100 Scope Notes - School Library Journal

The list of suggestions at Heavy Medal (a Newbery Blog) is a great place to start your reading. Leading the way so far? Boston Globe – Horn Book Award winner Scar Like a River by Lisa Graff. SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST Click here to head over to Heavy Medal and check out the entire list of suggestions. Join 2,000+ librarians! Subscribe to my newsletter on Substack Filed under: Articles About Travis Jonker Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan.

It’s been a while since we’ve made a SPEED ROUND episode of the Yarn podcast, and this one is a lot of fun: award winners Candace Fleming, Zeke Peña, Jasmine Warga, and Rebecca Stead answer some rapid-fire questions.

I’m here to name a few brand-new (2026) books that you might want to have on hand for the beginning of the 2026-27 school year, before disappearing into the forests of Endor. IN THIS CLASSROOM by Andrew Hackett, illustrated by Arthur Lin SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST CLEM CLAM THE CLASS CLOWN by Laurie Keller WELCOE TO OUR CLASSROOM by Alexandra Penfold, illustrated by Suzanne Kaufman SCHOOL FOR WOODLAND CREATURES by Lauren Castillo WHO KNOWS THE WAY TO MR. GRIMLY’S CLASSROOM?

It was a full-on photo extravaganza. Using Jennifer LaGarde (aka Library Girl) and Martha Hickson’s Among the Stars database. SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST 1000 Horses for the King is coming in March 2027. Join 2,000+ librarians! Subscribe to my newsletter on Substack Filed under: Articles About Travis Jonker Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee.

Sometimes I wonder: How many children’s books are among the top 100 bestsellers on Amazon? And which books are they? The Amazon top 100 is always changing, so the rankings you see below are just a snapshot in time. This time around, they top-selling books lean toward classics and first day of school titles.

During the American Library Association Annual Conference this year, Colby Sharp and I scheduled a bunch of interviews for The Yarn podcast. One of the fun parts is getting to listen to an interview Colby did that I wasn’t a part of. His chat with Newbery Honor winner Chanel Miller is a perfect example of this.

We don’t have the picture book section of my school library genrefied, but we do have a few select bins for books that kids ask for a lot: horses, princesses, and definitely unicorns. While that bin is getting pretty full these days (there have been a bunch of good books on this topic in recent years), I’m always on the lookout for new additions. Here are all the 2026 unicorn books I could track down.

About Travis Jonker Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.

Do you remember The Weighty Word Book? If your birth date rides the Gen X/Millennial line like mine, there’s a good chance seeing the cover unlocks some childhood memories. The book, illustrated by Janet Stevens, has had a recent resurgence due to Tik Tok, and CBS news has the full story. SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST Join 2,000+ librarians! Subscribe to my newsletter on Substack Filed under: Books on Film About Travis Jonker Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan.

Over on The Yarn podcast, author Cynthia Leitich Smith and editor/publisher Rosemary Brosnan talk about the imprint they co-created: Heartdrum. I loved hearing about how the idea for this imprint became a reality, and their hopes for the imprint going forward.