 Hi everyone, my name is Steph. This is a little bookish teacher and welcome all welcome back to my channel. Today I am going to be reviewing some books that I read on Libby. So for those of you who don't know Libby is an online book borrowing service I have two library cards to two library systems here in Victoria and through those two library cards I can access Libby and borrow and download books and throughout this year I have been exploring that service and downloading not only ebooks but also audiobooks particularly kids ebooks and audiobooks because I get a slightly wider range and slightly different titles than what I might see in stores or Even in my school library So it's been a really great experience and what I've decided to do recently is actually just spend some time exploring some of these titles And then putting them into this review video for you. So these are mostly picture books. There are some Juniefiction early chapter book titles. There's some of the I Can Read series as well Which I really love but yeah, I thought I would talk about them with you And I'm going to insert a clip of me actually just scrolling through the things that I have downloaded on Libby at the moment There's quite a few things and I will admit that I actually didn't read everything that is on this particular little video list But I will talk to you about the ones that I did There are also a few holds that came in in between when I filmed Sort of the little clip of looking at the books that I actually had out and by the time and the time that I actually read them The first book that I'm going to talk about is gull which is Stormbird by Trevor Formile and Jingaloo This is a First Nations story is setting cans It is a picture book about the oral traditional tale of the Stormbird that heralds storms in the area So it is about a boy called gull who ends up taunting the rainbow serpent and is trying to outsmart the rainbow serpent But is eventually outsmarted himself and is transformed into the Stormbird This book has really beautiful illustrations and is one that I definitely want to get a physical copy of It was not one of the traditional dreaming stories that I had heard before and so it was a really interesting read for me in that regard So I'm glad that I found it on Libby and I'm glad that it's on there as an e-book So more people can access it because that does make it far more accessible I also read Nothing Rhymes with Orange by Adam Rex This is a picture book that is quite simply a rhyming text about a fruit bowl and a collection of fruit who All have things that rhyme with it, but orange just feels left out because nothing rhymes with orange There is a lovely message in there about friendship because the fruit are all friends and they want to try and make sure that orange feels included But overall it is a great text for rhyming. It is a little bit silly and fun But it is you know full of rhyming words So it's great for that wordplay and language play and I really loved the collage illustrations in here It made it really fun and enjoyable just to look at the pages in the book So I had a great time with this one then I read Shy Willow by Kat Min now This is a picture book about a rabbit named Willow who lives in an abandoned mailbox And then one day a letter arrives in the abandoned mailbox and you know Mail doesn't often arrive because it's abandoned Willow reads the letter and it is from Theo and his mum and it is a request to Be able to see the moon and so Willow sets off to try and Accomplish this for Theo and his mum and it's just a gorgeous gorgeous book The illustrations are beautiful the endpapers in this were just stunning There are narrative pages mixed in with wordless story pages as well Which is really cool as you see the journey that Willow takes and it is really about a character who is shy But empathetic and the bravery it takes to go out and try new things that are scary for the sake of other people Because Willow wants to do something nice for someone else. So a gorgeous little story great message in there as well I also read brave molly by Brooke Boynton Hughes. This is a wordless picture book It is a story that is told through panels So it's almost like a wordless graphic novel, but it is a picture book And this is about a young girl who is obviously dealing with anxiety and how her anxiety breeds monsters of her own making And how it stops her from doing things that she might try It touches on social anxiety making friends and how hard that can be and also about facing your fears and being able to recognize That you do have the power to make a difference for yourself And so it was a gorgeous little book to read and explore and again like all of these it has great illustrations And I liked that metaphor of those monsters that are following and multiplying because everything just becomes big and Overwhelming for you. I also finally read charlie's swim by edith right now. This is another first nations picture book It was just a really great read This would be perfect for older readers and it follows charlie who is living in broom in the early 1940s during world war two And broom at that point was a refuelling station for people who were escaping the war and was attacked at one point And this is the story of charlie who is trying to help save a woman and a child Who have escaped the war and their plane ends up being shot down and they need to be Rescued and spammed to shore and it's how charlie helps them It's based off a true story and a true person Which I thought was really amazing and to read the author's notes and find out a little bit more about Who charlie was and this time period in northern australia was really really fascinating The book itself is actually written by a descendant of charlie's which makes it a family story as well And it has some of the most beautiful language in there some great tier two words like distressed and billowing