Wishes and Wellingtons

By Julie Berry

Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks Young Readers, 2020. Fiction.

Maeve Merrit has just stumbled onto an incredibly lucky find. After getting in yet another fight at her prim and proper boarding school, she is assigned garbage duty and makes a startling discovery: a djinni residing in a discarded sardine tin. Mermeros, the remarkably poor-tempered djinni with a hilarious contempt for his new master, can great Maeve up to three wishes, but warns her about the consequences of greed. As more and more people learn of Maeve's djinni and seek to possess the power for themselves, Maeve and her friends are led on an adventure through Victorian London.

Readers who enjoyed Jonathan Auxier's Sweep, or other historical fantasy novels will find a lot to enjoy in this larger-than-life adventure through the streets of London. Maeve is a winning protagonist whose quick temper and impassioned sense of fairness make for a hilarious foil to the well brought-up girls at her boarding school. Her desire to travel the world and start a girl's cricket league will resonate with readers who like stories of girls who challenge gender roles.

Comments

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