Murray and Bun!: Murray the Viking

January 2, 2026January 2, 2026

Murray the Viking (Murray and Bun!) by Adam Stower
Published by Random House Children's Books Genres: Humor, Juvenile Fiction / Comics & Graphic Novels / Humorous
Format: Graphic Novel
Source: MSL Book Review
Goodreads
five-stars

This is the first book in a series starring Murray (a cat who loves routine, creature comforts, and predictability). Unfortunately, Murray lives in a house with an inept wizard by the name of Fumblethumb, prone to mistakes of a magical kind that make Murray’s life interesting. He turns Murray’s “last and best” frosted bun into a bunny named Bun and enchants Murray’s cat door, so that one never knows if there is a relaxing stroll through the garden on the other side or an unwanted (if you’re Murray) exploit in another realm.

In this outing, Murray and Bun, his adventure-loving sidekick, are transported to the land of Vikings. The Vikings need Murray to solve the problem of the trolls, who they believe have eaten their leader, Eggrik. The trolls turn out to be delightful, friendly, and willing to share food, but they also have a problem they hope Murray can solve — a scary, hairy, very stinky something is in the wood, causing them a lot of distress. Intrepid readers will jump ahead and guess that the stinky, hairy something is Eggrik, and they will be right.

Eggrick is very stinky and very lonely, but he has a bigger problem that only Murray, through his unique brand of skills, can fix. Fix it he does and returns Eggrik to the Vikings. There is a celebration! There is a feast about to start! There is Murray, whisked magically back to his own cat flap place and time, and disgruntled about missing the feast.

Readers will learn that amazing adventures await when you are willing to step outside your comfort zones. Lots of jokes, visual and otherwise; cartoonish line drawings on every page. (I have labeled it a “graphic novel”, but it is more of a heavily illustrated story, like The Bad Guys series.) Murray and Bun are goofy and adorable. This is for students who like theirs stories with lots of fast-paced action, adventure and humor. The language is witty, cheeky, and dynamic.

Children of all ages will laugh at Murray’s obsessions with food, and his solutions to hairy problems. Readers will enjoy “Bun’s Bonus Bits” in the back matter, including “How to Draw Murray” and a “Family Album”. This would be a great gateway series to get students hooked on other magical adventure series with lots of humor, and would make for a rollicking read-aloud.

Highly recommended for public and school libraries.

Deanna Contrino, SLMS
K-2 Resource Librarian, Scarborough Schools

Squash, the Cat: Stuck in the Middle

January 1, 2026January 1, 2026

Squash, the Cat: Stuck in the Middle by Sasha Mayer
Published by Random House Children's Books on February 4, 2025
ISBN: 0593566564
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Source: MSL Book Review
Goodreads
four-stars

Squash is a very orange, very round cat living the good life with his best friend, Maggie — a wildly imaginative, energetic girl with curly red hair, fair skin and freckles. Squash’s days involve a lot of napping and sitting happily on the sidelines while Maggie partakes in a wide variety of adventures. The best part of the day for Squash, is bedtime when he and Maggie fall asleep in “a cozy Squash-Maggosh circle”.

Mayer depict the coziness of Squash’s existence and the excitement of Maggie’s with dynamic, colorful illustrations that convey what’s happening in the text. As in any story of contentment, an antagonist must enter the picture, to keep things interesting. In this case, Pirate Lou, a swashbuckling “pillow pirate” stuffie, is a willing participant in all of Maggie’s most active adventures.

Squash is still on the periphery but it feels much less comfortable with Pirate Lou horning in. And now bedtime is ruined. While Maggie is willing for all three friends to share the bed, Squash with his generous contours, falls gracelessly to the floor and decides to “lose” Lou while Maggie sleeps. Unfortunately, Maggie discovers Squash in the middle of his nefarious act and banishes him from the bed.

