Reviews written by Karen Yingling, Staff Reviewer

1943 results - showing 1 - 15
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Ordering
March 13, 2024
Overall rating
 
4.3
Plot
 
4.0
Characters
 
4.0
Writing Style
 
5.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
4.0
Kids Fiction
Pufflings and Puggles and Poults!

This picture book in verse does an excellent job of rhyming the different animals and their babies, and has a refrain of "everyone grows". This makes the story a very quick and engaging read. With accompanying illustrations, we meet everything from sheep and their lambs to echnidas and their puggles....

March 12, 2024
Overall rating
 
4.0
Plot
 
4.0
Characters
 
4.0
Writing Style
 
4.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
4.0
Kids Fiction
A Super-dee-duper Board Book

First of all, if you bought this board book for a baby because it encompasses your fondest memories of growing up in the 1990s and you say "Oh, I'm so OLD!", I will slap you with a slap bracelet. This is because I gave birth to 90s babies! I'm...

March 12, 2024 (Updated: March 13, 2024)
Overall rating
 
3.3
Plot
 
4.0
Characters
 
3.0
Writing Style
 
3.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
N/A
Young Adult Fiction
It's Your Party and I'll Plan if I Want To

Castillo Torres is bound and determined to earn her Happily Ever After; going to college to study event planning after an internship with the famous Mandy Whitmore. She's planned lots of things; events at school, and some parties, after her older sister Po's quinceañera ended in disaster. Of course, part...

March 12, 2024
Overall rating
 
4.0
Plot
 
4.0
Characters
 
4.0
Writing Style
 
4.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
4.0
Sleepover at the GrandBAAs

Sleepy Sheepy is so excited to spend the night with his grandparents for the first time while his parents go out. He packs his bags, and is glad to see some of his favorite people! He tries on the purple rabbit outfit that grandma is knitting and admires his grandfather's...

March 12, 2024
Overall rating
 
4.3
Plot
 
5.0
Characters
 
4.0
Writing Style
 
4.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
4.0
Make like a tree... and breathe

YoYo is an exuberant young bunny who has trouble settling down. Even at bedtime, she has a lot of trouble not wiggling and giggling. Her Grandpa has a good idea; he will teach YoYo and other little bunnies how to do yoga. YoYo tries, but the grass tickles her bottom,...

March 12, 2024
Overall rating
 
4.5
Plot
 
4.0
Characters
 
4.0
Writing Style
 
5.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
5.0
Kids Fiction
Updated I LOVE YOU FOREVER

Through traditional, rhymed verse, we see all of the ways that parents keep their babies safe all over the world. With delightful parallel construction that will make this one that the listeners can chant along with after just a read or two, we see birds, lambs, fennec foxes, and a...

March 10, 2024
Overall rating
 
4.7
Writing Style
 
4.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
5.0
Learning Value
 
5.0
Middle Grade Non-Fiction
Gorgeous Way to Learn about the Ancient Greeks

Young readers are fascinated by Ancient Greece and Rome once they are introduced to it; look at the success o f the 2005 The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, and all of the other books that have come out since. I was a Latin teacher many years ago, and my...

March 10, 2024
Overall rating
 
4.0
Plot
 
4.0
Characters
 
4.0
Writing Style
 
4.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
4.0
Great Book for Reading Aloud

In this larger format (8.05 x 0.47 x 8.39 inches instead of the 5.5" square board books like those published by Sandra Boyton), we see a child who is about to read a book and is calling to friends to join in the fun. Soon, a hamster, zebra, cat, lion,...

March 10, 2024
Overall rating
 
4.0
Writing Style
 
4.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
4.0
Learning Value
 
4.0
Fast Paced Fact Presentation

This book was an interesting format that is hard to categorize; essentially, it is like the National Geographic Weird But True books if James Joyce (Ulysses) had written them in his stream-of-consciousness style. It ping pongs in a delightful way from ultraviolet light to 17th century German books hollowed out...

March 07, 2024
Overall rating
 
4.0
Plot
 
4.0
Characters
 
4.0
Writing Style
 
4.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
4.0
Kids Fiction
Bonnie and Clyde Were Pretty-looking Critters

Young friends Bunny and Clyde (who is a chipmunk) do everything they are told, and get a lot of praise for it, but are tired of being good. Even when they are collecting bottle caps and other found items, they are congratulated for picking up trash. Of course, they are...

March 06, 2024
Overall rating
 
4.0
Plot
 
4.0
Characters
 
4.0
Writing Style
 
4.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
4.0
Balancing community service with self care

Mrs. Z. has some good news; the children at Curiosity Academy are going to be able to have a school garden. In order to get supplies, however, they will need to be able to raise some money. Rohan's mother, who is an artist, stops by to give the class some...

March 06, 2024
Overall rating
 
4.0
Plot
 
4.0
Characters
 
4.0
Writing Style
 
4.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
4.0
Third Grade is an Adventure

Emma is excited to be starting Curiosity Academy, a brand new school in her Peppermint Falls community, where she will be in the third grade with the sneaker wearing Mrs. Zamora. Emma wants her new classmates to think she is interesting, so brings a lot of exuberance to the classroom......

March 06, 2024
Overall rating
 
4.0
Plot
 
4.0
Characters
 
4.0
Writing Style
 
4.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
4.0
Middle Grade Fiction
Middle School Writer's Block

Lyla is struggling in 7th grade; her best friend from elementary school, Rania, attends Dickinson Middle School, while Lyla attends Whitman. Lyla still hasn't found a new friend, but does eat lunch every day with Journey, a quirky girl who is very interested in animals and a bit less interested...

March 06, 2024
Overall rating
 
5.0
Plot
 
5.0
Characters
 
5.0
Writing Style
 
5.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
5.0
Middle Grade Fiction
Timely Technology Treatment

Averil and her sister Delia cope with their parents' overprotective habits in very different ways. While Delia (who is in high school) often ignores their requests and fights with them, Averil just wants it to be quiet and conflict free in her world, so she just puts up with it....

March 05, 2024
Overall rating
 
4.0
Plot
 
4.0
Characters
 
4.0
Writing Style
 
4.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
4.0
Kids vs. Evil Administrators

Riley Halfmoon has lived most of her life in Oklahoma near her mother's closeknit Muscogee family. When her mother, Jill, gets a job in Urbanopolis as the City Hall press secretary and her father wants to go to nursing school, the three leave to move in with her father's mother,...

1943 results - showing 1 - 15
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