Children's

The Bakery Dragon and the Fairy Cake / Devin Elle Kurtz

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The Bakery Dragon and the Fairy Cake
By: Devin Elle Kurtz
Genre: Children’s, Picture Book, Fantasy 
Number of Pages: 40
Published: October 7, 2025
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Dates Read: December 21, 2025
Format: Library Book / Hardcover

Ember is in charge of the bakery while the baker takes a trip, so when a fairy princess swoops in asking for a cake, Ember does everything he can to make one, even though he doesn’t know what a cake even is. He’s only ever baked bread, how hard can it be?

But when every attempt hits the fan, Ember begins to lose faith in himself to be able to do it, because if he doesn’t figure it out soon, all there will be is a pile of baked disasters.

I loved the first Bakery Dragon, so I knew I was going to have to get my hands on the second one. Obviously, I wasn’t disappointed.

As a librarian myself, I loved how they went to the library to do research and find recipes. 

Visually, this book is bright and vivid with beautiful pages of scenery. Ember is the cutest dragon.

Overall, anyone who enjoyed the first one will also love and enjoy the follow up book.

Spooky / Sally Anne Garland

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Spooky
By: Sally Anne Garland
Genre: Children's, Picture Book
Number of Pages: 40
Published: August 5, 2025
Publisher: Sunbird Books
Dates Read: October 20, 2025
Format: Library Book / Hardcover

When a family moves into a new house, they quickly realize they’re not alone. With patience and care maybe their new housemate will come out of the shadows.

What an adorable children’s book about not only moving into a new house and the adjustments that come with that, but also the adjustment that comes with a new furry member of the family.

This is adorable artwork, but also – the cat carrying around its little toy mouse in its mouth was the most adorable thing.

I know this is a children’s book, so maybe I am thinking too much into this for a children’s book, but I want to know what Spooky was doing before the family moved in, because it mentions the house had been empty for a while. It only really takes the family a day to figure out that there’s a cat in their house and to start leaving it food and water, but that still means they were all alone for a bit!

Overall, this is adorable and any cat lover will love this but this is also a good story about adjustment and patience for children.

Mur, the Kitty-Knight / Igor Shnayder, Roman Dubina (Illustrator)

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Mur, the Kitty-Knight
By: Igor Shnayder, Roman Dubina (Illustrator)
Genre: Children’s, Fantasy
Number of Pages: 110
Published: August 8, 2025 (1st Published July 3, 2023)
Publisher: Independently Published
Dates Read: September 3, 2025
Format: eBook

Meet Mur, a brave young kitten who becomes a knight in the magical world of animals. He protects others and tries to make the world a better place as he solves mysteries and learns lessons along the way.

As soon as I saw what this book was about, I wanted to read it. A little courageous kitty-knight who fights for good? Sounds adorable. On top of that, the illustrations from Roman Dubina were beautiful and fantastic – I always looked forward to seeing what I was reading.

This is a great chapter story book, meaning each chapter is its own story, and perfect for a read along with the littles, or simply helping young readers to read smaller chunks (though I have a feeling they’ll be dialed in way past one chapter at a time!). Each of the stories tended to have a small lesson of core values that could be talked about after.

Overall, this is a wonderful read for children, especially those who like cats and adventures! But, I could also see adults enjoying these fable tales too!

*Thank you so much for the author for reaching out to me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

The Little Ghost Quilt’s Winter Surprise / Riel Nason, Byron Eggenschwiler (Illustrator)

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The Little Ghost Quilt’s Winter Surprise
By: Riel Nason, Byron Eggenschwiler (Illustrator)
Genre: Children’s
Number of Pages: 48 
Published: August 26, 2025
Publisher: Tundra Books
Dates Read: August 18, 2025
Format: ARC / eBook

Little ghost quilt loves being out in the cold, with the thickness of his patches, he doesn’t overheat – especially when it starts snowing. But his friends, who are sheets, get too cold and freeze in the winter weather and have to stay inside. Little ghost quilt doesn’t mind drifting around on his own, but sometimes he does miss his friends.

