With teeth bared and menacing looks on their fierce profiles, a big turquoise shark and a smoke-belching gray-blue train engine are gearing up for an intense confrontation. The shark sneers, “I’M GOING TO CHOO-CHOO YOU UP AND SPIT YOU OUT,” and the unintimidated train responds, “HA! I’M GOING... Read More

Look at the white animal head on the striking blue cover, outlined in a heavy black line. Quick--what is it? Is it a duck? Look on the left. It must be a duck; it's saying, "Quack." But, wait. Now look to the right. See the nose sniffing, just like a... Read More

Roy's friends give him a great big birthday present. "What's this thing?" he asks. It's a saddle. It comes with instructions: "1. Find a horse. 2. Enjoy the ride." Take a look at Roy. He's wearing a big cowboy hat, vest, cowboy boots, bandana, and a map of Texas on... Read More

Take a glorious month-by-month tour through the kindergarten year with master teacher Miss Cribbage, a guinea pig, as seen through the eyes of Emily the rabbit, one of eight animal students in the class. You'll get to know all of them: Diane, Emily, Louise, Martha, Odysseus, Otis, Roger, and Terrance,... Read More

Glaring straight at you from the cover and from the first double-page spread is a big, bad, gleaming blue and green Tyrannosaurus Rex, with fearsome claws and huge white choppers, exuding a light blue stream of bad breath. "Are you BAD?" he growls ferociously. The first time I shared this... Read More

Party animal Chato, the coolest cat in el barrio, is having a great time at the neighborhood birthday party that the mice next door are throwing for Chorizo the dog. They play shake-paws, jiggle-the-mice, and toss-the-cat-in-the-blanket. Chato's best homecat, Novio Boy, doesn't seem to be having fun. Are... Read More

Though the sign on his front door says "No Visitors Allowed," Bear hears a knock and opens the door only to find a mouse, "small and gray and bright-eyed." "Go away," Bear says firmly, but that little mouse keeps showing up everywhere: in the cupboard ("Perhaps we could just have... Read More

Meet a spunky and determined African American schoolkid, Grace Campbell, who, upon inspecting her teacher's big poster of the presidents, exclaims in outrage, “Where are the GIRLS?” Mrs. Barrington explains, “The truth is, our country has never had a woman president.” Grace announces, “I've been thinking it over, and I'd... Read More

This frantic, insanely funny send-up of fairy tales presents nine little comic masterpieces, with a cast that includes "The Princess and the Bowling Ball," "The Other Frog Prince," "Little Red Running Shorts," and the malodorous title character, with a head made from a thick wheel of cheese, with bacon for... Read More

The same bats that cavorted in Bats at the Beach are back for another nocturnal adventure on an otherwise dull night. "We've feasted, fluttered, swooped, and soared, / And yet, we're still a little bored." So when "word spreads quickly from afar" that a window has been left... Read More

Wabi Sabi, a plain brown cat from Kyoto, Japan, is curious when she overhears a visitor ask the meaning of her name, and her master says only, "That's hard to explain." "It had never occurred to her before that wabi sabi was anything more than her name." So the cat... Read More

There are three endearing and hilarious sister stories in this large and expressive picture book. In the title story, big sister, Annie, is taking a cooking class, and she is preparing the family's meals this weekend. Picky little sister Sophie inspects everything, screening raisins from her cereal, looking for fat... Read More

Harold decided to take a walk in the moonlight. So he drew a moon, and then a path to follow it. He decided to take a short cut, and veered off the path that he originally drew to keep him from getting lost. "The short cut led right to where... Read More

Pen and ink renditions of French, stickmen-drawn girls give way to lush watercolor drawings of 1930's Parisian streets, allowing this classic picture book to withstand the test of time. The girls' teacher Ms. Clavel leads Madeline and her peers in two straight lines through the famous streets of Paris. The... Read More

Oh, the heartbreak of liking someone who doesn't like you back. The narrator, six-year-old Lily, yearns to be noticed by seven-year-old Tamika at the neighborhood pool on Wednesday playgroup day. Lily is ever hopeful, claiming, "Tamika is my best friend. She just doesn't know it yet." Tamika ignores her in... Read More

