Provo Library Children's Book Blog

  Cuentos La biblioteca nocturna Por Kazuno Kohara Barcelona: Obelisco, 2014. Libro ilustrado. "Érase una vez una biblioteca que abría sólo por la noche ... Entra en la biblioteca nocturna y conoce a una pequeña y simpática bibliotecaria y a sus tres búho-ayudantes." --Editor Cuentos ¡Estamos en un libro! Por Mo Willems New York : Hyperion Books for Children, an imprint of Disney Book Group, 2015. Fácil. "Cuando Geraldo Y Cerdita se dan cuenta de que están dentro de un libro, deciden divertirse con el lector." --Editor Otros libros sobre la biblioteca A Bizcocho le encanta la biblioteca La biblioteca amorosa Los Robinson y la biblioteca priata Baker y Taylor y el mistserio de la biblioteca La montaña de libros más alta del mundo

Preschool Time Hooray for Books! By Brian Won Boston; New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017. Picture Book. While Turtle seeks his favorite book, each of his friends offers his or her favorite to thank him for sharing. --Editor Preschool Time A Love Letter to My Library Written by Lisa Katzenberger Illustrated by Rob Sayegh Jr. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks eXplore, 2024. Picture Book.  Children in the community express gratitude for their local library's fun activities and inclusive space. --Editor Toddler Time The New LiBEARian Written by Alison Donald Illustrated by Alex Willmore Boston; New York: Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018. Picture Book. When the children discover a bear at the librarian's desk at story time, they think he's the new librarian. He's not! --Publisher Book Babies Sigh Like a Sloth By Nicole LaRue Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2022. Board Book. This board book introduces toddlers to simple breathing exercises perfect for encouraging focu...

With mixed emotions and fresh pencils, summer has ended and school has begun. Here are a few short, illustrated chapter books that take you there - some realistic, some fantastical, but all sensitive to this real transition children make. See Bibsy Cross and Still Sal for a couple more excellent back-to-school Intermediates! Bulldozer Goes to School Written by Elise Broach Illustrated by Kelly Murphy New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2025. Intermediate. 110 pages.  Bulldozer, a gentle construction vehicle living in a world of humans, is nervous about starting school. His story is full of understated conflicts: He wants to be true to himself, but he also wants to fit in, he has doubts and fears, but he also has moments of success and delight. It's sweet, funny, and true. I love the greyscale and soft orange illustrations throughout. Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus Written by Barbara Park Illustrated by Denise Brunkus New York: Random House, 1992. Intermediate. 69 pages...

  Hurricane By Jason Chin New York: Neal Porter Book, Holiday House, 2025. Informational. This informational picture book by Caldecott winner Jason Chin shows step-by-step the process of preparing for a storm in an island off of North Carolina. First comes weeks of speculation; how strong is the storm? Will we be in the evacuation zone? As scientists, meteorologists, and hurricane hunters study the storm's path, the decision is made to evacuate the island. Chin walks the reader through the process of preparing your house for a storm, packing up your most important belongings into your car, and leaving your home behind. It also discusses dealing with cleanup after a hurricane's destruction. Jason Chin is well-known for his beautifully detailed illustrated nonfiction, and this book is no exception. Readers will learn something new, but will definitely also pause to look at the highly intricate, gorgeous artwork. 

Whether your reader is going to school for the first time or returning for another busy year, these new picture books are a great way to get in the school year mindset! Scarecited on the First Day of School Written by Alliah L. Agostini Illustrated by Lala Watkins  New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025. Picture Book.  Have you ever felt more than one way about something? Of course you have! This delightful picture book perfectly encapsulates that phenomenon --because it's Afua's first day of school, and she's feeling so many things!  The Tour at School! Written by Katie Clapham Illustrated by Nadia Shireen Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2025. Picture Book. Get ready to smile until your face hurts at the antics of this young new tour guide! Our tour guide is very self-assured, and reminds readers that when you're assigned to show a new student around there are some things you absolutely must remember to do, like: Sound very excited, locate the echo-ey bathroom fi...

Graciela in the Abyss By Meg Medina Somerville, MA, 2025. Fiction. 236 pages. Graciela is a 13-year-old girl who falls off a cliff into the ocean and drowns. She wakes up a century later as a sea ghost. Life as a sea ghost is a little slower, and she likes to spend time making sea glass and assisting other spirits as they help sea ghosts like herself wake up. One day Graciela meets a mortal boy named Jorge who threw a cursed harpoon into the sea. When the cursed weapon injures Graciela's best friend, she is determined to find out how to destroy the weapon before her friend dies from her wound. In her quest to find answers, Graciela must form an alliance with Jorge in order to learn about the harpoon's legend, and destroy it. But time is running out, and they must hurry and destroy the harpoon before an evil sea ghosts uses it to cause chaos on the living and the dead. This is an eerie underwater fantasy story that has an ancient fable-like feel full of sea creatures, sunken sec...

