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. Being Frank by Donna W. Earnhardt
Frank has always been taught that honesty is the best policy, but when his friends start to get mad at him for being honest about their freckles, or their bad breath, he begins to wonder whether it’s true. Is honesty the best policy or not? Luckily, he has a Grandpa to help him realize that honesty IS always the best policy, but sometimes it’s better to focus on being honest about the good things. “Honesty is best served with more sugar… less pepper.”
If you have a child who has discovered the wonderful world of awkward moments, created by innocently meant questions or statements, this book can be a great tool to help navigate the fine line between telling the truth and not hurting your friends’ feelings. The story was charming, and even though it had a definite lesson to it, it was entertaining to read.

We really liked it: 4 out of 5 stars

#2. I’m Gonna Climb a Mountain in my Patent Leather Shoes by Marilyn Singer
Sadie loves to be dressed to the nines, but that doesn’t stop her from having adventures! She still climbs mountains, swims in lakes, and chases Bigfoot–she just does it while enjoying her stylin’ accessories. This is a rollicking rhyme, similar in style to the ever popular ‘Going on a Bear Hunt’ rhyme, but it has a great message for girls. Adventuring can be done, any way you like it! This is definitely a book that I’ll be happy to read to Sophia few more times, even if it means she wants to wear her princess dress the next time we go hiking 😉

We really liked it: 4 out of 5 stars

#3. Interstellar Cinderella by Deborah Underwood Yet another makeover of the traditional Cinderella story, and this one is my favorite so far. In this story, Cinderella lives in space with the traditional evil stepmother and mean stepsisters, but she is a whiz with a toolbox. She can fix anything, and quite frequently does, through the entire book. When the gang of steps head off to the ball with Cinderella’s toolbox, leaving her stranded with a broken spacecraft, the space version of godmother fixes the spacecraft, but tells Cinderella that it will only remain fixed until midnight. When Cinderella fixes the prince’s malfunctioning space craft, he can’t wait to see her face (she’s wearing an astronaut helmet), but she has to dash off in order to get home before te charm wears off her space craft. I won’t ruin the ending for you, but I will say this: The ending is not traditional, but it IS age appropriate and girl power! Definitely look this one up! It was so much fun!

We loved it: 5 out of 5 stars

#4. Frances Dean Who Loved to Dance and Dance by Birgitta Sif

I did not realize that the majority of our favored books from the library this haul had a very “mighty girls” theme, but this is our third book today that kind of has that tone. Not planned, but pretty awesome! Frances Dean loves to dance, but whenever she is surrounded by people she can’t. All she can think about is how they’re looking at her, and how they might laugh at how she dances. But when Frances sees a tiny little girl, singing loud for all to hear, she begins to think that maybe… just maybe… she could do it too. This book is all about overcoming fear. It’s a really sweet little story, and the illustrations are just darling.

We really liked it: 4 out of 5 stars.

#5. Outstanding in the Rain

The plot for this one is pretty simplistic–boy goes out, gets ice cream, he loses the ice cream, it rains, at the end he gets more ice cream. Not gonna lie–by itself, the plot is quite the snoozefest. Luckily, the illustrations and cutouts make the book. The pictures expand on the story, and provide great incentives to discussion. As a bonus, the cutouts in this book provide great illustrations of the similarities between words for your curious-about-reading young one.
Altogether, this was an appealing, educational book and suitable for a wider age range.

We really liked it: 4 out of 5 stars.