"Everybody knows the story of the Three Little Pigs. Or at least they think they do. But I'll let you in on a little secret. Nobody knows the real story, because nobody has ever heard my side of the story." That's Alexander T. Wolf talking, and he'd like... Read More

I love Denise Fleming's paper pulp-illustrated picture books in general, but this one left me howling, it's that cute. You may already be acquainted with Buster, a soulful reddish-brown dog with black-tipped paws, ears and nose, from his eponymous first book, Buster, where he had to come to terms with... Read More

In one week, Rosa Maria's youngest grandchild, Little Catalina, will be seven. The whole family will squeeze into Rosa Maria's tiny casita for the party. Each day of that week, she plans the menu: enchiladas, rice and beans-Rosa Maria knows no dinner is complete without rice and beans-birthday cake, lemonade,... Read More

Karl, Michael, and Addy are intrigued with their new neighbor, Stillwater, a kindly giant panda who speaks with a slight panda accent, when he comes over to retrieve his red umbrella from their backyard. One at a time, the siblings, even the youngest, Karl, who is "shy around bears he... Read More

"George's mother said: 'Bark, George.'George went: 'Meow.''No, George,' said George's mother.'Cats go meow. Dogs go arf. Now, bark, George.'George went: 'Quack-quack.'"Every time the floppy-eared brown dog tries to bark, he meows, quacks, oinks, or moos instead. George's mother, a matronly olive drab-colored dog sporting a red bandana around her neck,... Read More

"Farmer Brown has a problem.His cows love to type.All day long he hearsClick, clack, moo.Click, clack, moo.Clickety, clack, moo."Have you ever read a more absurd and hilarious first page of a picture book? The black-lined double-page watercolors of the big-nosed, white-bearded, straw-hatted, red-bandanna and... Read More

Librarians all cheer for this charming, witty, stereotype-bashing tall tale-like heroine, Library Lil, a passionate advocate of books and reading, but don't worry-kids love her, too. We meet her as a strong, book-toting tyke who, by age eight, had read all the books in the children's room and started in... Read More

Miss Cora Lee Merriweather may not be the sweetest of women, with her "lemon-pucker mouth and hair scraped back into a hard little bun," but she runs the best bake shop in town. "The chocolate in her Mississippi mud pie was darker that the devil's own heart. Her sponge cake... Read More

Dramatic pen and ink and watercolor illustrations bring to life a lively Native American pourquoi (how and why) tale from the East Coast. On a walk one autumn day, Bear begins to brag that he is the biggest, strongest, and loudest of all the animals. "I am Bear, I am... Read More

At the ripe old age of 21 days, Martina Josefina Catalina Cucaracha, a beautiful cockroach who lives with her family in a cozy street lamp in Old Havana, is ready to give her leg in marriage. Abuela, her Cuban grandmother, gives her "un consejo increíble, some shocking advice." She tells... Read More

Doreen Cronin, who gave us the incomparable Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type, here introduces an otherwise disparaged creature for whom you'll gain great respect and affection, a brown earthworm. Start with the endpapers, a scrapbook of captioned photos like "My first tunnel" and "The family vacation-on Compost... Read More

In one of my very favorite picture books of 2009, skinny red-haired Sal and his bespectacled, chubby blond pal, Frankie, are rehashing everything they've done today. So far they've: played every sport ever invented, painted "more pictures in a day than Van Gogh painted in a lifetime, baked enough cookies... Read More

Filling the front cover is the massive head of a lion, its eyes glancing off to your left. What's he looking at? Turn to the back cover, and you'll see: a brown mouse sitting on a branch in the yellow grass. Notice what's missing? There's no title or author on... Read More

Unable to reach the tantalizing bunch of purple grapes high in a tree, Fox, who considers himself sly, clever, and smart, makes a plan to get them. "Hop. Skip. Jump. Flying leap. And . . . No grapes." Which is when he turns to Bear for help. Bear eyes Fox's... Read More

