Hot Off The New Books Display!

The New Picture Books display is probably my favorite browsing spot in the library. There is almost always something exciting just begging to be seen in its shiny new plastic cover. This morning was one of those mornings when I happily found several new books by consistently wonderful authors. As my eyes scanned the shelf my mutterings (yes, I was alone) sounded something like this, "Oooo, a new Emma Dodd book. Oohhh, a new David McPhail. Whoa, a new Phillip Stead book. Wow, and a new Rosemary Wells!"



I Love My Mommy

By: Giles Andreae Illustrated by: Emma Dodd



A very sweet and simple rhyming book that lists all of the things baby loves about his mommy.









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Pig Pig Returns

By: David McPhail



Poor Pig Pig. The last thing he wants to do this summer is take a road trip with his aunt and uncle. Along the way Pig Pig sees all kinds of wonderful things and, despite his worries, begins to enjoy his adventure.



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Hands Off, Harry!

By: Rosemary Wells



Harry is a bit of a trouble maker who spends a lot of time in the "Thinking Chair" in his kindergarten class. After a series of accidents resulting from Harry not respecting his classmates personal space his teacher finally gets him to understand how to be more respectful.



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Jonathan and the Big Blue Boat

By: Philip C. Stead



When Jonathan loses his best friend Frederick he decides to set sail to find him. This book is absolutely beautiful and chock-full of imagination. The best in the bunch, in my opinion!



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Tip Your Hats To The Royal Couple!

It is time to don your most beautiful bonnets, tremendous toppers, hillarious hats, and fabulous fascinators in celebration of the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.



The Hat That Wore Clara B.
By: Melanie Turner-Denstaed

In church on Mothers' Sunday when all the older ladies dress in white and wear their most beautiful hats, Clara B., sitting in the pew behind her grandmother and admiring her every move, determines to find a way to wear her grandmother's hat.


Which Hat is That?
By: Anna Hines

Mouse tries on all kinds of different hats until settling on her favorite hat of all!



Millie's Marvellous Hat
By: Satoshi Kitamura

"When Millie cannot afford the very expensive hat that she wants to buy, the owner of the shop comes up with an imaginative solution to her problem."





Jennie's Hat
By: Ezra Jack Keats

When the hat Jennie receives from her aunt is not as fancy as she had hoped, her bird friends decorate it for her.


Twelve Hats for Lena
By: Karen Katz

Lena Katz prepares a beautiful hat for each month of the year.



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Library Books

A few great picture books about our favorite place...the library.

Bats at the Library

By: Brian Lies

"Bored with another normal, inky evening, bats discover an open library window and fly in to enjoy the photocopier, water fountain, and especially the books and stories found there. "

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The Library Pages

By: Carlene Morton

Want to see your favorite librarian squirm? Read them this cute story about a group of kids who take over the library when their school librarian is away.

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Library Lion

By: Michelle Knudsen

"A lion starts visiting the local library but runs into trouble as he tries to both obey the rules and help his librarian friend."

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Goin' Someplace Special

By: Patricia McKissack

"In segregated 1950s Nashville, a young African American girl braves a series of indignities and obstacles to get to one of the few integrated places in town: the public library. "

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Wordless Picture Books

Sharing wordless picture books with your children is a great way to practice storytelling! These are a few of my favorite wordless books to help build the narrative skills your child will need to get them ready to read.


What if?
By: Laura Vaccaro Seeger

This nearly wordless picture book begins when a boy finds a beach ball and asks, "What if?" then lets you fill in the rest.

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Flotsam
By: David Wiesner

This Caldecott winner tells the story of a camera when it is lost at sea.

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Chalk
By: Bill Thomson

This beautifully illustrated book tells the story of three children who find magic chalk that brings their imagination to life.

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A Boy, A Dog and A Frog

By: Mercer Mayer

The adventures of a boy as he tries to catch a frog.

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Tell Your Story

A selection of books to help guide you through the process of telling your own adventurous, romantic, hilarious, and triumphant story.

A Book

By: Mordicai Gerstein

This book, although not a how-to, offers a lot of great tips on stortelling including how to find your own story.

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Show Me A Story: Writing your own picture book

By: Nancy Loewen

Webster the goose guides you step-by-step through the process of writing a picture book.

