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Staff Picks for Kids
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There's a Mouse in My House
The tables have turned in this hilarious follow-up to There’s a Bear on My Chair. But this time it’s Bear who has an unwelcome guest, and this mouse just won’t leave! He’s making a real commotion in Bear’s house—eating all the food, listening to loud music, and even spilling bathwater all over the floor! But when there’s an unexpected knock at the door, will Bear decide that visitors aren’t so bad after all?
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Anzu the Great Kaiju
An adorable picture book about a tiny monster with a big heart trying to follow in his family's footsteps.
All great Kaiju are born with a super power to strike fear in the heart of the city.
But Anzu is different.
Instead of mayhem, he likes May flowers.
Instead of striking fear, he prefers to be sincere.
Can Anzu find a way to make his family proud and stay true to his kind self?
From Disney animator and illustrator Bensom Shum comes an adorable and heartwarming picture book about making your own way and the unexpected power of gentleness—perfect for fans of Ferdinand the Bull. -
A Parliament of Owls
From a mischief of mice and a shiver of sharks to a caravan of camels and a rhumba of rattlesnakes, animals from around the globe gather a group and sashay, swim, slither, or sail through this party of animal plurals. The only question is "What to call this animal arcade? This critter convention? This zigzag zoo? This purring and preening parade?" A delightful and colorful romp through the perfection of animal plurals from the author of Memoirs of a Goldfish!
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A Parliament of Owls
From a mischief of mice and a shiver of sharks to a caravan of camels and a rhumba of rattlesnakes, animals from around the globe gather a group and sashay, swim, slither, or sail through this party of animal plurals. The only question is "What to call this animal arcade? This critter convention? This zigzag zoo? This purring and preening parade?" A delightful and colorful romp through the perfection of animal plurals from the author of Memoirs of a Goldfish!
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Sun Flower Lion
"As brilliant as can be."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A simple but thought-provoking story."--Booklist (starred review)
"Endearing."--Horn Book (starred review)
"A must-have for all collections."--School Library Journal (starred review)
A sun. A flower. And a lion. With three visual motifs, three colors, and fewer than 200 words,, renowned Caldecott Medal winner and #1 New York Times-bestseller Kevin Henkes cracks open the wide world and the youngest child's endless imagination. This irresistible picture book is a must-have for every reader and every family.
On a warm morning, a little lion sleeps under a sun that shines so brightly, it looks like a flower. He dreams the flower is as big as the sun. He dreams the flower is a cookie. He lets his imagination soar.
Caldecott Medal winner Kevin Henkes uses simple shapes, limited colors, and a pitch-perfect text to tell Lion's story in this transcendent picture book. Sun Flower Lion introduces emerging readers to short chapters, action verbs, and adjectives, while bright illustrations transform simple shapes into something magical.
Sun Flower Lion will shine at story time and bedtime and for young children just learning how to read on their own.
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Hummingbird
A Schneider Family Book Award Honor Book
From the bestselling author of A Snicker of Magic comes a heartfelt story about a girl who -- armed with her trusty, snazzy wheelchair -- refuses to let her brittle bone disease stand in the way of adventure
Twelve-year-old homeschooled Olive is tired of being seen as "fragile" just because she has osteogenesis imperfecta (otherwise known as brittle bone disease) so she's thrilled when she finally convinces her parents to let her attend Macklemore Elementary. Olive can't wait to go to a traditional school and make the friends she's always longed for, until a disastrous first day dashes her hopes of ever fitting in.
Then Olive hears whispers about a magical, wish-granting hummingbird that supposedly lives near Macklemore. It'll be the solution to all her problems! If she can find the bird and prove herself worthy, the creature will make her most desperate, secret wish come true.
When it becomes clear that she can't solve the mystery on her own, Olive teams up with some unlikely allies who help her learn the truth about the bird. And on the way, she just might learn that our fragile places lead us to the most wonderful magic of all . . .
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Snow Song
The perfect winter story. This ode to snow, told in rhythmic free verse, follows a girl delighting in the outdoors on a wintry day. All she encounters is framed by the snow. There are fine pearls of snow, a twirl of snow, a curl of snow. The sky unravels into snow, while the hills are knitted caps of snow. She is captivated, as the snow swaddles her world, and makes everything snug — from first light, to the darkness of bedtime. The glorious snow-filled pages of this enchanting story will have children everywhere searching for their mittens.
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Step by Step
Perfect for first day of school sharing or graduation at year’s end, this tender and comforting book is about tackling life’s firsts, one step at a time.
