Provo Library Children's Book Blog

The Tanglewood Terror by Kurtis Scaletta Knopf, 2011. 264 pgs. Fiction. The Tanglewood Terror is a hilarious horror story and no one gets nearly as horrified as I think they should when glow-in-the-dark mushrooms take over their town. Eric Parrish and his little brother Brian find the first of the glowing mushrooms in a field behind their house and become quickly concerned that besides making for an interesting science project, the mushrooms may be of the same variety that destroyed the town of Keatston, a colonial village built where Tanglewood now stands. When the mushrooms take over the Tanglewood Owls' football field ("Who's going to win? Whooo? Whoo?") even the loss in a championship game takes second place to the encroaching fungi. Can Eric, Brian, and his new friend Mandy, an escapee from a too-strict boarding school, have to figure out how the Keatston Meetinghouse survived the first mushroom plague at the same time they are caring for a temperamental pig,...

Waiting for the Magic by Patricia MacLachlan Atheneum, 2011. 143 pgs. Fiction When William and Elinor's father leaves home to "find himself" by writing poetry and a novel, their mother takes them to the animal shelter and they pick out four dogs and a cat. Bryn, Bitty, Grace, Neo, and Lula the Cat move right in and make themselves to home, not least by helping the family adapt to their father being gone and in their own magical ways, making it possible for him to come back. All the characters in this short book are nuanced and delightful, but four-year-old Elinor takes the cake. She is first to hear the dogs speak and shares information with a wisdom beyond her years. William misses his Dad but pretends like he doesn't, he is so angry with him. Friend and neighbor Marvelous Murphy brings inedible natural earth casseroles which Grandpa dumps in the trash. A bittersweet peace at first fills these pages, and then gives way to just peace--and one last dog added to the hom...

The Undrowned Child by Michelle Lovric Delacorte Press, 2011. 442 pgs. Juvenile Fiction. Ancient curses, poisonous monsters, moving statues, mermaids—the story of The Undrowned Child has all of these things and more. When eleven-year-old Teodora is brought by her parents to Venice, she soon discovers all is not well in the beautiful old city. Dark, magical forces are at work to destroy the city and Teodora and her handsome new Venetian friend, Renzo, may be the only hope to save the lives of—well, pretty much everybody. There is lots of action, mortal peril and nasty undead creatures involved as Teodora and Renzo try to solve the mystery of what is going on and how to save the day. But can they find the answers in time? Kids who like their stories exciting and packed with action and magic will love The Undrowned Child .

Sidekicks by Dan Santat Arthur A. Levine, 2011. 216 pgs. Graphic Novel. When Captain Amazing (secret identity: Harold) starts to feel his age and then is laid low by a peanut allergy, he decides he needs a sidekick and will hold tryouts as soon as he recovers. Immediately his pets--a dog, a hamster, and a newly-arrived chameleon--decide they want to be his sidekick because they like hanging out with him and he is hardly ever home. Soon Roscoe, Fluffy, and Shifty are duking it out for the sidekick spot. Things get scary when they encounter The Claw who is about to finish them off when they discover that his secret identity is Manny, a former household pet who left after Roscoe stole his favorite stuffed animal. But when Captain Amazing's DNA is stolen by the dread Dr. Havoc, the pets must pull together to save everybody, and the smallest, least super-powered of them all, saves the day. A terrific adventure--pictures and text--for middle-graders.

America is Under Attack: September 11, 2001, the Day the Towers Fell by Don Brown Roaring Brook/Macmillan, 2011. Unpaged. Non-fiction. Don Brown does children his usual great service of respecting their strength and intelligence in this new book about the 9/11 attacks. He acquaints his readers by name and in pictures with people who will die, not shying away even from the fact that some would jump from terrible heights to their deaths. And yet the overwhelming feel of the book is of courage and compassion, the story of firemen, policemen, a window washer, coworkers, airline passengers who risked or gave their own lives to save others they may not even have known. As usual, Brown's illustrations are works of understated genius, a brushstroke here, a sketch line there, almost inexplicably conveying fatigue, fear, shock, sacrifice. America is Under Attack . . . is a beautiful, needful book that captures and defines an American day that would change the nation forever.

