Jeannie Baker.  Home

A wordless picture book that observes the changes in a neighborhood from before a girl is born until she is an adult, as it first decays and then is renewed by the efforts of the residents.

Karen Beaumont.  Baby Danced the Polka

It's nap time at the farm, but one un-sleepy baby has a different plan ... Baby wants to dance.

Don Brown.  Odd Boy Out:  Young Albert Einstein

An introduction to the work and early life of the twentieth-century physicist whose theory of relativity revolutionized scientific thinking.

Chih-Yuan Chen.  Guji Guji

Crocodile Guji Guji was raised by a family of ducks and things are great until one day he meets three crocodiles who tell him that he isn't a duck. When they ask Guji Guji to help them trap the ducks he feels torn and must decide who he is, what he is, and what's really important.

Nina Crews.  The Neighborhood Mother Goose

A collection of nursery rhymes, both familiar and lesser known, illustrated with photographs in a city setting.

Karen English.  Hot Day on Abbott Avenue

After having a fight, two friends spend the day ignoring each other, until the lure of a game of jump rope helps them to forget about being mad.

Lisa Campbell Ernst.  The Turn-Around, Upside-Down Alphabet

Book   An alphabet book in which each letter becomes three different objects as the book is turned different directions, as when A becomes a bird's beak, a drippy ice cream cone, and the point of a star.

Paul Fleischman.  Sidewalk Circus

A young girl watches as the activities across the street from her bus stop become a circus.

Mem Fox.  Where Is the Green Sheep?

A story about many different sheep, and one that seems to be missing.

Kevin Henkes.  Kitten's First Full Moon

When Kitten mistakes the full moon for a bowl of milk, she ends up tired, wet, and hungry trying to reach it.

Deborah Hopkinson.  Apples to Oregon:  Being the (Slightly)

True Narrative of How a Brave Pioneer Father Brought Apples, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Grapes, and Cherries (and Children) Across the Plains   A pioneer father transports his beloved fruit trees and his family to Oregon in the mid-nineteenth century. Based loosely on the life of Henderson Luelling.

Barbara Knutson.  Love and Roast Chicken:  A Trickster Tale

from the Andes Mountains   In this folktale from the Andes, a clever guinea pig repeatedly outsmarts the fox that wants to eat him for dinner.

Barbara Lehman.  The Red Book

This book is about a book . A magical red book without any words. When you turn the pages you'll experience a new kind of adventure through the power of story.

Lenore Look.   Ruby Lu, Brave and True

"Almost-eight-year-old" Ruby Lu spends time with her baby brother, goes to Chinese school, performs magic tricks and learns to drive, and has adventures with both old and new friends.

Robert Neubecker.  Wow!  City!

Everyone dreams of visiting the big city, with its bright lights, tall buildings, and millions and millions of people. One lucky girl named Izzy climbs in her stroller and rides through all the hustle and bustle, impressed by the sheer magnitude of everything she sees.

Jack Prelutsky.  If Not for the Cat

Haiku-like poems describe a variety of animals.

Anushka Ravishankar.  Tiger on a Tree

After trapping a tiger in a tree, a group of men must decide what to do with it.

Laura Vaccaro Seeger.  Lemons Are Not Red

Clever cutouts in the pages make a simple, original, and utterly beguiling introduction to color.

Judy Sierra.  Wild About Books

A librarian named Mavis McGrew introduces the animals in the zoo to the joy of reading when she drives her bookmobile to the zoo by mistake.

Lauren Thompson.  Polar Bear Night

After wandering out at night to watch a magical star shower, a polar bear cub returns home to snuggle with her mother in their warm den.

Mo Willems.  Knuffle Bunny:  A Cautionary Tale

After Trixie and daddy leave the laundromat, something very important turns up missing.

Christopher Wormell.  Teeth, Tails, & Tentacles:  An Animal

Counting Book   The first portion of the work is a counting book covering the numbers one to twenty with block prints of animals. The second portion of the work has factual information concerning the animals.

