Skip to main content

FebruaryGirls/Guys Read

Did you know that we have two parent/child book clubs every month at the Provo City Library? They are for children ages 9-12 and a caregiver. This month, they will meet February 25 (girls) and February 27 (guys). Preregister under the Kids Corner/Program Registration tab on the library website. We have two great books to discuss this month:

Girls

Brown Girl Dreaming
By Jacqueline Woodson
New York: Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014. Verse.

As a child, Jacqueline Woodson never felt settled at home. In the 1960s and 1970s she lived in South Carolina and New York, in the midst of the Civil Rights movement and with the dark shadow of Jim Crow era laws looming overhead. As she searches to find herself, Jacqueline finds her voice as a writer and she begins to tell stories that will shape her future. Told entirely in verse, this memoir is a touching and thoughtful story about growing up and finding your way. A National Book Award Winner, Newbery Honoree, and Coretta Scott King Award winner, this unique book of poetry reveals Jacqueline Woodson's passion for storytelling by telling her own story.


Guys
By Michael Morpurgo
New York: Scholastic, 2007. Historical fiction.

In 1914, in the midst of World War I, Joey, the horse, is sold to the British army and sent to the Western Front. As he struggles to survive the war, Joey longs to return to the farm where he was raised and the boy, Albert, who loves him. This unique look at the tragedies of World War I is narrated by Joey, a farmhorse who leads a cavalry charge, is taken as a prisoner of war, pulls gun carriages for the Germans, and so much more. Joey's courage and determination to return home acts as a beacon to the human soldiers on the front with him and his hope for a return to home is deeply heartfelt. This emotionally effective war novel, made famous as a play and movie, is also on the 2019-2020 Battle of the Books list.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...

Review: Blood in the Water

Blood in the Water By Tiffany D. Jackson New York: Scholastic, 2025. Fiction. 255 pages. 12-year-old Kaylani McKinnon can't help but feel like a fish out of water. She's a Brooklyn girl spending her summer on Martha's Vineyard surrounded by wealthy family friends in their mansion. All she really wants is to stay home all summer where she her incarcerated father can easily reach her, and she can keep working to find ways to prove him innocent of fraud and embezzlement. Despite her protests, she finds herself on the island with the snooty granddaughters of her host. Soon after Kaylani's arrival, a popular teen boy is found murdered and she decides to conduct her own investigation. As she tries to discover what happened to Chadwick Cooper, Kaylani finds that not everything on Martha's Vineyard is as perfect as it appears. Thrillers for middle grade readers can be hard to find, but Tiffany D. Jackson succeeds in her first middle grade novel. A quick moving plot, tight d...

Review: A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall

A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall By Jasmine Warga New York: Harper, 2024. Fiction. 211 pages. A painting has been stolen from the Penelope L. Brooks Museum and sixth-grader Rami Ahmed is worried he's the main suspect. His mother works at the museum as the lead custodian and Rami spends a lot of time hanging out at the museum while she works. On the day the painting went missing, the only people there were the security guard Ed, the cleaning crew, and Rami. Then, a mysterious girl appears in the museum. She floats around from room to room and only Rami can see her -- and she looks exactly like the girl from the missing painting. To prove his innocence and help figure out who the floating girl is, Rami partners up with an aspiring sleuth at school named Veda and the two dive into unexpected situations as they try to solve the mystery. This is a cozy mystery that is focused mostly on characters and ambiance and only a little on the mystery itself. Don't read this book if yo...