Provo Library Children's Book Blog

The Great Cake Mystery: Precious Ramotswe's Very First Case By Alexander McCall Smith Random House, 2012.  73 pgs. Intermediate.      At last, the chief detective and sole proprietor of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency shows up in a book for little dudes. There is a thief at Precious' school. One of her classmates has a piece of cake go missing. Then sugary buns are taken from the school lunchroom and a large piece of bread and strawberry jam disappears.  Soon suspicion settles on Poloko, a young man "of traditional build" (largeish) who carries sweets around in his pocket and who has sticky hands. Precious doesn't believe Poloko is guilt, but all the other kids shun him and demand he be punished. How Precious discovers the real culprits and sets herself on the path to becoming a grown-up detective is the refrain of this delightful story. An excellent cross-cultural story for beginning chapter book readers.

The Fairy Ring, or, Elsie and Frances Fool the World: a True Story by Mary Losure Candlewick Press, 2012. 184 pgs. Nonfiction.   This is the true story of Elsie and Frances, two girls who fooled the world with their fake fairy photographs back in the early 1900s. Those photographs would go on to haunt the girls throughout their whole life. I found this book with all its intimate details of what occurred to be fascinating. For instance, I did not know the circumstances that led the girls to take the first photograph. I also did not know that Frances was no longer living with Elsie when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author of Sherlock Holmes) showed up on the scene. They forced her to return and take more photographs. That's when the girls' real trouble began.  Beautiful black and white reproductions of all the original fairy photographs are included, as well as photos of the girls and some of Elsie's original artwork. If you like learning more about od...

The Beetle Book By Steve Jenkins Houghton Mifflin, 2012.      When British geneticist J. B. S. Haldane was asked what "one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of the creation" he replied that "it would appear that God has an inordinate fondness for beetles."  A similar fondness finds beautiful place in Steve Jenkins' new book where he creates an elegant display of a few of the over 400,000 species of beetles on the planet, which constitute at least 25% of all life forms. Delightfully rendered in his signature cut and torn paper collage, Jenkins' beetles range from the miniscule eggplant flea beetle to the titan beetle whose jaws are strong enough to snap a pencil in half. Jenkins also shows commonalities among the beetles, protective coloration, how they make noise, and how they protect themselves. Many of his beetles, as he explains, are pictured larger than life, but silhouettes throughout the book show the beetles' actual...

The Great Molasses Flood: Boston, 1919 by Deborah Kops Charlesbridge, 2012. 102 pgs. Nonfiction. No, you didn't read that title wrong. This is a book all about Boston's Great Molasses Flood of 1919. What molasses flood you might ask? Read on to find out. On January 15, 1919  a tank filled with 2,319,525 gallons of molasses burst apart, flooding the north end of town with a 40-foot wave of the sticky black substance. 21 people died, many were injured, the elevated railroad tracks were destroyed, whole buildings were washed right off their foundations. The smell was overpowering and clean up was near impossible, but that was only the beginning of all their troubles. Filled with fantastic black and white photographs from the actual incident, this book follows what happened to many of the citizens who found themselves caught up in a unique tragedy no one could have seen coming. It also follows the aftermath and legal battles that raged on for years afterward. Who ...

Never Forgotten by Patricia C. McKissack, illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon Schwartz & Wade, 2011. Unpaged. Poetry      In her beautiful prose poem, Patricia McKissack tells the story of Dinga the blacksmith, whose wife died in childbirth and who decided to raise his son by himself, rather than take another wife or give his son to a childless woman. Against all the wisdom of the elders among the women, Musafa grows into a fine young man thanks to his father's love and goodness, and the blessing of the Mother Elements: earth, fire, water, and wind. But comes a day when Musafa leaves the village to collect wood and never comes back. The Elements seek him and find him enslaved and then taken on a ship to America. Dinga languishes and the fires of his forge grow cold, but in time the wind finds its way West as a hurricane and bring back word of a fine young man, a slave about to be freed. Beauty and sorrow find inseparable voice in this memorable story of t...

Springtime in Bugland! By David A. Carter Simon Spotlight, 2012. Unpaged easy reader. Busy Bug, who loves spring most of all, goes around town proclaiming the happy news to everyone that spring is finally here! "Hooray for spring in Bugland!" the little bugs shout. All the bugs are happy, from Blooming Bug to Spelling Bees. There are traditional bugs, such as worms and ladybugs, but also some new bugs, including Cactus Bug and Skateboard Bug! The text rhymes well, and the illustrations are sweet and happy. If you will allow me one pun, this is one BEE-utiful book!

    Crab Cab  Written by Harriet Ziefert Illustrated by Yukiko Kudo Chronicle Books, 2009. Unpaged easy reader. Check out the newest phonics series in JE - Harriet Ziefert and Yukiko Kudo's Flip-a-Word books! This is a no-fuss, easy series for new readers. Each book teaches about word families in accessible way. The word families featured in this edition are -ot, -ab, and -it. I love the first chapter, which builds upon -ot with each turn of the page: snot, tot, hot, pot, hot pot, snot pot, pot on tot. There are cutouts and lots of humor to help kindergartners stay engaged. The brightly colored anime illustrations feel clean and modern. Kids can go one step further by playing a "find the words in each family" game on the back page.