One day, little ghost quilt sees something bright and sparkling in town. Upon further investigation, he sees people are putting up twinkling lights and warm festivities are in the air – it’s almost like Halloween, but with snowmen instead of pumpkins, and presents instead of buckets of candy. He is filled with excitement, but he really wants his friends to see.

On his way home, little ghost quilt gets caught in a blizzard and after getting snagged in a tree, he is struck by inspiration.

I went into this children’s book, not having read the first book but was immediately caught by the illustration on the cover.

It’s such a cute book about something that’s typically meant for Halloween, finding out about Christmas. As someone who tends to keep Halloween decorations up year around anyway, this just makes me smile even more. What’s more is that little ghost quilt shows a lot of empathy for his friends and thinking creatively on how to share something new for them.

Overall, this is an adorable book for children about the joys of winter festivities that I think adults would also enjoy for the cute illustrations.

*Thank you Tundra Books and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

The Grumpy Ghost Upstairs / Mamiko Shiotani

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The Grumpy Ghost Upstairs
By: Mamiko Shiotani
Genre: Children’s
Number of Pages: 36 
Published: August 5, 2025
Publisher: Floria Books
Dates Read: July 10, 2025
Format: ARC / eBook

A little ghost lives in the attic of a big house. He’s alone, but that’s just how he likes it. One day, a curious young girl begins hanging out in the attic, disturbing the ghost’s peace and quiet. Since she won’t leave the ghost alone, he decides to do what ghosts do best: haunt.

What a great book to talk about the importance of change and embracing new friendships 

With artwork reminiscent of Brian Selznick, readers of all ages are bound to giggle at this grumpy ghost’s antics.

Pebbles and the Biggest Number / Joey Benun, Laura Watson (Illustrator)

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Pebbles and the Biggest Number
By: Joey Benun, Laura Watson (Illustrator)
Genre: Children's, Science
Number of Pages: 48
Published: July 1, 2023
Publisher: Joey Benun / Self Published
Dates Read: July 21, 2023
Format: eBook

Pebbles the Butterfly loves to count. One day, he sets out to travel around the world to find the biggest number. On his travels, he meets tons of friends, and experiences all kinds of crazy weather. What’s the biggest number Pebbles can find?

This is such a wonderful children’s book about the fun and excitement of numbers. As a kid (and still as an adult honestly), I love learning random facts and this book is full of them as we follow along with Pebbles’ travels, including Number Note, where you see how many zeros are in a number, Did You Know?, where there’s fun facts about something on the current page(s), and Science Spots, with interesting science facts.

I can see a wide range of children enjoying this book due to the amazing and bright illustrations done by Laura Watson. I can see the ones reading the book to the children would also have a fun time reading because of all the little facts and tidbits within the story. There’s even a spot where it prompts the child to ask an adult what the biggest number they know is.

This is cute and adorable and I can’t wait to share the fun facts that I learn from it.

*Thank you Joey Benun for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Pumpkin the Cat / Jonathan Yavin

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Pumpkin the Cat
By: Jonathan Yavin, Gilad Soffer (Illustrator)
Genre: Children's
Number of Pages: 32
Published: July 18, 2023 (1st Published 2005)
Publisher: Gefen Publishing House
Dates Read: June 25, 2023
Format: eBook

When a father brings home a kitten to his young son, at first the boy wants nothing to do with it, he hates cats! But the orange kitten quickly wins over the boy’s heart and changes everyone’s mind.

I’m a sucker for cat books – especially children cat books. Just look at the illustration of Pumpkin on the cover! How could you not?

This was an adorable children’s book about a boy, who was once scratched by a cat, and got over his fear to welcome home the new orange kitten his father brought.

The text is simple and easy for children to follow.

The illustrations are adorable and there are a ton of hidden easter eggs in the background, especially with the boy’s toys.

I don’t have any younger children to read this too, but once I do, I’ll be reading them this. But also – adults will enjoy this story as well – it’s just too cute!

*Thank you Gefen Publishing House and LibraryThing for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review