Squash, determined to regain his spot in the bed, attempts, for a second time, to remove Pirate Lou from the scene. As he tries to get the plump pillow pirate out to the trash truck in the morning, they gets stuck half-in, half-out of the cat door. Readers will find Squash’s expressions as he tries to maneuver his way out of the predicament comical.

Poor Squash is clearly worn out by all his failed machinations and capitulates to a nap, realizing that Pirate Lou is truly a comfy nap buddy. In the happiest of endings, the three individuals now become inseparable. Squash is still cheers on from the sidelines while Maggie and Pirate Lou play, but now his naps include Pirate Lou.

Stuck in the Middle is not an inventive story but it is enjoyable. Recommended for public and school library collections.

Deanna Contrino, SLMS
K-2 Resource Librarian, Scarborough Schools

A Summer Without Anna

January 1, 2026

A Summer without Anna by Kate Jenks Landry, Risa Hugo
ISBN: 1525310259
Genres: Family
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Source: MSL Book Review
Goodreads
four-stars

Junie is spending the summer without her older sister, Anna. Junie will be with the grandparents in the country, while Anna and their parents remain in the city, promising to return when Anna is “well enough”. The nature of Anna’s illness isn’t mentioned, but we get the sense that it is something chronic and serious.

As her parents and Anna leave, Anna hands Junie a box containing her beloved, and previously off-limits camera, along with a note, “In case you find Edmund.” The camera is a source of connection, comfort, and distraction for Junie. The estrangement from her family and the worry about Anna are always present, but the camera It acts as her companion, forcing her to focus on the natural world around her, as she looks for Edmund.

Junie is a pale young girl, often in green overalls, as she explores the meadow and the lake around her grandparents’ place. The illustrations done in gouache, colored pencils and soft pastels, are reflective of the feelings of anxiety and worry that Junie carries throughout the summer.

There are many small moments within the story, as Junie and her grandparents try to keep busy with pleasant tasks (minnowing, baking, swimming) but Anna’s absence, and the seriousness of her illness are keenly felt. Landry doesn’t shy away from difficult subjects or emotions.

This is a story of a summer without the companionship of a sibling, without knowing all is well. And yet, there is hope. Junie finds ways to quiet the worry she feels in routine and enjoyable activities; she locates Edmund ( a giant snapping turtle), even as she is acutely aware that Anna isn’t there to see it.

And eventually, Anna gets well and Junie is reunited with her sister. Recommended for picture book collections lacking titles discussing siblings’ feelings around chronic illness.

Deanna Contrino, SLMS
K-2 Resource Librarian, Scarborough Schools

New

December 31, 2025

ISBN: 9780063318250
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Source: MSL Book Review
five-stars

Told from the point of view of a young Filipina girl transitioning from a life in a small village to life in the US, in this picture book about the highs and lows on her first day of school in a new country. “New” is imbued with many different emotions: the hopefulness of possibility (sharpened pencils, blank notebooks, the idea of new friends); the discomfort of feeling out of place (misunderstanding of school rules, loneliness in the middle of a crowd); and the exuberance of adventure (a new friend who speaks a new language).

Her experiences on the first day of school are told through spare, lyrical text and expressive illustrations that grab you with their emotional honesty — from excitement to embarrassment to loneliness to joy. She becomes uncomfortably aware that her eyes, accent, and lunch are different, through her own awareness and comments from thoughtless school mates but is brave enough to venture forth and reach out to someone else who is feeling new.

The front end pages show a map of her old (familiar) village where all the important things (school, bakery, and many cousins) are small and close by; while the back end pages maps out her new world, a city with everything at a much larger scale, and new possibilities (a library, a friend in a nearby apartment building).

During a read-aloud at the beginning of the school year, this story will create an awareness within the reader that “new” can mean different things and feel different ways, that “new” can be scary, exciting or both. Highly recommended for school and public library collections.

