Geo Librarian

THE DEER WITH THE PURPLE NOSE by Wayne L. Brillhart Wan Lee Publishing, 2015 ISBN: 978-0-9858042-0-6 Picture book mystery Source: publisher for review All opinions expressed are solely my own. ABOUT THE BOOK Two English Setters, Rusty and Purdy, see a deer with a purple nose and ask her how her nose became purple. The deer denies having a purple nose. The dogs talk to 10 different backyard birds to solve the mystery. A chipmunk, ground hog and racoon help also. The book is all photographs on glossy pages so it is fun for all ages, but targeted for 2 yrs to 3rd grade. REVIEW When I heard about this book full of photographs that's a mystery I was definitely intrigued.  And now having read it, I still find it a remarkably clever idea.  First off, the photographs are beautiful and arranged in a way to tell the story.  It's amazing the way the author/photographer managed to take photographs that work so well.  The main characters are the dogs Purdy an...

PARTNERS IN CRIME (Sleuth or Dare #1) SLEEPOVER STAKEOUT (Sleuth or Dare #2) FRAMED & DANGEROUS (Sleuth or Dare #3) by Kim Harrington Scholastic, 2012 ISBN: 978-0-545-38964-8 ISBN: 978-0-545-38965-5 ISBN: 978-0-545-38966-2 Grades 3-6 Reviewed from purchased copies. Book #1: Whodunit? When best friends Darcy and Norah have to create a fake business for a school assignment, they come up with a great idea: a detective agency! Darcy loves mysteries, and Norah likes helping people, so it's a perfect fit. But then their pretend agency gets a real case. Someone is missing, and it's up to Darcy and Norah to take on the search. Unfortunately, there's someone else out there who doesn't want the two detectives stirring up any trouble. . . .With the help of hidden clues, spy gadgets, and trusted friends, can Darcy and Norah crack the case in time?  Book #2 WHO'S OUT THERE? Norah and Darcy's detective agency, Partners in Crime, is taking o...

There are two subjects that as a librarian I can count on to catch the interest of almost any child.  One of those subjects is animals and the other is mystery.  Kids love mysteries.  The series I'm spotlighting today is a great one for younger readers (6-8).  The detective is the dog (yes, you read that right). The latest book in the series is highlighted below.  The rest of the books in the series are: The Case of the Lost Boy While searching for his mysteriously lost human family, King the dog detective is adopted by another family, who names him Buddy. Buddy succeeds in solving the mystery of their missing boy. The Case of the Mixed-Up Mutts Buddy wonders what has happened to his first family, but right now he's got another urgent case--two dogs, Muffin and Jazzy, have been switched. How can Buddy get poor Muffin and Jazzy back to their real owners? The Case of the Missing Family Buddy has settled in with his adopted family, but he stil...

It Happened on a Train Brixton Brothers series Book 3 written by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Adam Rex Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 2011 ISBN:  978-1416978190 Interest Level: Grades 3-6 Reviewed from e-book purchased for Kindle. BLURB:   Retired private detective and current seventh grader Steve Brixton has a new job: he takes out the trash for five bucks a week. But it's hard to leave the old game behind. On a train trip down the California coast, Steve and his best chum, Dana, are pulled into a mystery involving a fleet of stolen automobiles, a vanishing girl, and a phantom train car. For a great detective, the best part of retiring is coming out of retirement. I confess I was one of those kids who devoured any mystery I could get my hands on, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins, and Trixie Belden.  I have lots of fun memories reading these books, often more than once.  Maybe that's why I enjoy reading Barnett's Steve Brixton mystery s...

