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Counting, music, colors, and more! These kits contain books and games to familiarize the kiddos with a variety of concepts.

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Staff Picks for Kids
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The Sun Is Late and So Is The Farmer
On a peculiarly long night, three farm animals set off on a daring quest to bring the sunrise.
Fans of Erin and Philip C. Stead’s books will instantly love this quirky barnyard trio’s magical quest to bring the sunrise, in the style of their previous animal books A Sick Day for Amos McGee and Bear Has a Story to Tell.
A mule,
A milk cow,
A miniature horse,
Standing in a barn door,
Waiting for the sun to rise.
As this trio rests in their comfortable barn, a realization slowly dawns on them. . . the sun is late to rise.
After consulting barn owl (who always knows what to do), they take Rooster and set off on an epic journey further than they’ve ever gone before; through the acre of tall corn, past the sleeping giant, all the way to the edge of the world.
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection -
Twelve Dinging Doorbells
A cumulative all-holiday carol packed to the brim with family, food, love, and Black joy, especially perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas, graduations, and all family celebrations.
Every holiday, aunties, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and neighbors come over to eat, sing, and celebrate life. But all our main character can think about is the sweet potato pie Granny makes just for her. As tables fill with baked macaroni and cheese, chitlins, and other sides a-steaming, she and Granny move the pie to keep it intact. The task becomes tricker as the room grows with dancing and card games and pie cravings. Just when all seems lost and there’s no more pie, Granny pulls out a sweet surprise.
Written to the tune of “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” Twelve Dinging Doorbells is exuberant. Author Tameka Fryer Brown’s cumulative rhyme is impossible to resist, and the humorous details in Ebony Glenn’s cut-paper collage will welcome readers to this party again and again. -
So Much Snow
The magic and wonder of deep winter snow will delight and entertain everyone in this beautiful and intriguing, mostly wordless, picture book that is soon to become a classic!
It snowed all night long. It snowed so much that when two children awake in the morning and want to go outside to play, a shovel isn't even close to being enough. It's SO MUCH SNOW!
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A Spark in the Dark
A powerful picture book about the ocean of feelings inside all of us.
Whether you are mad, sad, scared, or lost in the dark, there's always hope--a spark of light to lead you back home. A Spark in the Dark is a book to read aloud, a book to share, and a book to return to whenever you need it.
There is light, and there is dark. But sometimes the dark creeps up and surrounds you. Still, even in those deep, dark moments, you can always find a spark of light, if you look. Because while you need light to find your way through the dark, you also need dark to see the light.
Author-artist Pam Fong's gentle text and luminous artwork guide readers through the dangers and marvels of the deep sea with an expressive little fish who must find its way home. A lush and moving picture book that gives young readers--and their parents--a way to think about and talk about the wide ocean of emotions that everyone feels.
A Spark in the Dark is an exceptional choice for social and emotional learning that belongs on shelves beside Cori Doerrfeld's The Rabbit Listened, Dan Santat's After the Fall, and Aliki's Feelings.
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The Dinky Donkey
Originally written as a children's song, Wonky Donkey has a daughter, cute and small, and prone to mischief.
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A Unicorn on a Unicycle
A unicorn, animals driving cars, and fireworks! Counting numbers is a ton of razzle-dazzle fun for everyone!
Follow along with a cool cast of critters as they parade down a road, led by unicorn a unicycle. Let’s count all the wheels on their scooters, bikes, and cars as they go by! 1, 2, 3… How many wheels can you see at the Zoom-Zoom-Whee Jamboree?
Math lovers will enjoy searching each spread for wheels to count as they’re introduced to a variety of vehicles alongside their 1 through 10 numbers. Each time a new animal joins the unicorn's parade, critical thinkers can be encouraged to keep cumulative track of the total number of wheels.
BONUS CONTENT: Grow with numbers 1 through 100 on the endpapers!
With so many opportunities to use the book beyond rote memorization, you'll want to grab this jolly read for your little learner's bookshelf today! -
A House
Caldecott Medal-winner and #1 New York Times-bestselling author Kevin Henkes explores what it means to be at home in this stunning picture book. Brimming with interactive call-and-response questions, A House is a timeless and irresistible must-have for both very young children and emergent readers--as well as the entire family.
Where is the door to the house? Do you see any clouds? What does the house look like when it is sunny outside? When it is raining? And what will the house turn into when its family returns? A home.
Caldecott Medal-winner Kevin Henkes employs interactive questions, declarative sentences, basic shapes, and a limited color palette in this brilliant and classic picture book. A House introduces young readers to shapes, numbers, the weather, and the parts of a house, with a rhythmic, repetitive text and remarkable illustrations.
A story about home, family, community, and belonging, A House is an excellent choice for emergent readers, for social and emotional development, and for storytime sharing.
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Attack of the Black Rectangles
Award-winning author Amy Sarig King takes on censorship and intolerance in a novel she was born to write.
When Mac first opens his classroom copy of Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic and finds some words blacked out, he thinks it must be a mistake. But then when he and his friends discover what the missing words are, he's outraged.
Someone in his school is trying to prevent kids from reading the full story.
But who?
Even though his unreliable dad tells him to not get so emotional about a book (or anything else), Mac has been raised by his mom and grandad to call out things that are wrong. He and his friends head to the principal's office to protest the censorship... but her response doesn't take them seriously.
