Provo Library Children's Book Blog

Dick and Jane and Vampires By Laura Marchesani Grosset & Dunlap, c2010. 144 pages. Easy reader. Dick and Jane and Vampires follows in the footsteps of otherworldly satires such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies , although this title is geared towards children. This Dick and Jane story follows the traditional format, using very simple, repetitive sentences that help develop early literacy skills. However, add in some vampires and this story gets a lot more interesting! Dick and Jane spy a dark stranger that disappears from view on alternating pages. It's a fun hide and seek story with this creature of the night- or day, in this case. Eventually, Vampire gets more comfortable being seen by the children and then becomes a part of the family. My favorite part is when Jane makes Vampire dress up, saying, "Vampire is my baby. Vampire is my funny little baby." The humor is tongue in cheek, but will still appeal to children.

The Underdogs by Mike Lupica Philomel, 2011. 280 pgs. Fiction Will Tyler loves to play football but may not have the chance since the Forbes' Flyers footwear company (his team's sponsor) has gone out of business and the vastly diminished town cannot afford the $10,000 needed to field a 12-year old football team. When, against all odds, Will lines up a deep-pockets sponsor for the team they still struggle to come up with enough players. The Underdogs is loaded with sports cliches--a girl playing on a team who doesn't want her; the kid whose Dad is so full of invective for his own son's play that he decides to quit playing; the deceased mother and the embittered former football playing Dad; the last-game-of-the-year deciding game against the snotty champions--but they all work beautifully. (Important to remember that the familiar forms of sports fiction are likely not familiar to the kids who will be reading this book.) Will is an admirable protagonist, wise beyond his...

Detective Blue by Steve Metzger illustrated by Tedd Arnold New York : Orchard Books, 2011 unpaged picture book Little Boy Blue of nursery rhyme fame has decided to move on from tending the cows and sheep while blowing his horn. He is now a detective! Some of his more routine duties include preventing the dish from running away with the spoon and stopping Mary's lamb from going to school with her. Things get a little hectic when there is a real mystery to solve - Little Miss Muffet is missing! A lovely assortment of nursery rhyme characters show up along the way to help in Detective Blue's investigation. I think you will be surprised to find out Miss Muffet's true identity at the end of this comic-book-style picture book! Tedd Arnold's unique illustrations are a perfect match for this fun and quirky story.

The Best Kind of Kiss Written by Margaret Allum Illustrated by Jonathan Bentley Walker Books for Young Readers, 2011. Unpaged picture book. This precious little girl just loves kisses! "Smelly-yelly brother kisses" and "rosy-cozy grandma kisses" and everything in between. It's hard to resist the cuteness of this picture book. The little girl has bright red hair and a little pink bow, and is puckered up on every page. Margaret Allum's writing is sweetly expressive, and Jonathan Bentley's illustrations perfectly complement the loving nature of the book. The Best Kind of Kiss would be a nice selection for Daddy-daughter story time, as her favorite is "a great big bristly-growly-daddy-kiss"!

Saving Arm Pit by Natalie Hyde Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2011. 136 pgs. Fiction When Harmony Point's postmistress retires, it is good news for the Harmony Point Terriers baseball team because the new postmaster actually knows something about baseball and agrees to coach them. Long the cellar dwellers of the league, the Terriers actually make a run in one game, and then improve exponentially under Coach Blackmore. But then. . . the territorial postal service decides Harmony Point (aka, Arm Pit, with certain letters on the town welcome sign strategically spray-painted out) is too small for a post office so there goes the coach. The Terriers decide to fight back by mailing a zillion letters but it turns out that incoming mail provides the volume count, so their zillion letters have to be addressed to someone who will write back. Will the post office be saved so the coach can stay? and more importantly, will Miss Apfelbaum keep making her raspberry danish for the team if the coach is...