Molly Bang.  My Light

The sun narrates an explanation of light and energy in which the generation of electricity can be traced back to it. Tiny yellow dots represent the sun's power as it streams from light, water, wind, and electricity.

Carmen T. Bernier-Grand.  Cesar:  Si, Se Pude! = Yes, We Can!

A look at the Mexican American labor leader who worked to improve conditions for migrant farm workers.

Bodil Bredsdorff.  The Crow-Girl

After the death of her grandmother, a young orphaned girl leaves her house by the cove and begins a journey which leads her to people and experiences that exemplify the wisdom her grandmother had shared with her.

Carolyn Coman.  The Big House

When Ivy and Ray's parents are sent to jail, and left in the custody of their parent's accusers, they decide to look for evidence that will "spring" their parents.

Frank Cottrell Boyce.  Millions

After their mother dies, two brothers find a huge amount of money which they must spend quickly before England switches to the new European currency, but they disagree on what to do with it.

Rita Golden Gelman.  Doodler Doodling

Teachers teach, flyers fly, painters paint, climbers climb and teachers fly, climbers paint ....

John Grandits.  Technically, It's Not My Fault:  Concrete Poems

An eleven-year-old boy named Robert voices typical-and not so typical-middle-grade concerns in this unique, memorable collection of hilarious poems.

Nikki Grimes.  What Is Goodbye?

Alternating poems by a brother and sister convey their feelings about the death of their older brother and the impact it had on their family.

Virginia Hamilton.  The People Could Fly:  The Picture Book

In this retelling of a folktale, a group of slaves, unable to bear their sadness and starvation any longer, calls upon the African magic that allows them to fly away.

Karen Hesse.  The Cats in Krasinski Square

Two Jewish sisters, escapees of the infamous Warsaw ghetto, devise a plan to thwart an attempt by the Gestapo to intercept food bound for starving people behind the dark Wall.

Margaret Hodges.  Merlin and the Making of the King

A retelling of three Arthurian legends, "The Sword in the Stone," "Excalibur," and "The Lady of the Lake," which feature Merlin, King Arthur, and other familiar figures.

Eva Ibbotson.  The Star of Kazan

After twelve-year-old Annika, a foundling living in late nineteenth-century Vienna, inherits a trunk of costume jewelry, a woman claiming to be her aristocratic mother arrives and takes her to live in a strangely decrepit mansion in Germany.

Marthe Jocelyn.  Mable Riley:  A Reliable Record of Humdrum,

Peril, and Romance   In 1901, fourteen-year-old Mable Riley dreams of being a writer and having adventures while stuck in Perth County, Ontario, assisting her sister in teaching school and secretly becoming friends with a neighbor who holds scandalous opinions on women's rights.

Barbara Kerley.  Walt Whitman:  Words for America

A biography of the American poet whose compassion led him to nurse soldiers during the Civil War, to give voice to the nation's grief at Lincoln's assassination, and to capture the true American spirit in verse.

Youme Landowne.  Selavi, That Is Life:  A Haitian Story of Hope

A homeless boy on the streets of Haiti joins other street children, and together they build a home and a radio station where they can care for themselves and for other homeless children.

L. S. Matthews.  Fish

As fighting closes in on the village where Tiger's parents have been working, the three of them and a mysterious guide set out on a difficult journey to safety.

Sy Montgomery.  The Tarantula Scientist

Describes the research that Samuel Marshall and his students are doing on tarantulas, including the largest spider on earth, the Goliath birdeating tarantula.

Toni Morrison.  Remember:  The Journey to School Integration

Presents a pictorial guide to depict the historical events surrounding school desegregation and tells a fictional account of the dialogue and emotions of the children during this time.

Marissa Moss.  Mighty Jackie:  The Strike-Out Queen

In 1931, seventeen-year-old Jackie Mitchell pitches against Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game, becoming the first professional female pitcher in baseball history.

Philippa Pearce.  The Little Gentleman

A young girl's dull life is transformed when she meets and befriends an extraordinary talking mole that likes to be read to and tell of his own past exploits throughout the centuries.