The Luck of the Buttons written by Anne Ylvisaker Candlewick Press, 2011 ISBN: 978-0-7636-5066-7 Interest Level: Grades 3-6 Reviewed from purchased copy. BLURB: In Iowa circa 1929, spunky twelve-year-old Tugs vows to turn her family’s luck around, with the help of a Brownie camera and a small-town mystery.  Tugs Esther Button was born to a luckless family. Buttons don’t presume to be singers or dancers. They aren’t athletes or artists, good listeners, or model citizens. The one time a Button ever made the late Goodhue Gazette - before Harvey Moore came along with his talk of launching a new paper - was when Great Grandaddy Ike accidentally set Town Hall ablaze. Tomboy Tugs looks at her hapless family and sees her own reflection looking back until she befriends popular Aggie Millhouse, wins a new camera in the Independence Day raffle, and stumbles into a mystery only she can solve. Suddenly this is a summer of change - and by its end, being a Button may just turn...

Cities of the Dead: Finding Lost Civilizations 24/7 Science Behind the Scenes Mystery Files (series) written by Denise Rinaldo Scholastic, 2008 ISBN: 978-0-531-18739-5 Interest Level: Grades 3-6 Reviewed from copy borrowed from my school library. BLURB :  There's a legend about a great empire that was swallowed up by the sea. Another tale tells of a beautiful city that was buried under ash and falling rock. Did these civilizations ever really exist? And if so, can traces of them be found? That's where archeologists come in. From the harshest deserts to the deepest oceans, they search the world for lost civilizations. Cities of the Dead provides a basic introduction to the field of archeology and some of the most famous sites that have been searched for and studied.  While not providing a lot of detail, Rinaldo discusses the interest in, search for, and study of the following sites: the City of Troy, the City of Pompeii, and the City of Vilcabamba.  Later i...

Missing on Superstition Mountain written by Elise Broach, illustrations by Antonio Javier Caparo Henry Holt and Company, 2011 ISBN: 978-0-8050-9047-5 Grades 3-6 Reviewed from purchased copy. BLURB : It’s summer and the three Barker brothers—Simon, Henry, and Jack—just moved from Illinois to Arizona. Their parents have warned them repeatedly not to explore Superstition Mountain, which is near their home. But when their cat Josie goes missing, they see no other choice. There’s something unusually creepy about the mountain and after the boys find three human skulls, they grow determined to uncover the mystery. Have people really gone missing over the years, and could there be someone or some thing lurking in the woods? Together with their new neighbor Delilah, the Barker boys are dead-set on cracking the case even if it means putting themselves in harm’s way. I have really enjoyed Elise Broach's other books, Shakespeare's Secret and Masterpiece.  So I was look...

There are many different mystery series for children, some are naturally better than others.  Here are a few of the many available series: The A to Z Mysteries by Ron Roy Jigsaw Jones Mysteries by James Preller Encyclopedia Brown mysteries by Donald Sobol The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner Young Cam Jansen by David A. Adler Nate the Great by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat But today I'm highlighting my favorite mystery series for younger readers, The Milo & Jazz Mysteries by Lewis B. Montgomery.  Not only are these books well written, but the plotting is clear and crisp.  The stories are not elaborate and full of complications like many mysteries for older readers.  This series makes a good introduction to the mystery genre.  These mysteries focus on the real world and the sorts of mysteries that most of us meet up with in our daily lives.  Each mystery also focuses on different skills that detectives need to develop to be really g...

Suddenly in the Depths of the Forest by Amos Oz, translated by Sondra Silverston Harcourt Children's Books, 2011. Grades 5 and up Reviewed from e-galley provided by publisher through NetGalley. Book blurb: In a gray and gloomy village, all of the animals—from dogs and cats to fish and snails—disappeared years before. No one talks about it and no one knows why, though everyone agrees that the village has been cursed. But when two children see a fish—a tiny one and just for a second—they become determined to unravel the mystery of where the animals have gone. And so they travel into the depths of the forest with that mission in mind, terrified and hopeful about what they may encounter. ( goodreads.com ) This is a rather unusual book.  The intent seems to be fable-like with an underlying moral, but for me it came off as mostly a rather sad, depressing book.  However, the writing is beautiful and credit needs to be given to both the author and the translator for that...