On the morning a little boy is going to start school, his father reassures him: when things seem overwhelming, take it step by step! Whether it is making new friends, learning to write and count, or cleaning up a big mess at the end of the day, he can get through it all and have fun along the way. -
After the Snowfall
This is a beautifully illustrated book that introduces children to the wonder of nature in winter:
A Fox Peeks Out of His Den at a White Forest
All is Silent
A Buck Stands Camouflaged
A great horned owl sits on a nearby branch
The fox climbs out of this den
He passes squirrels eating
He passes mice foraging
The fox reaches a stream where he takes a cold drink
A family of mallard ducks swims by
Across the stream, river otters rest on a rock
Suddenly, the earth trembles. Towering over the fox, a moose takes a cold drink
His thirst quenched, the fox heads home
He passes rabbits hiding in a hollow tree
Chattering crows greet the fox outside his den
After the snowfall.
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Lost
The third title in a quartet of imaginative picture books in which a boy and his beloved granddad discover the wonder of the natural world
A boy and his granddad spend the morning gathering materials to make a sled. When they take it out for a spin, they end up searching for a lost dog. Their snowy adventure takes them all the way to the Arctic, where they are finally able to find the dog—and her new friends! -
Somewhere in the Bayou
Simple, subtle, and drolly funny, the Pumphrey brothers’ newest picture book is a layered exploration of the foolishness of making assumptions and the virtue of curiosity.
When four swamp creatures looking to cross a river come upon a log that would allow for precisely that, they can’t believe their luck. But a questionable tail adjacent to that log gives them second thoughts. Opossum believes it’s a sneaky tail and that they must pass it quietly. Squirrel thinks it’s a scary tail that can be cowed by intimidation. Rabbit decides it’s a mean tail that deserves a taste of its own medicine. As the critters exhaust approaches one by one, Mouse, the smallest of the lot, observes their folly and adjusts accordingly. But is it the mouse or the tail that will defy expectations?
Pairing their iconic illustration style with a wry irreverence, the Pumphrey brothers have crafted a delightful tale that reminds us to think before we act. -
The Lucky Ones
Award-winning author Linda Williams Jackson pulls from her own childhood in the Mississippi Delta to tell the story of Ellis Earl, who dreams of a real house, food enough for the whole family—and to be someone.
It’s 1967, and eleven-year-old Ellis Earl Brown has big dreams. He’s going to grow up to be a teacher or a lawyer—or maybe both—and live in a big brick house in town. There’ll always be enough food in the icebox, and his mama won’t have to run herself ragged looking for work as a maid in order to support Ellis Earl and his eight siblings and niece, Vera. So Ellis Earl applies himself at school, soaking up the lessons that Mr. Foster teaches his class—particularly those about famous colored people like Mr. Thurgood Marshall and Miss Marian Wright—and borrowing books from his teacher’s bookshelf. When Mr. Foster presents him with a copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Ellis Earl is amazed to encounter a family that’s even worse off than his own—and is delighted by the Buckets’ very happy ending. But when Mama tells Ellis Earl that he might need to quit school to help support the family, he wonders if happy endings are only possible in storybooks. Around the historical touchstone of Robert Kennedy’s southern “poverty tour,” Linda Williams Jackson pulls from her own childhood in the Mississippi Delta to tell a detail-rich and poignant story with memorable characters, sure to resonate with readers who have ever felt constricted by their circumstances. -
The Saintly Outlaw
Andrew Perry likes history, but he never expected to experience it firsthand. But that's what happens when he meets the unusual Eve Virtue, a direct descendent of the explorer and entrepreneur Alfred Virtue. Eve has uncovered Alfred Virtue's greatest secret: the mysterious Radiant Stone. Before Andrew knows it, the two of them are in twelfth-century England, caught up in the adventures of the saintly outlaw Robin Hood.
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Bright Winter Night
The forest calls, and creatures come:
big and small, one by one.
They sense there is a task to do
as night descends, replacing blue.
On one bright winter night, a group of woodland creatures emerges from the forest. Despite their differences, they start to build something together, using items found on the forest floor. What are they making? And how quickly can they build it? Something special is happening tonight, and soon the animals are off--in a race to catch a glimpse of one of nature's most astounding wonders! With lyrical text and sparkling artwork, Bright Winter Night is a celebration of the joy and beauty of nature and the special gift of friendship and togetherness.
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Very Good Hats
The first picture book by bestselling novelist Emma Straub, author of This Time Tomorrow, this is a joyous, inventive, adorably illustrated read-aloud that will inspire kids to see ordinary objects in a whole new way.
Some people think hats are fancy things you can buy at a dressy store, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In this book, acorns and raspberries are snug hats for your fingers, and an empty pudding cup is a good hat for a stuffed bear. Pajama pants make dangly hats, books can be dramatic hats, and bubbles make very fine hats as well (if temporary). Readers will be delighted to discover that anything can be a hat if you believe it is. Hats are everywhere you look!