Provo Library Children's Book Blog

The Real Boy by Anne Ursu HarperCollins, 2013.  341 pgs.  Fantasy      Oscar was taken from the orphanage many years ago to be a hand in magician's shop in the Barrow. He lives in the basement with a clowder of cats where he grinds herbs and mixes powders. In the daylight hours he hunts the forest for herbs and berries, and tends to the magician's gardens. Oscar doesn't much know how to get along in the real world and makes a hash of things when Master Caleb leaves him in charge of the shop while he goes to the Mainland on business. But soon Oscar has to take charge of many more things than the shop when his Master is gone, and children in the rich and perfect city of Asteri, which the Barrow serves  begin to fall ill with a variety of disorders even magic can't cure. Has the plague returned? With his new friend Callie he races to find a cure for whatever ails the children while trying to avoid and then destroy a terrifying monster who has arisen...

Other Worlds (Guys Read) edited by Jon Scieszka Walden Pond Press, 2013.  331 pgs. Fiction      Fourth in Jon Scieszka's Guys Read series, Other Worlds is the finest of the four, with fantasy and sci-fi stories from Rick Riordan, Neal Shusterman, Shannon Hale, Tom Angleberger, and the master himself, Ray Bradbury, among others. Tom Angleberger, as one might expect, weighs in with a very funny story about the revolt of automated footwear (alas, the RoboFlipFlops were exterminated in the skirmish that followed). In Eric Nylund's "The Warlord's of Recess," two basketball-challenged nerds battle invaders from outer space, and Rick Riordan takes Percy and Grover to New York to retrieve one of Apollo's backup singers. Other Worlds has its serious, and even frightening side, as well with Kenneth Oppel's chilling "The Klack Bros. Museum," about a ghost whose keeper wants him to have company, or Neal Shusterman's tale of a resettlement expediti...

  Fraidyzoo by Thyra Heder Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2013. Unpaged.  Picture Book  When her family decides to spend a day visiting the zoo, Little T., has vague memories of being terrified by one of the animals on her last visit there. Feeling a little nervous about meeting that frightening creature again, she's not sure she wants to go. In an attempt to help her face her fears, her family dresses up like different animals, trying to figure out which one Little T. is scared of.  The family's costumes become more and more creative, elaborate, and over the top as the book progresses--with Little T. still unable to name the animal that frightened her so badly. Which animal was it that scared her so bad? Read this delightfully funny book to find out.

Battle Bunny by Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett, illustrated by Matthew Myers Simon and Schuster books for Young Readers, 2013. Unpaged.  Picture Book Put the zany minds of two amazingly talented guys like Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett together--have them write a book--and this story is exactly what you will get. When Alex's grandmother gets him a very childish and boring book called Birthday Bunny for his birthday, the boy knows exactly what to do to make the book just a tad more exciting. Crossing out and replacing words, adding extra flourishes and pencil-drawn pictures as he goes, Alex has soon refurbished the sappy book into a action-packed tale of a chainsaw wielding rabbit who has evil plans  take over the whole world. This is a not to be missed, hilarious work of sheer genius. Older kids, and even adults, will find it especially hilarious. Younger children might have some trouble deciphering Alex's many scribbles and notations without help. The pencil script can g...

Mysterious Traveler by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham, illustrated by P. J. Lynch Candlewick, 2013.  48 pgs.  Fiction      Five riders are tearing across the desert trying to outrun their pursuers and save the precious cargo on their sixth camel. But something even deadlier is closer at hand--an enormous desert sandstorm engulfs the group. The next day and miles away an old man, a desert guide, finds a foreign bit of cloth stuck to the thorn fence of his goat pen. Fearing someone is in distress, he saddles up his donkey and rides into the desert where he finds an even grumpier than usual camel lying across a cavity in the rock, and inside the cavity is a baby girl. Issa, the guide, knows that this child has come into his life for a reason, so he names her Mariama and becomes her father. When Mariama is a nearly-grown young lady, Issa goes blind.  And who will hire a blind guide? But the landscape lives on inside his head, and with her acting as his ...

