Valerie & Walter's Best Books for Children: A Lively, Opinionated Guide

By Valerie V. Lewis, Valerie Lewis, Walter M. Mayes

Book Overview

Two of America's leading experts on children's books present a unique, definitive, and entertaining guide to quality children's reading--a user-friendly analysis of more than 2,000 books for children... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060524677
• ISBN13: 9780060524678
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Quill
• Length: 543 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Valerie and Walter's best books for children

Having attended one of Walter's workshops on book selection, I look forward to his updated books. He is, as he says, opinionated, but he backs up his opinions with solid expertise. Unlike other "guide" books, his is a lot of fun to read, which in this over-information age, is an important consideration when choosing reference books.

LOADS OF INFORMATION AND ADVICE

Best Books for Children, 2nd Ed is a book to be valued. It's comprehensive and crossed-referenced. A 560-page reference guide featuring best books for children--fiction and nonfiction-though age eleven. Book information includes: title, author, illustrator, format, publisher, themes and sometimes comments from Valerie and Walter. The themes are single word descriptions. Parents will know exactly what is in the book. The book is divided into parts according to a book's listening or interest level. Also, instead of using reading ages, they use general ranges, such as "all, baby, preschoolers, early elementary, middle elementary, and pre-adolescents." The books listed range from the old familiars to the most recent, such as Harry Potter. This is a reference book written with parents and professionals in mind. Wouldn't it be nice to know that your local school or library used Valerie and Walter's Best Books for Children regularly? Why not recommend it?

Great Cut to the Chase Guide

If you're looking for clear, fun, expert advice about the books children truly enjoy look no further. Every parent, grandparent and teacher should have this on their shelf. This is THE best book to buy for a baby shower gift.

And Adults, Too!

As a children's librarian I am constantly seeking out adults who like books for kids as much as I do--Valerie and Walter fit the bill. This is filled with books that kids will actually like and want to read--I wish I could give a copy to every school teacher who makes up a summer reading list full of books that were published 50 years ago and then wonders why no one read any of them over the summer. A wonderful resource for parents who care about what their kids read, as well. Bravo.