Provo Library Children's Book Blog

Can You Make a Scary Face is a fantastic interactive book to read to children. Don’t expect any fancy illustrations; they are simple with solid colors. The book involves a ladybug asking children (the reader) if they can do certain things such as wiggle their nose and do the chicken dance. The bug is having fun getting the reader to do all kinds of tricks and silly things when a giant hungry frog comes into the picture. It is up to the reader to make a scary face to get the frog to leave. This is a fun read-a-loud and one that I would suggest to any parent or storyteller. I can’t wait to read it to my library class. Read this book to help get the sillies out of kids or even possibly make them sillier! Haha

So this is the big question…. After you build Frankenstein, what are you supposed to do with him? Well, that is the problem that the main boy in this book faces. In fact, it is such a problem for him that he yells out to all the children in his new town (He had to move to a new town to escape Frankstein) and tells them that they should not build a Frankenstein! The best thing about this book was how he made his announcement. The illustration does such a great job and I found myself both hearing him and wanting to scream with him all at the same time. The Frankenstein he built isn’t mean however; the problem is he takes up too much time. He always wants to play, he scares his friends and pets, and he is so annoying. The illustrations throughout the entire book are simple but very fun. This is the perfect book for both boys and girls who are looking for a good laugh; especially around Halloween. Check it out to find out if YOU should consider building your own Frankenstein and if it is p...

Have I Got a Book for You! by Melanie Watt Picture book Kids Can Press 2009 The book Mr. Al Foxword wants you to buy is the one you are holding in your hand. The lights flash and all the sleazy salesman tricks are used to get you to "buy the book" Kids will laugh as they hear Mr. Foxword's desperate designs to get them to spend their money to buy a book. Book buyers, book readers, book lovers, library book borrowers will all get a kick out of this one.....especially the final desperate "trick of the trade"

Gullstruck Island /The Lost Conspiracy (alternate title) By Frances Hardinge Macmillan Children's Books: 2009. 502 pgs. Juvenile fiction. In this mysterious, tense tangle of a story, nothing is quite what it seems to be. In an ancient, superstition-ridden colony known as the Lace, young Hathin acts as an interpreter for her sister, Arilou, the village's sole Lost. The Lost are rare, sought-after individuals with the power to set their minds free from their bodies to fly with the winds, aiding communication between communities and providing news and necessary warnings. When tragedy strikes the village unexpectedly in a focused attack on all Lost, Hathin and Arilou are forced to run for their lives, fleeing from more danger than they could ever imagine. This book will make you breathless and cause your heart to both still in fear and swell with inspiration. The characters are so vivid and real that you can't help but be caught up in the terror and beauty of this book. H...

A Savage Thunder: Antietam and the Bloody Road to Freedom by Jim Murphy New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009. 102 pgs. Juvenile Nonfiction Though the battle of Gettysburg gets the most attention, the battle of Antietam was actually the bloodiest single day of fighting in the Civil War and, in fact, in the history of American warfare. Although Murphy's book begins fairly slowly as General McClellan's forces move into position to meet the Army of Northern Virginia under the command of General Robert E. Lee, the reader is soon in the thick of the battle with Union and Confederate soldiers mowing each other down like reapers with scythes. Murphy does his usual expert job of providing a clear and cogent overview of the whole battlefield, interspersed with anecdotes about and quotations from actual participants. The North "won" the day because they had more troops, but since General McClellan in his usual timorous fashion thought that the South had more troops (a...

Darkwood by M. E. Breen 273 pages juvenile fiction New York : Bloomsbury, 2009 Welcome to Howland, where you don't want to be outside after dark. And dark falls fast and sudden here. One second it is light, the next pitch black for there are no moon or stars. The people know of the moon, but several centuries ago it disappeared. Now night time is ruled by the Kinderstalk, fearsome creatures known to steal and eat small children in the darkness. Annie overhears her uncle's disturbing plans for her so she escapes into the darkness. With the help of her two cats she is actually able to survive a night in the forest! With no family and no place to call home, Annie embarks on a perilous and exciting adventure to find out the secret of The Drop and the true nature of the Kinderstalk. Annie is a headstrong young girl who grows up as she journeys through the forest. While parts of the story are predictable and typical of fantasy adventures, there are some unexpected twists and turns! ...

Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-so-Fabulous Life by Rachel Renee Russell 282 pages juvenile fiction New York : Aladdin, 2009 Nikki Maxwell's dad is a bug exterminator. Thanks to his contract with a prep school called Winchester Country Day, Nikki is on scholarship at the school. As with most 8th-grade girls, her biggest concern is getting in with the popular crowd at school. Of course, the best way to insure this is to have a top-of-the-line cell phone. When her mom gives her a blank book to use as a diary instead of a phone, Nikki is devastated. Determined to never write in the book Nikki starts school. Very quickly she begins to fill up the diary with all of the drama of junior high as well as lots of fun drawings. Read the Dork Diaries to hear all about the popular girls, the cute boys, the maybe best friends, the art contest and so much more. The main character is 14-years-old and in 8th grade. However, most 5th and 6th grade girls will be entertained by Nikki's trials and t...

Dessert First by Hallie Durand Ill. Christine Davenier 151 pages intermediate reader New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2009 Dessert Schneider takes her teachers words of wisdom to heart. She does things her way, marching to the beat of her own drum. However, this can lead to mischief sometimes. Especially when faced with the scrumptious temptation of Grandma Reine's Double-Decker Chocolate Bars. Dessert tries to cover-up her mistake and only succeeds in making matters worse. She needs to come up with a plan to apologize to her parents as well as a way to participate in her school's fundraiser without causing more trouble. Adorable black and white illustrations and a fun little story make for an entertaining tale. Learn the consequences of disobedience along with Dessert as well as some great ways to make amends.

The Phantom of the Opera based on the story by Gaston Leroux retold by Kate Knighton 63 pages intermediate readers [Tulsa, Okla.] : EDC Publishing], 2008 The members of the Paris Opera House gossip about the ghost or phantom that lurks beneath the stage. Christine, formerly unknown, is called to stand-in for the lead singer. Her beautiful voice attracts much attention. She has been taught by an "angel of music" who speaks to her yet never shows himself. What is the connection between Christine's secret teacher and the world underneath the Opera House? Recently I discovered this attractive intermediate chapter series from Usborne. The story of The Phantom of the Opera has been retold in an easy-to-read yet exciting way for young readers. The illustrations are colorful and add much to the story. If you are looking for simplified versions of classic stories check out the Usborne Young Reading Series.

J Fiction 299 pages 2009 Nine short stories, each main character an ancestor of the next (that makes nine generations), all with a passionate love of baseball, and all share some interesting part of American history with the reader. Sound good? It is. Baseball historians will love this book - Gratz shows us that there's so much more to the game than our modern version of steroids and hugely inflated paychecks. But even if you're not a baseball enthusiast, you'll enjoy the different historical settings of each member of the Schneider-Flint family. I expected this to be just a baseball book. I'm surprised I started it, actually. While I do like baseball, I don't want to read a book about baseball. I soon learned, after the first few pages, that baseball is part of the backdrop of these stories. Each character has some conflict to deal with and resolve. Mike, 8th inning, has the most BASEBALL centered story. The time in history plays a more significant role in these s...

Faith, Hope, and Ivy June by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor 280 pages juvenile fiction New York : Delacorte Press, 2009 Ivy June Mosely and Catherine Combs are both seventh-grade girls in Kentucky. That is where the obvious similarities end. Ivy June lives in Thunder Creek, in the mountains near the coal mines. She lives with her grandparents because her parents house is too full. They only live a stone's throw apart so she has chores at both households. There is no indoor plumbing and life is just plain simple in a complicated way. Catherine lives in a large house in a nice neighborhood of Lexington. Each of the children has their own bedroom and bathroom. They have a maid helping their mother as she recovers from an illness. Catherine has a cell phone and her own computer. Someone from Catherine's private all-girls school thinks up this fabulous idea of an exchange program between the two drastically different schools. Catherine and Ivy June are the lucky winners. Will they be able ...

