Provo Library Children's Book Blog

The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood by Agnese Baruzzi Templar Books, 2009. Unpaged. Picture book. This little novelty book is actually the prequel to the story of Little Red Riding Hood. It is tons of fun to read because each page has some kind of novelty that adds to the story, such as a newspaper that unfolds, or a spinning disc that changes the color of Little Red's face. It begins with a letter from the wolf to Little Red that you actually take out of an envelope and read. In it, he asks her to help him reform and become good. Little Red is more than happy to help, and so Wolf becomes a vegetarian and learns to work and do good deeds. However, when Wolf gets more votes than Little Red in the "Who is nicer" opinion poll, she starts to plot her revenge. When you are done reading it you won't feel too bad about what happens at the end of the original Little Red Riding Hood tale. We don't have many books like this (with pop-ups and removable parts) o

Larry Gets Lost in New York City By Michael Mullin Illustrated by John Skewes Sasquatch Books : Distributed by PGW/Perseus, 2010. Unpaged. Picture book. This is another fun addition to Michael Mullin and John Skewes' Larry Gets Lost series. (My absolute favorite is Larry Gets Lost in San Francisco !) Larry the dog is on vacation in New York City with his boy, Pete. Along with Pete's family, they are set to visit all the best New York has to offer, including Times Square, Coney Island, and Central Park. Somehow, Larry gets separated (again!) from his boy and gets to wander about The Big Apple all on his own. They finally reunite at the Statue of Liberty. The retro-inspired illustrations are as colorful and adventurous as the text, and there are new sights to see on every page. Children will enjoy the silly wanderings of Larry, and parents will appreciate the interesting city facts.

Truck Buddies By Melinda Melton Crow Illustrated by Ronnie Rooney Stone Arch Books, 2010. 31 pages. Easy reader. "Green Truck works and so does Blue. Will Dump Truck end up working, too?" For the very earliest independent readers, this book is a bright, joyful read. Truck Buddies features adorable cartoon truck characters who tell a story about friendship, emotions and hard work. There is a challenge issued on the first page: to find the little skunk every time you turn the page! It is a perfect beginning-level book, with short sentences, word repetition, and very easy vocabulary. Author/illustrator duo Melinda Melton Crow and Ronnie Rooney have produced a simple, yet fun, set of first-step easy readers. Fans of John Scieska's Trucktown series, or even Thomas the Tank Engine, will eat these up. Also in this series: Mud Mess Road Race Snow Trouble

Belly Up By Stuart Gibbs Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2010. 294 pages. Fiction. I admit it, I totally judge a book by its cover. In this case, I was not disappointed- it is as fun and intriguing and the cover promises. 12 year old Teddy lives with his photographer dad and monkey scientist mom on the property of Funjungle, the world's biggest amusement park and zoo in Texas. The book starts right off with Teddy's grand adventure- Henry the Hippo is found floating belly up in his pond. Henry is a key player here, because he was essentially the zoo's mascot, like Shamu is for Sea World. Although beloved by outsiders, he was extremely cranky and loathed by the zoo's employees. Author Stuart Gibbs offers hilarious descriptions of Henry's mischief, such as his habit of shooting "streams of feces" at whoever is nearby. Teddy believes that Henry was murdered, and sets off on a wildly fun whodunit investigation. In case your gross-o-meter d

Grounded By Kate Klise Feiwel and Friends, 2010. 196 pages. Fiction. Daralynn Oakland is alive because she was grounded. She lied to her mom about sneaking down to the fishing hole, so she wasn't allowed to fly away on vacation with her dad, sister, and brother. Tragically, these three die in a plane crash. Left alone with her one child and no husband, Daralynn's mother flounders in a numb depression. After she prepares her family for burial, Mrs. Oakland discovers she has a knack for hairstyling and eventually buys her own salon. Daralynn also comes up with the idea to start a "living funeral" business, where people can have their lives celebrated and actually be there to witness it. Through this, she begins to heal, as well as by writing a journal of letters to her deceased family. There is a mystery story woven in, as a stranger to their small town starts a high-priced cremation business and scams the townspeople out of a lot of money. There are some funny mo

