Provo Library Children's Book Blog

  A World of Mindfulness By Erin Alladin Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Pajama Press,   2020. In a time of change and a bit of chaos, so many people are seeking a way to feel grounded. This informational picture book combines simple affirmations with a wide variety of illustration styles to engage the reader and encourage a sense of peace and well-being. Descriptions of common sensory experiences like the smell of grass or the taste of warm chocolate chip cookies help readers practice mindfulness techniques in grounding themselves. The practice of mindfulness can help little ones, and adults, process big emotions in a healthy way. This is a great read-aloud for families!

Action Presidents: Theodore Roosevelt By Fred Van Lente Harper Alley, 2020. Graphic Novel. Theodore Roosevelt was a rough and tumble president of the United States. Follow two kids as they learn more about Teddy Roosevelt from a friendly and strangely informative turkey. President Roosevelt started out as a sickly child, but built up his strength to be a force to reckon with. He fell in love, fought in wars, had a family, and travelled a lot. He was also very interested in animals ever since he was a young boy. Find out more about Theodore Roosevelt in this entertaining and historically accurate graphic novel. Fans of Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales series will enjoy this historical graphic novel. The added humor helped this biography to keep a good pacing while still providing relevant and accurate content. 

Mornings with Monet By Barb Rosenstock Illustrated by Mary GrandPré New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2021. Picture book biography. One early morning in the French village of Giverny, the world-famous painter Claude Monet wakes up before the sun to paint. He takes a rowboat out to a flat-bottomed boat in the middle of the river, he unwraps his canvases, prepares his paints, and waits for light. As the sun rises over the river, Monet works quickly to catch the colors of the sky, clouds, river, and air. The light changes and he frantically switches canvases, skillfully capturing the impression of the moment. Rosenstock and GrandPré are no strangers to art history biographies, having previously tackled Wassily Kandinsky, Vincent Van Gogh, and Marc Chagall, and their latest offering is especially effective. Mary GrandPré's acrylic illustrations are wonderfully evocative, managing to capture the style and feeling of a Monet masterpiece. Rosenstock's text matches the tone of the illustratio...

  The Year I Flew Away Written by Marie Arnold Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021. Fiction. Ten-year-old Gabrielle lives in Hatti where she must help her mother haul water from the well everyday and they don't have electricity. She dreams of going to America where the streets are lined with coins and everyone has so much. Gabrielle finally gets the chance to leave Hatti and come to America but America is very different from what she thought it would be. When she gets to Brooklyn she is shocked by how cold it is and she quickly learns that life isn't easy even in America.  School is hard, English is difficult to learn and she is getting bullied and teased because of her accent and how she dresses.  When a witch comes along and gives her a magic mango that will grant her three wishes she decides to make a deal. These wishes seem like the answer to all of her problems until Gabrielle finds out her wishes come with a cost. This book is a heartfelt coming of age story sprinkled w...

  The Boy Whose Head Was Filled with Stars: A Life of Edwin Hubble  By Isabelle Marinov  Pictures by Deborah Marcero  Enchanted Lion Books, 2021. Picture Book.  This is a beautiful biography picture book about Edwin Hubble. It tells about how Edwin eventually made his way to his dream career—where he got to study stars—and how his discoveries changed how we view and understand the universe. This picture book biography not only tells the story of Hubble, but also has a few diagrams that illustrate what Hubble discovered and why it is important when understanding space and the universe. This is a great book for those who are interested in astronomy, wonder about the Hubble Space Telescope that takes pictures in space, or just plain enjoy an occasional session of star gazing.

The Imperfect Garden By Melissa Assaly The story of how a mother and child come to appreciate the produce they grow as they plant their very own family garden. Tips about living green and gardening as a family are also included.  We Are the Gardeners By Joanna Gaines The Gaines family shares their experiences with their own family garden. The struggles, the triumphs, and the lessons that they have learned.  Dig In!:12 Easy Gardening Projects Using Kitchen Scraps By Kari A. Cornell These step-by-step instructions will help you to be able to grow your own garden from kitchen scraps. Learn how to save leftovers and environother food items to reuse them to help your garden grow! Errol's Garden By Gillian Hibbs Errol lives in a space where he doesn't have room to garden even though he loves gardening. He searches for a space outside to grow things and discovers a solution. Errol's garden unites the diverse community in a positive way. In My Garden By Charlotte Zolotow During eac...

