Provo Library Children's Book Blog

Eventown  By Corey Ann Haydu Katherine Tegen Books, 2019. Fiction, pp. 328. Everything is just right in Eventown. Nothing is out of the ordinary, nothing is too loud, too exciting or too anything. There are just three ice cream flavors, and the roses never get bigger than is appropriate. Elodee and her twin, Naomi, have just moved to Eventown with their parents, and although the town is pleasant, and always sunny, and there are no conflicts or problems, Elodee is having a hard time not asking questions, making messes, or being a little bit different. In the process of asking questions, she begins to wonder if something isn’t quite right about Eventown. Haydu writes a magical story for older readers, which asks important questions about how we deal with grief, and sadness, and if perfection has anything to do with joy. Haydu’s writing comes to life along with her characters, who have unique likes, hobbies, and personalities. Beautiful descriptions of foods and flavors jump...

Sparkly New Friends (Part of the new Unicorn and Yeti Series) By Heather Ayris Burnell Illustrated by Hazel Quintanilla Acorn, Scholastic, 2019. 58 p. So this book actually comes out tomorrow—but I LOVED this new series so much when I first saw it as an advanced reading copy I had to tell you about it! In this new series Unicorn is flying over a snowy landscape and is amazed at how sparkly everything is. Yeti is looking up at the sky when something sparkly flies by—Unicorn. It turns out that Unicorn and Yeti both love sparkles. They become good friends and have other adventures together. The book is made up of a lot of dialog (complete with color-coordinated dialog bubbles that show which character is saying what similar to the Elephant and Piggie books). Also, the book has panels—almost like a comic book—that fill in a lot of the smaller bits of the story so that when the illustrations take up the whole spread kids will know that is an extra important moment in the story. T...

READ IN MONDAY BOOK BABIES Edgar Gets Ready For Bed Written by Jennifer Adams Illustrated by Ron Stucki Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" Gibbs Smith, 2014.  Picture Book. Once upon a midnight dreary...  Little Edgar the Raven is having a tough time minding his mother.  Dinnertime, cleanup-time, and bedtime are all met with one word--"NEVERMORE!"  From drawing on his bedroom walls with crayons to chasing his sister with a scarecrow, this mischievous and disobedient little bird would much rather do anything than behave.  But as the evening winds to a close, Edgar's mom knows just what to do to get her son into bed. Charmingly simple text paired with captivating gothic-era illustrations give a sly wink to Edgar Allan Poe's popular poem "The Raven."  Edgar Gets Ready For Bed  will have little literature lovers saying, "MORE! MORE!"  --Publisher READ IN MONDAY CUENTOS Dragones y tacos Escrit...

Coding 1, 2, 3 By Janet Slingerland Rourke Educational Media, 2019. Informational. This book is an extremely simple introduction to computer coding. It teaches what computers are, where they can be found, and how we interact with them using kid-friendly language. Then, it shows some examples of code, and follows it up with a paper and pen activity. This would be a great book for children who are too young for our Coding + program to prepare them for our classes later on.

Now You Know How It Works Written by Valorie Fisher Orchard Books, 2018. Informational. Are you asked 1000 questions a day? If some of the questions refer to how household materials work, check this book out! It contains the explanations for 23 different household items or experiences children are familiar with. Fisher has geared the pages to be concise and simple to understand with a lot of pictures and symbols to help even the youngest inquisitive minds.

Lexi's World Pop Pop Pop LLC. Available on the App Store. Lexi's World is an app that has been getting quite a bit of buzz since it was first re-released. In addition to being named a 2019 Honor Recipient of the Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media award, it has a perfect 5.0 out of 5 stars on the App Store which is pretty hard to come by. Lexi's World invites learners to explore a world where correctly spelled words come to life. Children learn to spell words in a wonderfully interactive setting - kids are led through the spelling of words by selecting whatever letter lights up. The graphics in this app might look a little low-grade at first, but the animations are really endearing and do a lot to bring the cause and effects in this world to life. This is a great preschool app for little ones learning to read, spell, and explore their world.

An ABC of Flowers   by Jutta Hilpuesch New York, NY : Philomel Books, [2019] It turns out there really is a flower for every letter. This sweet book has a photograph of every flower and  a sweet cartoon illustration to go along with it. All your favorite flowers are here (forget-me-nots, mums, and sunflowers), along with some you probably haven't heard of before (billy ball, kalanchoe, xeranthemum?).  This is a perfect book for reading together, and readers of any age will enjoy every page. Don't miss this great springtime alphabet book.