Provo Library Children's Book Blog

Life on the Moon By Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2026. Science fiction. 306 pgs.  The first rule is there is no life on the moon. The second rule is don't ask questions. 12-year-old Leo is still mourning his parents' divorce when he leaves Earth to live as part of the first Lunar Colony. He's thrilled to be part of the top-secret mission, right up until he touches down the moon. Right away his dad and his dad's friend Sally are whisked away on a project and then go missing. When he starts to question other adults, he's taught the rules of life on the moon. Normally a rule follower, Leo decides to borrow a rover and sneak out to look for his dad. Before long, Leo discovers that there is life on the moon when he encounters first a giant mouth on three legs called a Hortle and then a race of beings called Valrootens. When Leo interferes to save a Valrooten from being eaten by the Hortle, his adventure on the moon really begins. As Leo learn...

  Magnitude   By Jennifer A. Nielsen  New York: Scholastic Press, 2026. Fiction. 293 pages.  Cora is a girl who lives in San Francisco in 1906. She is constantly fighting poverty and trying to support her mother and brothers while her father is away trying to make money for her family. And then one morning while Cora is heading to the docks to meet the ships (and see if her father has returned), there is an earthquake. A big one. One that creates a giant crack in the road that Cora and another girl, Zhi, fall into. Thus begins Cora’s struggle to survive the earthquake (and the accompanying fires that caused even more devastation than the original earthquake) and find her family.  This is a fast-paced story with loads of dangers and adventure. Cora is the type of character that will run headlong into danger if she thinks it will save those she loves. Plus, it is fascinating to read all about the crazy ideas that some of the city’s leaders had about creating more ...

There have been many picture books that have come out in recent years that are not only fantastic but have also been written by Native American authors. Here are some of my favorites. Happy Reading!  The Animals Speak: The Lakota Way   By S. D. Nelson (Standing Rock Sioux Tribe)  Lakota Translation by Dakota W. Goodhouse  New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2026. Picture Book.  Various animals teach different life lessons. For example, bear “teaches us to walk with strength and protect those who are smaller and weaker” while hummingbird “reminds us that no matter our size, we can act with great energy and strength.” Each page has the Lakota translation for the animal along with a guide as to how to pronounce the Lakota word. This beautiful book celebrates animals, people, and the Lakota way.  For a Girl Becoming   By Joy Harjo (Mvskoke Nation)  Illustrated by Adriana Garcia  New York: Norton Young Readers, 2025. Picture Book.  The ...

When you hear someone mention sports, you probably think of basketball, baseball, or soccer. But there is a whole world of sports and athletics that are not your typical "something-ball" sports. If you or your child likes sports stories and wants stories about sports we don't always talk about, here's a list of sports stories that stray from the conventional. Team Park By Angela Ahn Toronto: Tundra, 2024. Fiction. 233 pages. Evan doesn’t do well at team sports, much to his dad’s chagrin. But while healing from a broken wrist, his physical therapist suggests training for the Dominator Ninja competition. Evan seems to have found his thing when he sprains his wrist. Suggested by his sister, he gets his family to join the team “Soiled Pants” obstacle course to compete together. Learning to Fall By Sally Engelfried New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2022. Fiction. 268 pages. Daphne is stuck with her dad for the summer while her mom films a movie in Prague. She and her da...

  The Library Written by Sarah Stewart  Illustrated by David Small New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1995. Picture Book.  " Elizabeth Brown loves to read more than anything else, but when her collection of books grows and grows, she must make a change in her life." --Publisher Love in the Library Written by Maggie Tokuda-Hall Illustrated by Yas Imamura Somerville, Massachusets: Candlewick Press, 2022. Picture Book.  " Set in an incarceration camp where the United States cruelly detained Japanese Americans during WWII and based on true events, this moving love story finds hope in heartbreak." --Publisher A Library Written by Nikki Giovanni Illustrated by Erin K. Robinson New York: Versify, 2022. Picture Book. " In what other place can a child 'sail their dreams' and 'surf the rainbow' without ever leaving the room? This ode to libraries is a celebration for everyone who loves stories, from seasoned readers to those just learning to love words, and ...

