The Chinese Emperor's New Clothes by Ying Chang Compestine

Everyone has heard of the story of the Emperor's New Clothes, but it is not true.  The real story is the one found in this cute picture book.  The Emperor is a 9 year old boy who is worried about his people.  His adult advisers are cheating them out of food, money and clothing.  The Emperor knows he cannot confront them openly, so he devises a plan to expose them.  He has his loyal tailors make a set of clothes out of rice sacks, and tells the advisers that only those who are honest can see the beauty of the magical cloth. When the dishonest advisers praise the Emperor's new outfit, the Emperor agrees to have the tailors make clothes for the advisers.  The rest of the story goes as you might expect, with the advisers leaving the empire in shame.  I don't review picture books that often, but this is one I have chosen to do a video book talk on at work this week. It has received several starred reviews. I particularly like the little mouse and cricket that show up in most of the pictures.  It would be a fun one to read together with a child, or a 1-2 grade child could read it on their own. (2017)

The Hero's Guide Guide to Storming the Castle by Christopher Healy

Here is the second in the Hero's Guide series.  In this one each of the princes are down because the bards have made a popular song about how the robber king robbed them during the celebration party.  They are also all struggling and unsettled with their relationships with the different princesses.  When Liam gets captured by Sleeping Beauty the rest are eager to reunite to try to save him and restore their reputations.

I have several of the newer books on hold right now, so when I needed to fill the gap I turned to the second in this series.  It is very much like the first, but in this one more of the princesses get involved with the adventure. Healy is doing a good job of juggling all the relationships and personalities.  I actually don't know which princess is going to end up with whom. He is also a master of slapstick.  His battle sequences are a bumbling delight. (2013, 479 p.)

Sunny by Jason Reynolds

Sunny is fast.  He always wins the mile race. Every. Single. Time.  His big secret is that he doesn't like to run.  His whole life his father has been pressuring him to run, because his mother, who died in childbirth, was a champion runner. What Sunny really likes to do is dance.  Is there any way that he can stay on the team he loves, but not have to run anymore?

This is the third in the Track series by Jason Reynolds.  This one is written in diary form, and has a unique voice character.  Like many early teen boys, Sunny talks and thinks a lot in sound affects.  I listened to the book on CD, and the reader does an amazing job of recreating a 13-year-old boy's colorful and a-linear train of thought. He adds rap beats and a variety of vocalizations with abandon.   The relationship between Sunny and his still-grieving father creates the emotional center of the book, and like the rest in the series, it has a sweet message about family and friendship. (2018, 159 p.)

Mr. Lemoncello's Great Library Escape by Chris Grabenstein

In this third tale of Mr. Lemoncello and his loyal board of trustees, Mr. Lemoncello has created a new game for Kyle, Akimi, Sierra, Andrew and their friends.  They must team up in pairs and find little known facts about the five new historical holograms recently created for the Library.  As they start their research, they find out facts that, if true, would ruin the reputation, and maybe the fortune of their beloved Mr. Lemoncello.  Abandoning the game, the friends go on a full out research quest to prove Mr. Lemoncello is innocent.

This book is really just a remix of the second book.  Kyle and their friends learn important lessons about careful research and prove their loyalty to their favorite millionaire.  If kids liked the first two, they will like this one.  Teachers will like it too, because it demonstrates several common research errors.  I really want to do a Lemoncello library type activity at my library this fall.  I will have to start thinking about how to make it cool. (2017, 279 p.)

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy

Gustav, Frederic, Duncan and Liam are the princes in the Rapunzel, Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty stories respectively. They all feel like they have been mistreated by the bards who didn't even include their names in their stories, but called them collectively Prince Charming.  Also, none of their relationships with their princesses have turned out "happily ever after." Desperate to save face, they band together to save Ella who has been captured by Rapunzel's witch.  As they pursue their quest to be heroes, they encounter one (often hilarious) obstacle after another.