Gregory Rogers.  The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard

A boy playing among the warehouses of London kicks a soccer ball into an abandoned theater. There he finds an enchanted cape that transports him back in time right onto the stage of one of William Shakespeare's plays! A comic romp through Shakespeare's London featuring an intrepid little boy, a friendly bear, and-in the role of dastardly villain-the Bard himself.

James Rumford.  Sequoyah:  The Cherokee Man Who Gave His

People Writing   While walking through a forest of sequoias, a father tells his family the story of the tree's namesake. Sequoyah was a Cherokee man who invented a system of writing for his people.

Rosalyn Schanzer.  George vs. George:  The American

Revolution as Seen from Both Sides   Explores how the characters and lives of King George III of England and George Washington affected the progress and outcome of the American Revolution.

Jon Scieszka.  Science Verse

When the teacher tells his class that they can hear the poetry of science in everything, a student is struck with a curse and begins hearing nothing but science verses that sound very much like some well-known poems.

Ntozake Shange.  ellington was not a street

A poem about the African American community of talented artists that frequented the author's childhood home.

Peter Sis.  The Train of States

Gives information about each state, including capital, motto, state tree, state bird, source of name, and date of statehood.

Jacqueline Woodson.  Coming on Home Soon

Ada Ruth's mama must go away to Chicago to work, leaving Ada Ruth and Grandma behind. It's war time, and women are needed to fill the men's jobs. As winter sets in, Ada Ruth and her grandma keep up their daily routine, missing Mama all the time.

David Almond.  The Fire-Eaters

In 1962 England, despite observing his father's illness and the suffering of the fire-eating Mr. McNulty, as well as enduring abuse at school and the stress of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Bobby Burns and his family and friends still find reasons to rejoice in their lives and to have hope for the future.

Ann Bausum.  With Courage and Cloth:  Winning the Fight for a

Woman's Right to Vote   The photo-illustrated history With Courage and Cloth tells the story of how women fought for and won the right to vote in the United States.

Gennifer Choldenko.  Al Capone Does My Shirts

A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister.

David Chotjewitz.  Daniel, Half Human:  and the Good Nazi

In 1933, best friends Daniel and Armin admire Hitler, but as anti-Semitism buoys Hitler to power, Daniel learns he is half Jewish, threatening the friendship even as life in their beloved Hamburg, Germany, is becoming nightmarish.

Christopher Paul Curtis.  Bucking the Sarge

Deeply involved in his cold and manipulative mother's shady business dealings in Flint, Michigan, fourteen-year-old Luther keeps a sense of humor while running the Happy Neighbor Group Home For Men, all the while dreaming of going to college and becoming a philosopher.

Ronald J. Drez.  Remember D-Day:  The Plan, the Invasion,

Survivor Stories   Discusses the events and personalities involved in the momentous Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944.

Nancy Farmer.  The Sea of Trolls

After Jack becomes apprenticed to a Druid bard, he and his little sister Lucy are captured by Viking Berserkers and taken to the home of King Ivar the Boneless and his half-troll queen, leading Jack to undertake a vital quest to Jotunheim, home of the trolls.

Catherine Fisher.  The Oracle Betrayed

After she is chosen to be "Bearer-of-the-god," Mirany questions the established order and sets out, along with a musician and a scribe, to find the legitimate heir of the religious leader known as the Archon.

Russell Freedman.  The Voice That Challenged a Nation:  Marian

Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights   In the mid-1930s, Marian Anderson was a famed vocalist who had been applauded by European royalty and welcomed at the White House. But, because of her race, she was denied the right to sing at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. This is the story of her resulting involvement in the civil rights movement of the time.

Phillip M. Hoose.  The Race to Save the Lord God Bird

Tells the story of the ivory-billed woodpecker's extinction in the United States, describing the encounters between this species and humans, and discussing what these encounters have taught us about preserving endangered creatures.

Is This Forever, or What?  Poems & Paintings from Texas

A collection of poetry and full-color artwork from Texas.

