About This Book:
A rhyming picture book featuring pig construction workers that’s perfect for fans of Good Night, Good Night, Construction Site.
Construction crew chief Rosie and her team are building a new road to the Hamshire County Fair. It’s time to put on hard hats and boots, grab their hammers and stakes, and, of course, bring out the big trucks: bulldozers, excavators, pavers, rollers, and more!
Unfortunately, work with Rosie’s crew doesn’t always go as planned, and Curly, Pinky, and Stinky end up making one huge mess. Rosie is there to save the day, but she can’t do such a big job all by herself. The county fair is starting soon, and there’s only one way to get the road done on time . . . teamwork!
*Review Contributed by Rachel Feeck, Staff Reviewer*
Pigs dig a road…in rhyme! Rosie pig and her hard-working crew are making a new road so everyone can get to the fair. These pigs know their way around a construction site, from staking to operating pavers, but they’re also a little clumsy. Good thing Rosie is there to check their work and make it right!
This book is delightful from beginning to end. As a roadway engineer, I love how the pigs go through the stages of construction, starting with staking the site and ending with that nice, clean paint stripe. Of course, it’s funny and heart-warming how Rosie cleans up their mistakes, and it also illustrates how everything isn’t perfect on the job and what can be done to smooth over accidents and mistakes.
The illustrations are also super cute. The pigs are the star on every page, with a little bit of text sprinkled in to keep the story moving.
A perfect storytime read for fans of What Do People Do All Day, or little readers who like pigs and roads.
*Find More Info & Buy This Book HERE!*
About This Book:
Margot is on the quest to uncover and reassemble an ancient—and cursed—vase, with the help of a boy who went missing in 1932, because it’s the only way to put back together her broken heart in this standa-lone adventure rom-com, perfect for fans of What the River Knows and The Lost City.
The mythical Vase of Venus Aurelia hasn’t been seen since 1932, but Margot Rhodes is determined to change that.
Drawn by the vase’s supposed magical properties, Margot embarks on her school’s archaeological trip to Pompeii. Sure, it’s her first time holding a shovel, but she’s got something no one else does: lost teenage explorer Van Keane’s journal.
Poring over the poetic entries that serve as a map to the vase’s missing shards, Margot finds herself falling in love with the boy who wrote it a century ago. She’s shocked when her search leads her to a statue that looks exactly like Van, and then the statue comes to life.
Catapulted into the present, Van is nothing like the wordsmith Margot imagined. He’s all sharp edges, intent on retrieving the relic for all the wrong reasons. But it takes two to survive Venus’s death-defying challenges, and, together, Margot and Van must excavate the treasure—and their buried pasts—before their story ends in ruins.
With a blend of humor, magic, and love, Rachel Moore crafts another stand-alone adventure rom-com full of double- and triple-crosses, hilarious shenanigans, and frustration-fueled banter, where the best treasure is true love.
*Review Contributed by Rachel Feeck, Staff Reviewer*
An ode to the girls who want to be everything when they feel like nothing, and to all the girls who thought they’d like archaeology more without the dirt and spiders.
Margot Rhodes joins her high school’s summer archaeology excursion to Italy, hoping to uncover lost treasure like the Vase of Venus Aurelia or her own true passion (she’s tried everything, but so far nothing’s stuck). A few days later and already in over her head, she stumbles across a hidden ruin, awakens an explorer-who-was-turned-to-stone, and finds herself partnering up with a very disgruntled Van Keane, the last explorer to have seen the Vase and the owner of the journal Margot uncovered in her school’s library.
This story takes off running and never lets up. By the end of the first chapter, I was swimming in so many wonderful questions about Margot, the possibly-magical-artifacts, and how a girl who qualified for a research trip based on her ability to write fanfiction would stand her ground with second and third-generation archaeologists.
Although I generally avoid contemporary, I really enjoyed the balance of lyrical writing and modern flair. Margot’s arsenal of pop references are effortlessly casual, whether in a hotel or a collapsing temple, and it’s easy to picture her as a real person. I made a face at some of her pointed sociological remarks, but they were few and far between.
Like many adventures, it does require some questions to be set aside. Like, would there really be ancient ruins that no one has rediscovered in a hundred years? Or, is it that easy to abscond overseas and adopt a stranger into a summer study program? Maybe probably not, but we’re not here to take everything totally seriously, and the over-the-top nature of Margot and Van’s shenanigans in Italy are right in line with the treasure-hunting, dungeon-searching genre.
