Dedicated to my love of children's books, their authors and little literati all the world over...
Friday, June 19, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Black Bear Cub
Black Bear Cub emerges from his winter den into a springtime wonderland of flowers and trees- and soon learns that the tall timbers are more than just a playground.
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Monday, June 15, 2009
Charlotte's Web
Wilbur, a lovable pig, is rescued from a cruel fate by a beautiful and intelligent spider named Charlotte.
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The Garden of Abdul Gasazi
Alan accidentally allows Miss Hester's dog Fritz to enter a magician's garden and is horrified when he thinks Fritz has been turned into a duck.
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The Blacker the Berry
A collection of poems, including "Golden Goodness," "Cranberry Red," and "Biscuit Brown," celebrating individuality and African-American identity.
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Many Moons
Though many try, only the court jester is able to fulfill Princess Lenore's wish for the moon.
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All-of-a-Kind Family
This book tells the heart-warming story of Ella, Henny, Sarah, Charlotte and Gertie, five sisters who live with their parents in New York City's Lower East Side at the turn of the century.
They share adventures that find them searching for hidden buttons while dusting Mama's front parlor and visiting with the peddlers in Papa's shop on rainy days. The five girls enjoy doing everything together, especially when it involves holidays and surprises.
But no one could have prepared them for the biggest surprise of all!
Elizabeth Leads the Way: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Right to Vote
Elizabeth Cady Stanton stood up and fought for what she believed in. From an early age, she knew that women were not given rights equal to men. But rather than accept her lesser status, Elizabeth went to college and later gathered other like-minded women to challenge the right to vote.Here is the inspiring story of an extraordinary woman who changed America forever because she wouldn’t take “no” for an answer.
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A Child's Garden of Verses
A collection of poems evoking the world and feelings of children.
Pale Male: Citizen Hawk of New York City
The birdwatchers of Central Park were buzzing–a young red-tailed hawk had been spotted, would he stay? The bird they dubbed Pale Male not only stayed, he became one of New York City’s most famous residents. Pale Male and his mate built their nest near the top of one of Fifth Avenue’s swankiest apartment buildings. Nine years and 23 chicks later, Pale Male’s fame had grown so large that a CBS newsman named him Father of the Year! But Pale Male was less beloved by the residents of the building, and in 2004 the owners suddenly removed the nest–setting off an international outcry on behalf of the birds.
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How I Learned Geography
Having fled from war in their troubled homeland, a boy and his family are living in poverty in a strange country. Food is scarce, so when the boy’s father brings home a map instead of bread for supper, at first the boy is furious. But when the map is hung on the wall, it floods their cheerless room with color. As the boy studies its every detail, he is transported to exotic places without ever leaving the room, and he eventually comes to realize that the map feeds him in a way that bread never could.
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Silent Music: A Story of Baghdad
When bombs begin to fall, Ali drowns out the sound of war with a pen.
Like other children living in Baghdad, Ali loves soccer, music and dancing, but most of all, he loves the ancient art of calligraphy. When bombs begin to fall on his city, Ali turns to his pen, writing sweeping and gliding words to the silent music that drowns out the war all around him.
Gorgeously illustrated with collage, pencil and charcoal drawings and, of course, exquisite calligraphy, this timely and yet universal story celebrates art and history but also offers young children a way to understand all they see and hear on the news.
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Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories about Growing Up Scieszka
The Cricket in Times Square
The adventures of a country cricket who unintentionally arrives in New York and is befriended by Tucker Mouse and Harry Cat.
Six Innings: A Game in the Life
A game in the life of a Little League team playing their championship game – and two best friends whose bond is put to the test. Earl Grubb's Pool Supplies plays Northeast Gas & Electric in the Little League championship game, while Sam, who has cancer and is in a wheelchair, has to call the play-by-play instead of participating in the game.
Wanda Gag: The Girl Who Lived to Draw
by Deborah Kogan Ray
Following in the footsteps of her beloved artist father, Wanda led an idyllic childhood, drawing and listening to old-world fairy tales. But when her father died, it was teenage Wanda who worked hard to keep her seven younger siblings fed, clothed, and laughing. She never lost sight of her love of art, however, and her tremendous willpower won her a coveted scholarship to the Art Students League in New York City and then led to a gallery show of her artwork-where an editor of children's books got an idea for a book. The rest, as they say, is history!
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Piano Starts Here: The Young Art Tatum
Parker uses simple, lyrical storytelling and colorful and energetic ink-and-wash illustrations to show the world as young Art Tatum might have seen it. Tatum came from modest beginnings and was nearly blind, but his passion for the piano and his acute memory for any sound that he heard drove him to become a virtuoso who was revered by both classical and jazz pianists alike.
