Houston Family Book List - February 2010

Toddlers (Ages 1-3)

Pouch! by David Ezra Stein
A baby kangaroo takes his first tentative steps outside of his mama’s pouch, meeting other creatures and growing bolder each time.

Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Two unseen speakers argue about whether the creature they are looking at is a rabbit or a duck. As kids will see, it all depends on how you look at it.

Sing-Along Song by JoAnn Early Macken
A child sings along with the songs made by everyday sounds, from the chirping of a robin in the morning to the cooing of his baby sister as she falls asleep in the evening.

Picture Books (Pre K-K)

Not Yet, Rose by Susanna Leonard Hill
While impatiently waiting for the birth of a new brother or sister, Rose imagines the things they will do together and how her life will change.

Dinotrux by Chris Gall
Millions of years ago, the prehistoric ancestors of today’s trucks, such as Garbageadon, Dozeratops and Craneosaurus, roamed the earth until they rusted out and became extinct.

Stagecoach Sal by Deborah Hopkinson
When Sal drives a stagecoach alone for the first time to pick up and deliver mail, her mother is afraid she will run into local outlaw Poetic Pete, but Sal takes care of the notorious outlaw without firing a shot.

Early Readers (Grades 1-3)

Follow Me, Mittens by Lola M. Schaefer
Curious Mittens the kitten goes for a walk with his owner, Nick, but he is distracted by a butterfly and becomes lost.

Max and Mo Make a Snowman by Patricia Lakin
When it starts snowing one school day, Max and Mo, the art room hamsters, watch the “Big Ones” outside making snowmen and they decide to make one, too.

A Snout for Chocolate by Denys Cazet
When Barney gets chicken pox, Grandpa tells him a funny story about saving Mrs. Piggerman’s life to keep his mind off his itching.

Children's Fiction (Grades 4-6)

Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
In central Texas in 1899, eleven-year-old Callie Tate is instructed to be a lady by her mother, learns about love from her older brothers, and studies the natural world with her grandfather, which leads to an important discovery.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
Minli, an adventurous girl from a poor village, buys a magical goldfish and then joins a dragon who cannot fly on a quest to find the Old Man of the Moon in hopes of bringing life to Fruitless Mountain and freshness to Jade River.

The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick
Twelve-year-old Homer, a poor but clever orphan, has extraordinary adventures after running away from his evil uncle to rescue his brother, who has been sold into service in the Civil War.

Teen Fiction (Ages 12 & Up)

Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Cameron Smith is a disaffected sixteen-year-old who is diagnosed with mad cow disease and sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed video gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital in an attempt to find a cure.

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork
Marcelo Sandoval, a seventeen-year-old boy on the high functioning-end of the autistic scale, faces new challenges, including romance and injustice, when he goes to work for his father in the mailroom of a corporate law firm.

Uninvited by Tim Wynne-Jones
After a disturbing freshman year at New York University, Mimi is happy to get away to her father’s remote Canadian cottage, only to discover a stranger living there who has never heard of her or her father and who is convinced that Mimi is responsible for leaving sinister tokens around the property.