in three dimensions. The innovation will allow researchers and students of all ages to navigate […]

Arts Photo of seven dancers onstage wearing blue tops and orange or yellow flowing skirts. The backdrop is a Persian design.

February Dance includes works experimenting with live music, technology and a ‘sneaker ballet’

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The dance department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will present February Dance 2025: Fast Forward this week at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. February Dance will be one of the first performances in the newly renovated Colwell Playhouse Theatre since its reopening. The performances are Jan. 30-Feb. 1. Dance professor […]

Honors portraits of four Illinois researchers

Four Illinois researchers receive Presidential Early Career Award

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Four researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign were named recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on young professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. The winners this year are health and kinesiology professor Marni Boppart, physics professor Barry Bradlyn, chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Ying […]

Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

507 E. Green St
MC-426
Champaign, IL 61820

Email: stratcom@illinois.edu

Phone (217) 333-5010