The first captivating book about the delectable piglet, Olivia, begins, "This is Olivia. She is good at lots of things. She is very good at wearing people out. She even wears herself out." Olivia trundles stoically through her days, building a sand Empire State Building at the beach, dancing instead... Read More

Mommy wakes the little rabbit narrator early one morning to announce that it has been snowing all night. Kindergarten is closed, the school bus is stuck, and Daddy's flight has been canceled. Mama doesn't want her little one to catch cold, but the bunny sneaks outside onto the apartment balcony... Read More

Story-lovers have always been fond of noodlehead, nitwit, and fool stories, These characters are hapless and drive everyone crazy, being unable to do much of anything right, on account of how lazy or befuddled they are. Noodleheads are not necessarily tricksters, as are the beloved folktale scamps, Anansi the Spider... Read More

"Something's fishy around here," mutters orange and yellow cat, Bandit, standing amid stacks of boxes and watching "his" couch being carried out of the house by a hairy-legged guy. His person, Michelle, scoops him up—"Squeeze a hairball out of me, why don't you!" he gasps—and puts him in his cat... Read More

The dinosaur citizens of Jurassica are in a panic when a mob of misshapen mutants and reptilian cyborgs from the pirate ship Blackrot rampages through the Imperial Palace, making off with the famous Jewels of Jurassica. The President calls in Captain Raptor to pursue the evildoers. Raptor and his fearless... Read More

"What a waste of a chunk of cheddar," the rat grumbles, gazing at the huge wedge of cheese down in the dell. It looks so yellow, so mellow, and so tasty. Defying the posted rules and regulations, which state, "The cheese stands alone," the rat grabs a napkin and heads... Read More

For Moka, a personable brown and white dog, life is perfect until Michelle, his little girl, reads him a book about wolves, which makes him reevaluate his whole existence. No longer content with his life as a house pet, especially when Michelle makes him dress up for tea parties, Moka... Read More

Building a sand castle at the beach one day, young Jeremy Jacobs encounters Brain Beard and his motley pirate crew. He joins them aboard ship as their official digger and off they sail to find a safe place to bury their treasure chest of gold and jewels. Jeremy learns pirate... Read More

A no-nonsense, tough-talking New York City garbage truck explains how he scarfs down your bags of trash each night while you sleep. “See those bags? I smell BREAKFAST!” That truck's got a mug on him, by turns grinning, scowling, and looking tough. Thick, black-outlined watercolors against dark charcoal backgrounds lit... Read More

Leaving the Laundromat with her daddy, toddler Trixie realizes she’s missing her constant and beloved companion, Knuffle Bunny. (Listeners will notice the face of the stuffed rabbit that Dad has just inadvertently loaded into the washing machine.) Unfortunately, Daddy can't seem to comprehend Trixie’s baby talk—“Aggle flaggle klabble!"—when she tries... Read More

Lilly’s heart leaps when her adored teacher, Mr. Slinger, reveals to his class of mice that he is going to marry Ms. Shotwell, the school nurse. “It will be the biggest day of my life,” she tells herself, confident that she will be his flower girl. In her bedroom, she... Read More

“Before Harry was born, there was ME! Now there’s me. And Harry.” Pity the poor narrator—beleaguered, disillusioned, ignored, and aggrieved—a former only child for whom life used to be bliss. Harry, a winsome and contented diaper-clad baby, takes an uninvited bite of his big brother’s banana; spits up smelly, yucky,... Read More

On an otherwise boring errand day with his mother, a boy notes an interesting sign at the bakery: "BUY A DOZEN, GET A DINOSAUR." Sure enough, as they walk out with their box of doughnuts, the lady behind the counter brings out a free dinosaur—a prodigious green triceratops that follows... Read More

All of the forest animals are in a rush to hide when they see Wolf approaching, looking dapper and dangerous in his blue suit and tie, his yellow eyes gleaming, and fangs drooling. As the sun sets and shadows lengthen, the rabbits, raccoons, and pigs race inside a house built... Read More