Maybe I'll Sleep in the Bathtub Tonight and Other Funny Bedtime Poems by Debbie Levy Sterling, 2010. 24 pages. Poetry. Debbie Levy has written 22 fun, clever poems that tackle the issues surrounding bedtime and sleeping. Several of them point out things that we all question--such as those amorous kisses that movie stars give each other...supposedly right after they wake up. "In the movies, when people wake up in the morning they kiss one another without any warning. Don't believe it! Remember, those people are fake! You know what your mouth tastes like when you awake... Another poem sweetly takes to task the horrible lyrics of the lullaby, "Rock-a-bye Baby." One of my favorites is called "Look Who's Sleeping" and is about a mom who goes in to sit with her child until he is asleep and ends up being the one to fall asleep. The illustrations have a bright, retro look that wonderfully com

James May's Lego House By James May Conway, 2010. 93 pages. Non-fiction. James May, host of BBC's "Top Gear," decided to build a house entirely out of Lego. He wanted to do it for fun, to film for his new show "Toy Stories," and to eventually give to Legoland in England. He writes, "What I'm actually doing here is answering a question I asked myself as a 6 year old boy. If you had enough Lego bricks, could you build yourself a Lego house? Yes you could. Here it is." It took over 3 million Lego bricks and 1100 volunteers to complete the project. Although the house is built around a wooden frame for insurance purposes, every single inch of the home is made of the colorful, plastic bricks. The details are astounding. In the kitchen, you will find a Lego toaster, salt and pepper shakers, even little Campbell's soup cans. There is even functioning plumbing in the sinks and toilet! The workers fashioned a Lego ballcock for the toilet, made wate

The Dark History of Ancient Rome by Sean Callery Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2011. 64 pages. Nonfiction The Dark History of Rome tells the sordid story of the Roman Empire, which lasted more than 1000 years and was a highly successful civilization. Unfortunately, it was built on injustice and violence. Even the story surrounding Rome's founding is violent. Its emperors were conniving, irrational, brutal and corrupt; few, if any, died of natural causes. The bulk of The Dark History of Rome focuses on the succession of emperors from Caesar to the fall of Rome. They were a pretty nasty bunch, and kept very busy with intrigues, and betraying and murdering each other. In addition, several sections of the book deal with the remarkable violence the Roman state perpetrated against humanity. The writing is compelling without being too gratuitous, and the many illustrations add interest. This book is a good starting point for further study of Ancient Rome.

Just Being Audrey by Margaret Cardillo illustrated by Julia Denos Balzer + Bray, 2011. Unpaged. Nonfiction. "I never think about myself as a icon . . . I just do my thing," reads the quote by Audrey Hepburn at the beginning of this book. Audrey Hepburn certainly did her thing, and it made her an icon. This charming but simple look at her life reveals things that I didn't know about the star whose movies so many people have come to love. She struggled for years to become a ballerina despite the fact she was too tall and her neck was too long, both attributes that would eventually make her stand out and become the darling of the cinema world. She spent her childhood in Europe during the Nazi occupation of World War II and eventually became one of the greatest movie stars of all time. Julia Denos' simple but stunningly artistic watercolor illustrations are perfectly suited to telling the story of Audrey Hepburn's colorful life. If you would like a story abo

Pea Boy and Other Stories from Iran Retold by Elizabeth Laird and illustrated by Shirin Adl Francis Lincoln, 2010. Unpaged. Folktales. Surely peoples of the world would get along better if we knew each others stories. These Iranian folk stories are filled with both familiar and unfamiliar delights. The title story echoes "The Five Chinese Brothers" as a little chickpea person swallows a river, a jackal, a leopard, and a wolf and lets them out at appropriate moments to save himself and to establish his "parents'" fortune. Some of the stories don't turn out so well for main characters, as when Mr. Mouse does all in his power to serve and save his beloved wife Miss Cockroach, but still falls into the soup and gets boiled up; the beautiful white-haired fairy helps a son find his father, but then is taken away from her friends by the "spirits of eternal life" to preserve her magical cloth. Others fare well, such as the man who promises to produce the Pr

