Provo Library Children's Book Blog

If you like Christmas stories with a message, A Perfect Snowman might be the holiday book for you. All the neighborhood children agree that one little boy’s winter creation is the perfect snowman. The proud snowman silently agrees with them. His is a fine specimen. But when a starving rabbit and her children beg him for the beautiful carrot he wears as a nose, will the snowman let his pride stop him from helping another in need? Though the story is a little heavy-handed at times (think Little Match Girl) the soft sepia-toned illustrations are so gorgeous they drew me in right from the start. The snowman is charming, the animals and children are as sweet as can be. Even the moon’s smiling face makes you want to cuddle right up to him. If you like warm fuzzies and stories filled with the compassion and love that abounds this time of year, you should enjoy this book.

There are so many different collections of illustrated Mother Goose how do you choose just one to check out? Look no further. Scott Gustafson’s Favorite Nursery Rhymes from Mother Goose is practically perfect in every way. The Nursery Rhymes are the classics, but Gustafson’s whimsical interpretation of the characters brings something sparkling and new to a much overdone subject. His pictures have some humans and some animals starring in the main roles. Jack be nimble is a wily cricket. Jack Sprat is a skinny lizard married to an enormous toad. Peter Pumpkin eater and his wife are squirrels who live quite comfortably inside a darling pumpkin house. The detail in Gustafson’s work is amazing and takes several repeat viewings to catch all the little things he has added to each picture. (An extremely tiny lady bug writes a letter with an even smaller quill pen in one picture. Tea pots, milk jugs and salt shakers have smiling faces in another.) The book is a slightly larger format than most...

This book is great for readers with a short attention span. It is compromised of four short, extremely imaginative stories. Each story is divided into its own chapters. The illustrations are fantastic and add to the excitement of the stories. Characters include rat pirates, aliens, a princess in the belly of a beast, penguinmaids, and a giant sea serpent. During the first story I was a little disappointed in the book, but when I imagined myself as I young reader the stories became more entertaining and enjoyable.

This is an excellent book for young girls who love mermaids. Boys, who love adventures, will even be interested in reading To Catch A Mermaid. A twister has come through the town Boom Broom lives in and has killed his mother and made his sister and father scared to leave the house. Boom feels like everything in his life is going wrong. Then he finds a merbaby in the scrap bucket at the docks. Mertyle, Boom’s sister, is in charge of caring for the baby. Problems arise for Boom when the merbaby begins to grants the wishes his sister makes and a mermaid’s curse begins to make Mertyle sick. It is up to Boom to solve the curse and save his family. This story is well written with excellent, hilarious descriptions.

In this cool, informative book, all kinds of fascinating shark facts are discussed. The book talks about many different types of sharks, accompanied by beautiful, vivid photographs and fun illustrations. My favorite feature about this particular book is the way some of the facts are hidden under flaps, some with questions that lead you into the answer underneath. They are fun to turn and some have unexpected answers. For example, why do you think sharks bite metal cages? Go to page 20 of this book to discover the surprising answer! For anyone who loves to learn interesting facts or is crazy about sharks, take a bite out of this book!

The first 8 pages of Do Unto Otters were quite funny. However, the rest of the book was rather disappointing. After the entertaining introduction of Mr. Rabbit and his new neighbors, the Otters, the story became tedious in the explanation of proper manners. The information is good, but the transition from one topic to the other didn't seem to flow smoothly. Keep in mind that this is a grown-ups opinion, young children will probably enjoy it as they learn about "DOING UNTO OTTERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE OTTERS DO UNTO YOU".

Mary lives inside a big house. A small mouse lives inside a little house inside Mary’s big house. And so begins this charming story about a young girl and a young mouse whose parents have both warned them about each other. People are mean and set traps. Mice can bite and they are dirty. But Mary and the mouse discover they might not be so different after all. This is a gentle approach to teaching very young children about overcoming prejudice. Barbara McClintock’s warm and inviting illustrations are full of fun little details (such as the decorations on the walls of mouse’s home) that will draw children in and make them want to closely examine each page.