children’s books

Book Review: The Lost Library

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The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead

The Lost Library
by  Rebecca Stead, Wendy Mass (Goodreads Author)

4.5 out of 5 stars

Evan is intrigued when someone starts a Free Little Library and the books all appear to be old books from the library that burned down years ago. Evan begins to investigate who could have started the library fire and why these particular books were the only ones that survived the fire. He soon learns that many people in the town are unwilling to talk about the old library fire, and he wonders what they could be hiding.

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Picture Book Reviews: Our Marvelous Memory and Our Incredible Imagination

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Our Marvelous Memory by Helena Haraštová

Our Marvelous Memory (How Your Brain Works)
by Helena Haraštová

5 out of 5 stars

Different parts of the brain work together to create our memories. Some memories are saved for the long-term, and some things we forget within minutes or days. Memories of physical motion are stored in the cerebellum, and the amygdala helps to store memories of emotions. There are explicit memories like facts and dates, and implicit memories like how to swim. The more often you recall a memory, the stronger it will be and easier to recall the next time.

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Picture Book Review: This Book is Too Quiet

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This Book is Too Quiet! by Cristina Cubells

This Book is Too Quiet!: You add the noise…
by Cristina Cubells, Joana Casals (illustrator)

5 out of 5 stars

In this book about sounds, the reader has to add all the sound effects! We visit a busy kitchen where cooks are whisking and popping corks and slurping spaghetti. A plate breaks, the water faucet gushes, and the reader has to create all the sounds!
We make sounds for rainstorms, fireworks, insects, and animals. But some of the sounds have to come from our own imagination. What would a fantastical cloud factory sound like? What would sound be like in outer space?

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Book Review: The Fire-Breathing Duckling

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The Fire-Breathing Duckling by Frank Cammuso

The Fire-Breathing Duckling
by Frank Cammuso (Goodreads Author)

5 out of 5 stars

A dragon egg ends up in the nest with the duck eggs. When the baby dragon hatches, the mother duck raises him along with all the other ducklings. But this odd duckling can’t swim. He wonders if he might be more of an “oinking” duckling, so he tries to wallow in the mud with some pigs. He wonders if he might be a “mooing” duckling or a “clucking” duckling, so he tries to do what cows and hens do. When a predator threatens his family, this little dragon discovers that he is actually a Fire-Breathing Duckling!

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Book Review: Dragon of Cripple Creek

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The Dragon of Cripple Creek by Troy Howell

The Dragon of Cripple Creek
by Troy Howell

3 out of 5 stars

When Kat falls down a mine shaft during an Old West tour in Colorado, she discovered a hidden cavern where a dragon is living on a pile of gold. She pockets a nugget of gold, but feels guilty about stealing from the dragon when he was so kind to show her the way out of the caves. Her family have called the police and rescue workers to search for her in the mines, and when they find her safe and sound, she accidentally drops the golden nugget in front of all the reporters. The story gets blown out of proportion and a new Gold Rush begins. Kat is afraid that she has put the dragon in danger, now that everyone wants a piece of the gold.

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Book Review: The Secret Starling

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The Secret Starling

by Judith Eagle, Jo Rioux (Illustrator)

3.5 out of 5 stars
Clara Starling lives with her mean old uncle in a huge manor on the desolate moors. One day without warning, he abandons her, leaving only a small bundle of cash. Clara decides to live on her own and enjoy the freedom of having no adults around to tell her what to do. Peter shows up at her door, claiming that her uncle arranged for Peter to stay at the manor while his grandmother is sick. The two children explore the manor and discover an old ballet slipper that may have belonged to one of the Starling family. They set out to follow the mystery of the ballet slipper and find that the Starlings have a terrible past full of murder and secrets.

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Book Review: The Long Secret

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The Long Secret by Louise Fitzhugh

The Long Secret (Harriet the Spy #2)
by Louise Fitzhugh

Harriet and her friend Beth Ellen spend their summer spying on their neighbors and trying to track down whoever is leaving mysterious notes for all the townsfolk.

Harriet is such a nasty little person. She’s mean and rude to everyone. She has no respect for anyone’s privacy, and loves spying on people, peeping in windows, and writing down mean comments in her notebooks about everyone she knows.

This book is slow and boring, and I hated all the characters.

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Book Review: Giant

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Giant by Judith McQuoid

Giant
by Judith McQuoid

3.5 out of 5 stars
Davey comes from a poor Irish family. His mother works as a maid at the Lewis household, and when he comes to help with her work, he befriends a young C.S. Lewis, nicknamed Jacks. The boys bond over their love of stories and imaginative play. Jacks likes to write stories and Davey illustrates them with drawings and sketches. However, circumstances separate the boys when Davey has to take a dangerous job at the shipyard and Jacks is sent off to boarding school in England. Can their friendship survive despite their different paths in life?

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Book Review: Unicornia Cupcake Contest

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Unicornia by Ana Punset

Unicornia: The Cupcake Contest
by Ana Punset, Diana Vicedo (illustrator)

5 out of 5 stars

When Claudia signs up for the cupcake contest, she tries out new magical recipes and everything ends in disaster. The magical ingredients are more temperamental than regular baking ingredients, and Claudia is discouraged. But she knows that a boy in her school, Sasha, is an excellent baker, and she asks him to join her as a team. Together they try out several magical recipes until they find just the right cupcake recipe to bake for the judges.

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Book Review: Everything You Know About Bugs Is Wrong

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Everything You Know About Bugs (and Other Tiny Creatures) is ... by Dr. Nick Crumpton

Everything You Know About Bugs (and Other Tiny Creatures) is Wrong! (Everything You Know About… Is Wrong, 2)
by Dr. Nick Crumpton, Gavin Scott (illustrator)

2 out of 5 stars

You probably have some misconceptions about bugs. Did you know that spiders aren’t actually insects? Centipedes don’t actually have a hundred legs. Not all bees die when they sting you, only some species and only the females. We learn about beautiful butterflies right alongside the lowly dung beetle.

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