Cool Tech: Gadgets, Games, Robots and the Digital World by Clive Gifford DK Publishers, 2011 144 pages, nonfiction What did the first computer mouse look like? What was the very first thing sold on Ebay? How does a search engine work? All these questions and many others are answered in this slick new book about the tech world. Every page is packed with color pictures, factoids and tech trivia. Gifford includes time lines, charts, how-to ideas and diagrams on computers, robots and many other kinds of new and exciting technologies. This book is amazingly up-to-date with information about Facebook, Wii's and iPads. This is a great choice for reluctant reader boys or anyone who wants to learn fun facts about today's cyber world.

Big City Otto Written by Bill Slavin with Esperanca Melo, Art by Bill Slavin Toronto ; Tonawanda, NY : Kids Can Press, c2011, 79 pages Graphic Novel Cursed with an elephant's amazing memory, Otto can not forget his childhood friend Georgie, a chimpanzee. Georgie was captured and taken away by a man with a wooden nose. With only that little bit of information and a ton of determination, Otto and his buddy Crackers leave home in search of Georgie. The duo unknowingly leaves a trail of destruction and perplexed police officers in their wake. After several false leads will Otto have to give up his quest? Read this first in a new graphic novel series to find out. An all-ages adventure with fabulous art!

The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man by Michael Chabon, illustrated by Jake Parker HarperCollins, 2011. Unpaged. Picture Book. Awesome Man is . . . well, awesome. He can shoot positronic rays out of his eyes, to the dismay (and destruction) of giant killer robots. He can, against all odds, hug Jell-O. Awesome Man's power grip is a thing of beauty, his Defense Against AntiMatter Slime textbook in its execution. But when Awesome Man's arch-nemesis, the Flaming Eyeball, escapes him he realizes he needs to retreat to the Fortress of Awesomeness under the Arctic Ocean and recharge. Feeling better, he slips into the hidden entrance of the Secret Headquarters of Worldwide Wickedness where he discovers the Flaming Eyeball playing poker with Sister Sinister and the Red Shark. Awesome Man takes care of those baddies in short order, and whisks back home to the Fortress of Awesomeness where his secret identity is revealed at last and he "throws a power grip" around his secret id...

The Summer Before Boys By Nora Raleigh Baskin Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2011. 196 pages. Realistic fiction. The Summer Before Boys is about Julia and Eliza, who are relatives and best friends. Julia goes to stay with Eliza for the summer because her mother is serving as a nurse in Iraq. Eliza's family lives and works at a mountain resort, which provides for both scenery and adventure. Julia and Eliza love to play make-believe and dress up, but during this summer, Julia slowly slips away from being a little girl. As Julia is experiencing her first crush, and the grief of having a deployed mother, Eliza begins to feel increasingly distant from her best friend. Nora Raleigh Baskin has written a touching book about the sensitive period between childhood and adolescence. Girls of all ages will appreciate the acknowledgement of the subtle challenges of growing up.

The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens Knopf, 2011. 417 pgs. Fantasy. Three children are spirited away from their home on a cold winter's night, but only Kate, the eldest, remembers her parents and her mother's earnest request that she look after the other two until they can be together again. Kate's burden of caring grows exponentially after the convent where they are hidden burns to the ground and they find themselves in a series of nasty orphanages until they wind up in the oddest place of all--the orphanage of Dr. Stanislaus Pym, where they are the only three orphans. While there, Kate finds a green book which the children discover, quite by accident, enables time travel. Kate, Michael, and Emma's subsequent adventures with the truly wicked Shirley-Temple-like little "countess" of Cambridge Falls and her terrible Screechers bring them all to the edge of despair, but their own courage, plus the courage of their new-found friends (dwarves among them!) save them-...

Ant and Grasshopper by Luli Gray, illustrated by Giulano Ferri Simon & Schuster, 2011. Unpaged. Picture Book. A kinder, gentler, funny, and tender retelling of Aesop's grasshopper and ant fable, Ant and Grasshopper . In this version, the ant is a bean counter--literally. He not only spends the spring and summer days gathering food, but counting what he has. The grasshopper, playing his fiddle and singing invites the ant to join in, but the ant tells him to buzz off, so to speak. But the ant finds the catchy rhythms interrupting his counting, and sometimes he starts to rhyme his counts. When he finds the grasshopper freezing to death outside his door he brings him in, warms him up and feeds him, and acknowledges, in a charming ending, that the world needs singing and dancing, too. Giulano Ferri's charming pictures perfectly illustrate Gray's story about all the ways we can--and should!--help one another.