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You Can Write a Story: a story writing recipe for kids

By: Lisa Bullard

Explains the steps and ingredients necessary to write a story as if it were a cooking recipe. Writing is easy as pie!

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Adventures in Cartooning

By: James Sturm

Learn how to create your own comics as you follow a brave knight on a magical adventure to find the bubblegum-chewing dragon.

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Illustration Celebration

I am a sucker for beautifully and creatively illustrated children's books. In fact, I am consistently guilty of judging a books by their covers and often will not take a second look if the cover is not well designed. That being said, I believe a good story is just as important and here are a few new books that, I believe, succeed on both fronts.


Bunny Days
By: Tao Nyeu

A story in three chapters featuring a friendly bear, neighbor goats, and a load of silly bunnies.



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Here Comes The Garbage Barge!
By: Jonah Winter
Illustrated By: Red Nose Studio

A fun story with environmental themes, this book is brought to life by the amazing people at Red Nose Studios who used puppets to illustrate the book.

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The Heart and the Bottle
By: Oliver Jeffers

A sweet and hopeful story about a girl who looses her grandfather and has to learn not to loose herself too. Oliver Jeffers is one of my absolute favorite author/illustrators!


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A Sick Day for Amos McGee
By: Phillip Christian Stead

Amos visits his friends at the zoo every day. When one day he has to stay home sick, his animal friends miss him so much they decide it is their turn to do the visiting.

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Cute Pandas, Silly Birds and Other Wonders of Nature

A series of books that each offer a great introduction to the beauty of nature and the importance of ecological conservation.

Panda Kindergarten

By Joanne Ryder

Join sixteen baby pandas as they play and learn their way through
the China Conservation and Research Center For The Giant Panda, becoming strong enough to eventually return to the wild.

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Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World's Strangest Parrot

By Sy Montgomery

Off the coast of New Zealand, a team of scientists and volunteers are working hard to save the last remaining Kakapos. For these funny-looking, flightless birds, this conservation effort might be their last hope of survival as a species.

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The Frog Scientist

By Pamela Turner

Tyrone Hayes, The Frog Scientist, is investigating the effects of pesticides on frogs. Could his research be the key to discovering why frog populations are rapidly declining in the United States?

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In the Belly of an Ox

By Rebecca Bond

When the Keaton brothers began photographing nature in the mid-1800s they had no idea how their work would effect the world. Richard and Cherry pioneered a new era in natural history by using disguises and other tricks to photograph birds in their natural habitats.

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Mystery, Mayhem, and Adventure

Three new graphic novels and one great new chapter book featuring detectives, gadgets, sleuthing, a band of secret-agent, crime-fighting librarians, and a bunch of bad guys.

Titles for grades 3-6

The Brixton Brothers and The Case of The Case of Mistaken Identity

By: Mac Barnett

Twelve-year-old Steve Brixton has always been a fan of detective stories, especially The Bailey Brothers series. When Steve is mistaken for a real-life detective he must use the skills he learned reading books to elude the grown-ups as he searches for a very important missing quilt an the mysterious Mr. E.

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Guinea PIg, Pet Shop Private Eye: Hamster and Cheese

By: Colleen Venable

The pet shop is in a flurry when sandwiches begin disappearing from the shop owner's desk. It's a good thing Sasspants, the guinea pig is on the case.

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City of Spies

By: Susan Kim

When Evelyn goes to live with her aunt in 1942 New York City she spends a lot of time alone with her imagination. She soon befriends Tony, the superintendents son, and together they embark on a series of adventures including stumbling upon an actual Nazi plot.

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The Secret Science Alliance

By: Eleanor Davis

Julian Calender hoped that when he changed schools he would be able to leave his nerdy reputation behind him. Instead, he teams up with fellow science whizzes, Greta and Ben, to form an alliance against the evil Dr. Stringer who has stolen one of their gadgets!

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Lightning Thief still checked out??

Try one of these other great titles that weave together modern stories with classic mythology.


Odd and the Frost Giants
J Gaiman, N.

A twelve-year-old, Norwegian boy named Odd is lead on a journey in which he must save three Norse gods and face the dreaded Frost Giant.

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The Beautiful Stories of Life: six Greek myths, retold
J 398.2093 RYL

Rylant puts a modern twist on the stories of Pandora, Persephone, Pschye, Orpheus, Pygmalion, and Narcissus.

