Zoobean: User Generated Curation of Children’s Book Recommendations

Sometimes, browsing the children’s department at the local library for a perfect new book to read as a family can be overwhelming. If you’ve brought your kids with you, chances are there is little time to peruse the stacks, or you might just be at a loss as to what titles will match your child’s current interests.  Librarians in the children’s department are a great resource for finding out about interesting titles, as is our monthly column, Open Sesame: Kid Lit Musings & Reviews, but what if you could add to these great local resources with recommendations made by parents too?

Well, there is just the thing, and it’s called Zoobean…

The next time your looking for recommendations, try supplementing your search for suggestions of new books using Zoobean.com! Zoobean offers reviews of thousands of children’s and young adult books – and not just the ones you’ve already heard of! Users who have joined the site can add books to the site’s lists and add their own reviews to their family’s favorite (or least favorite) reads, meaning that the reviews are authentic, sincere, and useful! The site’s search function makes it easy to access reviews for books related to topics that your child(ren) love or are eager to learn about, and there are both English- and Spanish-language texts listed.

If you’re feeling like your family should move on from The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a search for books relating to food, insects, or transformation can produce lots of results – allowing families to stick to a preferred theme while diversifying their bedtime stories! — If you are, in fact, in this position, Mama Cat has Three Kittens by Denise Fleming includes lots of bug-filled illustrations and Eve Bunting’s Butterfly House teaches young readers about the bug that the caterpillar has become! Find out more at www.zoobean.com.