The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman by Meg Wolitzer Dutton, 2011. 294 pgs. Juvenile Fiction When Duncan Dorfman moves to a new school and a new town, his mother asks him not to use his secret power--he can read anything with the fingers of his left hand, with his eyes closed. Duncan agrees but soon breaks his promise when someone throws a piece of baloney at him during lunch and it sticks to his shirt. Lunch Meat Dorfman is born, a truly uncool guy whose only friend is an Asian kid no one else will sit with at lunch. So he shows Andrew Tanizaki his skill and the rich, bigmouth, mean Carl of the school Scrabble Team suddenly becomes interested in a kid who could tell what tiles he was about to draw out of the bag. Carl schools Duncan in the finer points of Scrabble and they head off to the national Youth Scrabble Tournament, along with some other kids we meet in intervening chapters: April, the only brainy kid in a family of jocks; Nate, whose father lost in the final in the YST many years...

The Wicked Big Toddlah Goes to New York by Kevin Hawkes Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. unpaged picture book Toddie is a really big toddler--really big. Reminiscent of Paul Bunyan, Toddie is so big he rides on top of the train when he goes on vacation with his parents to New York City. New York is pretty wicked big, as well, and it doesn't take long before Toddie is lost. He cries at first, but then he makes friends with some other kids. They play in Central Park, and he lets them climb over him like a bridge, and use him as the mountain in "king of the mountain." When the other kids all go home, Toddie decides to climb the Empire State Building (King Kong style) to try to find his parents. Parents and child are reunited, and head back home to Maine, but not before Toddie chooses a souvenir. This book is full of clever pictures and dialog. The parent's Maine dialect is a hoot. The illustrations, done in typical Hawkes style, have both obvious and less obvious humor...

What Dat? The Great Big Uglydoll Book of Things to Look at, Search for, Point to, and Wonder About By David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim Random House, c2011. Unpaged picture book. This Uglydoll picture book is an incredibly strange, but entirely entertaining take on Richard Scarry's Busytown word books. Babo, the main Uglydoll, finds himself on adventures that take him everywhere from the backyard to the factory. There is much to see and learn! On the Gas page, you will find words like "stranded motorist," "speed limit sign," and "car scent canister." This is a fun book for vocabulary and humor. What Dat? boasts 563 illustrated words, both "wacky" and "wegular."

Happy Pig Day! by Mo Willems Hyperion Books for Children, 2011. 57 pp. Easy reader. Piggie tells Elephant about a very special occasion--it is Happy Pig Day! Piggie tells Elephant all about the wonderful happenings on this special day and invites several friends to celebrate. However, Elephant becomes very sad because he feels rather left out--until Piggie gives him a delightful surprise ending! Happy Pig Day! is my new favorite in the Elephant and Piggie series. The books are so wonderful in that they fill a gap in combining humor and simple sentences for beginning readers. This book, in particular, really tickled my funny bone. The ending was wonderful. Hooray for Mo Willems and his books!

Hurricane Katrina By Peter Benoit Children's Press, c2012. 40 pages. Nonfiction. Hurricane Katrina covers the incredible science behind the hurricane and the damage done in her wake. Author Peter Benoit doesn't gloss over any of the facts, like the ineffective rescue efforts from FEMA, or 1/3 of the police force deserting the city. Mid-grade readers will find this a fascinating but chilling look at the nation's priciest natural disaster. The photos are haunting, including snapshots of stranded children at the Superdome and the newly restored French Quarter.

Mustache! by Mac Barnett; illustrated by Kevin Cornell Disney/Hyperion, 2011. Unpaged. Picture book. Vain King Duncan loves his handsome visage and wants everyone to admire it as much as he does. His solution is to plaster tributes to himself all over the kingdom, including gigantic banners and statues. However, in his single-minded approach, he neglects the more important matters such as repairs and other kingdom projects. His subjects respond to the various installations in a sly and hilarious manner that offends the king greatly and Battle Mustache begins! This is a wonderful, charming story filled with funny, bright text and fantastic illustrations. The art is beautifully rendered and the story is one that can be enjoyed by all. Children especially will laugh uproariously at the king's outrage and the villagers' pranks. This is a marvelous combination that will surely become a favorite! I really "mustache" that you do not miss it!

Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke Kane Miller, 2010. 111 pgs. Intermediate Reader Anna Hibiscus lives in Africa with her African father and her Canadian mother. Although the reader never learns which country Anna lives in, he or she can still learn much about warmth not only of the land, but of her people. In "Anna Hibiscus on Holiday" Anna's father takes her, her mother, and their twin baby boys (Double and Trouble) to the seashore for a holiday, away from the noise and confusion of all the aunties, uncles, and cousins. But Anna and her mother don't get much rest because who will help care for Double and Trouble like the aunties did? And Anna wants someone to play with--her cousins! By turns, Anna's father goes back for the aunties, and the uncles, and the cousins until the whole big joyous African family is at the beach together. Anna's great desire to see snow, however, cannot be satisfied in Africa, but when she goes to visit her Canadian grandmother, even that dre...

The Ballad of Knuckles McGraw by Lois Peterson Orca, 2010. 105 pgs. Fiction Kevin Mason is sent into foster care when his mother leaves a note in his lunchbox asking someone to take care of him because she can't. As he rides with The Welfare Lady to his new temporary home he sees a boxcar on a passing freight train tagged with the name Knuckles McGraw. He decides to become Knuckles, a lone, singularly self-sufficient cowboy who rides the range on his horse Burlington Northern, camping under the stars and free from the demands and sorrows of real life. In his new place, Joe and Liddy care for him, Breezy (a young girl who has stopped speaking since her parents died), and Ice, a tattooed teenager who is by turns angry with and sympathetic to young Kevin. Lois Peterson's straightforward, tender story of a young boy desperately trying to make a home for himself should speak to children who find themselves in just such a place, and for those wishing to understand what life is...

The Dead Gentleman by Matthew Cody Knopf, 2011. 280 pgs. Science Fiction. Tommy Learner is a cutpurse in turn of the century New York, but when he tries to steel from a rich gent in an elegant carriage he discovers the "gentleman" to be a corpselike remnant of a man, with dried skin hanging from an eyeless skull. Tommy barely escapes with his life--and with a beautiful mechanical bird the Dead Gentleman will do anything to reclaim. When Tommy is saved from certain death by a Captain Scott of the Explorers' Society he becomes his protege and is soon dangerously involved in trying to keep icky things from coming through multiple portals into our world from other worlds. As the story begins, Tommy is lured into and then trapped in the basement of the Percy Hotel. One hundred years later, Jezebel Lemon sees him--or his ghost--and the game's afoot again. Matthew Cody's steampunk/time-travel adventure has lots of excitement, but a good deal of confusion as well. ...

No Two Alike by Keith Baker Beach Lane Books, 2011. Unpaged. Picture book. "No two snowflakes are alike/ almost, almost . . . but not quite." Two small red birds fly through a winter landscape looking for two things just alike. But no two nests are the same, nor two branches, nor two leaves. The birds wonder about themselves, too: "are we the same--just alike? Almost, almost but not quite." Keith Baker is a national treasure in the Children's Picture Book Division. This predictable book--which means a book that repeats a phrase that children will come to love--is lovely in its text and its pictures. A perfect readaloud for the bleak midwinter.

Mystery Math: a First Book of Algebra by David A. Adler, illustrated by Edward Miller Holiday House, 2011. Unpaged. Nonfiction. Bats, skeletons, ravens, and jack-o-lanterns help youngsters get a clue about how algebra works in this appealing new picture book. Balancing equations, using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to solve for the missing number, and how to make a penny balance with a clothes hanger to illustrate algebraic principles are all part of this very fun, spooky-ooky book for budding mathematicians. My only regret is that this book was not available to me when I was struggling through Mr. Banks' algebra class in the olden days.

