Reviews written by Zoraida Aracely, Staff Reviewer

The KEY HUNTERS series kicks off with a mystery surrounding a stolen priceless diamond. The story opens with Cleo and Evan at school. They're in the library when a mean librarian starts acting suspicious. Cleo and Evan think about how much they miss their old librarian, Ms. Hilliard, who vanished...

When I was a kid, I watched EL CHAVO DEL 8 religiously. Sonia Sander adapts the popular Mexican and Latin American television show into a bilingual picture book. Each page includes an illustration, as well as the Spanish and English translation of the text. It is a great idea for...

When I was a kid, I watched EL CHAVO DEL 8 religiously. Sonia Sander adapts the popular Mexican and Latin American television show into a bilingual picture book. Each page includes an illustration, as well as the Spanish and English translation of the text. It is a great idea for...

Goth coloring enthusiasts gather 'round. Bram Stoker's Dracula is a classic, now turned into a coloring book. The pages are filled with lush illustrations. My initial instinct was to stay with traditional blacks, grays, and reds. But I decided to get a little playful. Dracula with a purple cape is...

MISSION MUMBAI by Mahtab Narsimhan is an unexpected and powerful addition to middle grade novels. The story of two boys, it is told from the POV of a white American kid named Dylan Moore. Dylan is, on the surface, the envy of his best friend, Rohit Lal. Dylan's family is...

¡Más Cosas Que Dice Mi Abuela! is a charming story about a family who goes to the countryside to visit family. A young boy and his siblings travel with their grandmother who has a saying for everything and every occasion. Each saying is a slice of wisdom brought on by...

In Eida de la Vega's Spanish translation of Tedd Arnold's, THERE'S A FLY GUY IN MY SOUP #12, all the humor remains. The Fly Guy series is about a boy who has a pet fly. The fly can say the boy's nickname, Buzz. In this adventure, Fly Guy is searching...

Barbara McClintock tells the beautiful story of two ballerinas from different worlds, but with a shared love of the stage. Emma is a young girl who dreams of being a ballerina. Julia is a young woman who is getting ready for a big performance. Each page juxtaposes Emma and Julia's...

THE BLOBFISH BOOK by Jessica Olien is unlike any picture book I've read. Combining real data, photos of deep sea marine life, and comedic illustration, the book creates a conversation between reader...and Blobfish himself. From page one, Blobfish interrupts the book by crossing out "Deep Sea"...

HONEY, I LOVE is a sweet and loving walk through a young girl's day. Eloise Greenfield structures her words in a way that begs for them to be sung, not spoken. There is an internal rhythm and progression that carries on page after page. Our young protagonist is full of...

Justice League: VERSUS is a perfect starter set to the world of DC Comics. It takes a number of superheroes that aren't as popular on the big screen and highlights them. Each hero is given a villain to fight. It is a great way to engage the reader and have...

Girl Last Seen by Anne Greenwood Brown and Heather Anastasiu is a read-in-one-sitting kind of book. I sat down to read a couple of chapters, and the next thing I knew it, I was reading the final page. What worked for me: The alternating POVs...

ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN is a new adaption of "The Twelve Days of Christmas." Using a similar rhyming pattern, the reader follows a little girl as she goes through her first twelve days of kindergarten. Though the rhyming feels a tad forced, each day brings a new and...

One Day in the Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus Tree is a whimsical story of a very clever boy who gets eaten by a snake. The boy is out and about when a snake gobbles him up. The boy does not panic. Instead, he devises a plan to get...

Fandom is a complicated culture. ~Goldy Moldavsky, KILL THE BOY BAND I loved this book. It's a refreshing feeling when you find a book that stands out the way It's a refreshing feeling when you find a book that stands out the way KILL...