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When the Wolves Returned: Restoring Nature's Balance in Yellowstone
Yellowstone National Park’s majestic geologic wonders and remarkable wildlife draw millions of visitors each year. But there was a time when these natural treasures were in great danger, all because after years of unrestricted hunting, one key piece of the puzzle had been eliminated—the wolf.
Now, more than a decade after scientists realized the wolves’ essential role and returned them to Yellowstone, the park’s natural balance is gradually being restored.Buy it
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Ways to Live Forever
Living through the final stages of leukemia, Sam collects stories, questions, lists, and pictures that create a profoundly moving portrait of how a boy lives when he knows his time is almost up.
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Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai
Wangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize and founder of the Green Belt Movement, grew up in the highlands of Kenya, where fig trees cloaked the hills, fish filled the streams, and the people tended their bountiful gardens. But over many years, as more and more land was cleared, Kenya was transformed. When Wangari returned home from college in America, she found the village gardens dry, the people malnourished, and the trees gone. How could she alone bring back the trees and restore the gardens and the people?
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Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two misfit teens in Depression-era Cleveland, were more like Clark Kent—meek, mild, and myopic—than his secret identity, Superman. Both boys escaped into the worlds of science fiction and pulp magazine adventure tales. Jerry wrote stories, and Joe illustrated them. In 1934, they created a superhero who was everything they were not. It was four more years before they convinced a publisher to take a chance on their Man of Steel in a new format—the comic book.
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Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out
This collection of essays, personal accounts, historical fiction, and poetry melds with an equally stunning array of original art to offer a multifaceted look at America's history through the prism of the White House. Starting with a 1792 call for designers to plan a presidential mansion and continuing through the present day, OUR WHITE HOUSE takes in everything from the amusing antics of presidents' children and pets to the drama of the White House ablaze and the specter of war; from the role of immigrants, African Americans, and Native Americans to the thoughts and actions of many presidents themselves.
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Winnie-the-Pooh
Pooh goes hunting with Piglet, celebrates Eeyore's birthday, and accompanies Christopher Robin and the others on an "Expotition" to the North Pole.
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Horse Song: The Naadam of Mongolia
The world-traveling Lewins take us to Mongolia for the summer festival of Naadam, where legendary child jockeys race half wild horses.
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Way Up and Over Everything
This is an account of the author’s great-great-grandmother Jane, and how she meets a slave new to the plantation, a slave who would prove to have magical powers . . . created by the wish for freedom.
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The Pushcart War
The outbreak of a war between truck drivers and pushcart peddlers brings the mounting problems of traffic to the attention of both the city of New York and the world. The children of the city joyfully join in!
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Savvy
Mibs Beaumont is about to turn thirteen, which in the Beaumont family means her "savvy"-her special power-is about to strike. Her brothers' savvies let them create hurricanes and spark electricity, but Mibs has yet to learn what her savvy is.
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The Story of Ferdinand
Ferdinand likes to sit quietly and smell the flowers, but one day he gets stung by a bee and his snorting and stomping convince everyone that he is the fiercest of bulls.
Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek: A Tall, Thin Tale (Introducing His Forgotten Frontier Friend)
It’s a tale of two boys who get themselves into more trouble than bear cubs in a candy store during the year 1816. Abe is only seven years old, and his pal, Austin, is ten.
Abe and Austin decide to journey down to Knob Creek. The water looks scary and deep, and Austin points out that they don’t know how to swim. Nevertheless, they decide to traverse it. I won’t tell you what happens, but let’s just say that our country wouldn’t be the same if Austin hadn’t been there to help his friend.
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Rapunzel's Revenge
Rapunzel and her amazing hair team up with Jack (of beanstalk fame) to gallop around the wild and western landscape, changing lives, righting wrongs, and bringing joy to every soul they encounter.
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Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Through the Gates and Beyond
In 1981 two artists -- Christo and Jeanne-Claude -- proposed an installation in New York’s Central Park that would span twenty-three miles. This biography is a story of the power of cooperation, and vision, and of the creation of the spectacular Gates.
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The Graveyard Book
Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts!
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The Storyteller's Candle/La velita de los cuentos
It is the winter of 1929, and cousins Hildamar and Santiago have just moved to enormous, chilly New York from their native Puerto Rico. As Three Kings' Day approaches, Hildamar and Santiago mourn the loss of their sunny home and wonder about their future in their adopted city. But when a storyteller and librarian named Pura Belpré arrives in their classroom, the children begin to understand just what a library can mean to a community.