*Find More Info & Buy This Book HERE!*
Things that Go Bump in the Day by Melinda Beatty
About This Book:
The sun is out and it’s time for vampire Vlad to go to bed, but it’s easier said than done with all the creepy, creaky daytime noises that keep him (and his mother) from getting a good day’s rest.
Vampire Vlad is all tucked in, ready for bed. But his imagination runs wild when he hears all the daytime noises happening outside. A clickety-clack, a skreek and a clang? Who knows what that could be!
With each new sound, Vlad races to his patient and reassuring, but tired mama’s room until he learns how to calm himself down and finally get a good day’s rest. Melinda Beatty’s clever text and award-winning illustrator Charlene Chua’s imaginative illustrations make the perfect bedtime read (during the day or night) for anyone a little nervous to go to bed.
*Review Contributed By Rachel Feeck, Staff Reviewer*
Adorable story for spooky or sleepy season
What is a little vampire scared of when it’s time for bed? The daytime of course! It’s hard to sleep with all of the spooky sounds (is that a mailman?!) but it’s a good thing mom is there to assure him it’s nothing scary at all, just one of the neighborhood monsters going for a walk.
This story is so cute and funny! Of course a vampire would get jumpy at sirens or lawn mowers. I love how, in comforting Victor’s fears, we readers are also reminded there’s nothing to be scared of from loud noises.
The whole story is told through dialogue and illustrations. In the absence if narrative, I’d be prepared to field frequent questions from little ones, who might want some additional explanations or to just point out fun details in the background. My question – where can I find Victor’s plush bat toy?? Or his cute ghost friends?
A great read for anyone who needs a reminder there’s nothing to be scared of in the day (or the dark).
*Find More Info & Buy This Book Here*
Mooncakes Mean Family by Benson Shum
About This Book:
Celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with this sweet story of food and family!
In this story designed to engage early readers, charming characters combine with simple text, lively illustrations, and laugh-out-loud humor to help boost kids’ confidence and create lifelong readers!
Jade and Crystal love the Mid-Autumn Festival because it means it’s time to make a tasty treat—mooncakes! Crystal’s favorite part of the delicious dessert made of lotus seed paste is the yummy salted egg yolk at the center, meant to represent the moon. Join the sisters as they gather with their family for a memorable meal together!
Complete with fun facts about the holiday in the back of the book, young readers will want to revisit this story again and again.
Exciting, easy-to-read books are the stepping stone a young reader needs to bridge the gap between being a beginner and being fluent.
*Review Contributed By Rachel Feeck, Staff Reviewer*
Bunnies and mooncakes equal adorable
Jade and Crystal rabbit are celebrating Mid-Autumn festival. The sisters can’t wait to make tasty mooncakes and enjoy the day with family.
I grew up eating mooncake for Mid-Autumn festival, but I never learned more about the traditions or event. This book is an awesome way to start. Jade and Crystal’s mom teaches them about the meaning of the holiday, and the rest of the family joins in too. I love the blend of Chinese and bunny culture in the illustrations, and bunny Chang’e and Hou Yi? Stop. Too cute.
This story also illustrates how holidays and traditions can bring family together, whether they live close or far apart. Although Jade and Crystal know some family cannot come to dinner, they still feel close to them because they know that the family is all celebrating the same event and looking at the same moon, wherever they may be.
*Find More Info & Buy This Book Here*
After the Wallpaper Music by Jean Mills
About This Book:
*Review Contributed by Rachel Feeck, Staff Reviewer*
Bursting with the love and joy of music, After the Wallpaper Music tells the story of Flora, mostly violinist, sometimes fiddler, as she navigates tricky situations with new and old friends while preparing for the upcoming Battle of the Bands. Although Flora loves her string quartet, the music she sees at the new kid Simon’s house speaks to her in a whole new way, and she must fight to balance those two commitments, while also navigating a sudden family emergency.
As a former band kid, I absolutely adored this book. From the warm chaos of music class, to the joking stereotypes between instruments, to the classical and rock and Newfoundland folk tunes, every detail evoked the joy of music, for the art itself and the feeling that grows when playing with other musicians.
Flora is also super down to earth and relatable. Much of the tension in the story comes from worries about whether she can please her friends, and I appreciated her fears, the confrontations, and the resolutions as an example of how people who care about each other can still disagree, and that disagreeing doesn’t have to lead to resentment or negative feelings.
Another important element is Flora’s relationship with her great aunt, who lives in the same house and encourages her music. She can be strict and particular about more things than proper tempo, but there’s also lots of love to go around and I loved seeing the supportive dynamics of this multigenerational household.
*Find More Info & Buy This Book HERE!*
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