Provo Library Children's Book Blog

Have you ever wondered what life was like for America's favorite red-headed teenager, Archie Andrews before he got to high school? Well wonder no more. As a youngster he was kidnapped by aliens, battled with pirates and saved the world from Mad Doctor Doom and his robots. These are just a few of the hair-raising adventures Little Archie and his wild imagination have while growing up in Riverdale. This volume collects several issues from the Little Archie comic book series that debuted in the early 1960's. Fun art and imaginative stories provide an entertaining book for children and a bit of nostalgia for adults.

Mo Willems has done a superb job again with his two new books in the An Elephant and Piggie Series. "I Love My New Toy!" is a story about Piggie's new toy. One day Elephant throws is high into the air a breaks it! After being anger, worried, and crying the friends are able to work things out. "I Will Surprise My Friend!" is a story about a new game the two decide to play. However, the surprise goes bad when each of the friends can't find the other one. Both books are in the same format as the other books in the series and are funny and entertaining. Check out these two new easy readers titles and also check out the other books in the Elephant and Piggie series. You won't be dissapointed.

The Sea Serpent and Me By Daska Slater; illustrated by Catia Chen. Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Unpaged. Picture book. When a tiny sea serpent slides out of the faucet and into the bathtub, he and a young girl become close friends. They play together, sing songs, and talk of the sea. However, the sea serpent is growing at an alarming rate--too fast to be comfortable in a house or even on land. They both know he belongs in the sea and that the little girl belongs on land. This is a lovely story about a special friendship and about loving someone enough to not only let them go but to encourage them on. This book is a great book for any person of any age.

Sergio is a little penguin from Argentina who loves soccer, fishies, and water...well, at least shallow water. He doesn't know how to swim, which makes him very nervous when a class trip to the ocean occurs on his first day of school. Will he take the plunge and face his fears? Sergio Makes a Splash is a wonderful book that talks about facing one's fears using a really fun and humorous approach. The bright, catchy, two toned retro illustrations are cute and entertaining and are the perfect complement to the great personality of this story. Readers will cheer Sergio on as he battles and triumphs over his fears. This is a great story, especially for little ones afraid of swimming.

Little Liza loves crayons. She fills her bedroom, the hallway, and even the bathroom with beautiful colored pages. When she runs out of paper and colors an alternative option, her mother confiscates the crayons, leaving Liza's world very grey and colorless. Will Liza be able to look outside the crayon box to enjoy colors? A Day With N o C r a y o n s by Elizabeth Rusch is a charming look at the world and its beauty through a child's eyes and about learning how to see things in new ways. The illustrations are engaging, adorable, and soft without being too sweet or sentimental. The illustrator, Chad Cameron, uses an excellent color palette to express Liza's moods and to highlight the colors she notices. Any young child who loves coloring can relate to this great book !

COOL DADDY RAT ; Kristyn Crow; illustrated by Mike Lester; G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2008; unpaged. Picture Book. Who would have thought a policeman's wife from Layton could so capture the big city beatof jazz and scat. But Kristyn Crow's three years in Manhattan have served her--and her readers--very well as Cool Daddy Rat (bass player) and his jazzy little boy be-bop their way through the city to Cool Daddy's gigs at The Big Swig, on the Schmooze Cruise, and so on. Mike Lester's movement-filled pictures perfectly complement Crow's alternating lines of interior rhyme and Cool Daddy's scat singing. Any storyteller who could shake his/her inhibitions even a little bit could make Cool Daddy Rat into one of the great read-alouds of the year. . . . witty kitty shoo bat!

Brilliant young Eli Treebuckle, fixer of all things fixable, can't seem to escape his reoccuring nightmare until one night when the moon visits. They go on a journey to the Moonpowder factory where Eli is asked to discover the cause of the factory's malfunction. He finds that the key ingredient in making Moonpowder has been completely depleted! Will Eli be able to help the factory produce sweet dreams again? Moonpowder by John Rocco is a fun, creative story. The beautiful illustrations are the real strength in this book--they are vivid, colorful, imaginative, and have loads of interesting and fun details. I especially liked that the moon man reminded me of a round lumpy mound of cheese and that Eli wears footie pajama pants! The story is a little disjointed in places but the adventure aspect combined with the great pictures will keep children interested.

What would you do if you found an airplane in your closet? Would you fly it to the moon? In the book The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers, that's exactly what the little boy who finds such a flying craft decides to do. He's not sure what he will encounter on the moon, and when his plane runs out of fuel, he's stuck! Luckily, help comes along in an unusual and surprising way. This is a fun story about making friends even if they live far away and very different. The spare, simple, quirky watercolor paintings and the storyline go well together. The story is a bit abrupt in the storytelling occasionally, leaving the reader to fill in the gaps, but overall it is still an interesting book.

