Book review sites offer a great marketing opportunity. A favorable mention on a book review blog can go a long way toward promoting your book. But how do you know which blogs to submit to when there are hundreds to choose from? We’re here to help. We sifted through the lists and chose 15 review blogsbook review sites based on the size of each blog’s following, frequency of posts, the quality of the reviews, and their willingness to receive submissions. Before sending review copies, be sure to study each blog’s submission policies (which may change from week to week, so verify right before sending anything), and the tastes of the editors.
OUR FAVORITE CHILDREN’S & YOUNG ADULT BOOK REVIEW SITES:
What’s being reviewed: Books for infants through young adults. Also posts author and illustrator interviews, and book giveaways. While the regular reviews are done at no charge to the author or publisher, the Dedicated Review program ($195-$295) guarantees you a professional and non-biased book review with a minimum word count of 250 words.
Why we love it: Clean layout makes it especially user-friendly for parents seeking good books. Excellent author interviews. A superb resource.
Visit Our Book Review Sites Winner The Children’s Book Review
What’s being reviewed: Fiction and nonfiction for infants through age 13. Aimed at parents choosing books for their children. Does not accept self-published books at this time.
Why we love it: Large library of concise reviews. “If You Liked This Book, Try…” section gives parents easy to more good books tailored for their children’s needs.
Visit Our Book Review Sites Winner The Reading Tub
What’s being reviewed: The hottest books, gifts, gear, food, home products and other cool stuff for babies, kids and moms. Is especially interested in books by indie authors and small presses that are unique, quirky, or fill a niche. Browse the site’s archives to see the tastes of the editors.
Why we love it: Well-written reviews are cleanly laid-out, giving nice interior glimpses of each book.
Visit Our Book Review Sites Winner Cool Mom Picks
What’s being reviewed: This large network of readers from the US and around the world review self-published books for adults and children. Books must be available electronically. Submission form on website. Charges a $20 processing fee on all ebooks submitted for review. Also check out the Indie Brag Kids Blog
Why we love it: Provides a much-needed curation service for self-published books. Networked reviews help separate the wheat from the chaff.
Visit Our Book Review Sites Winner Indie Brag
What’s being reviewed: Four reviewers (all moms) review all genres of fiction for readers aged 9-18 with an eye toward helping parents choose books for their kids. Requires that books have a 10 digit ISBN number and be available on Amazon.com. At this time does not accept self-published books or short story collections, and e-books are subject to reviewer’s discretion.
Why we love it: Cleverly laid-out, and the suggested reading function is extraordinarily useful. Also allows visitor input.
Visit Our Book Review Sites Winner Story Snoops
What’s being reviewed: Middle-grade fiction from traditional publishers only, preferably those which are recently published or soon will be. Accepts print books and Advance Review Copies only.
Why we love it: A real labor of love from people who truly care about middle grade books and their readers.
Visit Our Book Review Sites Winner Project Mayhem: The Manic Minds of Middle Grade Writers
What’s being reviewed: Middle grade or YA books, or books that would appeal to YA’s. No self-published or picture books. Prefers hard copy.
Why we love it: In-depth and insightful reviews with with a strong critical eye.
Visit Our Book Review Sites Winner The Librarian Who Doesn’t Say SHHH!
What’s being reviewed: Young adult (preferred) and new adult. Genres of interest: fantasy/sci-fi, paranormal, dystopian and/or post-apocalyptic, LGBT, contemporary romance. “I am a proud supporter of small press and self-published authors. I am open to doing author interviews, guest posts, giveaways, and blog tours.”
Why we love it: Has a lovely, personal feel about it, and we appreciate Kristen’s willingness to help lesser-known authors spread the word about their work.
Visit Our Book Review Sites Winner Pretty Little Pages
What’s being reviewed: Dystopian, sci-fi, paranormal, fantasy, horror, chick lit, clean romance, nonfiction (photography/art/architecture/technology/craft books and magazines), graphic novels, illustrated children’s books. Accepts print and ebooks. Also will do author interviews and accepts guest posts.
Why we love it: A warm, personal blog from a reader with eclectic and interesting tastes.
Visit Our Book Review Sites Winner Doodles, Doodles Everywhere
What’s being reviewed: Fiction for middle grade and young adult readers. Accepts review copies from publishers only.
Why we love it: Insightful reviews from a smart youth librarian. We also enjoy the many author interviews on the site.
Visit Our Book Review Sites Winner Green Bean Teen Queen
What’s being reviewed: Books, games and movies for children of all ages.
Why we love it: Created by a non-partisan advocacy group, this is an ambitious project to provide a clearinghouse of information for parents about the media their children consume. Extremely user-friendly and comprehensive.
Visit Our Book Review Sites Winner Commonsense Media
What’s being reviewed: Books for children, parents, and fiction of interest to women. Reviews apps, electronics, TV shows, movies and food products. Holds product giveaways and contests.
