Provo Library Children's Book Blog

Pinky Got Out! By Michael Portis Illustrated by Lori Richmond When Pinky the flamingo slips out to join a zoo tour, the children all notice but the zookeeper fails to see Pinky trying to blend in with seals, meerkats, and pandas. Flora and the Flamingo By Molly Idle In this wordless book, a friendship develops between a girl named Flora and a graceful flamingo, as they learn to dance together. Mud City: A Flamingo Story By Brenda Z Guiberson Follow a flamingo from egg through adulthood in this fascinating tale. On a muddy mound in a salty lake, a mother and father flamingo take turns protecting their egg from the hot sun. Soon a fluffy white chick hatches in the nest near the mangrove roots. Just four days later the chick learns to swim. By the time he is five weeks old, he can find food for himself. When pink feathers replace his white baby down, he is ready to learn to fly. For years the young bird flocks with other flamingos in quiet lagoons and sal...

Midsummer's Mayhem By: Rajani LaRocca New York, NY : Yellow Jacket, 2019. Fiction. This book was a scrumptious tale of baking mixed with a dash of Shakespeare! Mimi is the youngest in a family of talented siblings but she often gets overlooked. This summer, however, she finds out about a baking contest at the new "While Away Cafe" in town. This baking contest is just for children and now Mimi has a chance to shine and demonstrate her talent for baking. Along the way she sifts though some obstacles, like her father, a food writer who seems to have lost his honed sense of taste and a love triangle catastrophe with her older sister. Where the ingredients in her baking the reason for the strange things happening in her family?  She must uncover the truth, with the help of her new friend Vic, and find a way to win the contest as she unravels the mayhem happening in her family. If you like Shakespeare you will really enjoy this delicious spin on his classic tale A...

Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus  By Dusti Bowling Sterling Children’s Books, 2017. 262 p. Aven is thirteen when she moves from Kansas to Arizona. Her parents got a new job as the managers of Stagecoach Pass, a western theme park that is dying. She is happy that her parents have a new job, but she is sad to leave all her friends—especially since many of the kids at her new school watch her a lot due to the fact she doesn’t have any arms and does most things with her feet or the help of various tools. When she meets Connor, a boy with turrets, she learns that friendship is achievable in multiple states—especially when the two come together to help solve a mystery associated with Stagecoach Pass. This is a stellar story that explores Aven’s life and dreams and friendship (while also talking about how she copes with her disability).

Read at Stories in the Park Are you Scared, Darth Vader? By Adam Rex Disney Lucasfilm Press, 2018.  Picture Book. Although he professes to fear nothing, it turns out that the most-feared villain in the Star Wars universe may not be so fearless after all.  --Publisher Read at Canopy Capers Field Trip to the Moon By John Hare Margaret Ferguson Books, 2019.  Picture Book. It is field-trip day, and students are excited to travel from their space station to the moon.  They jump over trenches and see craters and mountains and Earth in the faraway distance.  One takes a break to draw some pictures, falls asleep, and wakes up to discover that the rest of the class and the spaceship are gone.  How the student passes the time waiting to be rescued makes for a funny and unexpected adventure that will enchant children all over the galaxy.  --Publisher Read at Canopy Capers Your Alien Written by Tammi Sauer ...

Sisters of Glass Sisters of Glass Series #1 By Naomi Cyprus Harper Collins Publishing, 2017, Fiction, 377 pages. Have you ever wondered if your reflection in the mirror is really you or some alternate world version of you? If you have, this book might be just perfect for you! Many years ago there was a war that ended the use of all magic in New Hadar, but Nalah longs to use the power that she feels ever present inside of her. When she is given the opportunity to practice her magic and create a special mirror for a family friend, Nalah is unable to resist. After the mirror is complete however, Nalah begins to notice that her reflection doesn't look quite right. When her father is taken into the mirror by a powerful enemy, Nalah comes to realize that the reflection she was seeing was not her at all, but her tawam (mirror twin), Halan. Inside the mirror is a whole society living in a land where magic is both used and revered. This mirror land is in danger however w...

Mermaid Dreams Written and Illustrated by Kate Pugsley Tundra Books, 2019. Picture Book. Maya goes to the beach with her parents. When she wishes for someone to play with she is transported to a magical underwater world of sea creatures. The animals down there are colorful, but not very well suited to having fun and talking with. But when Maya meets another mermaid, she learns that making real friends might not be as hard as she thought. Kate Pugsley's chunky gouache illustrations are very sweet; in particular, Maya makes the cutest blue-tailed mermaid you ever did see. This picture book will appeal to any aspiring mermaids in your life.

The Door at the End of the World By Caroline Carlson Harper, 2019. Fiction. Miss Lucy Eberslee, age 13, is proud of her job as Gatekeeper's deputy at the door at the end of the world - even if she's a little convinced her well-connected parents got her the gig. As organized as she is ordinary, she takes her work very seriously and is careful not to break any rules. But when the Gatekeeper doesn't return from a routine maintenance trip Lucy is compelled to break one of the most important rules and open the gate between worlds herself - letting in an unassuming boy named Arthur in the process. Unable to re-open the door, and with the Gatekeeper still missing, Lucy and Arthur travel across the world on a quest to restore order. They soon discover, though, that they are part of a plot bigger than they can imagine. Filled with magical spelling bees, portals between worlds, and characters who feel like friends this is a stellar story for fans of peculiar fantasy.