Book reviews

From time to time, I review picture story books, non-fiction texts and the occasional teacher-reference book from publishers.  These books are always donated to my school library, and the source is openly acknowledged on this blog.

Whatever the source, all my reviews are my honest opinion.  I try to be fair and objective but if I really don’t like a book I reserve the right to say so.  However, reviews I’ve written for Allen and Unwin and the Library Thing Early Reviewers Program are hosted on their sites, not mine, and they have the right to reject all or part of my reviews for any reason (though at the time of writing this, they never have).  They may also, for one reason or another, remove reviews in due course.  This does not compromise my opinion about the books I review.

Allen and Unwin have been especially generous and I’ve lost count of how many I’ve done for them now.   Most of these reviews are still online…. Click here to see the list.

Click here to see other books from my school’s library or my own collection that I’ve reviewed.

Click here to see the whole Reviews category.

Review policy

As of July 2013 I do not review unsolicited children’s books sent for review here on this blog, I only review books that interest me and that I have chosen to request from the publisher if they are offered.   In general I prefer to review picture books and short chapter books rather than longer works, and I do not review YA or text books at all.  I take a special interest in picture books by indigenous authors, sourcing most of them from Australia’s oldest indigenous publishing house, Magabala Books.

From time to time I cross-post reviews of books for adults that I have reviewed on my ANZ LitLovers blog when I judge that they might be of professional interest to teachers.  These are usually books of relevance for teaching primary history topics.

For convenience I use online bookseller links (mostly to Fishpond) because these sellers include descriptions and up-to-date publishing details to help readers track books down, but this blog is not registered as an affiliate with either bookseller.