Mrs. Noodlekugel and Four Blind Mice (Mrs. Noodlekugel #2) written by Daniel Pinkwater illustrated by Adam Stower Somerville, Mass. : Candlewick Press, c2013. 90 pages. Intermediate fiction. Nick and Maxine are thrilled to be able to go downtown on the bus with their odd little neighbor, Mrs. Noodlekugel. Of course her pets liven things up and make it quite the exciting trip. Mr. Fuzzface, her talking cat, is annoyed because he has to ride in a cat carrier on the bus and then there are no sardines to go with his ice cream. He rants and raves about his no-good father that left his mother with seven kittens to raise and never came back. He is a little grumpy, to say the least. Then there are the four blind mice who visit the eye doctor for some new spectacles. When they can properly see again they set off for adventures and cause a whole lot of chaos in their wake. This is an entertaining intermediate series for boys and girls. Charming black and white illustrations accompan...

Marisol McDonald and the Clash Bash / Marisol McDonald y la Fiesta Sin Igual By Monica Brown, Illustrated by Sara Palacios Children's Book Press, an imprint of Lee & Low Books Inc. 32 pages, Picture Book Marisol is a unique girl, her clothes or socks do not match, and she likes it that way. You'll love this little girl and her spunky way of looking at things. She is having a birthday party, can you even imagine what would it be like? She is so full of fun ideas!! I bet you even like her ideas! I specially loved her big birthday present!! Marisol es una niña única, su vestimenta no combina en nada, y así le gusta. Les va a encantar esta niña y su manera de ver las cosas. Su cumple se acerca y va a tener una fiesta, ¿se imaginan como va a ser? ¡Ella esta llena de ideas! ¡Y se que les gustarán! ¡Lo que mas me gustó fue su regalo de cumpleaños!

Enojo Es... By Connie Colwell Miller Capstone Press, 24 pgs., Non Fiction This entertaining book about anger, is one parents and children alike should read. The pictures are funny and it shows the emotion very clearly. It is a great book! Este libro es entretenido y comunica el sentimiento del enojo. El libro es uno que tanto los padres como hijos deben leer. Las fotos son divertidas y muestra claramente esta emoción. Léanlo, esta estupendo!

No Monkeys, No Chocolate  by Melissa Stewart and Allen Young Charlesbridge, 2013, unpaged nonfiction picture book What does it take to make a cocoa plant grow? It takes sunlight, water and soil, but also midges, maggots and fungi. Stewart and Young use everyone’s favorite treat to teach about the interdependence of plants and animals in an ecosystem.  The readable text is illustrated with child friendly watercolors that offer just the right amount of detail to make concepts clear without being overwhelming. A pair of commenting book worms at the corner of each page adds one more measure of fun to an already engaging STEM title.  

Almost Home By Joan Bauer Viking, Penguin Group, 264 pgs, Fiction Sugar is a cute and very creative little girl who finds herself homeless, a very painful process in her small world. She ends up in a new city with no friends or relatives, her mom having a nervous breakdown, and a cute dog. Her story and how she survived, will truly melt your heart. I found myself laughing and crying at the same time. Her sense of humor and reasoning through the sadness in her life is so inspiring, and very worth reading. You'll love this book!!

Dear America, The Diary of Minnie Bonner, A City Tossed and Broken , San Francisco, California 1906 By Judy Blundell Scholastic Inc., 218 pg., Historical Fiction Minnie Bonner is a 14 years old that lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a pub owner. Minnie's family is poor, and they are losing the business, so her mother finds her a job as a maid with a rich family, the Sump family, who are moving to San Francisco, California. Minnie travels by train with the Sump family. They arrived in San Francisco two days before the big earthquake.We know of her life, and all that went on during that awful time, through her diary. You will absolutely love this book is full of action and history of this beautiful city, there are also some historical facts at the end. Enjoy!

Graphic Library en Español: Luz, Adaptación, Seguridad en el trabajo Científico , Fotosíntesis, Sonido, Electricidad. By: Emeli Sohn, Agnieszka Biskup, Donald B. Lemke y Thomas K. Adamson, Lian O'Donnell. Capstone Press, Non Fiction, Science This set of books is very informative and enjoyable. The graphic novel style will appeal to all ages. I was very impressed at the amount of in-depth information, explained by a hero figure who shows all the facets of the topic, giving the scientific names of all the functions or experiments.  I think kids will really like these books. I sure did!!  Este grupo de libros son informativos y muy agradables, el estilo de novela gráfica le gustará a niños de cualquier edad. Me impresionó mucho la información en detalle que proporciona, guiado por una figura héroe, el cual explica toda las facetas de los temas y términos científicos y también da explicación de las funciones o experimentos. Estoy segura que le gustará a lo...