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The Porcupine Year
When Omakayas is twelve winters old, she and her family set off on a harrowing journey. They travel by canoe westward from the shores of Lake Superior along the rivers of northern Minnesota, in search of a new home. While the family has prepared well, unexpected danger, enemies, and hardships will push them to the brink of survival. Omakayas continues to learn from the land and the spirits around her, and she discovers that no matter where she is, or how she is living, she has the one thing she needs to carry her through.
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Buffalo Music
When Molly first settled in Palo Duro Canyon in Texas in the late 1800s, millions of buffalo roamed the land. Molly lived and worked to their music. She stirred the fire to the huff-huff of buffalo breath clouding the chill dawn, swept the dugout to the thunder of hooves. Then different sounds filled the air—the boom and blast of rifles. Before long, the buffalo were gone. But Molly, as stubborn as the buffalo themselves, found a way to save them.
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The Cabin Faced West
For Ann Hamilton, life out west was anything but adventurous. In fact, she had never been lonelier. She longed for the ease and comfort of the days with friends back in Gettysburg-until a stranger rode into Hamilton Hill and changed her life forever.
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The London Eye Mystery
Ted and Kat watched their cousin Salim board the London Eye, but after half an hour it landed and everyone trooped off—except Salim. Where could he have gone? How on earth could he have disappeared into thin air? Ted and his older sister, Kat, become sleuthing partners, since the police are having no luck. Despite their prickly relationship, they overcome their differences to follow a trail of clues across London in a desperate bid to find their cousin. And ultimately it comes down to Ted, whose brain works in its own very unique way, to find the key to the mystery.
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Bird
Young Mekhai, better known as Bird, loves to draw. With drawing you can erase the things that don't turn out right. In real life, problems aren't so easily fixed.
As Bird struggles to understand the death of his beloved grandfather and his artistic brother's decline into drug addiction, he escapes into drawing as an outlet for his emotions and imagination. Along the way, with the help of his grandfather's friend, Bird finds his own special somethin' and wings to fly.
Strega Nona
The abridged version of the award-winning story of an Italian Grandma Witch and her magic pasta-making pot.
All Stations! Distress!: April 15, 1912, the Day the Titanic Sank
It took 4,000 men to build it, 23 tons of animal grease to slide it into the ocean, 100,000 people to wave bon voyage, but only one wrong move to tear the Titanic apart, sinking it into the pages of history. On a cold moonless night in April of 1912, 2,000 passengers--both the uber-rich enjoying a luxury cruise and the dirt-poor hoping to find a new life in America--struggled to survive. Only 700 succeeded. Lifeboats were launched half-full; women were forced to leave their husbands and sons behind; and even those who made it out alive were forever haunted, constantly wondering "why me?"
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A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams
Willie loved to write — words gave him freedom and peace. But he also knew that he needed to earn a living, so when he grew up he went off to medical school and became a doctor — one of the busiest men in town! Yet he never stopped writing.
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Frogs
Frogs are an endless source of fascination, especially when looked at through the lenses of Nic Bishops cameras. Amazing images show the beauty and diversity of frogs from around the world, and simple text conveys basic information about these amphibians.
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Fables
Beautifully illustrated with 50 classic woodcuts by the French artist J.J. Grandville, this collection of 203 of Aesop's most enduring and popular fables features a new Introduction and Afterword.
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Crow Boy
A shy mountain boy in Japan leaves his home at dawn and returns at sunset to go to the village school.
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Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane
Young John Coltrane was all ears. And there was a lot to hear growing up in the South in the 1930s: preachers praying, music on the radio, the bustling of the household. These vivid noises shaped John’s own sound as a musician.
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Are You Ready to Play Outside?
Gerald the elephant and his friend Piggie are outdoors and ready to play when a drop of rain falls “PLINK!” on Piggie’s head. Watching her high-spirited mood dive precipitously through annoyance toward despair, Gerald extends an ear to shelter her. Soon, though, two ecstatic worms cavorting in the rain inspire them to find happiness in wet-weather play.
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What Can You Do with a Rebozo?
A cradle for baby, a superhero's cape, a warm blanket on a cool night--there are so many things you can do with a rebozo.
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A Tree is Nice
This book explains some of the reasons why trees are nice to have around.
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Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Alexander offers us the cranky commiseration we crave as well as a reminder that things may not be all that bad. As Alexander's day progresses, he faces a barrage of bummers worthy of a country- western song: getting smushed in the middle seat of the car, a dessertless lunch sack, a cavity at the dentist's office, stripeless sneakers, witnessing kissing on television, and being forced to sleep in railroad-train pajamas. He resolves several times to move to Australia.