  Cuentos ¡Hola, Capitán! Por Sophie Blackall Barcelona, España [Spain] : Picarona, 2025. Libro ilustrado. "Se avecina una tormenta y un niño está listo para capitanear el barco. "¡Date prisa y sube a bordo! -grita a su padre-, ¡antes de que te arrastre mar adentro!" ¿El mar? ¿Qué mar? El padre sólo quiere aspirar la alfombra. Pero el niño es inflexible. No es una alfombra, es el mar. ¿Y esa escoba? Es el mástil del barco. Muy pronto, el niño y su padre se embarcarán en una gran aventura náutica imaginaria." --Editor Cuentitos El gato y el pajarito Por Jo Empson Swindon : Child's Play (International) Ltd, 2025. "Dos amigos poco probables, el gato y el pajarito, presumen juguetonamente de sus propias habilidades especiales. Cuando surge un nuevo reto, vamos a ver cómo estos amigos lo superan. Levanta la pestaña para ver si acertaste!" --Editor

Stories in the Park Tiny T. Rex and the First-Day Oppsies Written by Jonathan Stutzman Illustrated by Jay Fleck San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 2025. Picture Book. Tiny the T. Rex prepares for his first day of school but soon learns that it is okay to make mistakes and learn when trying new things. --Editor Stories in the Park It's Not a School Bus, It's a Pirate Ship Written by Mickey Rapkin Illustrated by Teresa Martinez New York: Inprint, a part of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC, 2020. Picture Book. The first day of school means the first ride on the school bus. But who will I sit with? What if no one talks to me? Luckily this isn't a school bus, it's a pirate ship! --Editor Canopy Capers & Summer Story Time Lizard from the Park By Mark Pett New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2025. Picture Book. When a lizard hatches from the egg Leonard finds in the park, he names it Buster and takes it all around the city, but Buster grows bigger and b...

If you like slightly spooky stories about fangs, friendship and fitting in, here are some illustrated chapter books you can sink your teeth into!  Maud and the Very Eventful Week By Lisa Anchin Candlewick Press, 2026. Intermediate. 64 pages. Join Maud the vampire for a week's worth of amusing vignettes, from a possessed teapot to a catastrophic cooking project with her best friend. I love the art in this book: charming illustrations with great compositions and lots of details. The world Lisa Anchin has created is warm, soft, funny, and a little creepy. Recommended for newly independent readers who are looking forward to tackling  Princess in Black on their own. Kevin the Vampire: A Most Mysterious Monster Written by Matt Brown Illustrated by Lincoln, MA : Nosy Crow, 2026. J Intermediate. 196 pages. Kevin is a young vampire who has grown up in a traveling circus full of monsters. When Carnival Monstromo gets stuck in a strange, quiet town called Lower Drudging they're met with ...

  Diamond Fever! By Steve Sheinkin New York : Roaring Brook Press, 2026. Informational. 243 pages. You've probably heard of the gold rush, but have you heard of the Great Diamond Hoax of 1872? During the gold rush, prospectors and businessmen alike were in search of the next big score. While some found ways to make normal land seem like a literal gold mine, no one believed the same could be done with diamonds. That's until Phil Arnold and John Slack walked into the office of a business acquaintance and asked him to hold some precious stones for them overnight and the con snowballed until it involved major investors on both coasts buying into a salted "diamond mine" on the border of Colorado and Wyoming. Steve Sheinkin is known for writing very interesting children's nonfiction and this book is no exception. Young readers will want to stay up past their bedtimes to find out whether or not the cousins were caught. Hand this to fans of true crime or the wild west. Th...

Graphic novels are well suited to explain scientific topics to readers, as the text and illustrations can work together to get the information across. These graphic novels teach readers interesting scientific principles, whether in the format of a story or in a more informational presentation. If you like science and graphic novels, these will be sure to please!   Ant Story By Jay Hosler New York: Harper Alley, 2024. Comic. 156 pages.  Rubi is a cartoon ant living in the real world, helping her ant sisters with the daily tasks of the ant colony. It isn't until she meets Miranda, who is (seemingly) another ant in her colony, that she has another friend to talk to. Rubi and Miranda get into all sorts of misadventures, imparting interesting insect facts all the way. Bridges: Engineering Masterpieces By Dan Zettwoch New Tork: First Second, 2022. Comic. 121 pages.  The BATS (Bea, Archie, Trudy, and Spencer) are a group of excited learners racing around the globe to learn all t...

Happy Summerween!  All of these spooky books are set in summer, but give the creepiness of Halloween— hence, Summerween!  It's never too early (or too late!) to scare yourself silly with a good horror book! Hide and Seek By Christopher Edge Somerville, Massachusetts : Candlewick Press, 2026. Fiction. 153 pgs. Adam and Sol are best friends, but that doesn't seem to be saving their summer camping trip.  They can't stop arguing and now they find themselves in a creepy, almost abandoned town, where they're told to play hide-and-seek.  The rules are different from regular hide-and-seek, and most terrifying of all, they don't know who, or what, they're hiding from.   The Haunting of Walker Pond By Nancy Tandon New York : Aladdin, 2026. Fiction. 362 pgs. Frankie and her best friend, Parker, are excited to work at the local summer camp as leaders in training, but when a local legend about tragic deaths that occurred in the area bring danger to the campers, Frankie ...