The Mostly True Story of Jack by Kelly Barnhill Little Brown & Company, 2011 Grades 3 and up Reviewed from ARC provided by publisher. When Jack is sent to Hazelwood, Iowa, to live with his crazy aunt and uncle, he expects a summer of boredom. Little does he know that the people of Hazelwood have been waiting for him for a long time. . . . When he arrives, three astonishing things happen: First, he makes friends-not imaginary friends but actual friends. Second, he is beaten up by the town bully; the bullies at home always ignored him. Third, the richest man in town begins to plot Jack's imminent, and hopefully painful, demise. It's up to Jack to figure out why suddenly everyone cares so much about him. Back home he was practically, well, invisible. ( Goodreads.com )  When I started reading this book, I was impressed with two things.  First, the writing was excellent, it flowed smoothly allowing the reader to focus on the story rather than the writing. ...

Today for Nonfiction Monday , I am highlighting a great new nonfiction book about Amelia Earhart.  Not only does Earhart still fascinate us, but she provides a glimpse into a past that was anything but boring.  I'm always on the lookout for nonfiction books I can use to show the kids I work with that history can be really fascinating. Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart by Candace Fleming schwartz & wade books, 2011 Grades 4-8 Reviewed from purchased copy. From the acclaimed author of The Great and Only Barnum —as well as The Lincolns , Our Eleanor , and Ben Franklin's Almanac —comes the thrilling story of America's most celebrated flyer, Amelia Earhart. In alternating chapters, Fleming deftly moves readers back and forth between Amelia's life (from childhood up until her last flight) and the exhaustive search for her and her missing plane. With incredible photos, maps, and handwritten notes from Amelia herself—plus informative si...

The Visconti House by Elsbeth Edgar Candlewick Press, 2011 Grades 3-6 Reviewed from purchased copy. After reading a review over at Charlotte's Library , I decided that I needed to read this book ASAP. And I loved it.  This is the kind of story I like best, and the writing is great too. Here's the blurb from the book: Fourteen-year-old Laura Horton doesn't quite fit in.  She lives in a crumbling mansion that everyone calls "the haunted house," and she has more in common with her parents' eccentric artist friends than with the girls at school.  So when loner Leon Murphy moves in next door, Laura avoids him at first; she doesn't need anything else different or weird in her life.  But when Laura becomes obsessed with uncovering the history of her house -- the Visconti House--she finds that Leon understands her need to know what happened to the lonely Italian gentleman who built it.  Together, Laura and Leon begin to unearth the mansion's history, ...

The process and challenges of inventing things has long fascinated me.  Invention is one of the things that make us, as humans, different from the creatures around us.  While science does not by all means have all the answers to the many questions we have about our earth, still it provides us with a way to try to understand the world around us as well as making our world a better one.  Of course like all things in an imperfect world, science and invention don't always lead to good results.  Flight is one subject that humans have long dreamed about.  Long before the first airplane took off, scientists and inventors experimented with the concept. There have been many people who helped make manned flight possible.  The book I'm reviewing today, provides a glimpse of the passion that people have shown for flight.  While this book is fiction that involves altering history, it does a beautiful job of showing the challenges and delights of flight and inventio...

Chicagoland Detective Agency: #2 The Maltese Mummy by Trina Robbins and Tyler Page Graphic Universe Reviewed from ARC provided by publisher through NetGalley  Megan, Raf, and Raf's talking dog, Bradley, run the Chicagoland Detective Agency.  But Megan is more focused on a chance to meet her favorite musician, Sun D'Arc.  While Raf is stuck at home sick, Megan recruits another friend, William to go with her.  Unfortunately, on the way home from what turned out to be a very short interview, William disappears.  It is up to Megan and Bradley to find out what has happened to William and how it is connected to the disappearance of a valuable Egyptian artifact. Like many graphic novels, this one starts right in on the plot.  The book is rather lacking in character development, a common flaw in many graphic novels, but reluctant readers won't care.  The fast plot, interesting characters, and entertaining artwork are bound to win over even the most relu...