From Story Time: Summer Reading Week 2

Read at Stories in the Park

By Jon Agee

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2016. Picture Book.

There are seven steps to becoming a proper lion, including Looking Fierce, Roaring, Prowling Around, and Pouncing. Our young hero, a rather meek and scrawny human boy, does his best to learn the necessary skills during his training with a master instructor (who just happens to be a real lion). After a grueling set of lessons, the boy discovers that that the final step—Looking Out for Your Friends—is the most important of all. That’s how any kid can earn his lion diploma (not to mention the affection of every cat in town).

With the wit and read-aloud appeal of Peter Brown’s Children Make Terrible Pets and William Steig’s Pete’s a Pizza, this funny, fierce picture book teaches kids just what it takes to be a great lion. --Publisher

Read at Stories in the Park

Sun Flower Lion

By Kevin Henkes

Greenwillow Books, 2020. Picture Book.

On a warm morning, a little lion sleeps under a sun that shines so brightly, it looks like a flower. He dreams the flower is as big as the sun. He dreams the flower is a cookie. He lets his imagination soar.

Caldecott Medalist Kevin Henkes uses simple shapes, limited colors, and a pitch-perfect text to tell Lion's story in this transcendent picture book. Sun Flower Lion introduces emerging readers to short chapters, action verbs, and adjectives, while bright illustrations transform simple shapes into something magical.

Sun Flower Lion will shine at story time and bedtime and for young children just learning how to read on their own. --Publisher

Read at Cuentos

El Pez Pucheros

Escrito por Deborah Diesen

Ilustrado por Dan Hanna

Traducido por Teresa Mlawer

Farrar Straus Giroux, 2016. Spanish Picture Book.

Nada junto al Sr. Pez según el descubre que ser sombrío y triste realmente no es su destino. Un océano de colores brillantes y rima juguetona hacen pareja en este cuento marino divertido que garantiza convertir los pequeños pucheros en grandes sonrisas.

Esta edición del libro más vendido en el New York Times Pout-Pout Fish en español será encantador para todo lector bilingüe. --Publisher

Read at Book Babies

Hippo Says "Excuse Me"

Written by Michael Dahl

Illustrated by Oriol Vidal

Picture Window Books, 2012. Board Book.

Hippo might bump and squish others as he makes his way through his day, but he always remembers to say, “Excuse me!” This board book in the Hello Genius series is perfect for teaching manners in fun and playful way. --Publisher

Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) by Pamela Espeland & Elizabeth Verdick

If there's one book today's kids need to read, it is Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) . The authors provide a fun format for teaching etiquette to children. They discuss proper behavior at home, at school, at other people's homes and in public places. The information is completely up-to-date with cellphone manners and netiquette included. Fun, cartoony illustrations are on practically every page giving the book great visual appeal. This book is perfect for boys and girls in the fourth grade or older. WARNING: Bodily functions are discussed.

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin Illustrated by Leslie Evans Charlesburg; 2009; unpaged Faces of the Moon is a short nonfiction book that describes the different phases of the moon and why the moon appears like it does on certain nights. This book is short and sweet so even the youngest of moon lovers will enjoy it. The layout is simplistic and easy to follow. I don’t know much about the moon so I found it very interesting.

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...

Provo Library Children's Book Blog

Search This Blog