Deanna Contrino, SLMS
K-2 Resource Librarian, Scarborough Schools

Girls of Dark Divine

December 31, 2025

Girls of Dark Divine by E.V. Woods
on August 5, 2025
ISBN: 0593812123
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Supernatural
Format: Young Adult
Goodreads
two-stars

E.V. Wood’s debut novel, Girls of Dark Divine, will entice readers with its unique premise and descriptive writing style, but the story’s weak character development and lack of world building might let them down. Though it is written in the 3rd person, Wood only gives you the perspective of Emberlyn, the star ballerina in a legendary troupe that is being magically controlled by an evil puppet master, Malcom, who calls the troupe his “Marionettes”. Malcom controls what they eat, what they can talk about, where they go, and he beats them viciously. The curse that controls the Marionettes also took all of their pre-Marionette memories, and is slowly killing them from the inside out. The stakes are high, but everyone except Emberlyn has submitted to their doomed situation. Her only hope for breaking the curse and saving more girls from harm is to kill Malcolm, which Emberlyn decides she must do alone.

The limited perspective really hinders the story. Because Emberlyn has no memories, can’t go outside, and isolates herself from the other dancers she considers sisters, the reader only hears her thoughts for almost 400 pages. A big disappointment is the lack of character development for the other dancers who are little more than their names. Many of the girls don’t even have one line of dialog in the book, let alone a personality. A love interest who turns to dust in the light and sneaks around the theater, also cursed by Malcolm, is introduced halfway through the story, but their insta-love hidden romance barely affects the plot. Wood’s writing style could really make or break the reader’s enjoyment of Girls of Dark Divine. On the one hand, Wood’s flowery writing style paired with the slightly gothic, romantic vibes of the story will be enough to please some readers. On the other hand, the near constant repetition of previously established facts, the brutal descriptions of physical violence, and the incredibly slow build of the plot will have many readers putting it down only a few chapters in.

Skip Girls of Dark Divine unless you have readers who only want to read about beautiful, sad ballerinas.

Reviewed by Ivy Burns, Merrill Memorial Library, Yarmouth

Dear Bookstore

December 30, 2025

Dear Bookstore by Emily Arrow, Geneviève Godbout
Published by Candlewick Press on March 11, 2025
ISBN: 1536210692
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Source: MSL Book Review
Goodreads

This is a love letter to local independent bookstores. The correspondent, a young girl (never named), begins by recalling her earliest memories of her encounter with a place that feels as if it is filled with friends. She discovers an independent, local bookstore and its owner, who creates a welcoming neighborhood space with puppies and cozy chairs.

The little girl brings her friend to this special place and her friend describes the bookstore as “full of magic”. Part of the magic is in the illustrations created with colored pencils and gouache; the characters and ideas emerging from the books pop off the page in neon yellow, where the rest of the picture is rendered in soft pastels.

The reader sees the girl, who is light skinned with light brown hair, connecting with different genres and characters, and with the other book lovers who frequent the store, as she grows older.

The girl becomes a young woman and finds that the world outside the bookstore doesn’t always feel as welcoming. In an image that depicts other people staring at their phone and game screens, she hears the “scary news” that lots of bookstores are closing, and people aren’t reading (print) books anymore. She returns to find her bookstore still there, making impactful connections and the magic still potent.

This sweet paean to the independent bookstore captures what people love about these special places. Recommended for public and school library collections.

Deanna Contrino, SLMS
K-2 Resource Librarian, Scarborough Schools

Bear and Bird: The Stick and Other Stories

December 30, 2025December 30, 2025

Bear and Bird: The Stick and Other Stories (Bear and Bird, #4) by Jarvis
Published by Candlewick Press, Candlewick Press (MA) on February 25, 2025
ISBN: 1536239275
Pages: 64
Genres: Animals, Children's Beginning Readers, Emotions & Feelings, Humor
Format: Early Reader
Source: MSL Book Review
Goodreads
four-stars

Can you ever be too considerate? In this fourth set of four stories featuring friends Bear and Bird, Bird realizes Bear has a leaf stuck to his face. Not wanting to embarrass him, she serendipitously tries to remove it. Turns out a leaf on your face is the new fad and everyone else has one, too, until the wind blows them away. In another story, Bear and Bird pick up the same stick and then disagree who should keep it, each thinking the other should have it. Once again, Jarvis weaves humor and heart into these friendship tales, resulting in a work that’s sweet but not overly sentimental. The quirky illustrations enhance the stories. A good series for a fairly advanced beginning reader.

