​Giant Island
Written by Jane Yolen
Illustrated by Doug Keith
Age Level: 5 - 7
Grade Level: K - 2

This book is magical! Imagine taking a trip to a tiny island, then discovering there’s more to the island than meets the eye. As the kids explore the caves and coves of Giant Island, they discover the truth. The island is a disguise for a real, live giant! When you add the words of Jane Yolen to the illustrations of Doug Keith, you get an incredible picture book. Need proof? Just check out the cover!

My Brother Sam is Dead
Written by James Lincoln Collier
                                    & Christopher Collier
Age Level: 10 – 12

If you want to travel back in time to the American Revolution, check out this book. It comes at the war from a different angle – the home front. When Sam, the oldest son comes home from college, he’s wearing an American uniform. His father is a staunch loyalist. After a heated argument, Sam runs off to war, taking the family gun with him. His little brother Tim and their mother are stuck between them.
 
The story follows their effort to survive the year following Lexington and Concord, the Declaration of Independence, and the British invasion of New York. A cattle drive to Verplancks Point on the Hudson River turns into a nightmare. His father is kidnapped. Sam has to make it home alone with the wagon and oxen. He and his mother must run the family tavern together. As for Sam, he’ll meet his end in a tragic way. No one escapes war – not those on either side. Or the ones stuck in the middle. If you want to picture what their life was like during those fateful days, this is the book for you. Check out the back matter to discover the research that went into its pages.

​Find the Tooth Fairy
Written by Jean Reagan
Illustrated by Lee Wildish
Age Level: 4 – 6
Grade Level: PS – 1

If you’re a fan of Jean Reagan and her How to books, like babysitting grandpa, you’ll love this one too. It’s all about what happens when a loose tooth comes out at Grandpa’s. This is KEY . . . no kid wants to miss  the tooth fairy or cash under the pillow. An added plus – it’s a Step 2 reader with short sentences that will help your child build vocabulary and learn to sound out new words. 

​Wombats Are Pretty Weird
Written & Illustrated by Abi Cushman
Age Level: 4 – 8
Grade Level: PS – 3

This is the kind of book I love – it’s fun AND clever! I can tell from the front cover. It’s the kind of book an illustrator could imagine and write. Check out the story with its illustrations, the side comments from the characters, and the sidebars of information. My favorite part – the snake – he’s comic relief. Don’t forget to check out the back matter with facts about the three kinds of wombats, a glossary, further reading, and a hunt for Australian animals hidden in the illustrations. Here’s hoping you find time to hunt down this book!

​Palace of Books
Written & Illustrated by Patricia Polacco
Age Level: 4 - 8
Grade Level: PS - 3

This is a beautiful book, with a story full of hope and heart. How do you cope when you have to leave the place you love? A city will never feel like home to Patricia. She misses the farm, and that makes school even harder. Until she finds Ms Creavy and her library. She introduces Patricia to art books, and eventually the Audubon Room. It changes her life, and Patricia becomes the first member of the new Audobon Society at school.

The Bake Shop Ghost
Written by Jacqueline K. Ogburn
Illustrated by Marjorie Priceman
Age Level: 4 - 7
Grade Level: PS - 3

What do you do if you’ve saved up to buy a bakery and it’s haunted? That’s the problem Annie Washington discovers after she buys her dream business. Cora Lee is a ghost, and she can’t let anyone else bake in her shop. Then Annie comes along and refuses to leave. When she asks how to stop the haunting, her ghost answers, bake a cake that’s so good she tears up. Can Annie do it? You’ll have to read to find out, but this ghost story is like a yummy slice of cake!

​The Red Umbrella
Written by Christina Diaz Gonzalez
Age Level: 10 - 13
Grade Level: 5 - 7

When I saw the red umbrella, I thought Mary Poppins, but this story is so different, yet so relevant for kids today. Lucia and her little brother live in Cuba. Their story begins as Fidel Castro and the Communists come to power. The changes Castro made were not positive, especially for children. I was horrified by them. They were so terrible that Cuban parents sent their children out of the country, alone, without a chaperone. I can’t imagine as a parent of three, and now a grandparent, how hard that choice must have been. The program’s name, Operation Pedro Pan.

This story starts in Cuba, but as conditions worsen, Lucia’s parents find a way to send them to America. Most of the story takes place here, in Florida where the kids go first. Then in Nebraska, where they’re ‘adopted,’ until their parents can finally get out of Cuba. I won’t tell you how it ends, but I can tell you there’s a happy ending, my favorite kind!

​The Joneses & The Princess’s Seneb
Written by Malayna Evans
Age Level: 8 - 14
Grade Level: 4 - 7

I’ve been waiting for this book since 2020 and I found it by accident this summer. It was worth the wait! If you liked the author’s two  earlier books with Jagger Jones and then Aria, you’ll like this one too!
 
When Paramessu, AKA P-Soup from Book 2, notices kids are disappearing, he knows it’s the Aten, the sun god at work. No one believes him, except for the God Horus who sends him a clue, “There is a third. The third will open the gate for the three. In three.

I had no idea about any of those 3s, and neither did P-Soup. But he summoned Jagger, Aria, and Tatia from the southside of Chicago. Can they rescue the missing children or their friend Babi? Defeat the Aten? Read the final book about the Joneses' series and find out!

​The Official Harry Potter Baking Book
Written by Joanna Farrow
Age Level: 10 and up
Grade Level: 5 and up

​This book is as beautiful as the cover, and I hope it tastes as good too. I’m not a baker, but I was tempted. Especially by Wand Breadsticks, Sorting Hat Cupcakes, and Salazar Slytherin’s Sourdough Snake. If you’re a big Harry Potter fan AND a baker, this is the perfect book for you and your family.

​The Monstore
Written by Tara Lazar
Illustrated by James Burke
Age Level: 2 - 7
Grade Level: PS - 2

​This book is so much fun! I read it once, and then I read it again. It’s that good! What do you do when you need to keep your little sister out of your room? Go to the Monstore . . . Then find a scary good monster. Sounds like a great plan – until you find out she loves monsters. Really! Then it gets WORSE! You can’t return it and get your money back. If you need to find out how this one ends, you’ll have to read it for yourself, but . . .  make sure you have enough time to read it again!