Provo Library Children's Book Blog

As a child, did you ever drop your ice cream cone on the ground, before you even got to have a lick? Wasn't it tragic! Were you ever the "new kid" at school? How horrible were all those eyes on you when you walked into the classroom for the first time? Did you ever take swimming lessons? That diving board was waaaaaaaaaay to high to ever jump off of! And horror of horrors, "Great-Aunt Matilda" coming at you to pinch your cheeks! Don't even mention The Dentist, we just won't go there! These are just a few of the Twelve Terrible Things that Marty Kelley shows us. The minimal text is effective in conveying the message of what is "terrible" to a young child. It is the illustrations, however, that make this my new favorite picture book. Kelley's watercolors portray exactly what a child would see in each event. The details are great. For example, look at "Great-Aunt Matilda's" chin and in the road trip picture each family member has...

Presidents FYI (For Your Information) is a very entertaining book that briefly describes all forty three presidents of the United States. Some presidents only have a page of information about them while other presidents have four pages. (Let’s see if you can guess the presidents that would have more!) The information was brief and very interesting. I learned things that I haven’t learned before. One interesting thing was the Eleanor Roosevelt was the niece of Theodore Roosevelt and the distant cousin of her husband, Franklin. The president’s terms of office are explained and major accomplishments as well. The layout is appealing to the eye and there are lots of pictures included with each president. There are also links to the Smithsonian to find out more information. The only thing that bugged me was that in Bill Clinton’s brief biography it failed to mention his impeachment or the Monica Lewinsky scandal. (Something I consider important to his presidential years) However, other pres...

THE MAZE OF BONES , Book One in the 39 Clues series; Rick Riordan; New York: Scholastic, 2008. 220 fast-moving pages. Fiction The 39 Clues series (inevitable echoes of John Buchan/Alfred Hitchcock's classic "The 39 Steps arise) should be yet another cash cow for Scholastic books. Going beyond the books themselves (by Rick Riordan, Gordon Korman, and Peter Lerangis, respectively), there are clue cards for sale, an Internet link, and a grand prizes amounting to 100 grand or so. Fortunately, it's a quality product they are selling. Rick Riordan's first book is a slam bang adventure featuring Amy and Dan Cahill, a brother and sister team who compete against teams of unsavory relatives to find the Cahill treasure described in their grandmother's will. Their parents are long-gone in a car crash, so the kids are on their own except for their au pair, Nellie, who accompanies to provide the appearance of adult supervision as they chase a clue from Poor Richard's Almanac...

Pink, Pony, and Sparkles . . . Without even opening the book, the cover alone is a natural draw for any little girl. Susan Jeffers is both author and illustrator for My Chincoteague Pony and it's a winner! It's a true story, well, "several true stories", as Jeffers tells us, about a little girl who is horse crazy (I can relate - I was horse crazy at this age, too) and wants to buy one of the famous Chincoteague ponies. She works hard to save up money and attends the annual auction held on Chincoteague Island in Virginia. What happens there? Does she get her pony? You'll have to read the book to find out! Jeffers' illustrations are beautiful. There seems to be a tinge of pink on every page. The best one is the full spread towards the end where pony and girl are eye to eye. No text on these pages because no words are needed. Look for this one in Picture Books under Jeffers.

Cody has always had a special friend named Paul Brightfield. Cody's family and friends feel he spends too much time with Paul, they sense that Paul is not quite what he seems. Paul is special because he is not human even if he can look human. Paul is a magical being, older than time itself. One night an ancient evil, The Woman, awakens in Wilde Park. Cody, his sister and two of their friends are the only humans left who can save humanity. The Woman has decided to remake the world to her liking. The children embark on a strange adventure where time ceases to exist as we know it. They experience fear, betrayal, hope and joy as they search for the Stardust Kid, their only hope in defeating The Woman. Will The Stardust Kid help restore order to the world, or is he going to transform the earth into something else entirely? What is Paul Brightfield's connection to The Woman? The story is exciting and very well-written. The illustrations are fantastic! (See the slide show below for e...

My One Hundred Adventures ; Polly Horvath; New York: Schwartz & Wade, 2008. 260pp. Fiction. Polly Horvath's new book is neck and neck with Trolls as her best book ever. Jane Fielding lives with her poet mother, brothers and sister, year round somewhere on the New England coast. For most of her life the sea, nature, and her family have been enough for her, but now she wants adventures. She decides to have 100 of them, and makes a good start in this book when her experiences range from trying to figure out if the Coat Hanger Man is her real father, to dropping Bibles out of a hot-air balloon, to being blackmailed into tending the horrible little Gourd children. She goes to church with her family, helps her mother make her remarkable berry jams, prays for Mrs. Park's health but forgets Mrs. Naster's, and feels guilty when Mrs. Naster has cancer and Mrs. Park gets well. As always, Horvath's text is laugh-aloud funny, but My One Hundred Adventures is also a warm and te...

