Reviews written by Beth Rodgers, Staff Reviewer

'I Want to Be a Pilot' by Laura Driscoll, pictures by Catalina Echeverri, takes readers on a journey through an airport and airplane as they learn about many different kinds of pilots. The main character goes with her Aunt Ro to the Air Fair where she gets to meet pilots...

'All Aboard! The Airport Train' by Nichole Mara, illustrated by Andrew Kolb, is a neat, lift-the-flap book that turns into an airport train when fully open. The book helps with a variety of elementary-level topics, including counting, recognizing shapes, looking for images, much like in a 'Where's Waldo?' book, and...

'Kissing Lessons' by Sophie Jordan is a well-written, entertaining story about a variety of main characters, including Hayden Vargas, Nolan Martin, Emmaline Martin, and Beau Sanders. While Hayden is known to be the “bad girl” at school, Emmaline is much more on the opposite end of the spectrum, always thought...

'Perfectly Misunderstood' by Robin Daniels tells the story of Jayden and Mike, two high school students who seem to be polar opposites. While Jayden works hard, she finds herself struggling in Spanish and needing the help of a tutor. When she gets paired with Mike, she can't help but feel...

'TBH, This is SO Awkward: A Novel in Text' by Lisa Greenwald is quite interesting in that it is written almost entirely in text messages. In this day and age, text messages are the norm, and kids would often rather talk via text than spend time on the phone. Even...

'Dating the Boy Next Door' by Michelle MacQueen and Ann Maree Craven is a wonderful sequel to the first book in the series. Nari and Avery, the two main characters, are written well, and it is quite nice to see how the way in which they interact with each other...

'Pete the Cat and the Perfect Pizza Party' by Kimberly & James Dean is a cute story about friendship and learning to appreciate different foods. While Pete is content with pepperoni, his friends are interested in trying pretzels, papaya, pickles, and more on their pizza. Despite their questioning of the...

'Girl at Heart' by Kelly Oram is a sweet, entertaining, easy read that any lover of YA romance will adore. Charlie Hastings, the main character, is the only girl on her high school's baseball team. Her dad, a former baseball player himself, is the only parent in her life since...

'Hey Grandude!' by Paul McCartney, illustrated by Kathryn Durst, is a fun, colorful, and exciting adventure. The illustrations enhance the story, taking Grandude and the children all over the world. Their travels include a beach, a mountainside, and they even get to go to the Wild West and meet a...

'The 47 People You'll Meet in Middle School' by Kristin Mahoney is an endearing look at an often hard time in young people's lives. It is at this time when kids are starting to come into their own, learning about themselves and others and how perceptions can make or break...

'No Map, Great Trip: A Young Writer's Road to Page One' by Paul Fleischman tells the story of the author and how he learned to love writing. While his stories were interesting enough, the book was more of a memoir than a writing guide. Since the book's subtitle bills it...

'Pete the Kitty Goes to the Doctor' by Kimberly & James Dean is a great addition to any child's “I Can Read” library. These books focus on basic language, word repetition, and whimsical illustrations, so there is something that all kids can find interesting. The story follows Pete as he...

'Bach to the Rescue!!!' by Tom Angleberger, illustrated by Elio, is a cute and comedic story about a rich dude who hires someone not-so-rich to play him lullabies. The person he hires is Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, and while he does a nice job, the rich guy is constantly waking up...

'The Boy Next Story' by Tiffany Schmidt follows main character Aurora, who goes by Rory, as she tries to figure out how to deal with her crush on friend and neighbor Toby, all while he is crushing on her sister, Merrilee. Throughout all of these romantic issues, Rory is assigned...

'Dating My Best Friend' (former title: 'The F Word') by Michelle MacQueen and Ann Maree Craven delves deeply into themes that range from loss and grief to loneliness, heartbreak, kindness, truth, introspection, and more. Peyton Callahan and Cameron Tucker are the main characters who find themselves thrown into an unfathomable...