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