Take a good look at this cover. Can you begin to guess what kind of story might lie within? When I saw the cover, I thought at first it might be a historical novel (based up on the nightgown and old looking barn). At the very most I thought it was a book about a young girl trying to cope with typical troubles and fears. What I wasn't expecting was a science fiction novel. Piper McCloud is different than other children. Her parents homeschool her so that their small community doesn't find out exactly how different she is. That all changes when Piper shows her special ability during a community baseball game. Once everyone knows she can fly, word spreads like wildfire. Piper is quickly taken away by a government agency to a top-secret facility. She is led to believe that she will be able to fly whenever she wants and she will actually have flying lessons. Piper is excited to finally be able to be herself and not have to hide anymore. However, things might not be what they seem. I...

All Hail, Mem Fox!!! She is awesome . . . yet again. Ten Little Fingers . . . is a wonderful pre-school age book. Simple rhymes and easy repetitions make this a perfect read aloud for children in the emergent literacy stage (What is that? you ask. Well, call the library find out.). I have one problem with this book and it has nothing to do with the text. It's the illustration with the line, "There was one little baby who was born on the ice." If he was born on the ice, we assume he is part of the native peoples from the Arctic Circle which is in the northern hemisphere. In the picture with him, is a baby penguin. Penguins are native to the Antarctic, which is in the southern hemisphere. And there are no native peoples there. So, unless this child is on a trip to the zoo, perhaps somewhere in Alaska, these two infants would not be together on the same block of ice. Helen Oxenbury, while I love your illustrations, this is a huge error. Where are your editors? A worthwhil...

Two brand new Halloween books!!! Both fun and enjoyable with great illustrations, but different in text quantity (not quality, though). Boo, Bunny! is a pre-school level book with just a few words on each page. The "squeaks" and "eeks" and "hop, hop, hop", follow a pair of little bunnies out trick-or-treating. They encounter shadows, rattling bones, a black cat, and a mix of spooky (but harmless) Halloween things as they make their way up to a door to say those magic words: Trick-or-Treat! I appreciate the author having the bunnies remember those other magic words: Thank-you! Bone Soup is a Halloween version of the old "Stone Soup" tale. In this one, our clever hero is Finnigin. Finnigan wanders the land over, looking for a good meal. No one welcomes him because of his very large eating mouth and very large appetite. Finnigan figures out how to brew up a delicious soup and he does it with the help of all the unsuspecting townspeople, the very...

For those looking for a cute new Halloween book for their preschool age children, this book will charm even the smallest of readers. A girl moves into a big, beautiful home only to discover it is haunted by ghosts. But this little girl isn’t afraid, and she knows just what to do with those pesky spooks. Her hilarious answer to the problem will have kids giggling and wishing their house was haunted too. The simple black, orange, and white woodcut illustrations in this book are darling and the smiling ghosts are not scary in the least. Keep your eye on the main character’s white cat. His antics are almost as fun as his young owner’s.

Do you have a little boy who loves anything that moves? Tractors, boats, trains, planes, buses, bikes, dump trucks, fire trucks—the little boy in this story has them all in his backyard. Tiny pirates, a mouse and a small dragon, have great deal of fun trying out all the boy’s different toy vehicles. They scamper about at his feet making the boy seem like a giant in his miniature sandbox world. How could any machine loving-toddler resist?

Magic Trixie is a young witch who feels that no one cares about her. She gets in trouble for every little thing she does while her baby sister Abby Cadabra gets to do whatever she wants. Magic Trixie gets no attention, while Abby is the center of attention. Things at school are rocky for Magic Trixie as well. Show and Tell week is coming up and her friends have already seen all of the tricks she is good at. She really wants to wow her class with something special! That will be hard to do considering her class consists of twin vampire boys, a young mummy girl, a Frankenstein Monster boy, and a werewolf girl who all have wonderfully exciting things to share. Magic Trixie and Scratches, her little black kitten, eventually create a fabulous new magic trick to perform for her classmates. Let's just hope her parents don't find out about it! This is a wonderful new graphic novel that will especially appeal to young girls. Although the characters are not your typical every-day humans,...

SWINDLE ; Gordon Korman; New York: Scholastic, 2008; 252pp. Juvenile fiction. Griffin Bing is "the Man with a Plan," and the night before the old Rockford house is demolished, he plans for all the kids in his class to spend the night in protest that the vacated ground won't be used for a skateboard park. Only his best friend Ben Slovak shows up and after a kind of scary night, they have to run from the building to avoid the wrecking ball, but not before Griffin finds a very old Babe Ruth baseball card in an old rolltop desk. Hoping to end his family's financial struggles, he takes the card to a dealer who gives him $120 for it and then shows up on TV with this invaluable card which he hopes to auction for a million dollars. Griffin and his friends decide to steal it back, and the wild rumpus starts. Swindle is a very funny book about friendship, ingenuity, a young Dog Whisperer trying to connect with the Inner Doberman. Perfect for kids from fourth grade up, especial...

A fabulously fun find! An amazingly alliterative alphabet book! M is for Mischief: an A to Z of Naughty Children is filled with bratty kids doing the things bratty kids like to do. Each letter of the alphabet is represented by an alliterative verse about a naughty child doing naughty things along with the consequences of their behavior. While the verses are funny, the collage style illustrations are fantastic!