So many adults want Mac to keep his words to himself.
Mac's about to see the power of letting them out.
In Attack of the Black Rectangles, acclaimed author Amy Sarig King shows all the ways truth can be hard... but still worth fighting for.
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Odder
Now a #1 New York Times bestseller! A touching and lyrical tale about a remarkable sea otter, from Newbery Medalist Katherine Applegate, author of Wishtree.
Meet Odder, the Queen of Play:
Nobody has her moves.
She doesn’t just swim to the bottom,
she dive-bombs.
She doesn’t just somersault,
she triple-doughnuts.
She doesn’t just ride the waves,
she makes them.
Odder spends her days off the coast of central California, practicing her underwater acrobatics and spinning the quirky stories for which she’s known. She’s a fearless daredevil, curious to a fault. But when Odder comes face-to-face with a hungry great white shark, her life takes a dramatic turn, one that will challenge everything she believes about herself—and about the humans who hope to save her.
Inspired by the true story of a Monterey Bay Aquarium program that pairs orphaned otter pups with surrogate mothers, this poignant and humorous tale told in free verse examines bravery and healing through the eyes of one of nature’s most beloved and charming animals. -
The Flower Garden
After planting a seed packet in the backyard, things don't go as expected for best friends Anna and Tess. They fall asleep in the sun and wake up to blooms as tall as buildings! Did the seeds really grow that fast? All is explained when Anna and Tess meet May, a little garden gnome whose magic is responsible for the transformation. The girls are May's size now, and they follow her through the flower garden and into May's underground gnome home--discovering new things about their world and themselves along the way.
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We Are All Under One Wide Sky
Children will learn to both celebrate diversity and embrace how much we all have in common.
In We Are All Under One Wide Sky, Deborah Wiles beautifully weaves together images from the natural world in a lovely, lyrical poem. Andrea Stegmaier’s fresh and captivating illustrations feature children from around the globe and celebrate different architecture, landscapes, and activities.
By the end of the book, children will have internalized the message that although we are from different places, we are the same in so many ways. What we have in common is what is most important—family, laughter, love, nature, and friendship. We all share the same wide sky.
We Are All Under One Wide Sky is a peace anthem with a timely and important message for children: to both celebrate diversity and embrace how much we all have in common. -
Bob
It’s been five years since Livy and her family have visited Livy’s grandmother in Australia. Now that she’s back, Livy has the feeling she’s forgotten something really, really important about Gran’s house.
It turns out she’s right.
Bob, a short, greenish creature dressed in a chicken suit, didn’t forget Livy, or her promise. He’s been waiting five years for her to come back, hiding in a closet like she told him to. He can’t remember who—or what—he is, where he came from, or if he even has a family. But five years ago Livy promised she would help him find his way back home. Now it’s time to keep that promise.
Clue by clue, Livy and Bob will unravel the mystery of where Bob comes from, and discover the kind of magic that lasts forever.
Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead, two masterminds of classic, middle-grade fiction come together to craft this magical story about the enduring power of friendship.
This title has Common Core connections. -
Dig, Dogs, Dig
Top dog Duke leads a busy work crew to a new construction site. All sorts of dogs have plenty to do before the day is out. These clever dogs will dig, haul, push, plow, and even bring in a crane to build a new park. But what happens when they find something unexpected buried deep in the ground?
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A River Enchanted
#1 International Bestseller
"With lush world building and lyrical prose, A River Enchanted feels like the echo of a folktale from a world right next to our own." --Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of For the Wolf
House of Earth and Blood meets The Witch's Heart in Rebecca Ross's brilliant first adult fantasy, set on the magical isle of Cadence where two childhood enemies must team up to discover why girls are going missing from their clan.
Jack Tamerlaine hasn't stepped foot on Cadence in ten long years, content to study music at the mainland university. But when young girls start disappearing from the isle, Jack is summoned home to help find them. Enchantments run deep on Cadence: gossip is carried by the wind, plaid shawls can be as strong as armor, and the smallest cut of a knife can instill fathomless fear. The capricious spirits that rule the isle by fire, water, earth, and wind find mirth in the lives of the humans who call the land home. Adaira, heiress of the east and Jack's childhood enemy, knows the spirits only answer to a bard's music, and she hopes Jack can draw them forth by song, enticing them to return the missing girls.
As Jack and Adaira reluctantly work together, they find they make better allies than rivals as their partnership turns into something more. But with each passing song, it becomes apparent the trouble with the spirits is far more sinister than they first expected, and an older, darker secret about Cadence lurks beneath the surface, threatening to undo them all.
With unforgettable characters, a fast-paced plot, and compelling world building, A River Enchanted is a stirring story of duty, love, and the power of true partnership, and marks Rebecca Ross's brilliant entry on the adult fantasy stage.
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Refugee
A tour de force from acclaimed author Alan Gratz (Prisoner B-3087), this timely -- and timeless -- novel tells the powerful story of three different children seeking refuge.
A New York Times bestseller!JOSEF is a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world . . .ISABEL is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety in America . . .MAHMOUD is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe . . .All three kids go on harrowing journeys in search of refuge. All will face unimaginable dangers -- from drownings to bombings to betrayals. But there is always the hope of tomorrow. And although Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud are separated by continents and decades, shocking connections will tie their stories together in the end.This action-packed novel tackles topics both timely and timeless: courage, survival, and the quest for home.