This is not a new book, but I kept seeing it come up on suggested lists so I decided I needed to read it for myself.  I am so glad I did. It is a total delight.  Each of the princes has a different personality, and their interactions are so funny.  Also, it is refreshing to read a "strong guy" book for once, instead of a "strong girl" book.  I loved all the male bonding and macho bro love.  If you decide to read this one I recommend the recorded book version.  The voice actor is amazing and so funny.  (2012, 438 p.)

An Inconvenient Beauty by Kristi Ann Hunter

His grace, Griffith, Duke of Riverton, has decided it is his duty to wed, so he carefully and logically picks his future wife from the wallflowers at the seasonal balls in London.  Much to his surprise, the plain aristocratic girl he chooses to start to court keeps trying to avoid him.  He ends up being left in the company of her stunningly beautiful cousin over and over and starts to form an attachment to her instead.  Little does he know that she is hiding secrets, and it will not be a smooth road to marriage with her either.

This is actually the fourth in a series of Christian historical romances.  Each one is about a different family member of the house of Riverton.  I checked it out because I was going on vacation and decided to ditch the kid's novels for a week, just for fun.  It was a fun read, though not of the quality of Georgette Heyer's best (but I have read all of those already).  Still, it has all the trappings that I enjoy in a fluffy, clean, historical romance.  I haven't decided how I feel about the Born Again elements the author added.  They seemed a little out of place in the story.  The characters were thinking about God in a modern way instead of in a way I would imagine a Victorian would think.  Still, it was not a huge part of the narrative, and not at all offensive.  I will probably read others in the series the next time I need a break from middle grade novels. (379 p. 2017)

The Question of the Unfamiliar Husband by E J Cooperman

This is the second in the Asperger's Mysteries.  In this one Samuel is worried about making the payment on his office space, when a woman comes in wanting him to confirm the identity of her new husband.  Samuel can figure out anything that can be measured or recorded, but is totally out of his depth when it comes to relationships. So he calls Ms Washburn to help.  It takes some coaxing to get her to come back, and he has to promise her husband she will be in absolutely no danger during the case. It is a promise that he has a very hard time keeping.

This was another really fun, really clean mystery.  The solution was a little easier to see on this one, but it isn't only the mystery that makes these books enjoyable, it is the characters.  There is one scene in this book where Samuel goes on a date with one of the suspects.  She is not at all as sensitive about Samuel's Aspergers as Ms Washburn is, and it is pretty hilarious, especially when the date ends with a high speed car chase. (2015, 279 p.)

Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi

Aru Shah's mother is the curator of a museum of Indian antiquities.  She has always told Aru that the old lamp in one of the exhibit rooms was cursed, and if someone lit it a demon would appear.  Aru doesn't believe it, of course, until one day when "friends" dare her to light it.  When she does, a demon does appear, causing time to freeze all around him.  With her one bad choice, Aru is swept into a world of the Hindu gods, and discovers more about her family than she had ever imagined.

This is the first in a new imprint called Rick Riordan Presents.  Presumably it will include books like his Percy Jackson and Kane Chronicles series where modern kids find out they are demi-gods.  This book is very much like the Percy Jackson books, and it was fun to learn more about Hindu mythology.  Some of the action sequences were so much like Riordan's that I wondered if he actually helped write them.  The difference between this book and his latest series, is that is contains no reference to BGLT relationships (one of Riordan's favorite topics as of late) which was refreshing.  It also doesn't quite have the snappy patter I have enjoyed in Riordan's writing, and so I didn't actually enjoy it as much as the first Percy Jackson books.  Still, it will be easy to sell this one to Riordan fans.  (355 p.  2018)

Granted by John David Anderson

Ophelia is a fairy whose job it is to be a granter.  She is new at the job and anticipates her first assignment to grant a wish.  When the assignment comes, she soon discovers that covert operations in the Human World are not as straight forward as she had expected from her training at the academy.  Within hours she has damaged her wing and lost most of her equipment.  With the help of a friendly dog she continues her quest  to find the coin used to make the wish and use her fairy magic to grant it.

