April Picks

Come and check out the new materials in the MCS Library!


 Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson (Grades PreK-2)

“There’s magic in this bare brown tree. Tap it once. Turn the page to see.” Tapping the page, and rubbing and touching starts the fun of watching a bare tree sprout one leaf, then many, then buds, flowers, and finally apples. After jiggling, wiggling, and swishing the pages, the flower petals fall and apples appear; shaking the book causes the apples to drop with a “Plop! Plop! Plop!” Whooshing makes the leaves cascade, and clapping causes snowflakes to flutter down. The tree is bare and brown again, but “Be patient . . . Close your eyes and count to ten,” and the mystery begins again with two bluebirds building their nest in the spring. When each season changes, a full page of color introduces it—green flows to pink to red to orange to wintery blue and white. ~Lolly Gepson, Booklist


The Very Big Carrot by Satone Tone (PreK-1)

Detailed, saturated color illustrations with humorous depictions of six rabbits of varying shapes and sizes steal the show in this slight, lighthearted French import. The rabbits find a huge carrot, and they immediately begin coming up with ideas on how to best utilize the unusual find. Should it be used as a boat? A plane? In a garden? The pink-cheeked rabbits work as a team, whether carrying the carrot (note the shortest bunny), dancing in a chorus line, fishing, or watering their garden in spiffy straw hats perched on the tips of their ears. The tongue-in-cheek question-and-answer format will draw children into the story, though the small rectangular format dictates the book be shared with an intimate group or one-on-one. Pair this with Ed Young’s Seven Blind Mice (1992), both stories of animals that neatly combine cluelessness and vivid imaginations. ~Maryann Owen, Booklist 

Paul Meets Bernadette by Rosy Lamb (Grades K-3) 

Paul, a solitary goldfish, spends his days swimming in circles. His life is uneventful until another fish, Bernadette, drops into his bowl. Not content to simply go round and round, she encourages Paul to take a look at the world outside their watery home. She shows him ordinary household items, which when viewed through the curved glass bowl and through the power of her imagination, become transformed. A bunch of bananas turn into a yellow boat and a vase of flowers is an enchanting forest. Some of Bernadette's creative interpretations will make young readers giggle, especially when a blue teapot becomes an elephant and two fried eggs are the sun and the moon. As he eagerly examines the fascinating world outside, Paul becomes equally captivated with his new friend. The whimsical story is accompanied by striking oil paintings. ~Linda Walkins, School Library Journal


Henry's Map by David Elliott (Grades K-2)

Henry likes to keep things organized, so he decides to make a map of the farm. As he travels the barnyard drawing his own pigsty, the woolshed and sheep, the chicken coop, and the stables, the other animals are excited by his project and join him. Map finished, the piglet leads them proudly up the hill to compare the map to the farm itself-only to find that none of the animals are where they are supposed to be. "Where did we go?" they ask. They dash back to check each location, and when they arrive, they are relieved to find everyone in the right place. With appealing characters and gentle humor, this book will be a hit at storytime, or as an introduction to mapping lessons.~Kathleen MacMillian, School Library Journal


City Cat by Kate Banks (Grades K-2)

Cat travels through Europe, paralleling a human family's vacation. Rhyming verse follows the stray as she hitches rides and wanders through Italy, France, Spain, England, the Netherlands, and Germany. Flags dot the various spreads, giving clues to the locations, which are further described in the endnotes. Lyrical verse follows an interesting rhyming scheme and incorporates rich vocabulary, and lush illustrations capture the atmosphere of each location with plenty of details to invite close study. Children will enjoy the fanciful adventures of this intrepid feline as she explores rooftops, bridges, and ancient ruins, especially when compared to the rather boring, grounded meanderings of the human tourists. ~ Suzanne Harold, School Library Journal



Bluffton by Matt Phelan (Grades 3-6) 

Henry and his hometown of Muskegon, Michigan, may be ordinary, but neighboring Bluffton is anything but. The year is 1908, and vaudevillians have come to the resort town to relax for the summer. Intrigued by the visitors, Henry heads off to Bluffton and meets a young actor named Buster Keaton. The two boys quickly become friends, but each of them yearns for what the other has-Henry wants a life of show business and fame, while Buster wants a normal life filled with baseball and fishing. Phelan does an excellent job of showing an accurate portrayal of Buster Keaton, from his dangerous physical comedy routines to his alcoholic father; the facts flow so smoothly that it does not feel like historical fiction at all. Henry is undeveloped in the beginning and simply moves along Buster's story, but the character really comes into his own later on when feuding with Buster and trying to put on a show of his own. ~ Peter Blenski, School Library Journal



