Provo Library Children's Book Blog

Preschool Time Invisible Lizard Written by Kurt Cyrus Illustrated by Andy Atkins Ann Arbor, MI: Sleeping Bear Press, 2017. Picture Book. "Napoleon the chameleon tries to make friends with animals that live near him in the jungle, but has a hard time being seen." --Editor Preschool Time All the Ice Cream in the World By Masoud Gharehbaghi New York: Clavis Publishing Inc., 2024. Picture Book. "A sweet picture book about a little polar bear and his helpers. And about lots of ice cream, of course! For children ages 5 years and up. Waking from his nap, a little polar bear finds himself floating alone on the open sea. His home has broken off from the ice floe and is melting! Just in the nick of time, he arrives in a new land. He needs help, but no one pays him any attention. Until a kind girl with an ice cream cone walks by and takes notice. The town gathers in a very touching way, but for the little polar bear, the solution, while moving, doesn't really address the cause....

  Hansel and Gretel  Retold by Stephen King  Pictures by Maurice Sendak  New York: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2025. Picture Book.  Stephen King was asked to write a “new interpretation” of the story of Hansel and Gretel based on some illustrations that Maurice Sendak did for the Humperdinck opera of the story. This book is a combination of King’s new take on the classic tale, as well as Sendak’s illustrations from the opera. And boy, is this a good retelling! There is a lot of text, but with the darkness of the tale and a master of horror like Stephen King, that is no surprise. This is a story that will read well to older elementary school kids who enjoy rich sentences that convey the horror of this story in subtle ways. Also, the illustrations are classic Sendak pictures. There are lots of colors, detailed trees, and a stunning illustration of a witch on a broom pulling a basket of soon-to-be-eaten children behind her. Read this to any child who loves book...

  Next month is a month where my family will plan lots of time together—most of which will be spent eating food together. And I wouldn’t be the librarian I am sharing this list of great titles where food and family are the focus of each story. So, pull up a snack and settle in to read these five picture books that just might make you pull your loved ones closer while also reaching for a snack!  Fish Fry Friday  Written by Winsome Bingham  Illustrated by C. G. Esperanza  New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2025. Picture Book.  The young kid who is out of school for a Friday gets to spend the day with Granny. On Fridays Granny goes and catches fish to use for the family fish fry on Friday nights. The narrator loves spending time with Granny as she teaches about fishing, filleting, and frying up good times with food and family.  Grilled Cheese? Yes, Please!  By Tim Kleyn  New York: Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2024. Pict...

Blood in the Water By Tiffany D. Jackson New York: Scholastic, 2025. Fiction. 255 pages. 12-year-old Kaylani McKinnon can't help but feel like a fish out of water. She's a Brooklyn girl spending her summer on Martha's Vineyard surrounded by wealthy family friends in their mansion. All she really wants is to stay home all summer where she her incarcerated father can easily reach her, and she can keep working to find ways to prove him innocent of fraud and embezzlement. Despite her protests, she finds herself on the island with the snooty granddaughters of her host. Soon after Kaylani's arrival, a popular teen boy is found murdered and she decides to conduct her own investigation. As she tries to discover what happened to Chadwick Cooper, Kaylani finds that not everything on Martha's Vineyard is as perfect as it appears. Thrillers for middle grade readers can be hard to find, but Tiffany D. Jackson succeeds in her first middle grade novel. A quick moving plot, tight d...

Tomatoes on Trial Written by Lindsay H. Metcalf Illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham New York: Calkins Creek, 2025. Informational. An age old debate that has caused divisions in my household for over six years: Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? Do we go with the botanical definition of what a fruit is or judge a tomato based on how it's used culinarily? This informational picture book tells the story of John Nix and his attempt to get tomatoes classified as a fruit so he wouldn't have to pay the 10% vegetable tax. The lineup is then set for the great tomato debate as it took place in the Supreme Court case of Nix vs. Hedden . Arguments are laid out in a "food" fight before the court confirmed the tomato's place as a vegetable. I loved how this book put historical context to what can be a humorous debate. Peppered with fruit and vegetable puns, Metcalf isn't shy about sharing the financial motivations of both Nix and the US government in trying to decide how a t...

First Ascent: The Epic Yosemite Rock Climbing Rivalry of Royal Robbins and Warren Harding Written by Kate Messner Illustrated by Steview Lewis Yosemite National Park: Yosemite Conservancy Press, 2025. Informational picture book. How two "fathers of rock climbing" engaged in a daring game of one-upmanship, pushing the sport to new heights as they racked up first ascents of big wall climbs around Yosemite Valley in the 1950s and 60s, ultimately paving the way for a modern era of rock climbing with a focus on leave-no-trace environmental ethics. - Publisher. Up, Up, Ever Up!: Junko Tabei: A Life in the Mountains Written by Anita Yasuda Illustrated by Yuzo Shimizu New York: Clarion Books, 2024. Biography. Anita Yasuda's evocative picture book biography about Junko Tabei, the first woman to summit Everest. - Publisher Mystery on Everest: A Photobiography of George Mallory By Audrey Salkeld Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2000. Biography. Discusses the life of Br...