This was one of the most annoying and frustrating books I have ever read. Oh my!  The 20th time Ophelia's efforts were foiled, yet again, I rolled my eyes and almost slipped the CD out of the player.  I found myself dreading turning it on again. The only thing that kept me going was that I began to wonder what made the book SO bad.  Some people seemed to like it.  It got a starred review in Kirkus. After some analysis, I decided that the thing that bothered me the most was the pacing.  The story went on and on, (and on and on).  And just when you thought something was actually going to happen, the writer broke in with an aside about fairy practices and culture. Arg! It reminds me of an adult that dangles something in front of a child and keeps snatching it away right before the child grabs it.  The adult keeps up the game, thinking it is funny until the child starts to cry.  That's what it felt like. Another thing that slowed down the book was that the author was obviously in love with the fantasy world he can created.  He mentions the same fairy practices multiple times throughout the story, just in case the reader had forgotten that "fairies heal fast" or "it is super important that fairies leave no trace" or "the coin kept saying the words of the wish."  It would also be interesting to do a word count of how many times the phrase "I wish" appears in the book.  I am betting it would be over 1000.  Where was the editor? The book has 325 pages.  If the editor had forced the writer to cut it in half, maybe 160 pages, it could have been a really cute and entertaining book. As it is, it was a truly painful read. (2018)

The City on the Other Side by Mairghread Scott and Robin Robinson

Isabel is a poor rich girl.  Her socialite mother has little time for her.  Her artist father is kindhearted, but doesn't know how to act around children, so Isabel is left to herself much of the time.  One day she finds an injured fairy in the woods near her father's cabin.  The fairy gives her a necklace and makes her promise she will deliver it to the Seelie general, Miyori.  Thus Isabel is sucked into the fairy world and is caught up in the war between the Seelie and Unseelie courts.  With the help of a mushroom spirit and a human boy named Benjie, she seeks to return the necklace to its rightful owner and heal both the fairy world and her own.

This is a decent graphic fantasy after the style of Amulet.  Both Isabel and Benjie are sympathetic characters, the story is interesting, and the action is fast paced.  There were a few times when I didn't understand the visual cues in the pictures, and had to go back over a page or two to understand what was happening.  I am beginning to understand that creating illustrations that clearly depict action sequences is a tricky business and only a few illustrators are true masters.  Still, this book has a lot of kid appeal and I am sure I will be recommending it a lot this summer. (209 p. 2018)

The Flying Girl by Mararita Engle

Here is a short picture book biography of Aida Acosta.  When she was a teen age girl, Aida traveled to Paris (she was an American) and while there saw Alberto Santos-Dumont flying in a homemade dirigible.  Aida was entranced and wanted to learn to fly one herself.  She contacted M. Dumont and took flying lessons.  When it was time for her to have her first flight, she insisted in flying solo.  She flew the ship several miles across France and landed safely in a field.  This was 6 months before the Wright Brothers flew a Kitty-hawk. The story is almost rhyming, or rhyming in some places and not so well in others.  I kind of wish they hadn't tried to rhyme.  It was a good enough story to stand on its own as prose.  Still, I liked the book with its bright, lively pictures.(2018, 31 p.)

The Girl Who Drew Butterflies by Joyce Sidman

Maria Merian was a 17th century naturalist and artist who worked in Germany, the Netherlands, and Surinam.  Merian became fascinated with insects as a young teenager.  Her step father was a artist, and she learned to draw, plus create her own canvases and paints in his studio.  As she got older, she married an apprentice of her father, but never lost her interest in the natural world.  Her artwork was so outstanding, she published her first book while still in her 20's that contained pictures of flowers and insects.  She later was divorced from her husband and was able to devote herself full time to her research.  In a time when single women were not well respected, she and her daughter traveled to Suriname to observe and paint tropical flowers.  Her subsequent book about the flora and fauna of Suriname was widely acclaimed.

This nonfiction biography by an Newbery honor winner has gained a lot of recognition already this year.  It is carefully researched, well written and very interesting.  It is illustrated with pictures from Merian's own books, along with other historical illustrations and modern photographs.  It is always impressive to me that, even in times when women were not highly respected, some women were just so awesome that society could not help but notice and admire them. (120 p. 2018)