Barb Rehmeyer, Liberty Library

Cosmic Collisions: Supergiant vs. Neutron Star

December 30, 2025

Cosmic Collisions: Supergiant vs. Neutron Star by Marc J. Kuchner, Matt Schu
Series: Cosmic Collisions; #2
Published by MIT Kids Press on April 15, 2025
ISBN: 153624225X
Pages: 45
Genres: Non-Fiction, STEM
Format: Picture Book Nonfiction
Source: MSL Book Review
Goodreads
four-stars

I struggled whether to list this as fiction or nonfiction. Written in a current popular “Who Will Win” style, two red supergiants are facing off with each other. As with the first Cosmic Collisions book, Asteroid vs. Comet (2024), this matchup is reported by a host as a smackdown for the ages. Unlike the first book, the topics are more obtuse and may be difficult for the average student to understand (For instance, me!) However an avid astrology fan, which I am certain that is the ilk of the very knowledgeable author, is going to eat this up. This is a fast-paced, fact-packed competition crammed with science, cool illustrations, and the energy of a live sporting event. Back matter provides even more information. Ages 8-12.

Barb Rehmeyer, Liberty Library

To the End of the World, Far, Far Away

December 30, 2025December 30, 2025

To the End of the World, Far, Far Away by Ronda Armitage, Victoria Turnbull
Published by Candlewick Press on May 2, 2024
ISBN: 1536235881
Genres: Animals, Emotions & Feelings, Family, Fantasy
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Source: MSL Book Review
Goodreads
three-stars

Louis, a little bear, spills his milk and his mom is upset. So the little bear decides to run to the end of the world, far, far away. But as Louis is prepared to leave, he can’t help but ask Mom, “Will you be sad when I’m gone?” “Yes,” she tells him. Her tears will form a deep sea. Her sobs will fill the sky. She’ll share her grief with his toys who will also be upset. Louis eagerly listens and decides not to run away after all.

A tad mundane with a sense that this story line has been done before in books such as Mama, Do You Love Me” by Joose (1998) and Guess How Much I love You by McBratney (2014). The cozy colored pencil drawings are lovely, Illustrating the back-and-forth between conversation with mother and son. Can be paired with the book Broken by Fang (2025) for a Story Time theme about accidents for preschoolers.

Barb Rehmeyer, Liberty Library

Ant Party

December 30, 2025December 30, 2025

Ant Party by Ross Montgomery, Sarah Warburton
Published by Walker Books US on April 29, 2025
ISBN: 1536239534
Pages: 40
Genres: Animals, Humor, Nature
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Source: MSL Book Review
Goodreads
five-stars

Andy the ant decides to throw himself a birthday party with “dancing and dips.”. His anthill does not have much space so he plans an intimate gathering with just his neighbors. However word gets out and soon the farmer ants, worker ants, soldier ants, the queen, and even residents from nearby anthills plan to attend. Thousands of ants arrive! The festivities grow rowdy with eating and dancing until an anteater invades. Furious, Andy organizes everyone in a conga line, carrying the anteater into the river. The celebration continues and Andy is delighted with his birthday party.

The wide-eyed ants are depicted in vibrant primary colors. The illustrations include detailed layouts of the ant hill. Kids will enjoy the playful tone while learning more about the different kinds of ants. The colorful illustrations and humor make this a good choice for Story Time. Preschool – age 7.

Barb Rehmeyer, Liberty Library