Why we love it: Proprietress Sarah’s work with the developmentally disabled gives her a unique take and much-needed perspective on books about autism and other disabilities.
Visit Our Book Review Sites Winner Bookroom Reviews
What’s Being Reviewed: Interactive children’s picture book apps. Each app is thoroughly evaluated by the site’s staff and given a comprehensive review.
Why we love it: A terrific voice for an exploding segment of children’s publishing. In addition to their own reviews, the site re-posts reviews from a variety of children’s app review sites, making this a one-stop source for app readers.
Visit Our Book Review Sites Winner Digital-Storytime
What’s being reviewed: Young adult fiction, especially realistic fiction, historical, paranormal, chick lit and fantasy. Accepting books from publishers only.
Why we love it: Wonderfully-written reviews from a middle school library media specialist. Funny, honest and smart.
Visit Our Book Review Sites Winner YA Bibliophile
What’s being reviewed: Two librarians review nonfiction for children ages 5-18. Accepts review copies from publishers.
Why we love it: The bloggers’ enthusiasm for nonfiction is utterly infectious, and their reviews do justice to the often thrilling subject matter contained in youth nonfiction. A simply outstanding resource.
Visit Our Book Review Sites Winner The Nonfiction Detectives
So, who did we miss? Use the comments section to tell us about other great book review sites…
Related:
The Difference Between Middle Grade & Young Adult
Young Adult Authors: Here’s Where to Find Your Readers Online
Hi,
I review a wide variety of books written for children from picture books to young adult on my blog, The Bumpy Road To Writing For Children. http://www.debhockenberry.com/the-bumpy-road-to-writing-for-children.html.
Thanks Deb, for letting our readers know about your blog!
The Whole Megillah reviews children’s (and adult) books of Jewish content: picture books, fiction, nonfiction. Hard copies preferred. http://thewholemegillah.wordpress.com
Awake at Midnight reviews mid-grade and YA books that specifically have a scary or mystery theme: http://www.awakeatmidnight.com
Howdy very nice site!! Guy .. Excellent .. Superb .. I’ll bookmark your site and take the feeds additionally?I am happy to find a lot of helpful info right here within the publish, we’d like work out more techniques in this regard, thank you for sharing. . . . . .
Hiya. I just want to say a big thank you for this list, it’s great and has saved me from trawling the internet – an experience that is rarely rewarding!
I wonder when I’ll be brave enough to submit my new books for review. You think they’d bother with chapter books? Some are just around 2.5k words each… (though I like to think they are more about quality than quantity ;-).
Anyway, thanks again!
Hi Peter:
Yes, I think some reviewers would be interested in seeing your chapter book. You never know until you try! Good luck!
I review children’s books for 5-13 year olds. I’m on twitter @minervamoan and review both fiction and non-fiction
website is http://www.MinervaReads.com
Thanks for bringing some new review sites to my attention. I especially adore Cool Mom Picks. I work with a talented team of reviewers covering both fiction and nonfiction books. We review books for ages 0-18 with an emphasis on picture and middle grade titles. We love doing Q&As as well as giveaways, too. Find us at http://www.goodreadswithronna.com
Thanks for letting us post links to our blogs. We are a family of readers who love to read and review books. We have recently shifted our focus to more kid lit and we are looking for more children’s books to review. We review picture books to YA. We don’t mind indie or self-published books as long as a professional editor has seen them first. We also share articles pertinent to families, recent post: http://www.thestubbypencilreviews.com/2015/02/7-ways-to-raise-happy-reader.html
[…] http://writeforkids.org/2014/06/editors-pick-the-top-15-childrens-and-ya-book-review-blogs/ […]
My name is Phoebe, and I’m 10 years old. I love to read books. ALL kinds of books! I also love to write. That’s why I started this book review blog when I was 9. I thought it would fun to combine both of my interests and share it with everyone. You can see my latest reviews at http://www.phoebesbookshelf.com/.
Thank you for sharing your review blog with us Phoebe. Your reviews are very insightful!
Feeling awesome after checking out your list of Top 15 children and YA book review blogs, looking out for them from quite a while.
Thanks for sharing!
Here is are 2 kidlit book review blogs to think about when making next year’s list.
Kid Lit Reviews has been reviewing kids books for nearly five years. Books for ages infant to age 13 can be found there. Reviews are well written, honest, and fair. Reviews for all major publishers.
http://kid-lit-reviews.coom
AND, though no one likes to help the competition, I’ll make exception because this kidlit site is worth mentioning.
This Kid Reviews Books is a book review site that reviews mostly middle grade but also picture books. It was started by nine-year-old Erik, who is now 13. His reviews are fantastic and well written. For a kid’s point of view, there is no site better than Erik’s. He also reviews all major publishers.
http://thiskidreviewsbooks.com