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Kid Reads New Book Reviews
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Whiteblack the Penguin Sees the World
Reading Level: Ages 4-9
Whiteblack the penguin is running out of stories to tell on his radio show - not a good thing to happen to the Chief Storyteller of Penguinland. Waving goodbye to his friends, Whiteblack sets off in a little boat, in search of new stories. His journey is fraught with mishaps and misadventures, and doesn't quite go as Whiteblack had planned - but the plucky little radio star takes it all in stride, planning to use everything as a new story!
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Tags: Preschoolers, Kindergarteners, 1st Grade, Adventure, Animals--Talking, Don't Miss These, Friends, In Other Lands, Read-Alouds, Picture Books, EF
Tiny Little Fly
Reading Level: Ages 3+
Tiny Little Fly lands on everyone he meets but no one wants him there at all! Everyone swats at Tiny Little Fly and tries to capture him, but he is too fast for them!
Little readers will enjoy the fly's-eye-view of each animal he bothers, and guessing what the animal will be!
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My Boyfriend is a Monster #1: I Love Him to Pieces: or My Date is Dead Weight: or He Only Loves Me For My Brains
Reading Level: Grades 6+
Athletic baseball star Dicey Bell and quiet, nerdy Jack Chen are assigned to a school project together - care for an egg as if it were a real baby. Over the course of the project, the two bond over the egg, finding that they have much more in common than they initially thought. At the conclusion of the project, Jack musters up the nerve to ask Dicey out on a date.
A typical, perky-yet-enjoyable realistic high school romance, right?
Wrong. While on their date, Jack and Dicey learn that a zombie outbreak has begun in their town.
Login or register to post comments | Printer-friendly version | Send to friend | PDF version | Tags: 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, High Schoolers, Adventure, Family, Friends, Horror, Humor, Relationships, School, Supernatural, JY Graphic Novels, EF
Winnie the Witch
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Winnie the witch has a problem. She lives in a biiiiiiiiig black house with black everything. The floors are black, the walls are black, the furniture is black, even her bathtub is black. Winnie loves the color black.
Like most witches, Winnie also has a black cat. His name is Wilbur. Winnie loves her cat Wilbur. There's just one problem...
When Wilbur is awake, she can see him just fine. When Wilbur is asleep and his eyes are closed, Winnie cannot... and she is always tripping over him.
So Winnie turns him green. But that doesn't work out at all either. Neither does the next color. Or the next. Finally, Winnie waves her wand at Wilbur and turns him into a five-colored rainbow cat! Let's see him blend in to anything now!, she thinks.
But poor Wilbur is miserable, embarrassed that he looks so absolutely ridiculous. And Winnie doesn't want her poor cat, her best friend who she loves more than anything in the whole world, to be sad. What on earth will she do in order to stop tripping over him?
Winnie the Witch is a delightful character, and the illustrations are simply wonderful.
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Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie
Reading Level: Grades 1-3
When Eleanor's babysitter Bibi moves far away, Eleanor is devastated. Life without her favorite person is hard. Everything Eleanor used to like to do is now unpleasant and sad because it reminds her of Bibi. It's awful - way worse than pickle juice on a cookie. Things get even worse when Eleanor's parents hire a NEW babysitter.
Written in verse, this short, charming novel explores loss in a fresh way - no one dies; Bibi has only moved away and still cares very much about Eleanor. Eleanor learns to accept and even come to like her new babysitter, but no one can ever replace Bibi.
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Square Cat
Reading Level: Ages 3-7
Eulah is a square cat who wishes more than anything in the world that she was round like her friends. Then she would be able to have the same kind of fun that the other cats do. Poor Eulah.
Then her friends show her the things that are wonderful about a square cat -- all the great things she can do!
It is good to have friends who care.
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Okay For Now
Reading Level: Grades 6+
Doug Swieteck and his lousy older brother just moved to a brand-new town that will be probably just as lousy as the old one - and with less baseball. And, just like in his old town, everyone who's anyone (teachers, the police, his dad, Lil Spicer down the street) thinks that Doug's just a skinny good-for-nothing kid who won't ever amount to anything except for trouble.
Despite Lil and Doug's initial dislike of each other, they begin to bond nonetheless. In his friendship with Lil, Doug manages to deal with his lousy situation, including his abusive father and older brother just back from Vietnam. Doug also finds solace in the public library's Audubon bird plates, first tracing the shapes and feathers with his fingers and then learning to draw them, with the help of a kind librarian.
Part laugh-out-loud, part tear-jerker, all American coming of age story, Okay For Now is not one to miss.
Login or register to post comments | Printer-friendly version | Send to friend | PDF version | Tags: 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, High Schoolers, Adults, Don't Miss These, Family, Friends, Historical Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Relationships, School, Self Image, JY Fiction, EF
Where's Walrus
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Take a jaunt through famous scenes as you search for a goofy walrus. Great for kids & parents alike.
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Ferret Fun
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
What do two ferrets named Fudge and Einstein do when they meet a cat who thinks that they would be a perfect snack?
Convince him otherwise, that's what!
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Unlocked
Reading Level: Grades 7+
When you're the janitor's kid, you don't have many friends. You don't have any friends. Andy is no different, but when he hears a rumor that the school outcast, Blake, has a gun in his locker, he decides to make friends with Blake. When the boys do become friends, Andy must choose between protecting his only friend and protecting a school full of kids who could care less about him?
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More books by Ryan G. Van Cleave
READ-ALIKES
Just Another Hero by Sharon Draper
Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia
Give a Boy a Gun by Todd Strasser
Where the Steps Were by Andrea Cheng
For older readers:
Login or register to post comments | Printer-friendly version | Send to friend | PDF version | Tags: 7th Grade, 8th Grade, High Schoolers, Family, Misfits, Non-Prose, Read-Alikes, Realistic Fiction, School, Social Issues, JY Fiction, EF
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