Jane, the Fox and Me by Fanny Britt (Grades 4-6) 

Pubescent Hélène sees herself as fat and beleaguered by her more popular and social classmates, so she turns to Jane Eyre to find a model for setting her prospects both high and anywhere other than her immediate circumstances. Britt’s well-constructed narrative is achieved sensitively through Arsenault’s impressionistic artwork, in which we see that Hélène is a pretty-ordinary-looking little 11-year-old in spite of her self-image. While her everyday life—which has

become further burdened by an all-class camping trip—appears in a gray palette, when Hélène daydreams about Jane’s life, pastel washes and a vivid red appear. During the camping trip, Hélène comes across a red fox in the woods and begins to make some human friends. After a post–camping trip weigh-in, where she sees she’s perfectly normal, Hélène’s everyday world also takes on color. ~Francisca Goldsmit, Booklist 



Wild Boy: The Real Savage of Aveyron by Mary Losure (Grades 4-6)

In the mountains of southern France, a filthy young boy lived like an animal in the woods. Twice he was captured, but it wasn’t until 1800 that the roughly 12-year-old child was caught and sent to an orphanage, where a “grim, narrow-nosed professor” tried to determine if he belonged to an entirely different species called Homo ferus. Thankfully, this unsympathetic relationship soon gave way to a Paris tutelage under the much kinder Jean-Marc Gaspard Itard at an institute for deaf-mutes. Part Tarzan, part Elephant Man, and part Helen Keller, this is a tale of finding humanity inside of savagery, for though the wild boy never learned to speak and was forever drawn to the woods, there is no doubt he felt emotion deeply. Losure smoothly navigates a story that, due to few records, is incomplete, clearly denoting speculation without ever losing narrative flow.~Paula Willey, Library Journal



Hold Fast by Blue Balliett (Grades 5-6) 

A tale of the bravery and selflessness exhibited by a father taking care of his children while his wife is away. Despite Mom's advance warning, the family finds itself ready for breakfast but without milk for cereal and tea, so Dad takes a trip to the store to get some. Upon his long-awaited return, he gives the children a fantastical and descriptive explanation of the adventures he faced while trying to make it back home. Not only did he embark on a time-traveling hot-air balloon ride with a stegosaurus, but he also confronted pirates, aliens, wumpires, and a volcano god, never losing possession of the milk. Gaiman knocks it out of the park again with this imaginative story. His outrageous plot is perfectly paced to keep advanced and reluctant readers enthralled, and his use of onomatopoeia and humorous descriptions will make the book hard to put down. ~Amy Shepard, Library Journal 

How I Became a Ghost: A Choctaw Trail of Tears Story by Tim Tingle (Grades 4-6)

Told in the words of Isaac, a Choctaw boy who does not survive the Trail of Tears, HOW I BECAME A GHOST is a tale of innocence and resilience in the face of tragedy. From the book's opening line, "Maybe you have never read a book written by a ghost before," the reader is put on notice that this is no normal book. Isaac leads a remarkable foursome of Choctaw comrades: a tough-minded teenage girl, a shape-shifting panther boy, a lovable five-year-old ghost who only wants her mom and dad to be happy, and Isaac s talking dog, Jumper. The first in a trilogy, HOW I BECAME A GHOST thinly disguises an important and oft-overlooked piece of history. ~Amazon

March is I Love Reading Month!

March is a month long reading holiday! Along with Dr. Suess's birthday, March includes Read Across America day and is also named as National Reading Month. So get ready to READ!

Here are some new materials to get you and your students excited about reading. Come and check one out today!


