Provo Library Children's Book Blog

  World Kitchen Celebrations: Recipes from Around the World Written by Abigail Wheatley  Illustrated by Chaaya Prabhat London: Usborn Publishing Limited, 2025. Informational  This collection of recipes focuses on simple recipes cooked by families around the world during times of celebrations, holidays, and festivals. Each recipe is beautifully illustrated and highlights authentic flavors, stories, and traditions from all over the globe. Additionally highlighting fun facts about regional traditions with festivals, cooking equipment, and local ingredients. Every recipe is vegetarian and also includes instructions for substitions to make them vegan, nut-free, dairy-free, egg-free, and gluten free; making this book filled with treats everyone can eat.  While the world may feel vast and cultures seem so different from one another sometimes, we can all come together with one commonality: we all need to eat. Food is one of the major signifers for a culture and this book doe...

October is a month full of so much energy, with the change from Summer to Autumn and the anticipation for Halloween. We enter a liminal space, a space between. The sun is setting sooner, the air is getting colder, and things are getting spookier. Of all the icons that represent Halloween, none is more iconic than the Witch. Perhaps we have been so fascinated with witches because they are so much like regular people, just more with their pointed hats and magic spells. Not all witches are evil with green skin and crooked noses, some use their magic to help others and the help the world around them. These books are highlighting all sorts of witches and their different kinds of magic.  Witchward Bound Written by Erin Bow Illustrated by Kelly Murphy Los Angeles; New York: Disney-Hyperion, 2026. Fiction. 184 pages. A pair of witch's helpers must put aside their dislike for one another to help rescue their missing witch. A cat named Butter, with a self-proclaimed destined to be a great he...

School Spirits Written by Charlotte Gunnufson Illustrated by Rebecca Crane New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. 2026. Picture Book Going back to school brings all sorts of jitters. What if the classes are too hard? What if you get lost? What if you can't make friends? What if your school is full of ghosts?!? All the worries must be set aside because yes, the school is full of ghosts. Rowdy ghosts that don't remember the rules for school. Classmates must band together to teach the ghosts how to behave in school.  School Spirits is an adorable book with rhymes and cute illustrations as it explores the anxiety of going back to school. This book is silly, a bit spooky, and all-around fun. I loved all the cute expressions of the ghosts as they make their silly messes. As we enter October, it's the perfect time to read spooky books and this is a wonderful book for little readers wanting to read something fitting for the season but not wanting to read something too scary. 

The Warriors Books, commonly called The Warrior Cats books, have been a beloved series for many readers. Filled action and adventure, love and heartbreak, battles and prophecies, it's no wonder that readers for generations have come to love these books about wild and gone-wild cats. The following books are for those wanting to get into the Warrior Cat series but feel daunted by the great number of books and series. Most of these adaptations of the original series books made into graphic novels created by dedicated teams of artists and writers to bring The Warriors books to a new generation. All are books that new and old fans of the series will love. This list also includes a new series by Erin Hunter, a book about magical cats. By the way, did you know that Erin Hunter is a pen name? Erin Hunter is actually a group of writers and editors, namely Kate Cary, Cerith Balry, Tui T. Sutherland, and Victoria Holmes, and more! May StarClan guide you to your next favorite read!    The...

  All the Ways We Learn Written by Chloe Ito Ward Illustrated by Yaroslava Apollonova New York: Rise x Penguin Workshop. 2026. Picture Book. How do you learn best? Can you sit quietly and still, ready to watch the teacher give the lesson? Or do you learn another way? This empowering book highlights all the ways to learn, showing that it's alright to need more than other kids when they're learning. Whether it's tapping their feet, drawing, building, or going to a quiet corner to do their work, all are perfect ways to learn. This book is a joyful celebration for the students whose minds work in different and amazing ways.  This book is created by a neurodivergent team, who each know that not everyone can learn the same way. The colorful illustrations showcase different kinds of students in a celebration to learning in all the forms that are needed. I myself am someone who learns differently, with Dyscalculia: a mathematic learning disability, just like one of the students in ...

