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Toddlers (Ages 1-3)
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Color Zoo by Lois Ehlert
Lois Ehlert uses cut outs in the pages revealing parts of the next page to create animals. Children will identify animals along with shapes and colors as they look through this wonderful book.
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The Big Yawn by Keith Faulkner
This is a wonderful book for bedtime that starts with a little yawn by a little bug and with each page turned there is a bigger yawn by a slightly bigger animal.
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Piggies by Don and Audrey Wood
Big beautiful illustrations and gentle text tell the adventures of 10 little piggies on 10 little fingers. Children can follow the actions of the hands in this book as the story goes along letting their 10 little piggies skip down their tummy and dance on their toes!
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Picture Books (Pre K-K)
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A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever by Marla Frazee
James and Eamon have the best week ever when they spend a week at a beach house with Eamon’s grandparents. During the day the boys attend a nature camp. The grandparents try to interest the boys in their own hobbies but James and Eamon have ideas of their own about how to spend their time.
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When Dinosaurs Came With Everything by Elise Broach
A young boy is bored by the idea of running errands with his mom. Imagine his surprise when at each stop they are giving away a dinosaur! Once he has acquired four of these large creatures his concerned mom decides to head home. At home his mom finds interesting uses for each of these beasts.
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Skunkdog by Emily Jenkins
Dumpling is a dog with no sense of smell. She can’t relate to other dogs and their obsession with smells so she has no friends and is very lonely. This is a sweet story of how she becomes friends with a skunk and the special issues of having an odiferous friend that surprises her family.
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Early Readers (Grades 1-3)
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I Love My New Toy! by Mo Willems
Elephant and Piggie are best friends. Piggie has a new toy which Elephant accidentally breaks. How they work through their feelings and save their friendship makes a very sweet story.
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Minnie and Moo and the Haunted Sweater by Denys Cazet
Minnie and Moo are cow best friends with several books about their adventures together. In this misadventure it is Farmer’s birthday and Moo is knitting him a sweater. But something is wrong—one sleeve is longer than the other and the sweater can sneeze!
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Mr. Putter & Tabby See the Stars by Cynthia Rylant
Mr. Putter and Tabby are featured in a series of books by Cynthia Rylant. In this one Mr. Putter and Tabby can’t sleep one night so they decide to take a walk and look at the stars. On their walk they meet their neighbor, Mrs. Teaberry and her dog, Zeke who also couldn’t sleep. It turns out many of their neighbors have trouble sleeping this night and events turn into a delightful gathering
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Children's Fiction (Grades 4-6)
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Calder Game by Blue Balliett
Calder Pillay disappears from a remote English village at the same time that a sculpture by Alexander Calder also disappears. His friends Petra and Tommy fly in from Chicago to help solve the mystery of the disappearances working out clues with art and puzzles—each with their own special talents. This is the third book in the series that started with Chasing Vermeer.
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Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall
This is the second book about the Penderwick sisters and it is as entertaining as the first. When their widowed father starts to date the sisters are horrified and come up with several plans to stop the dating leading to hilarity and a very satisfying ending.
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Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things by Wendelin Van Draanen
Sammy is always getting mixed up in local mysteries. This time she is on her first camping and hiking trip when she stumbles onto a mystery surrounding endangered condors. With blisters on her feet and the help of her friends Sammy works to figure out who is sabotaging the condors and why.
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Teen Fiction (Ages 12 & Up)
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Science Fair: A Story of Mystery, Danger, International Suspense, and a Very Nervous Frog
by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
Toby is an ordinary student at Hubble Middle School when a foreign country decides to use the science fair at his school to take over the United States. Toby and his friends try to find out what is going on and how to stop it while getting in trouble with the principal and being chased by a crazed e-bayer dressed as Darth Vader! This action packed, face paced book reads like a movie--jumping from scene to scene in short chapters that keep you hooked from page one!
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Mystery of the Third Lucretia by Susan Runholt
Best friends Kari and Lucas get mixed up in an International art forgery plot while on a trip to London, Paris and Amsterdam. The two girls are very creative as spies and are smart enough to put the pieces together in this exciting mystery.
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Secrets of My Hollywood Life: Family Affairs by Jen Calonita
Kaitlin is a superstar teen actress who has just finished her first movie role. Now she is back on the set of her successful television series with her costar and enemy Sky. But it turns out that they both have a new enemy out to steal the show and they just might have to join forces against her. This is the third book about Kaitlin and her life as a superstar. It’s fun and exciting and she shares a lot of secrets about what Hollywood life is really like!
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HCPL's Book Bites column appears monthly in Houston Family Magazine. Each column features suggested books for toddlers through teens. Get the new list every month in the magazine, available at all of our branches. Previous columns.
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