Children’s Book Reviews

What’s a Monster? written by Maurice Trent, with illustrations by Arisbeth Cruz, is a wonderful storybook with a great little twist that goes beyond your typical children’s monster-story fare.

Oliver is scared of the house at night. During an argument over the family bathroom, Oliver’s older brother Ty tells him to keep his voice down otherwise it will attract the resident kid-eating monster, which Oliver tries to ignore. It is only when Oliver receives a playhouse as a gift for his fifth birthday that the forgotten threat of monsters suddenly becomes all too real for Oliver, and it’s cleverly revealed […]

B.A.L.D.: Lillie’s First Day of School by Tijuana Collier and Khaila Ramey-Collier, is a charming storybook with an all-important message about confidence and individuality.

Lillie is very excited about the most important day of her life – her first day of school. She can count to twenty-two, write and draw inside the lines, and can even tie her shoes on her own, making her more than ready for school. However, Lillie’s a little different from other young girls in that she’s bald. No worries, though. In Lillie’s world, being B.A.L.D. simply means that Beauty Always Looks Different…

Influenced by personal […]

The Day Momma Made Me Dance by Patrice Shavone Brown is a children’s book that is intended to educate about the contentious topic of disciplining your child with violence.

This short book begins with some basic house rules as well as social etiquette for children, such as no running in the house and share while playing with others. The young girl in the book ignores everything she’s told to do, until one day, she brings home a write-up slip from her teacher. Her mother becomes angry and wants to see how well the child “can dance,” as she disciplines the […]

Rico’s Fripp Island Adventure is a charming storybook written by Mary Jacobs, with beautiful illustrations by Alycia Pace.

It’s summer vacation and cousins, Sara, Sally, and Bucky have arrived on Fripp Island to spend two weeks with their grandparents and their friend, Big Daddy, a raccoon. Big Daddy announces that he’s invited his cousin Rico to visit. When Rico finally arrives, the cousins are there to greet him. They split up a short time later, but instead of Rico meeting up with the cousins as planned, he disappears, forcing the others to form a search party to look for him…[…]