Escape Under the Forever Sky by Eve Yohalem 220 pages juvenile fiction San Francisco : Chronicle Books, c2009 Lucy is the young daughter of the American Ambassador in Ethiopia. She lives a fairly restricted life within the walls of the compound. However, every few weeks she joins her friend Dahnie, a game warden, on his drives through the beautiful African wilderness. Lucy lives for these days as she is obsessed with African wildlife. Due to some bad behavior she is grounded for a month and can't leave her house at all. Being the stubborn child she is, she sneaks out at the first opportunity, putting herself in easy access to kidnappers. Once she faces the facts of her predicament she does everything she can to escape. Can I just say disappointment! The plot sounded interesting, the setting fascinating and exotic, what went wrong? Lucy was spoiled and obnoxious, not to mention selfish. Not exactly endearing qualities in a main character. All the supporting characters were flat and ...

Life-Size Zoo by Teruyuki Komiya Informational Picture book Seven Footer Kids 2009 Picture book 43 pages Just like the title says.. this book contains life-size photos of twenty animals found in Japan's major zoos. Japanese photographer Toyofumi Fukuda has had more than twenty years' experience photographing animals in their habitant as well as captivity. Very close up and detailed, viewers can see the smallest hairs on each of these animals. Lots of fun and interesting facts are found in the sidebars. A must have for animal lovers both young and old.

Juvenile Fiction 643 pages 2009 Here's the sequel to Tunnels , and every bit as good! Will's adventure underground continues as he and Chester, with Cal in tow, attempt to find Will's father, Dr. Burrows, who has gone down even deeper than the Colony to explore and dig. All the evil elements are still present; Rebecca, the Styx, the Stalkers, and some new ones, the Limiters. They're even worse than the Styx, if that's possible. Will comes across some new characters down there who are definitely on the "Good Guy" side, thank goodness, and we learn that "renegades" exist, those who stand in constant defiance of the Styx. His real mother, Sarah, plays a big part in this book. She returns to the Colony, after Rebecca makes a deal with her, one we suspect from the beginning is not entirely sincere. She works with the Styx and searches for Will and Cal. The story goes back and forth from down deep underground to up top where Mrs. Burrows is in...

Claire and the Water Wish by Janic Poon graphic novel age 8-12 Toronto : Kids Can Press, c2009 Claire and Jet are back to solve another mystery. But first, will their friendship survive a class assignment or will Jet's new camera come between them. Claire meets Sky, a girl in their class who lives way out in the country by Lovesick Lake. Sky tells her that the lake water is making people ill. While visiting the lake Jet and Claire stumble upon the reason for the tainted water. Now they just need to notify the authorities before the bad guys catch them and get away! A fun reader-friendly graphic novel for elementary school girls. The creator touches upon important issues such as friendships and protecting the environment. If you're interested in the first Claire adventure, check out my review of Claire and the Bakery Thief .

The Goblin Baby by Berlie Doherty ill. Lesley Harker 120 pages age 7-10 New York : Random House, 2009 Tam isn't too sure he wants a baby sister. Then he holds her and is captivated by her eyes. He names her Blue and becomes the best big brother ever. One night he is woken by terrible sounds from the baby's room. Rushing to see what is wrong with his sister, he finds an ugly changeling in her place. Blue had been stolen! His parents are devastated and won't have anything to do with the little goblin. Tam with his gift of naming, calls her Pix and becomes the only one she will let near her. Finally Great-grandpa tells Tam a way he can take Pix back to the fairies and reclaim Blue. As young Tam sets out on his quest he is nervous but determined to make his family whole and happy again. A cute little fairy-tale adventure for intermediate chapter book readers. This book does not have a complex storyline, but there are some likable characters. My favorite was Pix!

Water Steps by A. LaFaye 188 pages age 9-12 Minneapolis : Milkweed Editions, 2009 Kyna was a little girl when her family's ship was wrecked at sea. She alone survived and was lucky enough to be rescued by a loving couple who ended up adopting her. Kyna loves her adoptive parents and has a happy life despite her debilitating fear of water. Terror grips her when confronted with a bathtub or even a glass of water. Kyna is therefore stunned when Mem and Pep tell her they have rented a summer house at "magical" Lake Champlain. Nothing she says or does can convince them to change their mind. Once they arrive, she avoids the lake at all costs, exploring the forest and hillside instead. Of course, this can't last forever. A new friend enlists her help in proving that there are silkies in the lake. Can she overcome her fears to keep a friend? And could this be the reason her parents say the lake is magical? The author deals with her character's fear in a realistic way. Alt...

Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit by Nahoko Uehashi translated by Cathy Hirano Arthur A. Levine, 2008. 248 pgs. Children's/Young Adult Fiction When Balsa, an itinerant bodyguard and fighter, rescues the Second Prince from an assassination attempt made to look like an accident, she gets herself into a nest of trouble. Hired by the prince's mother to protect him, she and Chagum flee into the mountains pursued not only by the monster Rarunga, but by the forces of Chagum's father, the Mikado. Chagum, it turns out, has been chosen as the Moribito, the Guardian of the Spirit; he has an egg growing in his chest (this is the kind of creepy part) that must be protected in order to save his country from drought, but his own family believes he must be killed to save the land. The story of Balsa and the Moribito is already a major franchise in Japan, including books, radio, and manga and anime adaptations. This first book in the series was published in the United States just las...

Picture Book 2009 Illustrated by Ponder Goembel It's the mark of a good author when one of earth's most unpopular insects can be made into a hero and actually have the reader cheering for it by the end of the book. This is what happens in Mr. Mosquito Put on His Tuxedo . I don't like mosquitoes, as most sane people don't. They only, and I quote Mr. Mosquito himself, " . . . like to annoy". They are also good at spreading several diseases among the human race. But . . . as Mr. Mosquito dons his tuxedo and goes to the ball, he is so utterly charming, dashing, and, in the end, heroic, I couldn't help but like him! The rhyming text by Morrow is clever and upbeat. The colored ink with acrylic wash illustrations by Goembel are whimsical and wonderfully detailed (note the tuxes with tails and beautiful ball gowns). I wasn't paying close enough attention to the pictures the first time I read through it because I was taken by surprise at the end by the ...

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead Random House, 2009. 197 pgs. Juvenile fiction. Considerable Newbery talk is swirling around When You Reach Me , and rightly so as it combines the best aspects of two previous winners--Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time , and Lynne Rae Perkins' Criss Cross-- to create a splendid story in its own right. The narrative takes the form of a letter Miranda, the protagonist, writes to an unknown correspondent who seems to be sending her messages from the future, one of which asks her to write the letter. If that seems circular it is meant to be as the story spins on the question of time travel, but it is also firmly grounded in the delights and despairs of pre-teen life in 70s New York. As Miranda's mother frantically trains to make big bucks on the $20,000 Pyramid, Miranda is trying to figure out why her best friend Sal stopped talking to her after he got punched out for no apparent reason by Marcus, a kid neither of them knew, and how to ...

Bobby Bramble Loses his Brain By Dave Kean, illus. by David Clark Clarion Books, 2009. 32 pgs. Picture book. Young Bobby Bramble always performs wild stunts despite the warnings from his family that he will crack his head open. When Bobby's head does indeed split one day, so does his brain...out into the city, as if it has a mind of its own! Everyone rallies to recapture the wayward brain, but it turns out only one person is capable of controlling such a nimble mind. This book is a hilariously zany piece of work that will keep you rooting for Bobby and laughing your head off (while keeping your brain intact). If nothing else, this book will instill a strong caution against losing your own mind, because Bobby's is an awfully creepy cauliflower-looking thing with legs, and who wants to see one of those running about?

Hope is an Open Heart By Lauren Thompson Scholastic Press, 2008. Unpaged. Picture book. Written for a four-year-old son after the attacks on September 11, 2001, this amazing and uplifting book describes hope in many different ways with beautiful photographs and prose. Thompson has captured such an intangible concept perfectly with her strong yet delicate words. This outstanding book brings warmth, comfort, and hope to the reader. " Hope sometimes feels far away. But hope is always there."

Leaf By Stephen Michael King Roaring Book Press, 2009. Unpaged. Picture book. In this simply illustrated wordless picture book, a little boy revels in nature and his great imagination and rebels against haircuts! He's so close to nature--perhaps a bit too close--that a little seed that drops on his head sprouts. When his mother finally tackles him and snips off his lovely sprout as well as his mop of hair, he mournfully transplants his leaf. Where it goes from there is something to be discovered through the illustrator's pictures. A simple but charming little story, Leaf is a fun journey through the life of a seed and a boy. With whimsical, quirky illustrations reminiscent of Quentin Blake, the reader gets a special experience with only pictures and one's own imagination to fuel the story.