Written in Stone by Rosanne Parry Random House, 2013. 196 pgs. Fiction      Pearl, a young Makah Indian girl living in the 1920s Pacific Northwest, has lost her mother and baby sister to the 1918 influenza epidemic. Her father is a harpooner for their village, which relies on whale meat and oil to live through the year. On the day Pearl is assigned to watch for the returning whalers, the ship returns--without a whale, and without her father who was pulled into the ocean and drowned. Pearl's remaining family and friends rally around her, but she still feels lost, not only missing her parents, but trying to find her place in the world. She is not a good basket weaver, would like to weave blankets but has no one to teach her the skills, with her mother gone.  Finally, when the tribe is threatened by their loss of income, and by a money-grubbing outsider, Pearl finds her place as a teller of stories, who preserves the art and lore of her people. Told in retros...

Hello Mr. Hulot by David Merveille Hardcover , 32 pages Published September 1st 2013 by NorthSouth Brilliant! The wordless escapades of Mr. Hulot are a feast for the eyes. His bumbling ways are never quite what they seem. In fact, the reader must look twice at times to catch the visual puns. Quirky Mr. Hulot, with his pipe and striped socks, goes about his daily life in quite an unexpected manner. Each two-page scenario is fabulously portrayed through artistic panels full of color and illusion. Merveille's take on a classic French character is a delight for all ages.

Monster on the Hill by Rob Harrell Paperback , 186 pages Published August 6th 2013 by Top Shelf Productions Graphic Novel Monster on the Hill transports you to a fantastic alternate history where every village lives in "fear" of their resident monster. Each monster is unique and they are great for bringing in the tourist dollars as enthusiasts travel around hoping to witness numerous monster "attacks". But what happens to a village when its monster won't attack? What should the villagers do if it just sits up on its hill moaning and groaning and acting depressed? Local mad scientist and mouthy newsboy join forces to fix their monster with some surprising results! Such a fun tale and absolutely great artwork! 

Spelling Trouble The Misadventures of Salem Hyde #1 by Frank Cammuso Hardcover , 96 pages Published October 1st 2013 by Amulet Books  Graphic Novel   Little Salem Hyde has a bit of a spelling problem. Spell-casting to be a little more precise. She is a rather spontaneous and untrained little witch who is wreaking havoc at her new school. Her parents have forbid her from doing magic while there, but sometimes she just can't help it! This probably wouldn't be such a bad thing if she could only get her spells correct. Her aunt intervenes by hiring her a M.A.C. - Magical Animal Companion. Her M.A.C. may look like your typical cat, but he is anything but ordinary. Hopefully with Whammy's help, Salem can become a better speller of words as well as caster of spells. Frank Cammuso is brilliant at creating his characters through illustration as well as dialogue. This new series will surely be enjoyed by boys and girls second grade and up....

Loula is Leaving for Africa by Anne Villeneuve Hardcover , 32 pages Published September 1st 2013 by Kids Can Press    Poor Loula! She has had enough of her triplet brothers - they are mean, horrible, stinky brothers! Once she has packed the essentials, her toy cat, tea set and her best drawing, she is heading to Africa to get far away from those pests. No one pays attention to her as she declares her intentions, not even her parents. Loula finds an unexpected ally in the family chauffeur. He is quick to pull out a map and join in her expedition. With their combined imaginations the journey works its magic on young Loula. This charmingly illustrated picture book is sweet and touching. Children will enjoy all the sights as they make the trip across the park to "Africa" with Loula. 

Here I am story by Patti Kim pictures by Sonia Sanchez unpaged picture book North Mankato, Minnesota : Picture Window Books, 2014.   This wordless picture book shows a young boy's journey with his family from a far-off country to America. He is obviously not thrilled with the move and everything seems strange and bizarre. The language is confusing, the buildings are huge and school is difficult. He soothes himself by hanging on to a small seed he brought with him from his homeland. Then something happens that could be the worst thing ever. Or maybe it is the best thing ever as it gets him out of the apartment and meeting new people. While the illustrations are not my personal favorite style, they do have a certain charm. I am not sure that small children will catch all the nuances of the child's experience, but they will be able to peruse the pictures to get a story. 

