Category: Book Reviews

Ferris

FerrisFerris by Kate DiCamillo
Published by Candlewick Press ISBN: 1536231053
Pages: 226
Genres: Humor, Magical Realism, Realistic Fiction
Format: Chapter Book Fiction
Source: MSL Book Review
Goodreads
five-stars

The summer before fifth grade, Ferris Phineas Wilkey has a lot on her plate. Her beloved grandmother, Clarisse, is seeing ghosts. Her uncle Ted has moved into the basement to paint the history of the world (he got as far as a single foot). Her father is afraid there are raccoons in the attic, and her six-year-old younger sister gets (sort of) arrested for a brazen bank robbery attempt as part of her plan to get on a Wanted poster. And that’s just the beginning.

Ferris is full of DiCamillo’s trademarks: complex words used in charming ways, repeated phrases contributing to character quirks, big themes (here include death, grief), and a plain old unusual way of looking at the world. The ending is bittersweet; tears may be shed, but overall the reader knows things will be okay for the assortment of characters we have met.

Chapters are short; DiCamillo uses language with brevity and great effectiveness, neither talking down to her audience – in fact, expecting them to really lean in to the world she creates – nor making it inaccessible by not keeping things clear. A straightforward story that also manages to be profound. Readers will enjoy Ferris’ unfortunate hair “incidents” at Aunt Shirley’s hair salon and Pinky’s attempts to emulate Houdini, as well as the more mysterious elements (such as when Charisse interprets the ghost’s long held desire to see the dining room chandelier lit).

Highly recommend. Five stars.

-Jenny Martinez Nocito, Maine State Library, Augusta

five-stars

The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee

The Colliding Worlds of Mina LeeThe Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee by Ellen Oh
Published by Crown PRH on January 23, 2024
ISBN: 0593125940
Pages: 295
Genres: Romance, Science Fiction
Format: Chapter Book Fiction
Source: MSL Book Review
Goodreads
four-stars

Korean American Mina Lee is entering her senior year of high school, and more than anything she wants to apply to art school. But her emotionally distant father forbids it. He wants her to have a “real” career and, even more than that, art reminds him of Mina’s mother, who died three years earlier in an accident.

Mina decides to create a webcomic in an effort to prove to him not just that she is committed to art, but also that she can be a success. Her story is loosely based on her own high school, but in the webcomic version, students have superpowers and an evil villain, Merco, is trying to steal those powers. Then, one night during a freak lightning storm, she gets pulled out of the real world and into her webcomic. The first person she meets is romantic hero Jin, the teenage version of her childhood best friend, who died of cancer years earlier. He becomes a valuable ally as well as a love interest, as it quickly becomes clear that despite being the creator, she is also the heroine of the story – and the rules are changing quickly. Returning home is the only way to turn things back to where they should have been without her interference – but it also means leaving Jin.

This book will be popular with readers who enjoy stories about alternate worlds and humans with superpowers. Grief is a constant theme, with Mina’s mother and Jin both having died in her world. Some scenes skirt a fairly graphic line, with powered teens being experimented on by the evil supervillain, but don’t go into too much detail (and Mina ultimately saves everyone). Oh has fun playing with the standard tropes in this kind of novel, with Mina recognizing key upcoming moments that will be more dangerous – for example, she correctly predicts that the school dance will be a perfect scene for a climactic clash between factions of good and evil.

Characters and cast were diverse in both real and webcomic worlds, which was a positive; but given the sheer size of secondary cast members, few were fully realized. An enjoyable and fairly undemanding read that will probably circulate well in library collections given both the subject and the name recognition of the author.

– Jenny Martinez Nocito, Maine State Library, Augusta

four-stars

The Teeny-Weeny Unicorn

The Teeny-Weeny UnicornThe Teeny-Weeny Unicorn by Shawn Harris
Published by Random House Children's Books on 2024
ISBN: 0593571886
Genres: Adventure, Animals, Fairy Tale, Fantasy, Juvenile Fiction / Action & Adventure / General, Juvenile Fiction / Animals / Horses
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Source: MSL Book Review
Goodreads
three-stars

Shawn Harris’ newest picture book is, The Teeny-Weeny Unicorn, with his renowned illustration style using heavily textured, and colorful oil pastels. Our main character is an uncharacteristically small unicorn who lives in a large palace with his large unicorn brother and sister. Because our (unnamed) teeny-weeny unicorn is so small, he is often the target of criticism from his family members. He runs off into the palace lawn in despair and accidentally damages a tiny gnome’s car. The gnome is furious and demands compensation. Luckily, the palace has loads of gold and the gnome is content. It ends with a hopeful quote saying, “We are all teeny-weeny. We are all giant. And we are all just the right size.”

This story started off unique and enchanting, but quickly lost charm and had remarks that set a harsh tone towards the middle of the story. Fans of Harris’ dry humor might really enjoy this type of dialogue, but it feels geared towards ages 5 and older. I give the story 3 stars, particularly for Harris’ illustrations and creativity with language, but this one leans a little too far into the bizarre.

