"Uh-oh! Someone needs cartooning help," says the little green-clad Magic Cartooning Elf, showing up at the side of a young princess who is discouraged that she can't draw well enough to make a comic. He starts a "real-life comic book adventure" with her that will serve to explain everything she... Read More
What a hoot! A picture book about the fifty states, narrated by a bespectacled bald eagle holding a microphone and perched on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Below him is a colorful map of the U.S., surrounded by little framed portraits of each state's bird. "Good evening, everyone, and welcome... Read More
As a companion to his Caldecott Honor winner, Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet, which was illustrated in red, black, and white, McLiman's ocean counting book uses a deep blue hue. He uses pencil, brush, India ink, and computer to present ocean creatures and their habitats from one... Read More
"My dad says if you lose a tooth in Africa and put it under a gourd, you will get a chicken from the African Tooth Fairy!" That's Amina speaking, as she and her family set out from their home in Portland, Oregon, to visit her father's family in Bamako, Mali.... Read More
On February 3, after the crowds of humans have dispersed, Groundhog bemoans the fickleness of being a once-a-year wonder. "I don't get it. Where is everybody? Yesterday I was BIG news, a star, king of the mound! Everyone wanted my weather report. Today . . . nothing!" Listening to and... Read More
This brief picture book biography, filled with interesting anecdotes and quotes, hits the highlights of Edison’s life, experimenting, tinkering, and reading. Growing up in Port Huron, Michigan, Tom was home-schooled by his mother after his teacher called the daydreaming boy “addled.” The full-page watercolors pull us right in to each... Read More
Take a tour of earth's natural wonders to find the longest river (the Nile: 4,145 miles), the highest mountain (Mount Everest: 29,028 feet); the coldest place (Vostok, Antarctica at 129 below zero), and the windiest spot (atop Mount Washington in New Hampshire, with a record wind of 231 miles per... Read More
Years ago, when I was a new school librarian, a third grade boy came into the library. "Miss Freeman, do you have any books on the blue-footed booby?" he asked earnestly. "Very funny," I said. "No, really, do you have any books on the blue-footed booby?" "Ha, ha," I replied... Read More
In October of 1888, a stray brown and white terrier wandered out of the rain into the post office in Albany, New York, and sacked out on a pile of canvas mail pouches. He stayed, hopping aboard the mail wagon each day for a ride to the train depot. One... Read More
Every page in this delightful non-fiction picture book offers a unique view into a different type of home, the reasons behind its design features, and a brief history of its people. Stunningly-beautiful collage illustrations, loads of detail, interesting facts and figures, and just the right amount of information come together... Read More
Do you know all about Lincoln? This unusual profile, narrated by a curious child and illustrated with gouache paintings as colorful as a 64-count Crayola Crayon package, invites youngsters to find out. The zealous young researcher... Read More
Isn't that the most delightful subtitle for a book? It foreshadows the fun you're going to have reading this picture book biography, winner of a Sibert Honor, about the headstrong and irrepressible oldest child and only daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt. It starts, "Theodore Roosevelt had a small problem." In... Read More
With balloon dialogue and classic retro comic book style illustrations, heavy on the yellow, this picture book biography looks like an old time true confessions story. During the Great Depression, in 1930, two nebbishy guys, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, met in high school. Jerry's heroes were fictional characters from... Read More
Arnosky has written so many stellar nature and animal nonfiction picture books, including charmers about an old coot named Crinkleroot, no longer in print, alas. In this information-packed guide to animal tracks, with striking paintings done in pencil and acrylic, he identifies the tracks, actual size, of hoofed mammals, bears,... Read More
Just look at that welcoming cover, a huge close-up portrait of a smiling Martin Luther King, Jr., done in shades of brown and black watercolors. (There's not even a title or author or illustrator listed; you have to turn to the back cover to find them.) That iconic image, along... Read More
"Once there were two towers side by side.They were each a quarter of a mile high;one thousand three hundred and forty feet.The tallest buildings in New York City."A young street performer who "loved to walk and dance on a rope he tied between two trees" looked at the Twin Towers... Read More
Born in 1940 in Clarksville, Tennessee, the third youngest of 22 children, Wilma was a sickly child. Her mother usually nursed her through each illness; medical care was expensive and there was only one doctor in town who would treat black people. At age five, Wilma got a high fever... Read More
"This book will tell you what would happen, and what you would do, if you were the first kid on Mars." The author posits that someday, scientists, engineers, astronauts, and their families might set up a colony on Mars. Follow an unnamed young male space traveler (referred to in second... Read More
Though it’s been three decades since Pelé dominated the professional soccer world, his fame endures and if you know a young soccer-player, this may be the perfect choice. In this electric picture book biography, written in both English and Spanish, we first watch him in action. “Pelé runs across the... Read More
Every kid has a wish – a dream for his or her own future. Henry Aaron was no exception. He wanted to play baseball – professional baseball -- when he grew up. But baseball stadiums in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama in the l940s were for “WHITES ONLY.” After high... Read More
More than forty million (!) people worldwide watch the Macy’s Parade each year, enchanted by the huge balloons that travel through New York City’s canyons, nodding, smiling, and engaging the audience. Do any of us wonder who came up with the idea for those balloons? Curious children can now have... Read More
