DISPLAY: Get Carried Away with Reading

Vernon the toad takes the silent Bird on a journey in hopes of finding Bird's home.

Because You Are My Teacher
By: Sherry North

In illustrations and verse, lists some of the places a teacher would take her students if she had the means, from a hot-air balloon trip over China's Great Wall to an airboat ride in the Everglades to observe alligators.

Up and Away!: How Two Brothers Invented the Hot Air Balloon
By: Jason Henry

"Back in 1782, in Annonay, France, lived Joseph Montgolfier, a dreamer and an inventor who was curious about how everything worked. When one day a gust of wind blew his papers into the fireplace, he noticed that something lifted the pages into the air--and he realized that heat could make things rise. With the help of his brother Étienne, he began to experiment ... and created the world's first flying machine, sparking the birth of flight. This beautifully illustrated picture book tells the story of how his hot-air balloon came to be, King Louis XVI's visit to see it fly, and the three animals--a rooster, a duck, and a sheep--who became its very first passengers"--Jacket.

A Voyage in the Clouds : The (Mostly) True Story of the First International Flight by Balloon in 1785
By: Matthew Olshan

Dr. John Jeffries and his pilot, Jean-Pierre Blanchard, each want to be the first man to fly from one country to another, across the English Channel. There's only one problem: they can't stand each other! Inspired by the true story of the first international flight.

Hot- Air Henry
By: Mary Calhoun

A sassy Siamese cat stows away on a hot air balloon and ends up taking a fur-raising flight across the mountains.

The Secret Circus
By: Johanna Wright

Mice carefully dress for an evening out, journey across Paris in a hot air balloon, and finally arrive at a secret place to see the circus.

The Hot Air Balloon Book : Build and Launch Kongming Lanterns, Solar Tetroons, and More
By: Clive Catterall

Author and inventor Clive Catterall provides illustrated, step-by-step instructions for building eight different homemade models of hot air balloons, as well as the science and history behind them.

The Amazing Air Balloon
By: Jean Van Leeuwen

In this story based on true events, a thirteen-year-old apprentice takes the first manned hot air balloon flight in America and gains new insight into life's possibilities.

Comments

Review: The New Girl

The New Girl By Cassandra Calin New York: Graphix, 2024. Comic. 261 pages. 12-year-old Lia and her family have just moved from Romania to Montreal, and she's doing her best to keep up with the changes. But, she's homesick. She misses the rest of her family, her friends, and her favorite Romanian treats. She doesn't speak French and her English is shaky, which makes it hard to make friends, even in her international immersion class. And she's dealing with super painful menstrual cramps every month. But before long, Lia starts to hit her stride. She befriends the other bilingual girls in her class, she gets a spot as the artist for her school's magazine, and even has a new crush -- Julien. Though she may be the new girl, Lia is starting to fit in. This slice of life graphic novel is an adorable choice for middle grade readers and young teens. Lia is a likable protagonist and readers will have little difficulty relating to her adjustment to school. The text speaks to a...

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...

Five Favorite Aunt and Uncle Books

Aunt and Uncle Day I discovered a new holiday. Apparently, July 26th is National Aunt and Uncle Day! In order to celebrate this day, I am sharing my five favorite middle grade books that have stellar aunts and uncles. Now, due to a lot of various circumstances, these books have a lot of hard things (death of a parent, parental neglect, and one case of good parents sending their child off to visit an uncle during summer vacation). So, be aware that these titles not only showcase some amazing aunts and uncles, but they also open the door to talk about hard topics. Closer to Nowhere By Ellen Hopkins Putnam’s Sons, 2020. This book is actually told from two different points of view—Hannah and Cal’s; however, the two protagonists are cousins. Cal comes to live with Hannah’s family and Hannah’s mom—Cal’s aunt—becomes Cal’s support and champion. Cal’s mom died and his dad is in prison. Cal is in a family foster care situation and doesn’t feel like he belongs. Hann...

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