Reviewed By Argia Charles, Patten Free Library, Bath

three-stars

Calculating Chimpanzees, Brainy Bees, and Other Animals with Mind-Blowing Mathematical Abilities

Calculating Chimpanzees, Brainy Bees, and Other Animals with Mind-Blowing Mathematical AbilitiesCalculating Chimpanzees, Brainy Bees, and Other Animals with Mind-Blowing Mathematical Abilities (Extraordinary Animals) by Jaclyn Sinquett, Stephanie Gibeault
Published by MIT Kids Press on 5/7/24
ISBN: 1536230014
Genres: Non-Fiction
Format: Nonfiction
Source: MSL Book Review
Goodreads
four-stars

Young scientists and mathematicians will love this nonfiction selection.  Each chapter focuses on a different animal, like the guppy, hyena, and the honeybee and the impressive math skills each animal utilizes.  Readers will learn about the experiments that scientists conducted in order to determine the animals’ mathematical skills.  The sections end with a transcript of an interview with that scientist and then a kid-friendly experiment readers can try with a friend, similar to the experiments done with the animals.  Colorful photographs and graphics break up the text and add interest to this book.  Labels for new terminology are introduced in bold and readers who love math will enjoy learning the terms for concepts they are familiar with.  This book would be ideal for 4th-6th graders and would be great for any library, but especially for school libraries.  Teachers could use this book while teaching about nonfiction text features such as captions, table of contents, index, and bibliography.

Reviewed by Lindsay Varnum, Orono Public Library

four-stars

The Secret Language of Birds

The Secret Language of BirdsThe Secret Language of Birds by Lynne Kelly
Published by Delacorte Press on April 9, 2024
ISBN: 1524770272
Pages: 232
Genres: Animals, Realistic Fiction
Format: Chapter Book Fiction
Source: MSL Book Review
Goodreads
four-stars

Lynne Kelly’s follow up to Song for a Whale is another beautiful coming of age story about a girl and her efforts to help an animal in need. Nina is one of five in her family, right in the middle, who often feels like the odd one out, preferring birds to people. She agrees to go to her aunt’s summer camp with the caveat that she can go home any time.  During an initiation exercise to an off-limits cabin that is supposed to be haunted, Nina does think that she sees a ghost. Turns out to be a whooping crane, which seems impossible since these endangered birds haven’t nested in Texas, where camp is located, for a hundred years. Nina eventually confides in her bunkmates, three lovely, feisty campers who have labeled themselves the Oddballs, and together they monitor the bird and his mate (spoiler: Nina stays at camp).

Nina tells wildlife authorities about the birds, but not her aunt or any other campers. The secrecy of the bird monitoring makes this feel more thrilling than a book about bird-watching might usually be. And there is a mystery too: the female whooping crane does not have any trackers nor does she appear in any of the databases as a known, live crane. Nina is determined to solve who she is. With a fantastic nod to Kelly’s first novel, Nina reaches out to Iris, her Deaf neighbor, and protagonist of Song for a Whale. Iris is able to manipulate the sound technology that she used to create a whale song to help Nina with the crane identification.

Many kids dread the idea of long-term summer camp, especially if they attend as older campers. This book uses that relatable worry along with fascinating information about an awe-inspiring bird to craft a story about friendship, acceptance, conservation, and finding one’s voice. Recommend for all upper elementary and middle school collections.

Reviewed by Jill O’Connor, Falmouth Elementary School

four-stars

Blood at the Root

Blood at the RootBlood at the Root by LaDarrion Williams
Published by Labyrinth Road on May 7, 2024
ISBN: 0593711920
Genres: Cultural / African American, Fantasy, Magical Realism
Format: Fiction
Goodreads
three-stars

Seventeen-year-old Malik has been living with the tremendous burden of believing he was responsible for his mother’s death a decade ago. He remembers her dying the night he realized he had magical powers and he has since carried that pain while growing up in the foster system. After rescuing his beloved foster brother Taye, Malik sets out for a new life away from his memories. Along the way he discovers not only can he control his magic, but that he comes from a long line of magic practitioners, and that he has earned a place in an historically Black college dedicated to Black youth with magical abilities.

Written to fill the void of magical stories featuring young Black men, Blood at the Root is an exciting idea: an HBCU dedicated to students learning Hoodoo and Vodun magic that draws on their history and ancestry for its operational power. The book is long and slow, though, and the magic is outweighed by the constant trauma and betrayal Malik is subjected to. Older fantasy and magical realism fans might enjoy it, and there will undoubtedly be sequels.

