Provo Library Children's Book Blog

  Out of My Heart  By Sharon Draper  Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2021. 342 p.  Melody that readers came to know and love in Out of My Mind is back with another story—this time she is going to summer camp. Although Melody has cerebral palsy and needs a lot of help in her day-to-day life, she still wants to head off to camp just like many of the other kids her age. However, her fears of sinking while swimming, riding horses, and if others will accept her all make her a little anxious when it is time for her big adventure. This is a great sequel for readers who have come to love Melody already or those who want to read a book about a great girl who just happens to have a body that doesn’t work as well as others.

  Read in Toddler Time Rabbit! Rabitt! Rabbit! By Lorna Scobie New York : Henry Holt and Company, 2021. Picture Book. Rabbit loves having everything--its flower, carrots, and stretching area--to itself. But then one day Rabbit's parents have BIG news . . . Rabbit now has siblings! Thankfully, the fox next door loves having rabbits around. Maybe she can help? In the tradition of books like Wolfie the Bunny , author-illustrator--and sister to MANY siblings--Lorna Scobie crafts a gleeful picture book in Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit! that tackles the evergreen dilemma of older siblings who must learn to share and give up solitude in exchange for the love and warmth of siblinghood. Which, as it turns out, is actually fantastic.--Publisher Read in Preschool Time This is My Room! (No Tigers Allowed) Written by Jennifer Richard Jacobson Illustrated by Alexandria Neonakis New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2019. Picture Book. Jojo can't wait to spend the night in her ver...

Shark Dog! By Ged Adamson New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2017. Picture Book Half-shark, half-dog Shark Dog ends up on the boat of a boy and his explorer dad, and becomes their pet. But when he gets homesick, he'll have to decide whether to go back to Shark Island or stay in his new home. Walter the Whale Shark: And His Teeny Tiny Teeth Written by Katherine Crow Illustrated by Hazel Quintanilla  Oakville, ON : Flowerpot Press, 2020. Picture Book. Walter had spent all summer counting down the days to the first day of school. He couldn't wait to make new shark friends and finally swim into his classroom for the first time. But the first class picture of the year changes everything. Walter realizes there is one BIG difference between him and his shark classmates. After his discovery, Walter spends his day trying anything he can think of to blend in with the other sharks, only to learn that the things that make us feel like we don't fit in are the...

  What Lives in the Woods By: Lindsay Currie Sourcebooks Young Readers, 2021. Middle Grade. All twelve-year-old Ginny wanted was to attend her summer mystery writing workshop at home in Chicago, but her dad takes on a job doing historical restoration in an old manor in Michigan over the summer. When Ginny does her own investigating into the house they’ll be staying in, she finds out that residents of the town believe that there are mutant creatures living in the woods surrounding the old manor. Over the following days, a string of spooky incidents occur in Ginny’s room and the old ballroom. Mannequins seem to move by themselves, a tree crashes through a window, and a mysterious ticking seems to lead Ginny to the ballroom. This is a spooky story that will be enjoyed by horror fans but also by mystery lovers. Although there is enough action to make the book feel fast-paced, readers will also enjoy getting to know Ginny and her new friend Will and watching their friendship develop.

  The Great Escape By Alan Katz New York: HarperCollins, 2021. Intermediate. Milton Worthy thinks his school day is a disaster when he learns that their substitute teacher is... his mom! What Milton soon realizes is this is the least of his worries. Their class pet, a ferret named Noah, is actually an evil mastermind with a plan for world domination. In fact, none of the class pets are the cute and cuddly animals that the kids thought they were. It's up to their substitute teacher, Mrs. Worthy, and the students of classroom 331B to stop the ferret and save the world. This fun and charming Intermediate chapter book is full of action. It has just enough silliness to captivate your young readers. This is the first of many adventures in the Society of Substitutes (S.O.S.) series, so get ready for more hilarious hijinks.

Comic books and graphic novels are so much fun to read! They can be especially helpful if you have a reluctant reader in your life. This list is for people looking for intermediate/beginning comic books to get your Kindergartener-2nd Grader excited about reading comic books. Even though these are aimed at K-2, they can be entertaining for children (and adults!) of all ages. Catstronauts By Drew Brockington Little, Brown and Company, 2017. Comic Book. 160 pages Alerted to a global energy crisis, the President consults with the World's Best Scientist, who suggests sending a special group of astronauts to turn the Moon into a solar power plant. Pizza and Taco By Stephen Shaskan Random House Children's Books, 2020. Comic Book. 68 pages. Best friends Pizza and Taco agree on nearly everything until Pizza declares himself the best of all, leading to debating, voting, competing, and finally defining what being the best really means. Babymouse By Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm Rand...

Maizy Chen's Last Chance By Lisa Yee New York: Random House Children's Books, 2022. Fiction. Eleven-year-old Maizy Chen barely knows her grandparents, her Oma and Opa, who live in Last Chance, Minnesota. She only met them once when she was 8 and they came to Los Angeles to visit Maizy and her mom. Now, Maizy is stuck spending her whole summer in Last Chance, a lazy Midwestern town, as she and her mother help care for her sick Opa and keep the family restaurant afloat. While there, Maizy begins to puzzle over her family history, in particular her great-great-grandfather Lucky Chen who came to America from China before the Chinese Exclusion Act and eventually settled in Last Chance. In the present day, the Golden Palace restaurant is targeted by racist messages and Maizy is determined to find the culprit. This is a remarkable novel that seamlessly integrates historic and modern narratives while exploring the intergenerational trauma of Chinese American immigrants. Lisa Yee master...