The How-To Cookbook for Young Foodies By Joanna Saltz & Editors of Delish New York, NY : Hearst Home Kids, 2025. Informational. 192 pages. The first time I made homemade brownies as a "young foodie", I read the recipe wrong and when I added the salt, I measured it in cups, rather than teaspoons. Needless to say I would have benefited from a book of instruction like this. This how-to book starts at the simplest skills such as peeling vegetables, creaming butter and sugar, and boiling pasta. It then elevates these tasks to create beautiful dishes. Any aspiring chef could find doable recipes in this cookbook and learn new skills. The pictures present stunning meals and very clear instructions. A good example of this is the skill page on kneading. If you have never kneaded dough before, it could be tricky to know how to move your hands. The images and arrows clearly demonstrate how to press the dough. I haven't tried any of the recipes but the Delish name can be trusted t...

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear Written by Don Wood Illustrated by Audrey Wood Swindon ; Auburn, Maine : Child's Play International, 1990. Picture book. Little Mouse worries that the big, hungry bear will take his freshly picked, ripe, red strawberry for himself.—Publisher Dog vs. Strawberry Written by Nelly Buchet Illustrated by Andrea Zuill New York : Random House Studio, 2024. Picture book. When Dog is handed a strawberry from the fruit bowl, she sizes it up, dances around it, and decides she is going to race the Strawberry--and win.—Publisher Evie and the Strawberry Surprise By Stefanie Dahle Edinburgh : Floris Books, 2020. Picture book. Evie's magic wand is missing and her delicious strawberries have turned blue! Then Evie's friends reveal even more surprises. Could the new scary creature in Berry Woods be to blame?"—Publisher Saving Strawberry Farm Written by Deborah Hopkinson Illustrated by Rachel Isadora New York : Greenwillow...

Stories in the Park Pippa's Night Parade Written by Lisa Robinson Illustrated by Lucy Fleming New York: Two Lions, 2019. Picture Book. Using her wild imagination to dream up adorable creations, young Pippa finds the limits of her creativity tested on a night when monsters sneak out of her storybooks to scare her. --Editor Stories in the Park Let's Build a Dam! Written by Daniel Fehr Illustrated by Mariachiara Di Giorgio New York: NorthSouth Books Inc., 2023. Picture Book. Hilarity ensues when siblings set out to build a simple dam in this charming picture book for young children. Siblings May, Lily, and Noah build a dam. Stone by stone, their dam grows higher and higher, until their creation attracts the attention of fishermen, pirates, and even the King and his fleet. The sky's the limit, until Noah wants his stone back . . . Each page builds upon the previous scene as the children's imaginations also grow. Children will delight in pointing out the changing details on ...

Life (as we know it) Written by Ziggy Hanaor  Illustrated by Cristobal Schmal London : Cicada Books, 2025. Informational. Life (as we know it)  takes readers on a fascinating journey through the history of life on Earth. It begins with the earliest moments of the universe and continues through the evolution of plants, animals, and humans. Hanaor presents complex scientific ideas in a succinct and accessible way that inspires curiosity and wonder about the origins of our planet. Schmal’s artwork shifts and evolves alongside the text, helping readers visualize the vast changes that have taken place over time. This thoughtful nonfiction picture book is an excellent choice for readers who enjoy science, nature, and big questions about the world around them. Personal libraries will find it a valuable addition to collections that support STEM learning while also encouraging reflection and discussion. The author is very clear that the scientific community does not have all the answer...

We have been telling stories to each other for a very long time. Stories that stick around for centuries become myths and legends. Through these stories we can learn about all sorts of different things, like how different cultures interact with the world now and back in the distant, ancient past. Reading about different cultures' mythology is one of my favorite things. Here are some books if you also like to learn about the myths and legends that are told around the world. The Amazing Book of World Mythology  By Stella Caldwell  London: Buster Books, 2025. Informational. 153 pages. This collection of 20 mythological tales takes you on a journey around the world. With illustrations vividly done by 20 different artists, each representing their own cultures, this book tells stories of myths from cultures far and wide. Stories of gods, monsters, heroes, and warriors from histories from around the world. This book is an amazing resource with exploring mythology from around the ...

The Second Life of Snap By Erin Entrada Kelly New York: Greenwillow Books, 2026. Science fiction. 164 pgs. 12-year-old Zuzu Santos does not like robots. Really, she doesn't trust anything that comes from the Lockwood Corporation; the super-conglomerate that governs life for the people in Barren, Texas. Zuzu and her fellow 'dusties' live in trailers with strict water rations in Barren, meanwhile people who live across the shelterbelt in the city of Bountiful have actual trees and all the water they want. To add insult to injury, Zuzu's father has been laid off by Lockwood and as a parting gift has been given a castoff robot—sans charging cable. To make things even worse, this robot is a guardian robot, specifically programmed to ensure Zuzu is attending school, doing homework, and other things a chaperone might do. Zuzu takes the robot to a nearby salvage yard, where her friend manages to reprogram the robot. In a twist, Snap (Secure Network Android Processor) now has a ...