Did you know that we experience eclipses of the sun and moon every year? This year the Solar eclipse was on August 12th and blocked out the sun for a full 2 minutes. Did you see it? It's okay if you missed it, because we're going to have a lunar eclipse on August 28th. Earth is one of the few planets that experience solar eclipses. Here are some books to learn more about eclipses, what they've meant to the people that view them, and other fun space facts.  Eclipse of 1919: How Einstein's Theory of General Relativity Changed Our World  By Emily Arnold McCully New York: Christy Ottaviano Books, 2025. Informational. Albert Einstein has always had a curious mind, fascinated with the laws of the universe and finding ways to explain how it all worked together. He had a theory, an idea, that gravity is what happens when objects bend the space and time around them. But gravity isn't something easily seen so to test his hypothesis, he needed to see if the gravity of the sun ...

  Queso Just in Time By Ernesto Cisneros New York: Quil Tree Books, 2026. Fiction. 257 pages. Quetzalcóatl Castillo, Queso for short , is mourning the loss of his father . Even with his friends trying their best to cheer him up, Queso can’t help but feel the ache in his heart in the shape of his dad . He just wants to see his dad one more time . Queso whispers his wish to a bunny he saved during a night -t ime rainstorm while taking shelter in the tree house his dad built with his own father, the man Queso is named after but never got the chance to meet , only to wake up in 1985 and meets a twelve-year-old Pancho, the boy who will grow up to be his dad. Despite the potential dangers for his current /future time , Queso takes advantage of this strange time-travel to spend time with his father again and getting to know his grandfather , Quetzalcóa tl “Queso” Senior . Queso wonders how much the future would change for his family if he helps  Pancho with the one ...

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 ...

Science Fair: a Story of Mystery, Danger, International Suspense, and a Very Nervous Frog By Dave Barry New York: Disney Editions, 2008. Fiction. 394 pages.  The president of Kprshtskan is plotting to infiltrate the science fair at Hubble Middle School in Maryland in order to take over the United States government, but when Toby Harbinger, an ordinary student, makes up his mind finally to win the fair, the terrorists' plans go awry. --Editor Frogkisser By Garth Nix  New York: Scholastic Press, 2017. Fiction. 372 pages.   Princess Anya has a big problem: Duke Rikard, her step-stepfather, is an evil wizard who wants to rule the kingdom and has a habit of changing people into frogs, and her older sister Morven, the heir, is a wimp--so with the help of the librarian Gotfried (who turns into an owl when he is upset), and the Royal Dogs, she must find away to defeat Rikard, save her sister, and maybe even turn Prince Denholm back into a human being. -- Editor Froggy: a Pon...

Here Comes the Cousins Written by Maggie Hutchings Illustrated by Sarah Sweck New York: Thames & Hudson,  2026. Picture Book.  A young girl patiently waits for the arrival of her seven cousins at their grandpa’s house. Then the best days of summer start. Days filled with racing to the beach, playing in the sand and swimming in the water. Sunblock mixing with sea salt. Racing home for lunch. Reading Grandpa’s books and playing in the tree fort. The best days of summer are the ones spent together as a family, sharing old stories and creating new memories at everyone’s favorite place. Tears are shed when the day comes to say goodbye, but with the promise of coming back together next year.  Here Comes the Cousins is a cute tale of family coming together at the family’s beachside house. Showcasing the fun activities and adventures cousins get up to while having fun together for their annual reunion. The story was sweet and nostalgic, reminding me of my own summer holidays...

A Day at the Beach Written by Gary Schmidt and Ron Koertge New York: Clarion Books, 2025. Fiction. 213 pages A single day at the beach brings together a diverse cast of children as they each spend the day at a beach in New Jersey. Told through multiple points of view, each chapter highlights a different young person as they spend time at the beach with their families or by themselves, intersecting with other children’s stories in at times hilarious ways. One boy loses his brand-new phone in the sand, a large family decorate the beach with bright pink umbrellas and put on a circus performance, a girl helps a dog find his person using the magic of imagination, another dog finds a new home, a boy talks to a maybe run-away-bride, and each story is told in a vibrant and hilarious way to showcase what could happen on the beach in a single day. While we are far from the ocean and don’t have beaches with crashing waves, this book isn’t any less relatable as summer has officially hit. With the ...