Book Bites -- October 2011
by Houston Family Magazine
HCPL Book Reviews — October 2011
h3. Toddlers (Ages 1 – 3)
Tweak Tweak by Eve Bunting
Mama Elephant advises Little Elephant to “tweak twice” by pulling on her tail if she has any questions while they go for a walk. Little Elephant has plenty of questions – about a monkey, a frog, a songbird, a crocodile, and elephants too.
In the Meadow by Yukiko Kato
A little girl hears the sounds of nature all around her when she follows a butterfly into a meadow.
Too Purpley! by Jean Reidy
Too purpley, too tickly, too puckery, too prickly! There is not a single outfit in the closet that our little fashion plate wants to wear—so she tries on everything in her closet until she finds something perfect.
Picture Books (Pre K-K)
Eddie Gets Ready for School by David Milgrim
Now that Eddie can get ready all by himself, his morning routine is anything but ordinary. He wakes up with a megaphone, gets dressed in a costume, packs a watermelon snack, and runs like mad to catch the school bus.
Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown
When a man brings two burros to a remote village, loaded with books the children can borrow, Ana’s excitement leads her to write a book of her own as she waits for the Biblioburro to return. Based on the true story of Columbia’s Biblioburro and mobile libraries in other countries.
Substitute Creacher by Chris Gall
Mr. Creacher, a multi-tentacled substitute teacher, warns his prankish students not to misbehave with rhyming cautionary tales of weird, spooky events.
Early Readers (Grades 1-3)
Dixie by Grace Gilman
Emma and her puppy, Dixie, are inseparable after-school friends. But when Emma starts preparing for her class’s production of The Wizard of Oz, Dixie feels left out.
Detective Blue by Steve Metzger
With the help of his nursery rhyme friends, Little Boy Blue, who now runs a detective agency, solves the mystery of the missing Miss Muffet.
Attack of the Shark Headed Zombie by Bill Doyle
In order to earn money for new bicycles, nine-year-old cousins Keats and Henry take a job at a very strange house where doors disappear, carpets bite, and a zombie shark chases them.
Children’s Fiction (Grades 4-6)
Troubletwisters by Garth Nix and Sean Williams
When their house mysteriously explodes and they are sent to live with an unknown relative named Grandma X, twelve-year-old twins Jaide and Jack Shield learn that they are Troubletwisters, young Wardens just coming into their powers, who must protect humanity from The Evil trying to break into Earth’s dimension.
Waiting for the Magic by Patricia MacLachlan
When William’s father leaves, his mother promptly brings home four dogs and a cat to make up for his absence. William’s sure that nothing can fill the hole left by his father, but the new additions to the family are determined to help. Over the course of the story, William, as well as his sister and mother, learn that “family” can come in all shapes and sizes.
Junonia by Kevin Henkes
During the week of her tenth birthday, Alice and her parents go to Sanibel Island, Florida, just as they do every year. This time, however, some of the people who are always there are missing, and some new people have come—all of which unsettles Alice, who wants things to be exactly the same as they always are.
Teen Fiction and Nonfiction (Ages 12 & up)
The Julian Game by Adele Griffin
In an effort to improve her social status, a new scholarship student at an exclusive girls’ school uses a fake online profile to help a popular girl get back at her ex-boyfriend. As it turns out, the consequences of her actions are more than she’d bargained for.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
A horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar—they may have been dangerous. In fact, they may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reasons. And, somehow, they may still be alive.
Sweetly by Jackson Pearce
When the owner of a candy shop molds magical treats that instill confidence, bravery, and passion, eighteen-year-old Gretchen’s haunted childhood memories of her twin sister’s abduction by a witch-like monster begin to fade until girls start vanishing at the annual chocolate festival.