Alone By Megan E. Freeman New York, NY : Aladdin, 2021. Fiction. After her plans fall through to have a sleepover with her best friends, Maddie ends up staying the night by herself at her Grandparent's apartment. She wakes up to find that everyone else in her small town is gone. She has been left behind during a mandatory evacuation and is now completely alone. Try as she might, there is no way to make contact with any of her loved ones and she is forced to learn how to survive on her own. Maddie is faced with all kinds of struggles including enduring the winter months, surviving natural disasters, hiding from looters, and  protecting herself from wild animals. With her only companion being a Rottweiler named George, Maddie battles with extreme loneliness as she waits for her family to come back for her.  Those who enjoy a great survival story will love this novel in verse by Megan Freeman. From beginning to end, I was excited to find out what happened next and why Maddie...

  A Normal Pig By K-Fai Steele Pip is a normal pig who doe normal stuff: cooking, painting, and dreaming of what she'll be when she grows up. But one day a new pig comes to school and starts pointing out all the ways in which Pip is different. Suddenly she doesn't like any of the same things she used to ... the things that made her Pip. Pie in the Sky By Remy Lai Sometimes life isn't a piece of cake... When Jingwen moves to a new country, he feels like he's landed on Mars. School is torture, making friends is impossible since he doesn't speak English, and he's often stuck looking after his little brother. Jingwen daydreams about making all the cakes on the menu of Pie in the Sky, the bakery his father had planned to open before he unexpectedly passed away. The only problem is his mother has laid down one major rule: the brothers are not to use the oven while she's at work. As Jingwen and Yanghao bake elaborate cakes, they'll have to cook up elaborate exc...

Watercress By Andrea Wang Illustrated by Jason Chin Holiday House, 2021. Picture book. On a family car ride somewhere in the American Midwest, a Chinese American girl's parents pull the car over on the side of the road to gather wild watercress. They pull off their shoes, roll up their pants, and wade into a muddy ditch to collect armfuls of the leafy vegetable. As cars drive by and look, the girl is embarrassed by her family. Later, at dinner, she refuses to eat any of the garlicky vegetable -- she doesn't understand why her family is so unlike all their neighbors, and she doubles down on the belief that "free is bad." Finally, her mom shares a story from growing up in China that the girl is able to understand the importance of this dish. Told in flowing free verse, this is a beautiful celebration of finding joy in one's cultural heritage. This story, inspired by the author's own childhood, reveals the distance between first-generation immigrant parents and t...

  Kate's Light: Kate Walker at Robbins Reef Lighthouse Written by Elizabeth Spires Illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully Holiday House.2021. Biography Kate Kaird, an immigrant who left Germany in 1882 moved to America with her young son Jacob and eventually became one of the first lighthouse keepers on the Eastern Seaboard. Her journey began when she met and married John Walker and they moved to Robbins Reef lighthouse in New York harbor. Her husband was given the job as lighthouse keeper and she became the assistant keeper. At first she hated the lighthouse and she wasn't sure she could live in such a lonely place but she eventually adapted and learned to love the peace and quiet of the lighthouse. When her husband died she convinced the lighthouse board to let her stay on until a man could be hired. Four years later she was hired as permanent keeper making her one of the first women to be put in charge of a lighthouse. Kate took care of the lighthouse and lived there for 33 yea...

A Wolf for a Spell  By Karah Sutton  Illustrated by Pauliina Hannuniemi  Alfred A. Knopf, 2020. 318 p.  This is a magical mashup of various Russian folk lore. Zima, a wolf, has been taught that she needs to always fear (and thus kill) humans; however, when she sees a young girl named Nadya who is afraid of her, Zima decides to let her live. Because of that action Baba Yaga decides Zima is the wolf that is needed to save the forest (and perhaps the kingdom) from a common enemy. Baba Yaga and Zima switch bodies and must do their best to save everyone while Nadya is trying to save Katerina (another girl at the orphanage who is like her sister).  Sutton’s chapters alternate between these three points of view and readers will be swept along in the story of this wolf, witch, and girl who want to save those people and places they love. Middle grade readers who like fantasy, adventure, hints of folklore, and strong heroines will be sure to enjoy this tale.

The Fearless Flights of Hazel Ying Lee Written by Julie Leung Illustrated by Julie Kwon Little, Brown and Company, 2021.  Biography. As a little girl growing up in Portland, Oregon, Hazel Ying Lee was fearless in running races with her brothers, playing handball, and swimming.  But she showed true courage when she experienced her first airplane ride at age 19 and declared that she wanted to be a pilot.  She would not allow anyone's shock or surprise to change her mind.  Through lots of hard work and determination, Hazel became the first Chinese-American woman to fly for the U.S. Military in a group known as the WASPs during World War II! In just a few simple sentences per page, Leung tells the captivating story of  Hazel's tenacious path in learning to fly, breaking gender and racial barriers, and becoming a military heroine.  Kwon's digital drawings are refreshing, and I was particularly impressed with her beautiful depictions of Hazel (be sure to compare ...