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The One-eyed Giant

j 883 OSB

The first book in Mary Pope Osborne's Tales From the Odyssey series.

Odysseus begins his long journey home following the Trojan War and encounters danger after danger along the way.

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Pandora Gets Jealous

J Hennesy

Thirteen-year-old Pandora, Pandy for short, knows she is in trouble when the box her father Zeus gave her is accidentally opened during a her high school presentation.

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A Selection of Graphic Novels for Early Readers

Stinky
By: Eleanor Davis

Stinky the monster is content with his life in the mud, playing with his pet toad, until a young human boy wanders into his swamp. A fun and humorous story about accepting differences and making friends.

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Otto's Orange Day
By: Jay Lynch & Frank Cammuso

Otto loves all things orange and when a genie offers him one wish he decides he wants everything to be orange! Otto quickly realizes, however, that maybe he made a mistake.


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Little Mouse Gets Ready By: Jeff Smith

Little mouse excitedly gets dressed when his mom says it is time to go to the barn. This simple, sweetly illustrated story is one of my favorites of last year.

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Benny and Penny in the Big No-No!
By: Geoffrey Hayes

Benny and Penny are suspicious of their new neighbor and decide to sneak into his backyard even though they know this is a big no-no. A cute story about misunderstandings and friendship.


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Spotlight on African American authors and illustrators

The Brown Bookshelf blog is celebrating Black History Month with their 28 Days Later campaign which spotlights African American authors and illustrators in the world of children’s literature. The following are a selection of titles from their list of exceptional picture books.

The Way the Storm Stops

By: Michelle Meadows

Illustrated by: Rosanne Litzinger

A mother comforts her daughter during a thunderstorm. Featuring rhyming text and beautiful illustrations.

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The Neighborhood Mother Goose

Written & Illustrated By: Nina Crews

Urban photographs illustrate this collection on nursery rhymes, both familiar and lesser known.

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Shanna's Princess Show

By: Jean Marzollo

Illustrated By: Shane Evans

Shanna wants to share with you five things that make her a princess. A cute book about self esteem for young readers.

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My Pop Pop and Me

By: Irene Smalls

Illustrated By: Cathy Ann Johnson

A small boy helps his grandfather bake a lemon cake.

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ZZZZZZZ

Cozy up in your cave this winter and share these books about hibernation

Chaucer's First Winter

By: Stephen Krensky

Chaucer does not want to miss the magic of his first winter and so decides to skip hibernation this year.

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Sleep, Black Bear, Sleep

By: Jane Yolen

It is getting cold outside and it is time for all kinds of animals to snuggle up for their winter nap. Rhyming, lyrical text make this a great cozy bedtime book.

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Time To Sleep

By: Denise Fleming

When bear and the other forest creatures begin to notice the signs of winter approaching they begin to prepare for their long winter naps.

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Hibernation

By: Margaret Hall

Beautiful nature photographs and simple text fill the pages of this non-fiction book about how and why some animals hibernate.

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Sleepy yet? -cm

I am special!

Picture books about individuality, self esteem, identity, and self acceptance

Freckleface Strawberry
By: Julianne Moore


"Freckleface Strawberry is just like everyone else, except that she has red hair and freckles but when she tries to hide who she is, she learns about true friendship and accepting yourself just as you are."

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Happy to Be Nappy
By: Bell Hooks


A fun and rhythmic ode to beauty and hair of all types with a strong message about loving yourself just the way you are.


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Arthur's Nose
By: Marc Brown


Arthur does not like his long nose and he does not like being teased in school so he decides to visit the rhinologist for a change. Should he choose a rabbit nose? An armadillo nose? In the end, Arthur decides his own long aardvark nose is in fact the best nose for him.


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Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon
By: Patty Lovell


"Even when the class bully at her new school makes fun of her, Molly remembers what her grandmother told her and she feels good about herself. "

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The Skin You Live In
By: Michael Tyler

"Rhyming text and illustrations celebrate being content with the skin in which one lives, whatever that skin might be. With the ease and simplicity of a nursery rhyme, this lively story delivers an important message of social acceptance to young readers."


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The Mixed-Up Chameleon
By: Eric Carle

A bored chameleon wishes it could be more like all the other animals it sees, but soon decides it would rather just be itself. Cutouts along the edges of the pages display various animals and colors.


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