What would you do if you started to receive strange clues from Zoo animals about your sister's disappearance? Think you were seeing things? Investigate the Zoo? Call on the other Action Scouts (friends) to help you figure it out? That's what Noah does when his sister, Megan, disappears. Noah, Ellie and Richie find themselves being noticed by the Zoo animals, as if the animals know who they are. The animals seem to be helping the Action Scouts try to find Megan.
A secret world is opened up to the Scouts--where they befriend a polar bear named Blizzard, a penguin named Podgy, and a kingfisher named Marlo. The Secret Zoo by Bryan Chick is both wondrous and dangerous with adventure and wild animals lurking at every turn. It won't be an easy task for the Action Scouts to find Megan.
I enjoyed this story because I loved reading about the animals befriending and helping the children. Who wouldn't want to go the Zoo and have one of the animals recognize you and come up to you?! The author says when he was 9, he "wondered what it would be like if zoo exhibits had secret passages that allowed kids to get in and animals to get out." There are also themes of conservation and stewardship of the animals in our world.
Read a preview of the book here.
Image from bryanchick.com
I saw the book A Dragon's Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans by Laurence Yep and Joanne Ryder advertised online and my first thought was how cute! So, on a trip to the library I decided to pick up the book. It is a cute book! The story focuses on a dragon named Miss Drake and her young pet...I mean girl, Winnie. The role reversal in this book works well and the training tips that title every chapter provide a backdrop for the part of the story you are about to read.
Miss Drake's last pet, Winnie's Great Aunt Amelia, has passed away and her fortune and huge house has been given to Winnie's mother. Miss Drake is not so thrilled when she first meets Winnie because of how rude she appears. Though who could blame Winnie for being skeptical of a dragon living beneath her house.
The reader soon finds out that Winnie has lost her father and that her mother has made a habit of constantly moving around to avoid the chance that her own father might take Winnie away. Miss Drake soon begins to realize just how much Winnie misses her father. She soon begins to warm up to Winnie.
They have several adventures including a trip to a store in the clouds for Magicals (any creatures of magic), rounding up all the mystical creatures that escaped from Winnie's magical sketchbook, which involves a scouting trip to a fair for Magicals.
This book is the first in a series. To read an excerpt, click here.
I am a re-reader of books I've fallen in love with. I try to make it a yearly or every other year habit. A few of the books I read each year are in this post. I'm excited to announce that I found my next yearly read and it makes me feel like a nerdy school librarian. It's Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein. I want to live in Mr. Lemoncello's Library...and soon you'll find out why.
The main character is Kyle, a 12 year-old, who enjoys a variety of games. He really admires local celebrity Mr. Lemoncello, the eccentric gamemaker. Mr. Lemoncello has donated money for the local library to be rebuilt in what can only be described as a cross between a library, science center, and MIT. Grabenstein's imagination for the concept of this library is brilliant--holographic librarian, rotating Dewey Decimal light displays on the ceiling, animatronic ducks in the children's area that will sing or quote children's books, an automated book sorter, and the list goes on.
Kyle and his friends, along with some of his other classmates find themselves in one huge game when they have won the opportunity to preview the library before the public. They must escape out of the library, but not in the fashion they entered. Game challenges range from pictographs to anagrams to room-sized board games. Readers will be able to play along with clues in the book. In fact, you can find out LOTS more information from Grabenstein's website.
Image from chrisgrabenstein.com