Little Red Writing by Joan Holub, illustrated by Melissa Sweet Chronicle Books, 2013. Unpaged.  Picture Book      Little Red is a pencil who goes to school in Pencilvania, and who learns in this book how to write a story from her teacher, Ms. 2.  Little Red's journey is fun in itself, but includes much good instruction on writing.  Right off the bat she has to cut her way through the descriptive forest and get on with the story; then she squeezes too many words out of the Conjunction Glue dispenser and her sentences go on and on and on and on until she is rescued by a truckload of adjectives ("We Deliver Speedily").  So much good information on writing, parts of speech, and the joys of story in this picture book. And I am happy to report that although granny was somewhat diminished by the Big Bad Wolf of a pencil sharpener, she lived to tell the tale.

Thomas Jefferson Builds a Library by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by John O'Brien Calkins Creek, 2013.  32 pgs.  Nonfiction      When President Kennedy hosted a dinner for all the Nobel laureates of the Western Hemisphere, he began the evening with his opinion that " . . . this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." Jefferson might easily be reckoned the brainiest of our presidents, not only because he was so smart and skilled, but because he read constantly. In Rosenstock's delightful picture nonfiction book we learn how Jefferson took to books at an early age--he'd read all of his father's books before he turned six--and spent the rest of his life reading and collecting books for his library. He read in bed, on horseback, fifteen hours a day when he was a student. He lost his earliest library to a fire, and when the ...

Lives of the Scientists:  Experiments, Explosions (and What the Neighbors Thought) by Kathleen Krull, illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt Harcourt, 2013. 96 pgs. Nonfiction      Kathleen Krull provides her usual light-hearted and succinctly informative look at famous characters in this book about well-known and hardly-known scientists. We are all taught to feel compassion for Galileo, who was persecuted by the Church for telling the truth, but Galileo was no fun to be around either, abusing everyone who was not as smart as he was, which was everyone, to his mind. Isaac Newton really did get his ideas about gravitational forces after an apple fell on him, but George Washington Carver didn't invent peanut butter, though he made it taste better. No one paid much attention to Barbara McClintock until she won the Nobel Prize for her pioneering work in genetics, but after she became famous, she wore a Groucho Marx nose, mustache, and glasses in public so no one would know ...

What Am I? Where Am I? by Ted Lewin Holiday House, 2013.  22 pgs.  Nonfiction      In this excellent beginning science book, Ted Lewin begins each series of questions with a partial picture in a circle.  "What am I?" he asks his young readers.  Next page:  I am a lion, or a reindeer, or a tiger.  "Where am I?" he asks again. Turn the page to see which biome is home to each animal:  grassland for the lion, tundra for the reindeer, desert for the camel, and so on. Lovely artwork, simple but memorable concepts, in a fine little book that will get very young animal lovers off to a great start. 

La Oca Boba Petr Horacek Editorial Juventud, 33 pg., Picture Book This cute goose wants to be different, so she goes around the jungle trying to imitate all the animals she encounters, the animals don't mind, they just stare at her. She comes a cross a lion, and she starts imitating his growling when the lion comes after her. She goes back to the flock, and realizes that it is OK to be like everyone else, or is she? You'll love to read this book to your whole family!! La Oca boba quiere ser diferente a todas sus compañeras, ella va por toda la jungla tratando de imitar a todos los animales que encuentra en su camino, a los animales no les importaba, solo la miraban. La oca se cruza con un leon y decide imitarlo, comienza a hacer rugidos, pero esto no le gusta al leon y comienza a perseguirla, corre a su familia y decide estar contenta de la manera que es, pero esperen,  ¿será así? ¡Les prometo que este libro le gustará a toda la familia!

Deep in the Sahara by Kelly Cunnane & Hoda Hadadi Schwartz & Wade, 2013.  Unpaged.  Picture Book      Deep in the Sahara, Lalla wants a malafa , a colorful, flowing robe, so she can be beautiful like her mother, mysterious like her sister, or clothed in the robes of ancient royalty like her grandmother. Each tells her that the malafa means much more than being beautiful or mysterious, and tells her she is too young.  But when she tells her mother she wants a malafa so she can pray, her mother reconsiders. Lalla wears her blue malafa , "as blue as the Sahara sky, as blue as the ink in the Koran, as blue as a stranger's eye" with her mother to evening prayers, knowing now that a malafa is for faith. A lovely story with beautiful, evocative illustrations, Deep in the Sahara is a perfect introduction to the beauty of the Middle Eastern landscape and of Islam.