Review: Spooky Lakes

Spooky Lakes: 25 Strange and Mysterious Lakes That Dot Our Planet
By Geo Rutherford
New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2024. Informational. 96 pages.

Have you ever heard of a lake so salty that its waters mummify any creature that touches it? How about a a lake that perfectly preserved the crew of a sunken Canadian ship, with one crew member being nicknamed "Old Whitey" eternally floating in the engine room? From the macabre to the astounding, Spooky Lakes tells the tale of twenty-five of Earth's most intriguing lakes.

This book is one of my favorites from 2024. It was wildly entertaining and informative and I couldn't wait to read about each new lake presented. I kept stopping to reread particularly crazy parts out loud to my kids so they, too, could be amazed! It also made me add a couple new locations to my travel bucket list and also cross some locations off. I highly recommend this fast paced, high-interest informational book to anyone fascinated by the strange and mysterious planet we call home.

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