Current & previous staff reviews (by year):
June 2011
New Book Reviews from The Children's Bookstore Staff
Follow Me
Tricia Tusa's Follow Me is a celebration of the freedoms of childhood. Tusa enchants readers as an unnamed young girl meanders, embracing the outdoors. Readers glide and sway with the protagonist as she pumps her feet on an old wooden tree swing. Elegant pastel illustrations match the rhythm and flow of Tusa's simple prose, returning parents to the simple pleasures of being a kid.
Little Mouse's BIG Secret
This simply illustrated tale, translated from French, is heartwarming and delightful. Little Mouse finds an apple on page one, and immediately decides to bury it and keep it for himself. As he stands guard over his buried apple, all of his friends want to know his secret. Little Mouse refuses to tell, but the apple seeds in the ground refuse to be kept secret for long. Simple, effective illustrations help guide early readers through this charming story and show Little Mouse's inability to selfishly hide the apple, as page after page, an apple tree blossoms.
The Last Little Blue Envelope
Even if you haven't read Johnson's previous novel, 13 Little Blue Envelopes or are not wondering what happened to the stolen 13th envelope, you will be amused and moved by this second book.
Ginny, the receiver of the 13 little blue envelopes from an aunt who wrote them before her death, has a group with her this time on her search for the very last envelope. Oliver, who has found the lost letter and will not give it up or let Ginny read it until he gets something in return (you have to read the book to find out what he is after), Keith, her "non- boyfriend" (heart throb) from the last book, and, to Ginny's dismay, Keith's new girlfriend are the well drawn characters who go on the multi-country quest while Richard (the ideal uncle) remains in London just in touch enough to keep things above board. This is a funny, exciting, daring and romantic read.
Ruby Red
Gwen is funny, pretty and full of personality. Charlotte is beautiful, poised, smart, and special. She has inherited the time traveling gene that runs in her family. Everyone is waiting for the first dizzy spell that will result in a trip through time. The dizzy spell comes, but it is Gwen who finds herself standing on a London street in another era. Within minutes she is back in her own time, shaken and confused. Now she must try and learn everything that Charlotte has been taught since birth so that she will survive the mission she has been given: to retrieve the chronograph that was stolen and hidden somewhere in the past. She will have a partner on this mission: Gideon, her counterpart from another family. He has been trained and prepared for this mission, but he was expecting to go with Charlotte. Gwen and Gideon must work together to solve the mystery of the missing chronograph and the mysterious society behind it.
Death Cloud
Sherlock Holmes: The Legend Begins
In this first young Sherlock Holmes novel to be endorsed by the Sherlock Holmes Society, a young Sherlock finds himself shunted to a little known Aunt and Uncle during his summer break from school. Drawing heavily from details culled from the Holmes cannon, Lane has crafted an exciting mystery about a young man who will clearly become the enigmatic Holmes. After befriending a local urchin, Holmes becomes interested in the circumstances surrounding two extremely unusual deaths, both marked by a strange cloud rising from the bodies at the time of death. Guided by an American tutor chosen for him by his elder brother Mycroft, Holmes begins learning the skills that will make him a brilliant detective as he follows the clues into an increasingly bizarre case that will lead him to the vicious London docks and beyond. This book will appeal not only to readers new to Holmes, but also to Holmes fans who will appreciate both Lane's skill at imagining a young Holmes and his loyalty to the original texts. A promising new series.