  Sock on the Loose By Conor McGlauflin New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2021. Picture Book Socks come in pairs, but what happens when one gets lost? Blue socks are worn to play and then taken off and thrown in the wash. After they are washed, one of them goes missing. The lone blue sock wonders what happened to his match and theorizes the scenarios in which he may be, until he finds his way back home.  This playful book takes a common occurrence of a lost sock and turns it into a fun adventure. There are short rhyming phrases for a young child to enjoy and bright watercolor illustrations giving it a delightful energy. This book is sure to please and leave you wondering, the next time you lose a sock, what it may be up to. 

The In-Between By Rebecca K.S. Ansari New York: Walden Pond Press, 2021. Fiction. 313 pgs. Ever since his parents got divorced and his dad moved to San Diego to start a new family, 12-year-old Cooper is reluctant to let people in. He decides that it is better to be lonely than risk being hurt by someone -- so he pushes his friends, mother, and younger sister Jess, who is diabetic, away. Then one day a new boy named Gus shows up at school and Cooper is able to fall into an easy friendship with him. At around the same time, Jess convinces Cooper to solve the 100-year-old mystery of the Charfield railway disaster that seems to be mysteriously connected to Elena, their strange neighbor across the street. As Cooper and Jess are caught-up in a supernatural web of historical mysteries, they realize that disaster may be approaching their hometown of Chicago -- and they may be powerless to stop it. This twisty, ghosty, eerie story is a perfectly complex mystery for middle grade readers. This is...

  When Cloud Became a Cloud Written and Illustrated by Rob Hodgson Rise, 2021. Informational. Cloud is so happy to be a cloud and she is delighted to narrate nine short chapters of science fun while floating through the sky. As you follow cloud on her journey through the water cycle you also get some fun science facts sprinkled with humor and lots of personality.  You will breeze through the short chapters as cloud addresses all the stages of the water cycle from the drizzle of rain, to thunderstorms, snow, and fog, along with other weather facts in a graphic novel format that is informational as well as entertaining. The art is bright and adorable and pairs nicely with the simple large text and delightful dialogue. This is a perfect book for any young readers interested in science or the natural world.

It’s So Quiet: A Not-Quite-Going-to-Bed Book  By Sherri Duskey Rinker  Illustrated by Tony Fucile  Chronicle Books, 2021. Picture Book.  This is a delightful book about a little mouse going to bed—and all of the sounds that happen at night when it is bedtime. There is a healthy (and hilarious) dose of onomatopoeia that tends to keep the young mouse awake. I will admit, when I read this to two young listeners the loud exclamations and laughter was just what I was looking for. As soon as we finished reading the first thing that was said was, “Can you read it again?” This is sure to be a classic (albeit noisy) going to bed book that will delight young readers and their parents for years to come. Whoever has young readers that like to read a book before bed (and who love to laugh) should check this one out from the library!

We made it -- it's "Z" Week! Here are a few books to celebrate this final, zany letter of the alphabet: Astronauts Zoom!  An Astronaut Alphabet By Deborah Lee Rose Baker & Taylor Publisher Services, 2021.  Picture Book. From A to Z, “you are there” NASA photos capture real women and men astronauts on the International Space Station doing all kinds of work―and having fun! Diverse astronauts from around the world include NASA’S first all-woman spacewalk team and the first African American astronaut on a 6-month mission to the space station. With STEM-rich text and action words, ASTRONAUTS ZOOM! gives kids a space-eye view from the time astronauts awake till they’re zipped in for the night. Kids will also discover how astronauts practice on Earth, getting dressed in spacesuits and “spacewalking” in NASA’s training pool. Lots of hands-on STEAM ideas are included―like exploring science and engineering activities, making videos “from space,” even throwing a space pizza par...

  Hello, Moon! A Yoga Moon Salutation for Bedtime By Sarah Jane Hinder Boulder, CO: Sounds True, 2020. Kids young and old can follow along on a salutation for bedtime! A little boy walks readers through a series of yoga moves that will help calm their minds and relax their bodies for a good night’s sleep. Hinder uses simply beautiful illustrations with memorable rhyming text to engage even the littlest yogi. With back matter to provide additional step-by-step directions and facts about yoga for bedtime, this sweet book is a great addition to any bedtime routine.