Just last week, there was a wildfire on the mountain near our library. When I was driving the night it started, several people had pulled off the side of the road to take pictures of it. When wildfires happen, and especially when you can see the flames from your home, it can be pretty scary but also fascinating. If you or any kids in your life want to learn more about wildfires after hearing about them on the news or at school, here's a list of five books that center around how wildfires happen and how people and animals respond to them. When Forests Burn: The Story of Wildfires in America By Albert Marrin New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2023. Informational. 240 pages. What many people might not know, is that forest fires are a natural part of a forest's life cycle. Author Marrin explains that fires can remove dead trees and clear the forest floors, but mass-deforestation and humans trying to prevent small forest fires caused much larger and deadlier wildfires. This informational ch...

When You Love a Book Written by Kaz Windness Illustrated by Heather Brockman Lee New York: Flamingo Books, 2024. Picture Book. An ode to childhood classics that celebrates the companionship books offer throughout all stages of life. --Editor How to Read a Book Written by Kwame Alexander Illustrated by Melissa Sweet New York: Harper, an Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2019. Picture Book. Suggests a method of reading that begins with planting oneself beneath a tree and leads to a book party one hopes will never end. --Editor My Book and Me Written by Linda Sue Park Illustrated by Chris Raschka Brooklyn: Red Comet Press, 2024. Picture Book. A celebration of the joy that books and reading bring to children, anywhere, anytime. --Editor Here Is a Book By Elisha Cooper New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2025. Picture Book.  The life of a picture book begins in the artist's studio, journeys through the world of publishing, finds itself on a bookshelf, and lands in the home of a ...

  What Fell From the Sky By Adrianna Cuevas New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2025. Fiction. 291 pages. Pineda is used to feeling different from everyone around him as the only Cuban-American in his small Texas town in the 1950s. So when he encounters a blue-skinned humanoid alien girl that he names Louisa, he knows that he has to help her find her parents and get back home. The big problem? His town has been overrun by soldiers simulating a Communist take over. The soldiers are pretending to be enemy soldiers who overthrow the city government to test how citizens would respond to a hostile takeover. This book has something for everyone, an interesting blend of science fiction with historical fiction. So whether your child would like to hear about Cold War-era tensions or just wants to know how to hide an alien from everyone around them, this book will be loved by all. If you were a fan of last year's Newbery winner The First State of Being,  this book is a natural read-alike....

  The Green Kingdom By Cornelia Funke and Tammi Hartung Illustrated by Melissa Castrillon New York: DK Publishing, 2025. Fiction. 222 pages. Caspia Turkel does NOT want to move to Brooklyn for the summer and leave her two best friends! It's unthinkable! However, when she arrives at the outdated apartment and finds an old hand-painted dresser in her bedroom, her feelings begin to change. Caspia discovers a treasure inside, 10 letters tied with a ribbon, that help her to grow roots in her new place. She forges new friendships and makes connections in her community as she searches for citizens of the Green Kingdom all around her.  This sweet story is all about curiosity and the joy that can come into our life when we are brave enough to follow it. The characters are kind, and support each other throughout. This is a great book for budding gardeners as there is quite a bit of information on different flowers and plants.  

KPop Demon Hunters has been one of the most talked-about movies of the summer. If you loved this movie as much as I did, you don't want the magic (or the music) to stop. Try reading these books that touch on some of the same topics and themes as the animated hit! Brick Dust and Bones By M. R. Fournet New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2023. Fiction. 247 pages. Orphaned Marius works in the family business--as their cemetery's ghost caretaker. However, Marius also moonlights as a monster hunter in order to earn the costly Mystic currency he needs to bring his mother back from the dead. As the window to bring his mother back begins to close, Marius's exploits get more and more dangerous, and he may have set his sights on a monster too big to handle on his own. Like Mira, Marius longs for familial connection, and his work as a monster hunter will satisfy the thrill of demon hunting for fans the movie. Where's Halmoni? By Julie J. Kim Seattle, WA: Little Bigfoot, 2017. Comics. W...