Reviewed by Sarah Maciejewski, Patten Free Library

three-stars

One Long Line: Marching Caterpillars and the Scientists Who Followed Them

One Long Line: Marching Caterpillars and the Scientists Who Followed ThemOne Long Line: Marching Caterpillars and the Scientists Who Followed Them by Loree Griffin Burns, Jamie Green
Published by MIT Kids Press on May 14, 2024
ISBN: 1536228680
Pages: 56
Genres: Animals
Format: Chapter Book Nonfiction
Source: MSL Book Review
Goodreads
five-stars

The first book in a new nonfiction series called Discovery Chronicles. This title follows the pine processionary caterpillar and focuses on two scientists who studied it. Jean-Henri Fabre researched and wrote about this fascinating creature in the late 1800s/early 1900s, and then, a half century later, Terrence Fitzgerald picked up on Fabre’s work and refined it. The two scientists wondered why processionary caterpillars followed a leader, if they will follow a particular leader, if they use silk to make a trail, among other questions. Fitzgerald used Fabre’s earlier work to make a hypothesis and then conducted experiments to prove it. The thesis of the book is that science is a “long line of learning” and that scientists are curious people who have a wonder and then use the scientific method to test a theory (or two) and record their work for others to read and build upon. Burns does an excellent job laying out this method and provides the reader with plenty of information about the caterpillars who are the star of this title; illustrator Jamie Green adds enough visual detail to help the reader understand what it looked like to study this captivating species. Hand this to budding scientists in grades 2-5.

Reviewed by Jill O’Connor, Falmouth Elementary School

five-stars

K9 Mattis on the Job: A Day in the Life of a Police Dog

K9 Mattis on the Job: A Day in the Life of a Police DogK9 Mattis on the Job: A Day in the Life of a Police Dog by Mark Tappan
ISBN: 140024658X
Genres: Animals, Biography/Autobiography, Non-Fiction
Format: Picture Book Nonfiction
Goodreads
four-stars

K9 Mattis On the Job follows a typical day in the life of Mattis, a police dog, with his partner Sergeant Mark Tappan. As part of the Alpharetta Police Department, Sergeant Mark and Mattis hand out assignments, practice important skills such as tackling and tracking, and use their custom police car with a kennel in the back to report for duty. But today is Mattis’ favorite day: he and Sergeant Mark get to visit an elementary school to show off all the skills Mattis has learned. 

Being a police dog is more than just learning how to sit, stay, and high five. Mattis also practices tackling in the park and rescuing someone from the lake. In showing off for the students, Mattis not only finds a student’s stuffed turtle, but also Sergeant Mark’s hat, lost inside his police vehicle. 

A fun additional fact can be found on every page. These facts include details about Mattis and Tappan’s career together — Mattis has more awards than any other police dog in their department! Other facts are about police dogs in general, such as that German Shepherds can run up to 30 miles per hour. These tidbits add a wealth of information and provide additional context to this nonfiction read. 

This would be a great book for a lesson on community helpers, first responders, or even the life of a working dog. The realistic style of the illustrations feel kid-friendly without coming across as whimsical or childish, which helps kids relate to the story. This book would be perfect for early elementary students (PreK through grade 2) but maybe be adapted to be part of an older curriculum. 

Reviewed by Amie Martin, HB Emery Jr. Memorial School, Limington

four-stars

Grumpy Monkey Spring Fever

Grumpy Monkey Spring FeverGrumpy Monkey Spring Fever by Max Lang, Suzanne Lang
Published by Random House Studio on January 2, 2024
ISBN: 0593652339
Genres: Animals, Humor
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Goodreads
three-stars

Grumpy Monkey (Jim Panzee) is back again – and this time with spring fever. At first, his friends suggest different ways to help Jim relax and calm down. But no matter what he tried, Jim just could not relax – he had too much energy! His friends then pivot their suggestions to ways that he could enjoy his spring fever, by using his extra energy to do seasonal activities. By the end of the story, all of the friends are romping through the jungle delighted to have caught Jim’s spring fever. The illustrations are colorful and fun, emphasizing the personalities and emotions of the different jungle friends. The moral of the story is somewhat confusing – and shows wavering support and inconsistent recommendations from the other animals.  Overall this seasonal sequel feels lacking compared to the original, but fans of Grumpy Monkey will likely still enjoy the story. Recommended for ages 5-6 (Kindergarten to 1st Grade).

Reviewed by: Jenn Mead, Charlotte Hobbs Memorial Library, Lovell

three-stars

Back Home: Story Time with My Father

Back Home: Story Time with My FatherBack Home: Story Time with My Father by Arlene Elizabeth Casimir, Ken Daley
Published by Candlewick Press ISBN: 1536223204
Genres: Cultural / African American, Realistic Fiction, Short Stories
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Goodreads
four-stars

This book is Arlene Elizabeth Casimir’s love letter to her immigrant parents, and in particular, their stories of “Back Home” or “Lakay”. The book follows Lune, who loves to hear her father’s stories about Haiti – so much so that she will wait up for her father to catch him in-between late night work shifts just to hear another one. Lune dreams of Haiti, a place that she has never been, but carries such significance to her family. By the end of the book, Lune learns that there is also value to her own unique story, and that she can be a storyteller as well. Ken Daley’s illustrations are lush, vibrant, and gorgeous – merging Lune’s life in America with her father’s stories from “Back Home”. The text includes words in Haitian Creole, including a glossary at the end. This diverse story is a great addition to any picture book collection, especially representing the lives of immigrants and their children. Recommended for ages 5-7 (Kindergarten to 2nd Grade).

Reviewed by: Jenn Mead, Charlotte Hobbs Memorial Library, Lovell

four-stars