How Big Were the Dinosaurs by Lita Judge (Grades 1-3)

From a cowering Microraptor, who "would barely be able to look a chicken in the eye," to an Argentinosaurus towering over a squirming pile of surprised-looking elephants (17, all told), Judge poses 12 prehistoric creatures with modern people or animals in compelling support of the observation that dinos came in a great range of sizes. In her lively, engaging watercolors, the extinct exemplars also display great ranges of colors and patterns in their feathers or scales, plus distinct dispositions: a quartet of shy Leaellynasaura, for instance, anxiously tries to blend in among a flock of same-sized emperor penguins, while Ankylosaurus, plainly in a bad mood, scowls as it batters whole cars out of its way with its clubbed tail. Along with identification for each dinosaur, the author adds brief but memorable verbal comparisons (Torosaurus "had a 10-foot skull and horns that grew as tall as a first grader"). She closes with a rousing double gatefold group portrait and leads to further print and web resources. ~John Peters, School Library Journal


Building Our House by Jonathan Bean (Grades K-3)

An author’s note reveals that this picture book is based on personal experience, as Bean’s parents built their own house when he was a young child. Here we follow a mother, father, two children (and, eventually, a new baby) over the course of a year and a half—through a harsh winter and plenty of lumber pickups—all the way to move-in day at their new abode. Told from the point of view of the oldest child, a girl, the challenges and rewards involved in constructing from scratch become clear. The kids are not exempt from the do-it-yourself action, and they happily help “fill the loud mixing machine.” Bean makes use of every inch of the tall trim size here, filling his pages to the brim with heavily lined illustrations of bustling people and activity—often as a series of four vignettes across a spread. What’s heartwarming throughout is the depiction of a tight-knit family (“My family makes up a strong crew of four”). The author’s concluding personal photos add to the loving feel. ~Ann Kelley, Booklist


The Black Dog by Levi Pinfold (Grades K-4) 

This fable about confronting and conquering fear should hook anyone who sees Pinfold’s cover illustration, which depicts a Gothic-looking house, a tiny child, and a paw print the size of a tank. The story begins one snowy morning when Mr. Hope looks outside to see a dog the size of a tiger. That assessment is upgraded to the size of an elephant when Mrs. Hope sees it, and the size of a Tyrannosaurus rex when little Adeline sees it. (A huge golden eye stares through the window next to where Adeline brushes her teeth.) The family’s solution? Turn out the lights, close the curtains, and hide beneath the covers. Thankfully, the youngest, Small, goes outside to meet the towering dog, whose big wet nose covers a full two-page spread. She gets the dog to chase her, using rhymes to convince the animal to get progressively smaller to fit through various obstacles: You can’t follow where I go, / unless you shrink, or don’t you know? Pinfold’s lavish, Van Allsburglike illustrations, which juxtapose tiny black-and-white sketches with big, detailed, frozen-in-time paintings, are quirky, funny, and often heart-stopping. Part David and Goliath, part Gingerbread Man, this UK import is a shot of courage for those who need it most. ~Connie Fletcher, Booklist


I'm a Frog! by Mo Willems (Grades PreK-2)

Gerald is careful. Piggie is not.
Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can.
Gerald worries so that Piggie does not have to.
Gerald and Piggie are best friends.
In I'm a Frog! Piggie has some ribbiting news! Can Gerald make the leap required to accept Piggie's new identity? ~Amazon


The Adventures of a South Pole Pig by Chris Kurtz (Grades 1-4)

Her name is Flora, and she's a pig. She's curious and longs to explore beyond the perimeters of the pigpen. She dreams of going to Antarctica with the sled dogs on the farm and becoming a sled pig. When she is put in a crate on board a ship, she sees the expedition as an opportunity while the crew views her as potential pork chops. Then they are shipwrecked and readers will root for spunky Flora as she discovers just how brave and needed she can be. Simple black-line drawings add a welcoming charm. Told in the voice of a seasoned storyteller, this novel has chapters that will work perfectly for sharing aloud with younger children or as a read-alone for more competent readers. Flora will encourage every listener to dream of being their best self. Move over Wilbur and Babe, there's a new pig in town. ~Helen Foster James, School Library Journal 
 

The Adbomniables by Eva Ibbotson (Grades 1-4)

It all began a century ago in the Himalayan Mountains. Lady Agatha, an English girl, is abducted by a yeti father who needs someone to raise his motherless children. Portrayed as lovable innocents, the yetis are compassionate by nature and willing to learn the essentials of civilized behavior that Agatha is equipped to teach, from table manners to hymns. One hundred years later, Agatha’s happy family of yetis faces discovery by sensation-seeking reporters. Two English children come to the rescue and, with the help of a friendly truck driver, make a difficult, dangerous trip to deliver their yeti friends to Agatha’s stately home in England. The children’s initial relief turns to horror when they comprehend the imminent new danger threatening the yetis. Who can save them now? Striking a fine balance between comedy and adventure, this imaginative story features a rich cast of idiosyncratic good guys, both yeti and human, and a number of truly hateful villains (all human, all inhumane). Expressive ink drawings appear throughout the book. An appended note comments that following Ibbotson’s death, in 2010, the novel was completed by her son and her longtime editor. Easy to booktalk, this captivating story is also terrific for reading aloud. ~ Carolyn Phelan, Booklist 