Science Beats Crime by John Perritano Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2011. 48 pages. Nonfiction This is a great book for fans of CSI or aspiring detectives. There are ten short sections that explain a particular investigative technique such as DNA testing and ballistics. Each section is followed by one or two real cases that were solved using that particular technique. Some sections are a bit gruesome--the illustrations are actual photos. I learned quite a bit--sometimes a bit more than I wanted. For example, there is a body farm at the University of Tennessee where bodies are put in all sorts of different situations so that researchers can study how different things affect body decomposition. There is actually a list of 1,600 people who would like to donate their bodies to this body farm when they die! I also learned about a field called forensic entomology. By investigating which bugs are on, in, or near a body, an entomologist can estimate how long a person has been dead. If thi

ZooBorns: The Newest, Cutest Animals from the World's Zoos and Aquariums by Andrew Bleiman & Chris Eastland Simon & Schuster, 2010. 160 pages. Nonfiction picture book. Ok. This book could probably win "The Cutest Book Ever" award. I mean, just look at the cover! Each page in this small (6"x6") book is completely covered by the photograph of a brand new little baby animal. I would tell you which ones were the cutest to look at, but my list would be too long. With each picture is information about the animal including its name, the zoo where it was born, its species and whether or not it is endangered. However, the additional text, though fun to read, is not very enlightening. For example, the native habitat of a species is only sometimes mentioned. That being said, the photos will capture your heart. Take one look at Sawyer and Hoover, the baby Tawny Frogmouths, or Amani, the baby aardvark, and you will immediately forgive the inconsistency of inform

Case Closed? Nine Mysteries Unlocked by Modern Science by Susan Hughes, illustrations by Michael Wandelmaier Kids Can Press, 2010. 88 pgs. Nonfiction. Hughes and Wandelmaier have assembled and pictured a sparkling collection of historical mysteries which have been solved--or mostly solved--by applying modern scientific techniques. Arranged in chronological order, the book begins with the Egyptian Pharaoh-regent Hatshepsut who ruled for her stepson until he was old enough to take the throne and who then disappeared completely. Her tomb was empty, but a tooth in Hatshepsut's funerary box matched exactly with the empty socket in the jaw of an unidentified mummy from tomb KV60, leading scientists to believe that mummy to be Hatshepsut's as well as confirming that she was not murdered but probably died of cancer. Subsequent case studies reveal causes for the disappearance of the Anasazi, reveal the location of the lost city of Ubar, and confirm that Anastasia was, alas,

Shoot-Out by Mike Lupica Philomel, 2010. 165 pgs. Fiction. If you have a young man in your home who loves sports but doesn't like reading that much, the one-two punch of the book and the book on CD of any of Mike Lupica's Comeback Kids books could be just the ticket. In this story, Jake has moved from Greenville, where his "elevens" traveling soccer team smoked every other team in the region, to Belmont, the cellar dwellers. Jake makes friends quickly but his frustration at a mostly losing season is made worse by his coach's request that he try to help his teammate Kevin, whose mother has just died, and who is angry and isolated. Jake is a terrific kid who has to figure out a lot of things about himself and others in order to be the kind of player, and young man, that he really wants to be. Lupica has gotten the joking, and goofiness, and trash talk of twelve-year old boys just right. Another nice thing in this book is that Jake is a reader--loves books right up t

Mysteries of the Komodo Dragon: The Biggest, Deadliest Lizard Gives Up Its Secrets by Marty Krump Boyds Mills Press, 2010. 40 pages. Nonfiction. Komodo dragons are intriguing creatures, and have fascinated people for thousands of years. This book is an interesting look at this mysterious, scary, and somewhat maligned lizard. One of the first scientists to study the dragons was Dr. Auffenburg, a herpetologist from the University of Florida. In the 1960s, he took his wife and three enthusiastic sons, ages five, eight, and fifteen, to Komodo Island and spent eleven months studying everything they could about them. Part of the fun of this book is reading about the boys and seeing pictures of them handling the lizards. Since Dr. Auffenburg's groundbreaking work, scientists have found out many things about Komodo dragons. You have probably heard how deadly Komodo dragon saliva is--there are fifty-four potentially deadly kinds of bacteria in it--but the dragon's blood has substa