Provo Library Children's Book Blog

Dragonblood Series by Michael Dahl; illustrated by Federico Piatti Stone Arch Books, c2009, 2010. Intermediate chapter books. Each entry in the Dragonblood series contains a story about a young person who has an unusual dragon-shaped birthmark. As the kids grow up they discover they have certain strange abilities that seem to be connected to the birthmark. There is no need to read this series in any particular order. Each book has a fabulous cover as well as colorful and engaging interior illustrations. The text is sparse yet tells a complete story. This series is a fabulous find for boys of all ages, particularly reluctant readers. Girls might like it too, but it is definitely geared towards boys.

13 Treasures by Michelle Harrison Little, Brown; 2010. 355 pp. Chapter book. Tanya is constantly plagued by fairies--she fears them and the things they do to make her life miserable. When her mother finally gets too fed up with Tanya's strange behavior, she sends Tanya away to stay with her forbidding grandmother, to the dismay of both. The manor itself is chock-full of faries, but the woods that surround it are even more frightening, harboring some dark secret no one will discuss. Tanya and her friend, Fabian, decide to tackle the challenge of unraveling the secrets that are wound about the manor--but they might not be ready for the things they discover! This book was more intriguing and interesting than I expected. I thought the relationship between Tanya and the fairies to be a bit more unusual than the average children's story; the fairies in this book seem as if they are actually out to get the heroine instead of being merely mischievous or even benevolent. I also enjoyed ...

The Hive Detectives: Chronicle of a Honey Bee Catastrophe by Loree Griffin Burns and Ellen Harasimowicz (photographer) Houghton Mifflin, 2010. 80 pgs. Nonfiction. Burns' fascinating new book (in the Scientists in the Field series) is all over the apiary, as it were. Beginning with the story of a backyard beekeeper (Mary Duane) who singlehandedly cares for her bees and gathers their honey, Burns then moves to Dave Hackenburg's industrial operation where, in 2006, Colony Collapse Disorder was first discovered. When tens of thousands of Dave's bees simply disappeared he quickly alerted biologists and other beekeepers. Many reports of similar losses followed and Burns then takes up the story of the scientists who are trying to discover the cause(s) of this frightening threat to the world's bees and food supply. Equal parts bee culture and scientific puzzle, The Hive Detectives should appeal to a wide range of kids and their parents. (Be aware that the hunt for ...

City Dog, Country Frog By Mo Willems; illustrated by Jon J. Muth Hyperion Books for Children, 2010. Unpaged. Picture book. City Dog and Country Frog become great friends after a chance meeting, spending spring, summer, and fall together, playing and just being great friends. However, once winter arrives, Dog can't find Frog anywhere, so he waits till spring returns to look for his good friend. This is a wonderful book that is very different from Willems's funny, goofy brand of stories. This book is thoughtful, tender, fun, and atmospheric both in writing and illustration. There is a touch of sadness that is delicately expressed, perfect in tone for small children. A lovely book about friendship, this is definitely one to read.

The Billionaire's Curse by Richard Newsome HarperCollins, 2009. 344 pgs. Fiction. What a scream! In both senses of the word. Gerald Wilkins is looking forward to a ski trip with his friend Ox during their school holiday when he is suddenly snatched from his comfortable Australian surroundings and off to England with his parents for his Great Aunt Geraldine's funeral. Since he had never even met Aunt Geraldine, Gerald is not happy about this. Imagine his surprise when he inherits the bulk of her multibillion dollar fortune, including three estates and a yacht. His parents take off immediately to "tour" Aunt Geraldine's holdings in the Caribbean and Gerald is left alone to ponder a packet of letters also left to him by his aunt in which she tells him she was murdered and that he must find the killer. Luckily Gerald finds some friends--twins Sam and Ruby--to help him as he dodges the murderous Bleach Man, tries to get along with (and annoy) his butler, the frosty Mr....

It Creeps! Ghost Detectors #1 by Dotti Enderle ill. by Howard McWilliam Intermediate Mystery/Adventure 79 pages Edina, Minn. : Magic Wagon, c2010 Malcolm is your typical young nerdy inventor. He has turned the family basement into his laboratory complete with chemistry set and lingering smell of a stink bomb. Malcolm loves getting magazines in the mail, but not for their enlightening articles. He flips straight to the advertisements in the back to see what strange contraptions he can order through the mail. Sometimes he is disappointed with his purchases, but that all changes with one particular package. The arrival of the Ecto-Handheld-Automatic-Heat-Sensitive-Laser-Enhanced Specter Detector (for serious Ghost Hunters Only) is the BEST thing he has ever received! Now he just has to find the perfect place to do some ghost-hunting. The McBleaky House is perfect: gray, gloomy and overgrown. Reluctantly helped by his best friend Dandy, he waits until nightfall to test his Specter Detector...

The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan and Peter Sis Scholastic, 2010. 370 pgs. Fiction Pam Munoz Ryan's exquisite framing of the young life of Neftali Reyes, later to become Pablo Neruda, Novel prize winning Chilean poet and one of the greats of 20th Century literature, is evocative, persistently lovely, and universal in its expression of the links between art and nature. Neftali loves words and collects objects and visions of beautiful things. He longs for friends and an exchange of gifts under the fence with a "friend" he will never meet changes his life and his view of the world. But his father, alas, is particularly unfriendly, always pushing him to excel at math and to prepare himself to be a doctor, a dentist, or a man of business, things he neither loves nor does well. Neftali's inability to ever please his father is increasingly painful to him, but never moves him from his life's purpose. Ryan's poetic prose reflects Neftali's gifts as well as his life and...

by Rita Williams-Garcia J Fiction Amistad 2010 215 pages A good read, well written, definitely young chick lit. A Newbery contender? Possibly. Delphine is eleven, the oldest of three girls, and lives in Brooklyn with her Pa and Big Ma in 1968. She's a smart, responsible girl who always looks out for her two younger sisters. Her Pa decides that she and her sisters need to travel across the country to Oakland, California, to spend the summer with their mother. Sounds OK, except that the mother left 7 years ago, and they've not heard from her since. They arrive in Oakland, only to find out that Cecile, the long-lost mom, greatly resents their intrusion into her life. She sends them to a daily summer camp just down the street run by the Black Panthers. Delphine is given a lot of responsibility for an eleven-year-old. Throughout the book, she handles every situation like a trooper. Is that realistic? I'm not sure that such a young child, forced to act like ...