Geo Librarian

FOSSIL by Bill Thomson Two Lions/Amazon Publishing, 2013 ISBN: 978-1-47784-7-008 Picture Book K and up Review copy provided by publisher in return for honest review. All opinions expressed are solely my own. ABOUT THE BOOK When a boy and his dog go for a hike, the boy trips on a fossil, and it comes to life, revealing an ancient plant. The boy is so intrigued that he breaks two more fossils and they too come to life - showing a prehistoric dragonfly and a pterodactyl. The dog jumps on the pterodactyl's back, and the boy, desperate to get his dog back, figures out a way to make things go back to normal. Using original art, this "wordless story" will surely spark imagination and creativity. Common Core Educator's Guide Kid's Activity Guide ABOUT THE AUTHOR Bill Thomson lives in Southington, Connecticut with his wife, Diann, and their three sons, Billy, Nik, and Ethan. Bill has illustrated Karate Hour, Building With Dad, Baseball Hour, and S...

NAVIGATING EARLY by Clare Vanderpool Delacorte Press, 2013 ISBN: 978-0-385-74209-2 Middle Grade Historical Fiction Grades 4-8 Reviewed from purchased copy. All opinions expressed are solely my own. ABOUT THE BOOK At the end of World War II, Jack Baker, a landlocked Kansas boy, is suddenly uprooted after his mother’s death and placed in a boy’s boarding school in Maine. There, Jack encounters Early Auden, the strangest of boys, who reads the number pi as a story and collects clippings about the sightings of a great black bear in the nearby mountains. Newcomer Jack feels lost yet can’t help being drawn to Early, who won’t believe what everyone accepts to be the truth about the Great Appalachian Bear, Timber Rattlesnakes, and the legendary school hero known as The Fish, who never returned from the war. When the boys find themselves unexpectedly alone at school, they embark on a quest on the Appalachian Trail in search of the great black bear. But what they are searc...

ESCAPE FROM MR. LEMONCELLO'S LIBRARY by Chris Grabenstein Random House, 2013 ISBN: 978-0-375-87089-7 Middle Grade Contemporary Grades 3-6 Reviewed from purchased copy. ABOUT THE BOOK Kyle Keeley is the class clown, popular with most kids, (if not the teachers), and an ardent fan of all games: board games, word games, and particularly video games. His hero, Luigi Lemoncello, the most notorious and creative gamemaker in the world, just so happens to be the genius behind the building of the new town library. Lucky Kyle wins a coveted spot to be one of the first 12 kids in the library for an overnight of fun, food, and lots and lots of games. But when morning comes, the doors remain locked. Kyle and the other winners must solve every clue and every secret puzzle to find the hidden escape route. And the stakes are very high. In this cross between  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory  and  A Night in the Museum,  Agatha Award winner Chris Grabenstein uses ri...

PRISONER B-3087 by Alan Gratz Scholastic Press, 2013 ISBN: 978-0-545-45901-3 Middle Grade Historical Fiction Grades 5 and up Reviewed from copy borrowed from public library. All opinions expressed are solely my own. ABOUT THE BOOK Survive. At any cost. 10 concentration camps. 10 different places where you are starved, tortured, and worked mercilessly. It's something no one could imagine surviving. But it is what Yanek Gruener has to face. As a Jewish boy in 1930s Poland, Yanek is at the mercy of the Nazis who have taken over. Everything he has, and everyone he loves, have been snatched brutally from him. And then Yanek himself is taken prisoner -- his arm tattooed with the words PRISONER B-3087. He is forced from one nightmarish concentration camp to another, as World War II rages all around him. He encounters evil he could have never imagined, but also sees surprising glimpses of hope amid the horror. He just barely escapes death, only to confront it again secon...

WILL SPARROW'S ROAD by Karen Cushman Clarion Books, 2013 ISBN: 978-0-547-73962-5 Middle Grade Historical Fiction Grades 4-8 Reviewed from copy borrowed from public library. All opinions expressed are solely my own. ABOUT THE BOOK In his thirteenth year, Will Sparrow, liar and thief, becomes a runaway. On the road, he encounters a series of con artists—a pickpocket, a tooth puller, a pig trainer, a conjurer—and learns that others are more adept than he at lying and thieving. Then he reluctantly joins a traveling troupe of "oddities," including a dwarf and a cat-faced girl, holding himself apart from the "monsters" and resolving to be on guard against further deceptions. At last Will is forced to understand that appearances are misleading and that  he has been his own worst deceiver. The rowdy world of market fairs in Elizabethan England is the colorful backdrop for Newbery medalist Cushman's new comic masterpiece. REVIEW Will Sp...