  That They Lived: African Americans Who Changed The World Written by Rochelle Riley and Christi Smith-Jones Wayne State University press, 2021. Informational. That They Lived: African Americans Who Changed The world is an inspirational biography collection of  essays about African Americans who transformed the world through their lives, dreams and determination. This book not only shares their stories but also contains photographs that reminds us that everyone, famous or not, were all children once.  Each chapter contains a short biography and two photos, one of the actual person and another photo of a Black child dressed up as that person. This combination of photographs and stories is unique and leaves a memorable impression on the reader. I really enjoyed the stories and photographs, which together, made a powerful statement that one person can make a big difference in the world if they aspire to do so. This book gives the reader an uncommon look at stories that can b...

When I was a little girl I loved (and I do mean LOVED) to read princess books. To be honest, I still do. There is something about the idea of dressing up, sporting a tiara, and being a princess that made me happy. Though now that I am grown, I also know just how great it can be to not be a princess. Anyway, here are some of my favorite newer princess books, just in case there are other princesses fans out there besides myself.  Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess  By Tom Gauld  Neal Porter Books, Holiday House, 2021.  This may be my most favorite new princess picture book. It is all about the unusual family—the King and Queen couldn’t have kids so an inventor made a robot and a witch enchanted a log. I love the family love and the lengths that each sibling goes to in order to bring their family back together.  Princess Cora and the Crocodile  By Laura Amy Schlitz  Illustrated by Brian Floca  Candlewick Press, 2017.  In this story Princes...

Read in Toddler Time Quiet Down, Loud Town! Written by Alastair Heim Illustrated by Matt Hunt Boston : Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020. Picture Book. In this funny, rhyming read-aloud for very young readers, a grumpy Mr. Elephant just wants some peace and quiet--that is, until he gets it. Packed with hilarious rhymes, fun-to-shout-out sounds, and the frenetic energy of a happy, busy town, this raucous read-aloud follows an exasperated elephant through the course of his day. From barking dogs to clattering dishes at the coffee shop to a boisterous marching band, the noise is just too much. Mr. Elephant wants nothing more than for his loud town to PLEASE QUIET DOWN!!! But what happens when he ends up getting exactly what he wishes for?--Publisher Read in Preschool Time Not Quite Narwhal By Jessie Sima New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2017. Picture Book. Growing up in the ocean, Kelp has always assumed that he was a narwhal like the rest of his family...

Sometimes, when it seems like winter will never end, I like to read books about nature to feel like I’m escaping outside, even when I’m stuck inside. In no particular order, here are my favorite picture books published in 2021 about the great outdoors. Bea by the Sea Written by Jo Byatt Child's Play Inc, 2021. Picture Book. Bea loves lions and hates going to the beach. At the beach she meets Sand Lion who teaches her not to be scared of touching the sand or the roar of the ocean. By the end of the day Bea loves the ocean and looks forward to visiting again. Little Dandelion Seeds the World By Julia Richardson Illustrated by Kristen and Kevin Howdeshell Sleeping Bear Press, 2021. Informational. Did you know that dandelions can be found on all seven continents? This title teaches about how dandelions travel in the wind to spread from place to place. Even though this book is found in our informational section, it makes a great read aloud for children young and old.  Hugo and t...

  My Way West By Elizabeth Goss West Margin Press, 2021. Informational. Based on true historical accounts and journals, "My Way West" tells about the experiences of kids ages 6-14 traveling West in the 1800s.  Each page tells about a different aspect of the travels and travails encountered on the Oregon and California trails by emigrants.  Each page also includes actual accounts from real children traveling on the trails at that time. Impacts on Native Americans already living on the land were included in some of the sections, as well as secondhand accounts of slaves forced to make the journey with their slave owners.  I appreciated the author's efforts to include different perspectives in her book.  Although the majority of emigrants at the time were white, emigration at that time had a huge, mostly negative impact on the Native tribes already living in the places these people were trying to claim, and I was glad to see that she addressed that.  I think ev...

  Milk and Juice: A Recycling Romance By Meredith Crandall Brown Harper, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, 2021. Picture Book Milk and Juice fall in love when they meet in the same refrigerator. They have a brief romance before Juice is taken away by the recycling bin. Juice promises that she will find Milk and they will be reunited. Juice goes through many transformations (soap bottle, marker, and a  laundry detergent container) as they are recycled over and over again. Meanwhile, Milk is traveling the world as they are also on a quest to find their love, Juice. My favorite spread of pages in the book shows Milk in their various recycled forms saying, "Juice?" in 22 different languages. They finally find each other at the end of the book as they are recycled together in a park bench. They live happily ever after together. At least half of the text is in speech bubbles and it's so much fun! The end of the book also includes a section showing the steps of recycling....

Everyone loves a good whodunit. What's a whodunit? It's a mystery where you don't know who the criminal is until the very end. Usually, there are specific types of characters in a whodunit that make it extra fun to read. So what if we threw some of your favorite children's book characters together into one whodunit mystery? Who would be cast as the criminal? Who would be the detective? Who would be the unsuspecting victim? Here's what I came up with.  The Detective: Nate the Great Obviously, I could have chosen Nancy Drew or Cam Jansen or a myriad of other children's book detectives, but Nate the Great is my choice because he would figure out the case while eating pancakes with his faithful dog Sludge. Every good mystery needs pancakes.  The Unsuspecting Victim: Curious George What can I say? He was just too curious.  The Butler: Waldo Who's more suspicious than a person you can never find? I think Waldo would make the perfect butler.  He's well-mannered...