Whether it’s books you’ve read, or books you want to read, BookBump offers an easy and effective way to keep track of them. BookBump allows you to organize your booklists to meet your needs, creating and naming them as you prefer. For each book on your list, you have the option of marking it as one you’ve read; or one you have borrowed or own. You can also add personal ratings, notes, and more.

_______________________________________________

Challis Thasall is the mom of four wonderful, witty children, and wife to one stubborn, wonderful husband. Currently homeschooling her two young children, she homeschooled her older children through graduation and is a homeschool graduate herself. She enjoys using free resources to spark her children’s interest and imagination, meeting their needs and keeping learning fun. The special needs, found throughout her immediate and extended families, add to the adventure and give further proof that every child learns in their own way.

Name of Product: BookBump

Link to Product/website: http://www.bookbump.com

Description of Product: “BookBump is a simple, yet comprehensive application offering intuitive book-management solutions.”

Challis’ Description of Product: Whether it’s books you’ve read, or books you want to read, BookBump offers an easy and effective way to keep track of them. Use of the site is FREE and, after a quick registration process (confirmed through email), you’re ready to begin building your personal Library! Their search function lets you find a book by ISBN, title, author, keyword, or a combination of all. Then simply click on the book you want to add it to your list.

BookBump allows you to organize your booklists to meet your needs, creating and naming them as you prefer. For each book on your list, you have the option of marking it as one you’ve read; or one you have borrowed or own.  You can also add personal ratings, notes, and more. How your lists are displayed is up to you! Do you prefer a written list of titles and detailed information? Or a list displaying book cover images, title and author? The choice is yours and it’s easy to switch between the two. There’s even a graph, displaying statistical information for your lists.

When looking to buy a book, BookBump makes the process almost effortless. You’re able to read reviews, bibliography and author‘s notes, find similar books, and check prices. The Price Check function shows both new and used copies and you’re able to visit a merchant listed with the click of your mouse. (Books are not purchased from BookBump, they simply aid in your search for the book you want).

Homeschool Uses: With BookBump, organizing assigned reading lists is easy. Creating lists such as “Books To Read” and “Books Read”, moving books from one list to the other, and using features that enable you to mark the date a book was started or finished. Booklists can be tailored for specific subjects, areas of interest, or grade levels. Parents can create lists of their own for books discussing homeschooling methods or suggestions, books which inspired them to homeschool, or those written with special needs in mind. There are endless possibilities. Don’t forget the list for the books with recipes and hands-on experiments, edible and non-edible, or the follow-up list titled “Stain Removal”.

If you choose to export a list, many options are given to pare the list down to certain books or include them all. With no download necessary, your personal Library is accessible from any computer and books could be added at any time. Older students will be able to use this site with ease and, depending on their level of reading and computer experience, younger students should as well. And what a great resource BookBump would be for college students!

In my search, I found homeschool curriculum and supplements, including both well-known and lesser-known curricula, as well titles specific to special needs education.

Content and Safety: Registration does ask for first and last name, in addition to email address, though only you and employees of BookBump have access to that information. This is explained in their Privacy Policy. The policy also mentions asking for your birth date and city, though I wasn’t asked for that information. You must agree to their Terms of Service in order to register. As this is a site where any book may be found, there is an inherent need for discretion when allowing a child to search for books. At this time, there are no discussion boards or other forms of interaction. BookBump does plan to add those other features over time.

Challis’ Experience Using the Product: Finding the books I wanted was easy. While I normally get the best results searching the ISBN, BookBump found the books I wanted through each of their search criteria. Their Keyword search worked better than other sites.  I entered publisher names into the keyword search and it brought up a lot of the curriculum I looked for. I tested a wide variety of titles and subjects, some more obscure than others, and had good results every time. In addition to finding the specific books I wanted, BookBump showed titles relevant to my search and did just as well when selecting a book from my list and checking “Similar Books”. Some of those were books I wasn’t yet familiar with and others were books I planned to search and add to my Library.

Creating lists and adding books to each was a breeze. I also liked the ability to add a book to more than one list, as well as being able to make my own notes for each title.

Tutorial or Promotional Video of the Product: A preview of BookBump is available from their homepage by clicking any of the six images for more information or selecting the Preview link. They also have a help section, appropriately titled “Manual”, which is well laid-out. Though a few terms and references don’t seem to apply at this time, I expect they soon will and none make it difficult to learn the features.

Summary: Though still in it’s Beta stage, with more features to come, BookBump already provides an great way to organize and manage your booklists. To see what BookBump has planned, or offer suggestions if you have any, visit their Development page.

Check BookBump out for yourself and please let us know what you think!

Editor’s Note: Read these Reviews of FREE Organizational Tools:
Keep Track of Events in your Area AND Get Organized!
An amazing organizational tool for online research - excellent for visual learners!
A Labor Day Library Challenge: How We’re Conquering Chaos in Our Home Library