George Flies South by Simon James Candlewick, 2011. Unpaged. Picture Book. When George's mother urges him to prepare to fly south, he feels unready. But no matter, a gust of wind picks up George's nest along with George and when George's mom comes back, she sees him heading south on the top of a geezery man's car. As George's mom frantically follows, the wind bounces him and his nest from the car to a boat to a load of lumber to an I-beam. But when George and his nest are forced off the top of a building and his nest falls apart, will George be able to fly? Find out in Simon James' delightful picture book about the little bird who at first didn't quite get the drift.

A House in the Woods by Inga Moore Candlewick, 2011. Unpaged. Picture Book. When the little pigs' woodsy winter shelters are inadvertently busted up by Bear and Moose, the four animals decide to hire the beavers to build them a house where they can all live together. The beavers are happy to obliged, asking only that their wages be paid in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Working together, the animals build a lovely house. After the beavers' PB&Js have been delivered, the pigs, the bear, and the moose eat supper, clean up, and retire to a well-earned night's sleep in their beautiful new home. Few things appeal to children more than a story where children or animals find their way in out of the cold to a safe, warm home. A House in the Woods is just such a book, in spades, and will make even grownups want to hole up somewhere safe for the winter.

Baby Mammoth Mummy: Frozen in Time! By Christopher Sloan National Geographic, 2011. 48 pages. Nonfiction. Baby Lyuba is a woolly mammoth who was found perfectly preserved after tens of thousands of years in an icy grave. She was found in Siberia, where the winters can reach up to minus 75 degrees. But back when Lyuba was alive, this frozen tundra was a lovely, grassy environment to live in. Baby Mammoth Mummy has incredible photographs and information about the scientific investigation into how Lyuba lived and died. She was frozen with a smile on her face- which is equally cute and creepy. Kids will be fascinated by the unique facts and pictures.

Trapped: How the World Rescued 33 Miners from 2,000 Feet Below the Chilean Desert by Marc Aronson Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2011. 134 pgs. Non-fiction. The day the San Jose mine in Chile collapsed (trapping deep inside it 33 men) was the beginning of a miraculous event no one will soon forget. While the outside world worked madly to get to those men in time, deep within the bowels of the earth, those 33 souls embarked on a harrowing, emotional journey of unimaginable proportions. In this remarkable book, the whole story of how those 33 men were pulled out of the unforgiving depths, unharmed, is laid out in full, fascinating detail. A not-to-be-missed nonfiction treat.

Along a Long Road Written and Illustrated by Frank Viva Little, Brown, 2011. Unpaged picture book. Frank Viva's debut picture book, Along a Long Road , is a delightful adventure. Follow the shiny yellow line up and down, around and back, as the cyclist travels through the woods into the big city. The story is easy to follow, with repetitive (but not boring!) language that will appeal to new readers. The characters are oddly shaped, the landscapes are appealing, and there is much to discover along the way. It might have been a Caldecott dark horse candidate were it not for the author's Canadian citizenship! This special little picture book is well-deserving of the accolades it's received, including being a part of The New York Times "10 Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2011. "

Blizzard of Glass: The Halifax Explosion of 1917 by Sally M. Walker Henry Holt and Company, 2011. 145 pgs. Nonfiction. Next year the Titanic will take center stage for the 100-year anniversary of its sinking, but an equally deadly but less well known disaster happened in Halifax, Nova Scotia, just five years later when the Mont-Blanc, loaded with munitions for warring European nations collided with another ship in Halifax Harbour and exploded. It was the largest non-nuclear manmade explosion in history. The shock wave from the explosion itself leveled most of two towns. A blast-formed tsunami followed the initial explosion, and rescuers were subsequently hampered by two fierce blizzards in rapid succession. Walker, one of the finest children's non-fiction authors of our time, personalizes the disaster by following the fortunes and misfortunes of five families living in the blast zone. Consequently Blizzard of Glass becomes almost unbearably suspenseful as the reader sees ...