BECCA AT SEA ; Deirdre Baker; Toronto: Groundwood Book, 2007; 165p. Juvenile Fiction. Becca at Sea is a lovely, literate little story, much-needed in, but ill-suited to our frenetic times. Becca visits her grandmother each summer in her home on British Columbia's Gulf Islands, usually with her mother and father, aunts, uncles, and cousins. But as this story begins, she is alone at Gran's in February, a little uncertain about what to do. They play Scrabble, make a midnight oyster run, and run smack in the middle of an enormous herring spawning run where Becca gets kissed by a seal. In subsequent visits, with and without her parents, Becca becomes more adventurous, more resourceful, and, along with her readers, comes to love the Pacific coast of Canada. Becca at Sea is a beautiful, calming book--maybe not a first pick for children in this frantic age, but a comforting read-together book at the end of the day.

BUILDING MANHATTAN ; Laura Vila; New York: Viking, 2008; unpaged. Picture Book. The story of Manhattan island (and New York City) is told in brief from prehistoric times to the present in this brilliantly colored and conceived picture book. Most of us think of New York City in shades of gray, but Vila conveys the life of the city in her colors from the rich natural resources of the time of the First People, through the Dutch, to the English, to people from every nation who bring the richness of their cultures from all over the world. No matter where you live, this lovely depiction of life in the Big Apple is a delight.

Jamie Morgan and his dad are newcomers to Dinosaur Cove. They are living in the lighthouse with Jamie's grandfather. Jamie's dad is opening a dinosaur museum on the bottom floor of the lighthouse. Jamie is excited to find his own fossils on the beach. He soon meets another young enthusiast named Tom. Together the boys find a secluded cave with some mysterious footprints. Where will the footprints lead? Will there be danger ahead for these young explorers? This exciting new intermediate series is filled with illustrations, maps and dinosaur facts. It is sure to be a hit with beginning chapter book readers.

Roscoe Riley is a retired Kindergartner (a.k.a. a first grader). He finds himself in the Time-Out corner quite often. He just doesn't understand why there are so many rules for children! His brain can't possibly remember all of them. Unfortunately, this leads to a lot of problems for Roscoe. Katherine Applegate (of Animorphs fame) brings us the male equivalent of Junie B. Jones, though not quite as annoying. Roscoe has a bit of attitude and gets into some trouble both at home and school, but his mishaps will teach young children that there are consequences to their actions.

THE RETIRED KID ; Jon Agee; New York: Hyperion, 2008; unpaged. Picture Book. Brian is fed up with the hard life of being a kid: violin class, babysitting, broccoli, and walking Sparky. He decides to retire. He packs up his bags, flies to Florida, and moves in to the Happy Sunset Retirement Community. Hanging out with Ethel, Wally, Tex, and Myrtle was fun at first, with lots of card games, golf, swimming, and going to ball games and the movies with Harvey. On the other hand, there are the prune smoothies, endless pictures of grandchildren, and hip surgery narratives. In the end, Brian decides that although being a kid is hard work, he likes his job. Funny text, with Agee's trademark illustrations.

Ghost, a teenage anarchist, is a talented airboarder with no memory of her past or identity. Her family is a gang of daredevils who live for action and general chaos. When an unusual girl who calls herself Cindella Dragonslayer shows up and begins performing feats Ghost believed impossible, her concepts of the world she lives in are forced into completely new and different routes. Will they be able to best the Dark Queen who controls Saga ? In this exciting sequel to Epic , Saga is a story that works well as either a continuation of the concepts presented in the first novel or an interesting stand-alone work. As I thoroughly enjoyed Epic and thought it had concluded well, I was curious to see what direction Kostick decided to go in a sequel. I was pleased that although the book had ties and connections to Epic, Kostick managed to create a new story that was just as interesting as the first. This book is well written and would be a good choice for those who enjoy an original, fast-paced

Hercules Smith wakes up Saturday morning thinking it is going to be a typically normal Saturday morning. Boy, is he wrong! There's a giant carrot in his backyard. Wait! It's not just a carrot, it's a space ship! As he is investigating this strange object two large rabbits (I mean Wuv Bunnies) come out of the carrot. After some excruciatingly funny jokes they inform Hercules that it is his job to save earth from the Funny Bunnies (not funny ha-ha) and Triple B. They are starting to take over the earth in Hercules very own town. Their evil plan - to turn all children into giant carrots (not adults - they don't have any flavor). Will Hercules be able to do it? Will his very own dog ruin everything? The text and illustrations are of a simple nature, but complement each other very well. Young kids, especially boys, will get a lot of laughs out of reading Wuv Bunnies from Outers Pace .

Sam is excited when his world-traveling uncle comes to visit. Uncle Julius brings a box full of rare seeds from the Amazon. He instructs Sam to put them in the refrigerator as they need to be kept cool and out of the light. A few days later Sam's friend Lionel is helping himself to "candy" he found in the kitchen. Suddenly Lionel is becoming a Tree With Eyes ! Will Uncle Julius return in time to save him? Is it even possible to save him? This is a quick and entertaining fantasy adventure for beginning chapter book readers. Also enjoyable are the colorful illustrations throughout. This title is part of a series called "The Adventures of Sam X". As far as I can tell, there is no particular order in which these need to be read.