that you can Explore with students then a completely different tone of book. I read the pen grooms by paul castle This is a gorgeous story about two penguins who Love to bake and make wedding cakes and they're constantly making wedding cakes for all the other animals around them And then they decide to have their own wedding and it is so precious and so gorgeous The illustrations in it are just so cute and I absolutely loved it It was queer and gorgeous and just a lovely lovely story to read Then we're moving away from some picture books into some junior fiction titles So I read pete the cat and the sprinkles stealer by by james and kimberley dean I've been a big fan of pete the cat for many many years and this is one of the i can read comics So it's I think it's i can read one comic. So it's very very simple We have secret agent meow investigating baking supplies that go missing around the time of a baking competition So sprinkles go missing flower goes missing and secret agent meow is on the hunt to track down who is responsible for it It's short and sweet and very easy to read. I also read jordan is ready This is by megan boggart spaniel And this is a very simple story about a girl who is getting ready for various events in her life Whether it's school or sport or going outside when it's raining It's a great one to read with younger readers who are just learning how to dress themselves and get ready by themselves And building those independent skills. It's a very simple reader. It has very bold Illustrations it's colorful and it's told in you know single sentence pages So it's it's a really great one for very young readers. And then I read a couple of i can read level three books So there was cc loves science push and pull by kimberley dirting And this one is about cc who is engaging in a stem challenge with her class And their challenge is to create a treat dispenser for dog biscuits, which is very cool They have a dog in the classroom and the dog is very excited about the possibility of getting treats I love that it includes science concepts So it really hooks in those kids who are very engaged in science and want to know more There are experiments and games that are included at the back of the book So kids who are interested can actually go off and try some of them Which I think is really really cool And there is also a glossary of some of the scientific terms that are mentioned at the back of the book So it does take this from being just a fictional narrative into something with a little bit more information In it which does hook in quite a few more readers at that age group And then there is gg and ouija. What's in a name by melissa? ouija I think So this is the story of gg who whose full name is geraldine, but she is always born by gg And then one day she feels like that is too much of a baby name And so she wants to be known by various names And so she tries out being known as geraldine She tries out being known as hanako, which is her middle name She her family is of japanese descent and she and her grandfather her o gg are exploring Using those names and seeing what fits for her and despite the fact that she wants to have a more grown-up name She doesn't really respond to them because she's always been known as gg and that's what she responds to And so it's this exploration of names Of their meaning of how they are intrinsically linked to us It's about compassion because she wants a name that her o gg can pronounce and can say easily And geraldine is not one of those names and it's also just about the lovely relationship between a grandparent and a child It's a really really sweet story. This one also has a japanese word glossary at the back of the book as well I need to find more japanese-english picture books because I think this was a really fun thing to explore And then the last book is queen narell by selly murphy and this one is actually more of a junior fiction novel It is a verse novel and it is told from two perspectives We have the cat queen narell and her owner maddie the perspective of queen narell plays into that Superioness of cats and is really fun because queen narell surveys her family and Is observant of everything that's happening in her family and what she notices is that maddie is unhappy And that is because from maddie's perspective. We know she's having friendship issues at school There is a student who's being quite mean to her and separating her from her friends And so maddie feels quite isolated and so we alternate perspectives between queen narell and maddie as maddie is Is experiencing that isolation and queen narell is trying to be there for her in her cat way There is a great discussion in here around friendship There is a great relationship between maddie and her parents and the way that they try and resolve this issue Is actually quite healthy and i wish quite a few parents would read this book because the parental response to the bullying situation is Spot on it's about standing up for yourself And it's also about the companionship and the relationship between humans and their pets Or pets and their humans as queen narell would suggest so it is just a gorgeous little book I didn't realize it was a verse novel when i read it thought i know the name selly murphy I want to read this book and i was so glad that i did all right So those are some recent reads from liby in the comments I'd love to know if you've read any of these books or if you're planning on picking any of them up Or if you have any other suggestions that are similar to the stories that i have talked about feel free to let me know down below Everything will be linked in the description And if you'd like to let me know that you're here, but you don't want to leave a comment feel free to leave a Bookstack emoji Otherwise, I hope that if you're on the world just staying safe and healthy and i will see you in my next video Thanks so much for watching. Bye everyone