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When Beaver arrives at Turtle’s pond home, Turtle graciously offers to share the space. Instead, Beaver challenges her to a race and Turtle decides to take charge of the matter. Beaver — and listeners — will gain insight and want to participate in the lively telling as they gain clues from the animated, colorful illustrations.

Watching a raccoon’s unwieldy movements, you’d think that it always walked that way. Not so, according to an Abenaki tale, vividly retold and illustrated by this father & son duo. Learn how Azban, a self-absorbed, conceited raccoon is responsible for the way all raccoons move as they do in this humorous and engaging tale.

An old Inuit woman takes in a polar bear cub and raises him until others in the village become jealous of the bear’s hunting prowess, threatening to kill him. The old woman sends her beloved bear away, but continues to meet him far out on the ice where her polar bear “son” gives her food to eat. The gentle telling and illustrations evoke the Arctic.

This retelling of a Navajo folktale explains how First Woman tried to write the laws of the land using stars in the sky, only to be thwarted by the trickster Coyote.

A child narrates how a much loved cat, Woogie, brings good luck to her family. When Woogie is lost, its luck may have run out — but the resolution is luckily both satisfying and happy. Richly hued illustrations add authentic details to a universally appealing story set within a Native American family and told by a Muskogee-Creek writer.

To Dance is a graphical memoir of Siena Cherson Siegel, a young girl growing up in Puerto Rico who eventually came to New York to study with the School of American Ballet. It captures the passion of the artist, as well as the discipline needed to succeed. To Dance won a 2007 Robert F. Sibert Book Award honor as one of the best informational books for young people.

Image and text combine in a unique presentation to tell the story of an orphan boy who lives between the walls of a Paris train station and repairs its clocks. Monochromatic illustrations change perspective and move in and out, and alternate with text to tell this mysterious, breathtaking, and riveting tale. Winner of the 2008 Caldecott Medal. (2008 Caldecott Medal Winner)

For years, sixteen-year-old Hattie’s been shuttled between relatives. Tired of being Hattie Here-and-There, she courageously leaves Iowa to prove up on her late uncle’s homestead claim in Montana. Despite many hardships, Hattie forges ahead, sharing her adventures with her friends through letters and articles for her hometown paper.

Aided by an army of beachcombers, oceanographer Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer tracks trash in the name of science. From sneakers to hockey gloves, Curt monitors the watery fate of human-made cargo that has spilled into the ocean. The information he collects is much more than casual news; it is important scientific data that is used to understand and protect our ocean.

This spy history features cool gadgets and the stories of famous spies, as well as the fictional spies we know through movies and books.

Though this book is more for budding detectives than budding spies, it has many of the same appealing factors—listening, clue-gathering, and crime-solving. A classic that appeals to elementary-school students, this is also fun for read-alouds.

This collection of folktales and scary stories has been a favorite of fright-loving kids for more than 20 years. These stories with creepy illustrations will be familiar to most adults who attended slumber parties, camping trips, and Halloween hayrides in their youth.

Of the more than 2,000 kinds of worms in the world, Wiggle and Waggle are likely the most engaging. As the worm friends tunnel in the vegetable garden all summer, they sing a little song to make time go by quicker, have a picnic, and then get ready to hibernate when the growing season is finished. An easy to read text makes these rather gross characters quite appealing in text and illustration.

Braid Beard’s band of pirates has bad teeth, bad breath, and bad manners — and now, in order to get their treasure they have Jeremy Jacob’s baby sister with a dirty diaper. Shiver me timbers and aargh! It’s enough to gross out a grown pirate! This fantastic adventure is fun, fast — and not a little odiferous.

Susan agrees to pet-sit while her good friend, neighbor, and classmate is away. What Susan doesn’t count on, however, is all the gross stuff that critter sitters sometimes have to deal with. With gentle humor, Susan learns a great deal about herself and how to handle not-so-nice jobs.

It’s Sunday and the family is on an outing in the car, when the mama hears the dreaded, “Oh no, gotta go” — and so begins the frantic search for a bathroom. The romp is funny and fast, with words in Spanish and English that turn a familiar experience into an introduction to another language.

What do you do when you’re in a funk and full of the grumblies? Well, you can take that gross, dark day and bake it into something sweet. And like Mrs. Biddlebox, you can eat it to make your tummy full of tasty crumblies to enjoy the starry night before bedtime. Energetic lines and a jaunty rhyme reveal a fresh way to look at bad moods.

Bovine buddies Minnie and Moo are getting ready for their farmer’s birthday. They give him their last cream puff — leaving it in his slipper…and the sweater they’ve made seems to be haunted! And where is Elvis the rooster? Nothing could be grosser than stepping into a cream puff or wearing a sweater that talks, but it sure makes a funny tale!

Umm! growls the bodacious backhoe loader as he gets dirtier with each pile of trash he gathers as he cleans up a vacant lot. The countdown from 10 to 1 is gross, alliterative, and sure to engage children who enjoy things that move (not to mention yucky!).

Julius’ mom is making cupcakes with candy corn atop for a Halloween party; Julius is told not to touch them. He doesn’t, but does count the candy corn — as he eats them! Crisply lined illustrations stand out on each sturdy page as Julius (some may recognize him from Julius, Baby of the World) tastes the best part of the cupcakes — before guests arrive.

A bulbous little boy and his buccaneer dad share a day afloat on their pirate ship shouting things like ‘avast!’ and generally enjoying all of the gross things that pirates do. But as the boy is tucked into bed, his Pirate Papa reminds him that there’s nothing more important to him than his little pirate boy!

It’s hard enough for Oscar to be a “wiener-dog” (you know the kinds that are twice as long as they are high). Add a really dumb, gross Halloween costume, and the other mutt’s behavior toward Oscar deteriorates even more. That is, until Oscar saves the day in this funny, off-beat, canine Halloween tale.

Poor Duck.The soups that Squirrel and Cat are making are just so gross! Beet soup? Mushroom soup? All ughs! But a happy solution is created which is the same color of Duck’s favorite — pumpkin soup. A recipe for delicious sounding “pink soup” is included for eaters more adventurous than Duck.