Hi everybody! Welcome to our Kids Book Review Library Haul post! This is where I give you quick and snappy reviews of our favorites from our weekly library haul. We read a LOT of children’s books from the library, so I don’t bother reviewing all the ones that were just mediocre. I like to keep things positive too, so books that I thought were terrible don’t usually make it into the list either… unless I just really want to rant about it for a while. Let us know in the comments which books were winners in YOUR library haul!

#1. Seaver the Weaver by Paul Czajak

Seaver is an orb spider that doesn’t like to spin orbs–he likes to find inspiration for different shapes in the night sky and spin accordingly. His brothers and sisters don’t like that he refuses to spin orbs, but his strange geometrically shaped webs catch flies and eventually they are so hungry that they beg him to teach them how to spin their webs like his.

This was a pretty obvious book with the favorite motto of the 21st century–be different. It’s not a bad motto or book, just kind of bland. Good discussion about shapes though! Circles, squares, triangles, and hexagons all get some airtime in this one!

It was okay. 2 out of 5 stars

#2. Have You Seen My Monster by Steve Light

Now HERE is a book about shapes. Okay, technically it’s a book about a girl looking for her monster at the fair, but each page focuses on a different shape and you are really in for a treat. Do you know what a heptagon is? How about a quatrefoil? Curvilinear Triangle? You will after this book. This is so cool, because it is written at a level that is comprehensible for the youngest of children, yet it teaches something useful, and doesn’t water it down to a gruel. This is a great, educational gem.

We loved it: 5 out of 5 stars

#3. Eating the Alphabet: Fruits and Vegetables from A to Z by Lois Ehlert

Another alphabet book. We really like our alphabet books, in case you couldn’t tell. This one delves into the ‘A is for Apple’ river. All the common fruits and veggies, plus some uncommon ones. We talked a lot about the different fruits and veggies in addition to the letters, and I think it really made Sophiapea curious about some other foods. Always a good thing, especially since she’s in her picky-toddler phase.

We liked it: 3 out of 5 stars.

#4. When No-One’s Looking At the Zoo by Zana Fraillon

What do the animals at the zoo do when nobody is watching? Have tea parties, waterski, and roller skate of course.

This was definitely a story told largely in pictures. It was fun to try to get Sophia to describe what the animals were doing–so many of the things she just had no words for (ahem… waterskiing) so I feel like it was a good vocabulary builder. The pages unfold, which is always a crowd pleaser with little kids, at least in my experience. Sophia and Klaus BOTH wanted to turn the pages–at the same time. It was interesting… thank goodness the pages are made of a nice stiff posterboard, or we would have had a not-so-fun meeting with the library administrators…

We really liked it: 4 out of 5 stars.

#5. Locomotive by Brian Floca

So, I’ve started doing this thing with Sophia where I ask her about one real thing that she’s interested in (while we’re at the library) and we’ll look up books to take home and read about it. This week it was Train Engines, so we found a few books. This one has really beautiful illustrations, and even though it’s nonfiction it is written in a very lyrical, almost poetic manner. But. Sweet Baby Jesus, it is LONG. Like, good luck reading anything else because it will take you all afternoon to read this. (Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating. But just a little.)
Seriously. It. Is. Long.
It does tell the story of a train trip across the continent though, and it’s about trains, so pull out your throat drops and settle in.
I really did like this one. It’s unique and very interesting, I think it was just a little too long for my kiddies ages.

We liked it: 3 out of 5 stars

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#6. I Didn’t Know That! Some trains run on water by Flowerpot Press (Not sure if there’s a single author or if it’s an entire group of people, but it’s part of a series called ‘I Didn’t Know That’)

This is a great encyclopedic book about trains. I really liked that each pagespread discussed something different, and even though there was lots of information, it was broken up into easily divided snippets, so we could go through and read one or two things off of each page at a time. That said, it would be a great book to have and reference periodically at different stages of listening ability. It is very factual, and there are LOTS of facts, but there are some really great illustrations too. Sophiapea seems very much to be a visual learner right now, so the pictures are always a big deal. This is a great nonfiction staple to keep on your kids bookshelf.

***Affiliate Program Disclosure: I am not being paid to review these books, but if you do click on the picture and purchase any of these books through my Amazon link, I will receive a small kickback. It has no effect on the price you pay, but it does help me to run this website, so thanks! All of the book pictures are linked to Amazon. 🙂