Guest Contributor: StorySnoops
We are the Snoops, four moms who love to read and enjoy sharing this passion with any captive audience — friends, neighbors, and family. Secretly, we each fancy ourselves matchmakers of sorts, gaining giddy satisfaction from facilitating a successful pairing between book and reader.
Not surprisingly, this quirky characteristic has spilled over into our role as mothers, and we each strive to instill a passion for reading in our children. Between us we have nine of them, running the gamut from the truly voracious to the most reluctant of readers. Over the years, we have helped one another find just the right books to hook our children on reading. We even embark upon book therapy, suggesting titles to help a child facing a social challenge or in need of a positive role model. Have a teen girl in need of a confidence boost? North of Beautiful by Justina Chin Headly is just what the doctor ordered. Tween boy battling bullies? The Misfits by James Howe is your best bet.
Our ongoing quest to find fiction that fits inspired us to create StorySnoops.com. Now we facilitate literature liaisons on a broad scale. Our Find-a-Book and Browse features are designed to guide parents, teachers, and librarians to fiction that resonates with the specific interests and experiences of readers, while encouraging informed discussions.
Users have the option to search our database of more than 1,000 books by author, title, genre, age, main character gender, awards, and many suggested reading lists that are organized by topic. These lists include books for reluctant readers, sports enthusiasts, those seeking diverse characters, and many more.
Written from a parent’s perspective, our book reviews do not place judgment or emphasize either “positive” or “negative” content. Instead, we factually present subject matter and themes, making every effort to include context.
On StorySnoops.com, we like to celebrate events that celebrate reading. We recently hosted an interview series in celebration of Children’s Book Week, featuring beloved authors including Dave Barry, Clare Vanderpool, Wendy Mass, and more.
In the course of doing what we love, each of us has been fortunate to learn valuable lessons from the wealth of compelling and worthwhile material available for tweens and teens. After reading more than 1,000 books for our website, we have no doubt that there is fiction out there to fit every type of young reader. Ultimately, we hope that our service encourages an enriching and life-long relationship with literature.
Join the StorySnoops group on Curriki today!