Gem By Holly Hobbie Little, Brown, 2011. Unpaged. Picture book. Meet a small toad named Gem who has some dangerous adventures and also some not-so-dangerous adventures, like meeting a lady frog and having lot of tiny frog babies! This is a very short, simple story told through lovely illustrations. Done in Holly Hobbie's delicate watercolors and pen and ink, the pictures have a warm, gentle feel that is very inviting. This is a wonderful little book!

999 Tadpoles By Ken Kimura, illustrated by Yasunari Murakami NorthSouth, 2011. Unpaged. Picture book. When 999 tadpoles are born, their parental frogs are very pleased--until those tadpoles grow into little froglets and fill their pond home to the max! It's decided that they all must move, but that's no simple feat when the world outside the pond is fraught with dangers for frogs. In an unlikely twist of fate, the frog family experiences a very terrifying situation--fortunately, this family knows the value of team work! Read 999 Tadpoles for a wonderful, funny story about the power families can have when they work together. The text and illustrations in this book were both great. The funny take on the story is really delightful and many people can probably relate to the overcrowded pond and the froglets' complaints! The simple, childlike illustrations are also filled with humor and perfectly compliment the story. It might not be easy being green, but it's certa...

Boy + Bot by Ame Dyckman Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. Unpaged. Picture book. A Boy and a robot. Perfect playmates. Until bot accidentally gets his power switch turned off. His friend, boy, can not figure out what is wrong with his new friend so he takes him home to try and nurse him back to health. And that’s when the real fun begins. This delightful book with its sweet, simple story and bright colorful pictures will especially appeal to preschoolers, but is still guaranteed to tickle the funny bones of all other ages. A not to be missed treat!

Eye of the Storm by Kate Messner Walker & Company, 2012. 292 pgs. Fiction. Jaden lives in a world where hurricanes and tornadoes are as commonplace as clouds and sunshine. Across the country, and particularly in the Midwest, kids can't ride bikes, people don't gather for sports' competitions, or dances, or movies because it would be too easy to get caught away from a Safe Shelter area and killed by a storm. Jaden feels lucky to be spending the summer with her father, whose Placid Meadows model city development is immune to storms due to some kind of proprietary technology her dad has developed. Enrolled in the Eye on Tomorrow Science Camp sponsored by her father's company, Jaden and her new friends Risha and Alex work on cloning and storm diffusion theories and technology, but the more Kate gets into the data, the more she realizes that all is not right with StormSafe nor with the technology her father may be using to remove nearby farmers from their land. Exciting,...

Plunked by Michael Northrop Scholastic, 2012. 247 pgs. Fiction. Jack Mogens lives, breathes, eats, sleeps, and sweats baseball, so when he gets to sixth grade, his last year in Little League, he is pleased and proud to have secured the starting spot in left field. But when Jack gets a mild concussion from a beanball pitch against the Craven Yankees (great name, eh?), he gets scared. And when he falls back out of the batter's box on an inside pitch, everyone knows he's scared and they all pitch him inside. Jack fakes an injury to miss the next game, and decides he will have to give up baseball altogether, but an understanding coach, supportive teammates, and his own determination help him get back to the game he loves. Michael Northrop was baseball editor for Sports Illustrated for Kids for a number of years, and not only knows the game inside and out, but writes about it with grace, energy, and precision.

Chomp by Carl Hiaasen Knopf, 2012. 290 pgs. Fiction. When Wahoo Cray's father Mickey gets beaned by a frozen iguana falling out of a tree, Wahoo has to take over a lot of the duties around the "farm" where Mickey wrangles wild animals for a living. Mortgage payments are in arrears so Wahoo's mom heads for China for a tutoring job, and Mickey and Wahoo are happy to be offered big bucks by Expedition: Survival , a "reality" wild animals survival show with a phony doofus of a star named Derek Badger. Mickey and Derek butt heads from the beginning over Derek's treatment of the animals, but things get rapidly more complex when a young girl named Tuna shows up, running from her abusive father, Derek is bitten on the tongue while trying to chow down on a Florida mastiff bat, and everyone lights out into the Everglades during a serious thunder and lightning storm. As usual, Hiaasen's latest book is laugh-out-loud funny with lots of action and zero political ...

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen Scholastic, 2012. 342 pgs. Fiction. When Sage is bought from the orphanage by a mysterious nobleman named Conner, he joins the company of three other boys about his age, height, weight, and coloring. Conner soon makes clear that he has absolute power over these boys' lives and that in two week's time he plans to pass one of them off as the long-lost prince of Carthya, heir to the throne now that the rest of the family are dead--poisoned by an assassin. Sage is not easy to like--he is abrasive, confrontational, full of himself, but soon it becomes clear that he needs every ounce of his wit and stiff-neckedness if he is going to survive either losing the competition or becoming king and risking treason. First in the Ascendance Trilogy, The False Prince moves deliberately for awhile, setting the reader up for what is to come later in the story, as well as for what will transpire in succeeding volumes. But the reading is compelling--who will...