Provo Library Children's Book Blog

In this smaller formatted book, Fancy Nancy and her friend Bree step outside to examine the world of outdoors. Fancy Nancy's explorer outfit still includes pink bows, curls, frills, and cute shoes. "Just because you're exploring doesn't mean you can't be fancy!" Readers are introduced to two new characters: Nancy's younger sister and Bree's younger brother Freddie. Vocabulary building centers around names of insects, butterflies, flowers and leaves as the girls research and take notes on backyard nature. In addition, readers cannot help but be impressed with Nancy and Bree's wishes of possibly becoming a lepidopterist and ornithologist.....fancy words for people who study butterflies and birds.

Moms can do embarrassing things like kiss you all over your face in front of your friends, or bring a change of clothes to school. This story chronicles one little girl's fantasy of running away from both her mom and dad, who seem to be "ruining her life." The fantasy also includes her parents being locked up in jail. She finally has her freedom until she realizes there is nothing in the fridge to eat, no one to read her a bedtime story, and no one to comfort her after a scary dream. Children will enjoy the progressive narrative storyline method of reasoning. A new love and respect for the many good things parents do naturally emerges without being didactic or preachy. Illustrations are whimsical and light hearted.

There are things I liked about Mark Teague's newest book, Funny Farm , and things I didn't like. Where should I start? I'll do the "didn'ts" first. The illustrations show animals personified. Well, some of the animals are. The main characters, Edward, and his farm family relatives, all dogs, are humanized. They stand upright, do farm chores, eat at a table, wear clothes, knit (yes, with paws) and sleep in beds. Most everybody else on and around the farm, who are also animals, act like animals. They are outside, roll in mud, live in the barn, and require care from their owners. It struck me the most on the page spread where there are pigs playing in puddle in the rain and Edward, a black and white boxer, watches from inside the house. I thought "You're a dog! Go play with them!" But, alas, he can't, seeing as how he goes through his entire visit to the farm wearing a suit and red bow tie. Another picture that bothered me was the maple syrup pa...

EGGS ; Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Emma Stevenson; New York: Holiday House, 2008. 32pgs. Pretty much everything you wanted to know about eggs, in general, you can find out in this lovely picture book: fish eggs, bullfrog eggs, flamingo eggs, praying mantis eggs, potter wasp eggs, and so on, are described as to color, texture, camouflage characteristics, parental proclivities, and setting (where are the nests, and how are they built?). Interesting, accessible text combines with beautiful pictures (this is Stevenson's first book!) to create a sure bet for nature lovers of all ages.

ONE BEETLE TOO MANY: THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF CHARLES DARWIN ; Kathryn Lasky, illustrated by Matthew Trueman; Somerville, MA: Candlewick, 2009; unpaged. At first I thought Matthew Trueman's illustrations were a bit juvenile-looking for Lasky's serious subject, but text and pictures end up to be perfectly complementary as we follow the young, endlessly fascinated Darwin through his childhood of beetle collecting (once finding three he wanted to take home, he put one in his mouth to free his hands for the other two), and then on his monumental voyage of discovery on the Beagle. Throughout the expedition, the vessel's captain, Robert Fitzroy, provided the foil for Darwin's discoveries in terms of contemporary religious belief in an unchangeable, inviolate Creation and Lasky expertly presents the one, then the other. She also faces the religious issue square-on: "Even though Darwin believed in change, that did not mean that he did not believe in God or a Creator...

LIFE ON EARTH--AND BEYOND: AN ASTROBIOLOGIST'S QUEST ; Pamela S. Turner; Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge, 2008; 109 pp. Juvenile Non-Fiction. Pamela Turner follows astrobiologist Chris McKay from Antarctica to the Sahara as he and other scientists look for signs of life in extreme earth environments that approximate conditions on other planets and moons. It is surprising what they find: microorganisms can apparently live everywhere except in the utterly dry conditions of, say, Chile's Atacama Desert where no rainfall in two years or more is pretty much the norm. Microorganisms were discovered as well in pockets of hot salt water a mile underground, in radioactive waste dumps, and on the moon after being accidentally left behind by astronauts. Many terrific photographs highlight Turner's fascinating text which opens up the possibilities to young readers of potential for life on Mars, on Venus, on several of Jupiter's moons while at the same time showing them how science is ...