Attention all wannabe scientists! Reading this book will spare you the time and effort it would take to test these 11 hypotheses. Each one of these experiments was such a spectacular and complete failure they need never be tried again. Besides, readers will be laughing... Read More
Talk about “odd couples!” Who would imagine a friendship between a baby macaque and a pigeon? A lion cub and a piglet? A polar bear (all 1200 pounds of him) and an Eskimo sled dog? In zoos, wildlife refuges, and animal hospitals from China to Florida, Siberia to Cincinnati, unlikely... Read More
You thought you knew all about snowflakes because you read the Caldecott winning picture book biography Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and illustrated by Mary Azarian? Think again. Here's a striking nonfiction picture book that fills in a lot more of the details with a dual text... Read More
In an oversized nonfiction picture book, illustrated with meticulous and often awe-inspiring full-page art, done in watercolor, ink, acrylic, and gouache, follow the preparations of Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins on their historic July, 1969 mission to the moon. Large-sized print makes this look like an easy reader,... Read More
All of the eighteen animals and parts of animals are shown actual size in this spectacular oversized science picture book. Children can compare and contrast the smallest fish (dwarf goby, length: 1/3 inch) with the twelve-inch eye of the giant squid. They can examine the biggest spider (the twelve-inch Goliath... Read More
Follow nine-year-old boxing champ Sugar Boy Younan as he spends a Saturday in Brooklyn training with other athletes—kids and adults, male and female—in “the most famous boxing gym in the world.” Combining a poetic descriptive text, gritty, realistic watercolors, and shaded pencil sketches, this evocative picture book envelops the reader... Read More
Here's the cocoa table book of the year, a treasured present for all your dinosaur-obsessed friends and relatives, ages 3 to 300, who will be bowled over and enraptured by Sabuda and Reinhart's latest feat of paper engineering genius. It's a look at all things dinosaur, packing in facts on... Read More
When you first pick up this pink book with the three little girl ballerinas on the cover, you think this will be a book your little girls will love, and that's true. But the very young dancers—Nicole, Shekinah, Veronica, Abbey, and Monica—are not your everyday dancers. While they've always wanted... Read More
On the first page, there is an announcement, in a dialogue balloon, from Fran, the youngest member of the Farley family: "May I have your attention, please?" Yes, Fran? Oh, she wants us to read the sign she is holding. It says, "WARNING: Many of the facts in this book... Read More
Astonishing facts abound in this eye-popping look at 22 of the strongest animals, substances, and elements on earth, including the Komatsu D575A, the strongest bulldozer in the world, and the stickiest glue on earth, made by Caulobacter crescentus, a type of bacteria found in water pipes. For each breezy but... Read More
"If you decide to go to the moon in your own rocket ship, read this book before you start." So begins a resplendent you-are-there nonfiction picture book, narrated in second person, with sensational full-page paintings. We follow an eager blonde-haired boy as he blasts off in a rocket ship and... Read More
In an innovative and intriguing animal book illustrated with dazzling cut paper collages, explore the animal kingdom sorted by color. There are four pages of red animals, with two or three profiles on each page, and an explanation of how the color red helps that animal stay alive. Take a... Read More
On April 2, 1931, at an exhibition game between the New York Yankees and the Chattanooga Lookouts, something unheard of happened. Jackie Mitchell, the pitcher for the Tennessee team, took on the giants of the Yankees, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. First, Babe Ruth came up to the plate. She... Read More
"If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." Senator Ted Kennedy did just that—an effusive black Portuguese Water Dog named Splash, who narrates this breezy and informative tour of the nation's capital and guide to daily life in the Capitol. Splash attends the Senator's staff meeting, takes a... Read More
Look closely at the cover of this book, with the glowing oversized color photo of a brown and reddish jumping spider, standing on tiptoes, gazing right at you. The details are mesmerizing, from its glossy black eyes (5 of 8 are visible; most spiders have eight, as you learn on... Read More
Amidst the newspaper coverage of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004, there was a remarkable photo of a baby hippo snuggling against a giant tortoise. Moved by the story of Owen, the orphaned baby hippo who bonded with Mzee, a 130-year-old giant tortoise, Craig Hatkoff and his... Read More
Starting with the day in 1991 that the young red-tailed hawk arrived in Central Park, this appealing and informative nonfiction picture book chronicles the life, loves, and troubles of Pale Male in New York City. Bird watchers were in thrall when the hawk and his mate built a nest on... Read More
Remember the Charles Atlas ads in the back of the comic books declaring, “Don’t be a 97-pound weakling! Don’t let bullies kick sand in your face!”? Did you know he was a real guy? An inspiration for all us flab-filled folks, this peppy picture book biography of the famed bodybuilder,... Read More
For kids who find the study of science intimidating, wait till they meet the male counterpart to Ms. Frizzle (who kids already know and love from Joanna Cole’s “The Magic School Bus” books)—Mr. Whiskers, a teacher with a beard, a blond crew cut, and a passion for “the big idea.”... Read More
According to portrait artist, Hanoch Piven, athletes are made of big mouths (Muhammad Ali), great minds (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), teamwork (Mia Hamm), and 20 other important attributes. Each page is a visual treat—a portrait of a famous athlete, often in motion, done as a caricature, with a big head and tiny... Read More