About The Picture Book Review:

I started The Picture Book Review in 2012 when my eldest son was two-and-a-half years old.  The two of us fell in love with picture books and he would let me read to him for hours and hours on end.  I would go to the library and max out our library cards (200 books) and bring them home and we’d just go through stacks of books together.  I didn’t know about The Horn Book, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, or even Kirkus Reviews until much later.  We’d just grab whatever looked interesting to us.

I started this blog because I wanted to talk to people about the picture books we were reading and especially about books that were appealing to my son.  I was so impressed with how he was developing, how he was embodying the lessons he was learning from picture books at such a young age, and how his verbal skills were exploding. At two, he’d say crazy things like, “I’m playing in my topiary garden!”  I wanted to share this with other parents because, at the time, I didn’t know there were blogs – or professional review journals – about picture books. For whatever reason, my internet searches for picture book recommendations and picture book reviews were pitiful and of no help at all to me. I used Amazon a lot to find books I’d like, but it was slow and frustrating.  I wanted to be helpful, so I thought maybe blogging about the picture books we liked would be useful to other parents.

I named the blog The Picture Book Review because every single other name I wanted was taken.  Finally, after the twenty-seventh try, I found this name available.

In the beginning, I blogged about whatever we were reading and enjoying from the library or the bookstore.  Then after blogging for awhile people began emailing me and asking me to review their books.  Now, I primarily blog about books that we love and are sent to us for review.  I only write reviews about books that we really enjoy and I only accept books for review that look interesting and intriguing to us.

I accept books from self-published, small publishers, large publishers, and everyone in between.  I use the term picture book pretty loosely — and only require that the book has pictures of some sort.

The blog is set up so you can just scan through the covers.  If you see a book that looks interesting to you, click on the cover to read the review.

The Picture Book Review is a hobby blog and I don’t get paid for the reviews.  I just write reviews because it is interesting to me, I learn a lot, and it’s a fun way to connect with others.

The Picture Book Review was recently added to the list of the top 100 children’s book blogs by Feedspot.com and Rankedblogs.com. Go check them out, they have curated a fantastic lists of chldren’s book bloggers.

About Me:

Hi, I’m Tiffa.

Once upon a time I was a department chair and a director of review and assessment at a small university.  I spent my days writing exams and teaching physics, chemistry, anatomy, and board exam review classes.

Now, I am a stay-at-home mom.  I have two sons.  One is six and the other is rounding his way into being a pre-schooler.

I started reading to my first son when he was a month old and the habit took.  The second son hasn’t had much of a choice and we’ve been reading to him since he was in utero.  We got rid of our television when my first son was born and we spend a lot of time reading and playing.  We’ve read thousands of picture books, board books, and comic books at this point and there are still so many I’m looking forward to reading with my sons.

I hope you find my reviews helpful.  Thank you for reading!