My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants. That sentence will help you remember the names of the planets in order from the Sun. Did you know we're up to 11 planets in our solar system? Three of those are dwarf planets but have been able to retain their place in our system and each have their own word in the sentence above. High honor, indeed. I highly recommend this book, published by National Geographic, in 2008. That's pretty recent, but hurry and read it now anyway, because you never know when something is going to change in astronomy. According to Aguilar, "Almost every week another planet is discovered orbiting a distant star." 11 Planets layout is very kid-reader friendly. Big pictures of each planet accompany 1-2 paragraphs of information. Interesting graphics and facts are off to the side of the main text. Artwork showing the god or goddess the planet is named after and the planet's symbol are part of each page. (I di...

El Secreto por Erik Battut es la historia de un pequeño ratón que encuentra un tesoro y lo esconde para que nadie sepa de su secreto, pero el tesoro se hace tan grande que es difícil esconderlo y no lo puede ocultar más. Este es un libro apto para niños de 4 a 7 y se puede poner en prática vocabulario y habilidades narrativas

¡Deliciosa! Por Helen Cooper, juventud 1998 38p Es una linda historia donde tres amigitos que tienen mucha hambre tratan de decidir que van a preparar para comer, pero el patito que es uno de los amiguitos no se le da gusto con nada ya que su sopa favorita es la de calabaza,pero el problema es que las calabazas no estan maduras , y los amiguitos tratan de inventar algo para darle gusto al patito. Si quieren saver el final tienen que leer este libro para que vean el ingenio de uno de los amiguitos para darle gusto al patito,este es un libro con lindas ilustraciónes apto para niños de 4 a 7 años

A LIFE IN THE WILD: GEORGE SCHALLER'S STRUGGLE TO SAVE THE LAST GREAT BEASTS ; Pamela S. Turner; New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008; 95pp. Juvenile Non-Fiction. "Struggle" may not be the best word to describe George Schaller's life among the world's endangered animals. He loved every minute of it. But the delights of this book--which are many--are tempered by the probability that gorillas, snow leopards, lions, tigers, and pandas may not last many more generations in the wild. Still, George Schaller's work to understand the nature of the great beasts--habitat requirements, social and eating habits, range, etc.--will help us preserve the top of the food chain for awhile, and everything else thereby. A Life in the Wild is fascinating reading, a perfect book for children who love animals.

LINCOLN AND HIS BOYS ; Rosemary Wells; illustrated by P. J. Lynch; Sommerville, MA: Candlewick, 2009; 96pp. Juvenile fiction. Who would not love to see Rosemary Wells win the Newbery? It is early days for that yet, but she ought to get more than serious consideration this year with the recent publication of this lyrical and timely portrait of Abraham Lincoln as seen by his sons Willie and Tad. The boys huck pebbles at their father's office window in Springfield to get him to come home for supper, where he waltzes their mother around the room; Will is so amazed by a visit to the big city with his Pa that his father has to tell him to remember to blink once in awhile. In these short pages, Rosemary Wells has managed to capture , the crushing burdens of the war, the politics of the day, and the respite and delight Lincoln found in his family. Most tender of all is when Willie's voice ceases midway through the book and Tad tells of his father's and mother's grief, and the l...

Here is the mark of a good children's writer. Helen Frost is able to take weeks and months of research about a wondrous natural event and explain it in beautiful, descriptive prose, without leaving out any important information, suitable for children. Monarch and Milkweed is not packed with text, about one to two sentences on a page, and yet I came away having learned so much about the life cycle of the Monarch Butterfly. Supporting the poetic text are gorgeous illustrations by Gore, done in acrylic and pastels on paper. Gore has obviously done his research too, as butterflies, caterpillars, and flowers are all shown in stunning detail. Monarch and Milkweed appeals to both the eye and the ear. Find it in nonfiction, 595.789.