Book Safari is a fully searchable database of book reviews created by the children's department staff of the Ela Area Public Library in Lake Zurich, Illinois. The books included in the database have been read by a member of the staff of the children's department and have been included in the database because they would be useful to Ela patrons for recreational and required reading.

The genres and subject areas were selected by the Children's Department staff in order to address the types of requests most frequently presented by Library patrons.

Each review will contain information about the author, number of pages, copyright year, age range, and a brief written description. The age range is determined by a variety of professional book review publications. Additionally, each review includes the initials of the staff member who read the book and wrote the review, as well as the date that the book was read.

Other book selection options include Book Awards, Battle Books, and Books by Grade. Book Awards features a list of reviewed books that have been designated as medal or honor books in the major national book awards programs as well as those that have been awarded the Caudill Award, which is specific to Illinois. Battle Books are those reviewed books that have been included in the Ela Area Public Library Junior Battle of the Books competitions in the past years.

This project was a joint effort between the Ela Area Public Library District and Greg Less, a Web developer who generously volunteered his time to develop the backend programming that runs the Book Safari database.

If you have any questions about Book Safari, please contact the Ela Area Public Library Children's Department at children@eapl.org or 847-438-3840.