Wolf and Dog by Sylvia Vanden Heede (Grades 1-4)

The wild clashes with the civilized in this quirky book of interrelated stories about a decidedly odd couple. Wolf and Dog are cousins, but they lead very different lives. The former lives in the woods and has no loyalty to anyone. The latter lives in a house with a master and takes pride in being responsible and orderly. These creatures share an ambivalent friendship that is chronicled in a series of scenes in which the two interact. At times their relationship is less friendly and leads to tricks and one-upmanship, but they manage to work things out in the end. Ranging from small inserts to full page, the color and line illustrations capture the differing natures of Dog and Wolf perfectly. ~Stephanie Whelan, School Library Journal 


The Windy City: Book 5 in the IQ series by Rowland Smith (Grades 5-6)

After Q and Angela help foil a Ghost Cell plot in San Antonio, they head to Chicago, the next stop on the Match tour. Since they've been busy fighting international terrorism, they're behind on their school assignments. Their parents tell them if they don't get caught up, it's off to boarding school. But who can concentrate on homework when there is a mystery to solve and international terrorism to thwart? Angela is obsessed with finding out more about the mysterious Boone. Q is more interested in not going to boarding school. But when Boone and his SOS crew are ambushed on their way to Chicago, it becomes abundantly clear. Someone inside their inner circle is feeding the Ghost Cell information. As they dig ever deeper to learn the identity of the mole, Angela and Q uncover the Ghost Cell's next plot. And it's much, much worse than a car bomb. They plan to unleash a chemical weapon over the skies of Chicago. And it's up to Angela and Q, along with Boone and Croc, to stop them. ~Amazon 


Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman (Grades 3-6)

A tale of the bravery and selflessness exhibited by a father taking care of his children while his wife is away. Despite Mom's advance warning, the family finds itself ready for breakfast but without milk for cereal and tea, so Dad takes a trip to the store to get some. Upon his long-awaited return, he gives the children a fantastical and descriptive explanation of the adventures he faced while trying to make it back home. Not only did he embark on a time-traveling hot-air balloon ride with a stegosaurus, but he also confronted pirates, aliens, wumpires, and a volcano god, never losing possession of the milk. Gaiman knocks it out of the park again with this imaginative story. His outrageous plot is perfectly paced to keep advanced and reluctant readers enthralled, and his use of onomatopoeia and humorous descriptions will make the book hard to put down. Reminiscent of Roald Dahl's titles, it will sweep children away into an unimagined world and make them wonder if their own parents have ever had any secret adventures. Young's frequent black-and-white cartoons add to the wackiness of this tall tale.-Amy Shepherd, School Library Journal


Deep Down Popular by Phoebe Stone (Grades 5-6)

Sixth-grader Jesse Lou is consumed by thoughts of Conrad Smith, but in the small Virginia town where they live, Conrad is popular, while tomboy Jesse Lou has only “maybe-when-I-feel-like-it” friends. Then Conrad starts wearing a leg brace, which translates into loss of his popularity and gives Jesse Lou an opening. Soon she, Conrad, and quirky fourth-grader Quentin form a triumvirate and become involved in an outlandish plot to save Bailey Hardware from big-box store competition. Meanwhile, refreshingly honest Jesse Lou hopes that Conrad keeps limping. This is an ode to love in many forms. Jessie Lou has loved Conrad since second grade, and she learns someone has been in love with her, as well. There is also a sweet relationship between Jessie Lou and her grandfather, who knows how to turn a southern phrase, and between Granddaddy and his daughter, Jessie Lou’s mama. Jessie Lou tells her tale with the strong, rough-edged purity of a young poet, which she is; equally strong are the story’s underpinnings, longing and laughter, and a willingness to believe in something despite the facts, which tangibly manifests itself in a field of flowers that were never supposed to bloom. ~Ilene Cooper, Booklist