A SUMMER OF SUNDAYS by Lindsay Eland Egmont, 2013 ISBN: 9781606840306 Middle Grade Contemporary Grades 3-6 Reviewed from copy borrowed from library. All opinions expressed are solely my own. ABOUT THE BOOK When you're the third of six kids, it's easy to get lost in the shuffle, but Sunday Fowler is determined that this summer she'll find the one thing that makes her stand out from her siblings.  And when she discovers a silver box in the basement of the library her parents are renovating, she might just have found something to gain her the attention she so craves. Inside is a series of letters addressed to "The Librarian" and a manuscript. But who wrote them? With the help of annoying neighbor-turned-new-friend Jude, Sunday is determined to track down the author. And when she unveils this novel to the world, she'll be famous! But uncovering this manuscript means stirring up secrets that some people in the town hoped to keep buried. And Sund...

WHITE FUR FLYING by Patricia MacLachlan Margaret K. McElderry  Books, 2013 ISBN: 978-1-4424-2171-4 Middle Grade Contemporary Grades 2-4 Reviewed from copy borrowed from library. All opinions expressed here are solely my own. ABOUT THE BOOK Zoe’s family rescues dogs in need. There is always the sweet smell of dog and a warm body looking to cuddle or play. There is always a new dog to be saved and loved. Fur flies everywhere. It covers everything. Zoe’s house is never silent. But the house across the street is always silent these days. A new family has moved in and Phillip, the boy, has stopped speaking. He doesn’t even want to try. Zoe knows that saving dogs and saving boys are different jobs, but she learns that some parts are the same. Both take attention and care, understanding and time. And maybe just a bit of white fur flying. REVIEW Some authors seem to have a gift for telling a story with depth and heart using a surprisingly few words. MacLachlan has ...

SCALY SPOTTED FEATHERED FRILLED: How do we know what dinosaurs really looked like? by Catherine Thimmesh Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013 ISBN: 978-0-547-99134-4 MG/YA Nonfiction Grades 4 and up Reviewed from purchased copy. All opinions expressed are solely my own. ABOUT THE BOOK No human being has ever seen a triceratops or velociraptor or even the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex. They left behind only their impressive bones. So how can scientists know what color dinosaurs were? Or if their flesh was scaly or feathered? Could that fierce T.rex have been born with spots? In a first for young readers, the Sibert medalist Catherine Thimmesh introduces the incredible talents of the paleoartist, whose work reanimates gone-but-never-forgotten dinosaurs in giant full-color paintings that are as strikingly beautiful as they aim to be scientifically accurate, down to the smallest detail. Follow a paleoartist through the scientific process of ascertaining the appearance of various ...

ODD DUCK by Cecil Castellucci, illustrated by Sara Varon First Second, 2013 ISBN:   9781596435575 Graphic Novel Grades 2-5 Reviewed from library copy. ABOUT THE BOOK Theodora is a perfectly normal duck. She may swim with a teacup balanced on her head and stay north when the rest of the ducks fly south for the winter, but there's nothing so odd about that. Chad, on the other hand, is one strange bird. Theodora quite likes him, but she can't overlook his odd habits. It's a good thing Chad has a normal friend like Theodora to set a good example for him. But who exactly is the odd duck here? Theodora may not like the answer. Sara Varon (Robot Dreams) teams up with Cecil Castellucci (Grandma's Gloves) for a gorgeous, funny, and heartwarming examination of the perils and pleasures of friendship. REVIEW I was a little bit surprised at how much I enjoyed this book.  I thought the illustrations were darling with lots of humorous details.  The character...

CHICK-O-SAURUS REX by Lenore & Daniel Jennewein Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2013 ISBN: 978-1-4424-5186-5 Picture Book Review copy provided by publisher in return for honest review. All opinions expressed are solely my own. ABOUT THE BOOK A bullied little chicken discovers his inner strength along with some surprising dinosaur ancestry in this farmyard tale with huge heart.   Little Chick just wants to belong, but the bullies of the barnyard—Little Donkey, Little Pig, and Little Sheep—won’t let him play in their tree house because he is a chicken, and chickens are not strong and brave. Little Chick sees their point: What have chickens done besides invent the chicken dance and cross the road? But when his father shows Little Chick the family photo album, he learns something HUGE: He is related to the gigantic and ferocious Tyrannosaurus rex! Armed with this new knowledge, Little Chick returns to the tree house just in time to rescue the bullie...

JOURNEY by Aaron Becker Candlewick Press, 2013 ISBN: 978-0-7636-6053-6 Wordless Picture Book Grades K and up Reviewed from purchased copy. ABOUT THE BOOK Follow a girl on an elaborate flight of fancy in a wondrously illustrated, wordless picture book about self-determination — and unexpected friendship. A lonely girl draws a magic door on her bedroom wall and through it escapes into a world where wonder, adventure, and danger abound. Red marker in hand, she creates a boat, a balloon, and a flying carpet that carry her on a spectacular journey toward an uncertain destiny. When she is captured by a sinister emperor, only an act of tremendous courage and kindness can set her free. Can it also lead her home and to her heart’s desire? With supple line, luminous color, and nimble flights of fancy, author-illustrator Aaron Becker launches an ordinary child on an extraordinary journey toward her greatest and most exciting adventure of all. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Aaron Becker h...