Emmi in the City By Salima Alikhan Stone Arch Books, 2019. 105 p. Emmi and her father moved to America two years before the Great Chicago Fire. Her father had big plans to be a toy maker. Even with their Irish neighbors not being particularly kind towards the native Germans, Emmi and her father are determined to make a good life in America. When a Emmi and her father are alerted of a nearby fire her father goes to check things out. As the fire gets closer and closer Emmi isn't sure if she should leave or wait for her father. Alikhan's take on the Great Chicago Fire makes a great read for emerging readers. The smaller chapters make for an easy bite-size consumption of the story. The character growth in the story was the icing on the cake and completed the story beautifully.

  Tea with Grandpa By Barney Saltzberg No matter how far apart they are, a little girl and her grandfather share a cup of tea everyday at half past three. Tea with Oliver By Mika Song Oliver wants to drink tea with a friend, Philbert, who loves tea, tries to get Oliver's attention. Tea for Two By Jane O'Connor Illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser When Nancy joins her friend Bree for a tea party and her friend's teapot is broken, Nancy worries that their friendship may be ruined. Pinkalicious: The Royal Tea Party By Victoria Kann Pinkalicious throws a tea party to celebrate her crowning of Goldie as Princess Goldilicious, but when Peter has ideas of his own, the perfect party could be in jeopardy. How to Behave at a Tea Party By Madelyn Rosenberg Illustrated by Heather Ross Although Julia instructs her younger brother, Charlie, and other guests in proper behavior, her tea party does not turn out as she had planned. Tea for Ruby By Sarah, Duchess of York Illustrated by Robin P...

Starfish By Lisa Fipps New York: Nancy Paulsen Books, 2021. Verse fiction. 11-year-old Ellie Montgomery-Hofstein is bullied everyday of her life because she is fat. Ever since her fifth birthday party when she cannonballed into the pool with a massive splash, the kids at Ellie's school and even her mom, brother, and sister bully her relentlessly because of how she looks. The bullying and torment prompts Ellie to create the "Fat Girl Rules" to help her fit in and stay invisible. When her best friend Viv moves away, Ellie feels all alone and without an ally -- especially as her mother's threat of bariatric surgery (which Ellie knows is dangerous) becomes more severe. Fortunately, Ellie's compassionate father notices how upset these words are making Ellie and helps her find a therapist to work through her problems. She also finds a new friend in her new neighbor Catalina, who helps her feel loved and accepted for who she is. This debut novel is an emotional powerhous...

The Ambassador of Nowhere Texas Written by Kimberly Willis Holt  Henry Holt and Company, 2021. Fiction. Seventh grader, Rylee Wilson, has lived in the small town of Antler Texas her entire life. She knows everyone in town and everyone knows her and she wouldn't have it any other way. Her world seems almost perfect until her best friend Twig leaves for the summer, to travel abroad.  After waiting all summer for Twig's return, Rylee is surprised when Twig begins to distance herself from Rylee. As their  friendship continues to spiral downward, a new boy named Joe Toscani moves to town. The citizens of Antler  discover that Joe and his mother left New York City after Joe's father, a firefighter, died at the twin towers during the 9/11 attack. Eventually Joe and Rylee begin a friendship as they search for Zachary Beaver, an old friend of Rylee's dad. This book is a great companion story to the novel When Zachary Beaver Came to Town. It deals in a very real way, with the ...

  Where is the Dragon?   By Leo Timmers  Gecko Press, 2021. Picture Book.  The king has sent three knights off to save the kingdom (but mainly the king) from a dragon. As the knights go searching for the fearsome beast, they find a lot of things that in the shadows look like dragons—but aren’t. This clever and rhyming tale is sure to get kids saying “there’s the dragon” or “that’s probably not a dragon” whenever they spy a dragon-like shadow. And when the ending comes around, readers will most likely laugh at the twist. The younger readers who love the idea of being “scared” yet don’t really like actually feeling frightened will enjoy this book.

Yay for "Y" Week!   Here are a few books for this fun letter: The Magical Yet Written by Angela DiTerlizzi Illustrated by Lorena Alvarez Disney-Hyperion, 2020.  Picture Book. Each of us, from the day we're born, is accompanied by a special companion--the Yet. Can't tie your shoes? Yet! Can't ride a bike? Yet! Can't play the bassoon? Don't worry, Yet is there to help you out. The Magical Yet is the perfect tool for parents and educators to turn a negative into a positive when helping children cope with the inevitable difficult learning moments we all face. Whether a child or an adult, this encouraging and uplifting book reminds us that we all have things we haven't learned...yet!  --Publisher Dinos Don't Do Yoga Written by Catherine Bailey Illustrated by Alex Willmore Sounds True, 2020.  Picture Book. Meet Rex, the talon-tearing tough leader of a Cretaceous crew that loves to feed, feud, and fight! All is well in their rough-and-tumble world until s...