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Caps for Sale
A band of mischievous monkeys steals every one of a peddler's caps while he takes a nap under a tree. This easy-to-read story about a peddler and a band of mischievous monkeys is filled with warmth, humor, and simplicity. Children will delight in following the peddler's efforts to outwit the monkeys, and will ask to read it again and again.
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The House in the Night
This story describes sometimes fantastical pleasures as a bird from the book spirits the child through the starry sky to a wise-faced moon.
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One Boy
On its surface, it is a one-to-ten counting book, illustrated with bright, simple pictures in saturated colors and heavy black outlines. Precise die cuts in every other page add another level of sophistication. On a two-page spread, text on the left identifies what’s to be counted—“THREE APES,” for example— while a die cut in the right-hand page exposes a picture of the subject through the hole. Turn the page, and the die cut frames a piece of the text from the previous spread, incorporating it into a new phrase that spells out a new situation—“BIG ESCAPE”—that is illustrated on the opposite page. And if that weren’t enough, the final spread links the entire book together with a string of consecutive images that is delightfully surprising.
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Where the Wild Things Are
Max dons his wolf suit in pursuit of some mischief and gets sent to bed without supper. Fortuitously, a forest grows in his room, allowing his wild rampage to continue unimpaired.
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Just in Case: A Trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book
As Senor Calavera prepares for Grandma Beetle's birthday he finds an alphabetical assortment of unusual presents, but with the help of Zelmiro the Ghost, he finds the best gift of all.
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George and Martha
Two lovable hippos teach the meaning of friendship in several vignettes: "Split Pea Soup," "The Flying Machine," "The Tub," "The Mirror," "The Tooth."
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Make Way for Ducklings
The busy Boston streets are too dangerous for eight little ducklings! But with a little help from a friendly policeman Mrs. Mallard and her family arrive safely at their new home.
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Anansi the Spider
Anansi the Spider is one of the great folk heroes of the world. He is a rogue, a mischief maker, and a wise, lovable creature who triumphs over larger foes.In this traditional Ashanti tale, Anansi sets out on a long, difficult journey. Threatened by Fish and Falcon, he is saved from terrible fates by his sons. But which of his sons should Anansi reward? Calling upon Nyame, the God of All Things, Anansi solves his predicament in a touching and highly resourceful fashion.
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The Hinky Pink
Thanks — or no thanks — to the Hinky-Pink Anabel is woozy for want of sleep. Her lace looks like cheesecloth; her hems, like saddle cinches. Night after night, the Hinky-Pink keeps wrestling her bedclothes to the floor — and pinching. What is its problem? And how is Anabel to help?
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Owl and Pussycat
This familiar poem has been given exquisite picture book treatment by Jan Brett.
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Frederick
Meet Frederick the poet field mouse whose happy memories help his family endure the darkest days of winter; Swimmy, the imaginative minow who uses his small size in a big way; Alexander, the house mouse who learns the magic of friendship; and a fish who discovers that life in a small pond isn't so bad after all.
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The Biggest, Smallest, Fastest, Tallest Things You've Ever Heard Of
The Biggest, Smallest, Fastest, Tallest Things You'Ve Ever Heard of
This book surveys some of the biggest, smallest, longest, and fastest things in the world.
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The Snowy Day
Waking up to a world of snowy white-what could be better? Young peter can't wait to jump in his snowsuit and run out to explore. There are snowmen to build snowballs to pack, mountains to climb and snowbanks to collapse in-to carve a snow angel! And when the day is done, there's a dark night of dreams and drifting snow, and a new snowy day to awake to.
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Leo the Late Bloomer
Leo isn’t reading, or writing, or drawing, or even speaking, and his father is concerned. But Leo’s mother isn’t. She knows her son will do all those things, and more, when he’s ready.
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Garmann's Summer
Summer is nearly over. The old aunts have come to visit, and autumn is in the air. Everything is ready for Garmann’s first day of school, but he is still nervous. And he can’t believe that he hasn’t lost a single tooth yet, despite his best efforts!
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Harold and the Purple Crayon
Harold goes for an adventurous walk in the moonlight with his purple crayon.
A Is for Art: An Abstract Alphabet
Can you find the hidden letters? Look closely and you will see a letter C made of colorful candy, a letter H hidden in a hook, and an S in a soft shadow. For each letter from A to Z, there is a stunning, original work of art.
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Old Bear
Snug and warm, curled and furry, Old Bear sleeps.
Red, orange, and brown leaves fly through the air, and it is snowing hard. Old Bear doesn't notice.
Old Bear is dreaming about being a cub again. He is dreaming about the beauty of the world. He is dreaming of everything he loves about the forest that is his home.