Here Is a Book By Elisha Cooper New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2025. Picture Book. Young readers may wonder how the book they're holding ended up in their hands, and this story will tell them just how it happened. We start with an artist who constructs a manuscript in her home before it goes to the printer. The printer makes the book, which then goes to libraries, to schools, and to the home of one child who begins to create her own book. Elisha Cooper has one Caldecott Honor under his belt, and this lovely picture book about books will certainly receive award buzz at the end of this year. The illustrations, somehow both expansive and tight, give readers the opportunity to study and ruminate on the meaning of the expressive text. Readers will especially like spying the covers of classic children's books --driving home the message that all books begin in a similar place.

Almost every situation we encounter in life, there is a certain amount of teamwork involved to help others thrive. Whether we are at work, playing with friends, attending school, or spending time with family at home, we will be faced with situations where it is beneficial to know how to be a good teammate. The following five books are my favorites for talking about teamwork. The Most Magnificent Team By Ashley Spires Toronto, ON: Kids Can Press, 2025. Picture Book. I love Ashley Spires and was very excited for The Most Magnificent Team. It was one of those times I squealed when I saw the book on the shelf! I appreciate her lovely, engaging artwork, the humor packed into learning situations, and the realistic portrayal of young kids.  As our main character is getting ready to go to work on something magnificent, she discovers someone else is already in her usual spot, waiting to build. This new development totally shocks her. She is used to working with her best friend (her pup) but...

Trick or Treat Crankenstein Written by Samantha Berger Illustrated by Dan Santat New York: Little, Brown, 2021. Picture Book. A boy who looks ordinary transforms into grumbling Crankenstein when he receives more tricks than treats on Halloween. --Publisher The Monsters' Monster By Patrick McDonnell New York: Little, Brown, 2012. Picture Book. Grouch, Grump, and little Gloom 'n' Doom spend much of their time arguing over who is the "biggest and baddest" until they build a monster together that turns out to be very different than what they expect. --Publisher Monster Baker Written by Laura Lavoie Illustrated by Vanessa Morales New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2023. Picture Book. Tomorrow is Grandmonster's 247th birthday, and Tillie has a boo-rilliant idea. She's going to bake a birthday cake! But when Uncle Hairy gobbles up Tillie's near-Pierrefect Squirmin' Chocolate Cake, she rushes to bake another. SPLAT! And another. "MY CAKE!" And anothe...

What Happened to the Naked Mole Rat? (Class Pet Ghost Detective #1) By Akeem S. Roberts New York: Kokila, 2025. Comics. 121 pages. It was Carter's weekend to take home Mr. Pebbles, the class naked mole rat, and he couldn't be less enthused (he never really liked the class pet). On Monday morning, he drops off Mr. Pebbles, heads to breakfast, and returns to class to learn that Mr. Pebbles has died -- and everyone is blaming him. Suddenly, Carter finds himself haunted by the talking ghost of Mr. Pebbles and the two team up to clear his name and help Mr. Pebbles' final wish come true. This quick comic book is a silly, tongue-in-cheek whodunit that opens a new series with a lot of mystery and unanswered questions. Despite the title, this isn't a good guide on death to give readers wondering what happens to their pets when they move on, but it is a fun exercise in mystery writing with a diverse cast and a big cliffhanger.

Clothing can tell you a lot about someone. It's can be a way to convey emotions, attitudes, and personal style. Animals, however, typically don't express themselves through clothing... mostly because they don't usually wear clothes. These books are an ode to animals who break the norm and the excellent outfits they wear. Frank's Red Hat By Sean E. Avery Newtown, NSW, Australia; London; Boston: Walker Books and Subsidaries, 2025. Picture Book. Frank has a lot of ideas. While sometimes they work out for him, often times they are a disaster. So when the penguin decides to add some color to the black and white landscape with a red hat, his fellow penguins are a little skeptical. Skepticism turns to outright fear when the hat seemingly gets one of the penguins eaten by a whale. Frank tries hats of various colors and styles but his penguin friends won't try any of them. This book about continuing to try despite obstacles in your way, full of cute penguins will be loved by...

  The Tunneler Tunnels in the Tunnel By Michael Rex New York: Simon Spotlight, 2025. Easy Reader. In a world full of penguins, this particular bird is tunneling. Where is he going, you might ask? Why is he handing out star-stamped papers along the way? The gardener who gardens in the garden, the banker who banks at the bank, along with many others all recieve one, leading readers to wonder.. what will happen at the end of this tale? Repeative, simple text paired with engaging illustrations that become more interesting the longer you look, make this easy reader a funny and educational must-read. In particular, pay attention to the tunneler's facial expressions, as well as, the various scattered items surrounding his tunnel which provide a fun oppurtunity to seek-and-find.