My Cyber Librarians

Lean in close, because I have a little secret to share...

Children's librarians usually have gobs and gobs of reading recommendations, but we all get stumped every now and then. It's the truth. Even librarians are human. When this happens, without even flinching, we turn to a tried and true friend--- the internet.

Today I'm spilling three of our top secret (and not so top secret) book recommendation tools, for those dire circumstances when you or your child get stumped looking for that next great read. Because everyone needs a little cyber help every now and then...

Mid-Continent Public Library

Mid-Continent Public Library Juvenile Series and Sequels: A majority of kids these days read books that are grouped into series. Not only is the Mid-Continent Public Library website a great way to find the book order of a particular series, but it is also handy for searching for book series by subject. Fairies, pirates, pigs... whatever your child has an interest in, it's probably been written in a book series and is searchable on this website.

Your Next Read

YourNextRead My new favorite toy! Flowcharts are all the rage lately and this nifty tool gives you reading suggestions in the format of a flowchart. Simply type in a book and for every one book, YourNextRead gives you eight other reading suggestions. When the flow chart pops, click any title on the chart, and it will take you to your next group of  recommended reads. This site can be a little glitchy at times and also may have a couple not so great recommendations every so often, but when that happens, there is a "thumbs-up" and a "thumbs-down" option that you can select to display an alternate title.

Goodreads

Goodreads also is a great tool for instant book recommendations even if you don't have an account set up. Search by the title, read the reviews, and browse the read-alikes. When you find the summary and reviews on a specific book, scroll down, and on the the right hand side will be similar book recommendations. More often than not, a book can also be found in reading lists created by Goodreads members. This feature is located above the reader reviews.

 This is the second to last edition of the Summer Book Hook. (Can you believe summer is almost over?) I hope you find these websites invaluable not only over the remainder of the summer months, but throughout the year.