Angela Johnson.  bird

Devastated by the loss of a second father, thirteen-year-old Bird follows her stepfather from Cleveland to Alabama in hopes of convincing him to come home, and along the way helps two boys cope with their difficulties.

Cynthia Kadohata.  Kira-Kira

Chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the despair when one sister becomes terminally ill.

E. L. Konigsburg.  The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place

Upon leaving an oppressive summer camp, twelve-year-old Margaret Rose Kane spearheads a campaign to preserve three unique towers her grand uncles have been building in their back yard for over forty years.

Martine Leavitt.  Heck Superhero

Abandoned by his mentally ill mother, thirteen-year-old Heck tries to survive on his own as his mind bounces between the superhero character he imagines himself to be and the harsh reality of his life.

Hilary McKay.  Indigo's Star

Spurred on by his youngest sister, Rose, twelve-year-old Indigo sticks up for himself and an American boy who has replaced him as the primary target of the school bullies.

Diane McWhorter.  A Dream of Freedom:  The Civil Rights

Movement from 1954 to 1968   In this history of the modern Civil Rights movement, the author focuses on the monumental events that occurred between 1954 (the year of Brown v. the Board of Education) and 1968 (the year that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

Walter Dean Myers.  Here in Harlem:  Poems in Many Voices

Acclaimed writer Walter Dean Myers celebrates the people of Harlem with these powerful and soulful first-person poems in the voices of the residents who make up the legendary neighborhood: basketball players, teachers, mail carriers, jazz artists, maids, veterans, nannies, students, and more.

Marilyn Nelson.  Fortune's Bones:  The Manumission Requiem

Fortune was a slave who lived in Waterbury, Conn. in the late 1700s. He was married and the father of 4 children. When Fortune died in 1798, his master, Dr. Porter, preserved his skeleton to further the study of anatomy.

Kenneth Oppel.  Airborn

Matt, a young cabin boy aboard an airship, and Kate, a wealthy young girl traveling with her chaperone, team up to search for the existence of mysterious winged creatures reportedly living hundreds of feet above the Earth's surface.

Richard Peck.  The Teacher's Funeral:  A Comedy in Three Parts

In rural Indiana in 1904, fifteen-year-old Russell's dream of quitting school and joining a wheat threshing crew is disrupted when his older sister takes over the teaching at his one-room schoolhouse after mean, old Myrt Arbuckle "hauls off and dies."

Terry Pratchett.  A Hat Full of Sky

Tiffany Aching, a young witch-in-training, learns about magic and responsibility as she battles a disembodied monster with the assistance of the six-inch-high Wee Free Men and Mistress Weatherwax, the greatest witch in the world.

Pam Munoz Ryan.  Becoming Naomi Leon

When Naomi's absent mother resurfaces to claim her, Naomi runs away to Mexico with her great-grandmother and younger brother in search of her father.

Gary D. Schmidt.  Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy

In 1911, Turner Buckminster hates his new home of Phippsburg, Maine, but things improve when he meets Lizzie Bright Griffin, a girl from a poor, nearby island community founded by former slaves that the town fathers--and Turner's--want to change into a tourist spot.

Neal Shusterman.  The Schwa  Was Here

From the award-winning author of "Full Tilt" and The Shadow Club novels comes this tongue-in-cheek tale of a boy so unremarkable, he just might disappear completely.

Joelle Stolz.  The Shadows of Ghadames

At the end of the nineteenth century in Libya, eleven-year-old Malika simultaneously enjoys and feels constricted by the narrow world of women, but an injured stranger enters her home and disrupts the traditional order of things.

Sarah Weeks.  So B. It

After spending her life with her mentally retarded mother and agoraphobic neighbor, twelve-year-old Heidi sets out from Reno, Nevada, to New York to find out who she is.

Dylan Thomas.  A Child's Christmas in Wales

The Welsh poet Dylan Thomas recalls the celebration of Christmas with his family and the feelings it evoked in him as a child.

Under the Spell of the Moon:  Art for Children from the

World's Great Illustrators   A group of illustrators created this book of poems, nursery rhymes, songs, pieces of prose, riddles or street games in their own pictures and words.