Provo Library Children's Book Blog

Have You Seen My New Blue Socks? by Eve Bunting illustrated by Sergio Ruzzier Boston ; New York : Clarion Books, 2013 unpaged picture book Duck can not find his new blue socks. He looks in his box and asks his friends, Fox and Mr. Ox. He even looks by the rocks and talks to the peacocks. Where he finds his new blue socks will be obvious to some grown-ups early on, but youngsters will love discovering them long before Duck does. Eve Bunting has tapped into her inner Dr. Seuss with this one. It reads like "Green Eggs and Ham" and "Fox in Socks". The illustrations however, do not follow the Seussian style of bold colors and quirky characters. Bunting's tale is well-paired with more of a classic and charming style in a muted color palette. This will be a great choice for reading to individual young children or to larger groups. And it does beg to be read-aloud!

  The Water Castle by Megan Frazer Blakemore Bloomsbury, 2013.  341 pgs.  Science Fiction      Ephraim Appledore-Smith have moved back to his mother's ancestral home after his father has a stroke and is not responding to treatment. Ephraim thinks he will be the smartest kid in this hick town, but he soon finds out that everyone here is smarter, healthier, and more physically fit than he is, and that there is something mysterious about the water in the town. Heightened local radiation levels, a secret laboratory, the whispered rumor that Ephraim's great-great-grandfather may have discovered the Fountain of Youth, make Ephraim think that if he can solve this mystery and find the "magic" water, his father will be cured. Flashbacks to the time when Orlando Appledore and his assistant first began researching the possibility of immortality, and Robert Peary, Matthew Henson, and Frederick Cook were trying to be first to reach the North Pole provide a r...

World War II Spies:  An Interactive History Adventure by Michael Burgan Capstone, 2013.  112 pgs. Nonfiction      This book is a dozen or more books in one, because, just like the fiction series, Choose Your Own Adventure, the You Choose series takes stories based on real events and lets young readers make their own decisions based on what they think they would have done .  A Danish student joins the Resistance movement and helps publish an underground newspaper.  He then has a choice to either stay with the paper, an increasingly risky activity, or join another young man in a sabotage unit.  Each choice branches into multiple other choices so one may be killed by the Gestapo or a German soldier, or become a collaborator. Double agents, agents behind enemy lines--many of the choices that real Europeans might have had during World War II are in this book.  And what better than choosing your own, always dangerous path, to make histo...

Zoo Girl by Rebecca Elliott Oxford : Lion Children's, 2012, c2011 unpaged picture book An adorable little girl feels like she doesn't belong at the orphanage. Not only does she not have a family, she has no friends either. She finally feels at home when the orphans go on a field trip to the zoo. She lives happily there until she is discovered. Will she return to her lonely existence at the orphanage? Or could there be a happy ending for this sweet little girl? The atmospheric illustrations are perfect for conveying the girl's sense of loneliness and joy as her story unfolds. The minimal use of words to tell the story gives the illustrations an opportunity to shine.

                                                                   Dirty Gert by Tedd Arnold Holiday House, 2013.  Unpaged. Picture Book      From a baby, Gert has loved dirt.  She eats it, plays in it, fraternizes with the worms.  One day she goes out to play in the rain.  "Quite soon she found herself root-bound./ It happily surprised her./ Out came the sun.  Oh, wow!  What FUN!  It photosynthesized her!" Next to Arnold's trademark funny, funny pictures, the best thing about this book is his text with its seemingly impossible "-sized her" repetitions.  And next to the laugh aloud funny text, t...

The Lions of Little Rock By Kristin Levine G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2012. 298 pages. Historical fiction. In late-50's Little Rock, Arkansas, the times are changing- starting with the local high school closing completely due to the admittance of black students. But for twelve-year-old Marlee, her biggest worry is how she will make friends in middle school, because she is painfully shy and dreads talking to almost anyone. Then she meets outgoing, friendly Liz, and the two form an instant bond.  They are yin and yang, quiet and outspoken, and they find comfort in each others' strengths. Marlee's world is soon turned upside down, as it is revealed that Liz is in fact African-American (but light-skinned enough that she has "passed" up until now). Liz is kicked out of school and goes into hiding, as the community's anger grows more volatile every day over the question of integration. Marlee must sort out what she believes to be right, even as her parents, frie...

Ivy Takes Care by Rosemary Wells, illustrated by Jim LaMarche Candlewick, 2013.  199 pgs.  Fiction      Ivy's best friend is leaving for Summer Camp and Ivy is afraid she will find friends she likes more back East. Deciding she needs to earn some money to buy Annie a birthstone friendship ring, she starts up her own business of caring for people's animals while they are away. Ivy's fears come true and Annie only writes once and never mentions the ring, but Ivy is making money and finding enormous satisfaction in caring for Chestnut, a pony, Andromeda, a former race horse, and helping to train a dog named Inca. Set in 1949, Ivy Takes Care recreates a simpler, quieter time in our history, especially in the Nevada countryside where Ivy's family works on a dude ranch. Ivy is a wonderful young girl, who comes to understand that she and her friend Annie will inevitably grow apart because Annie's family is rich and Ivy's is not.  But she has her own ...