Book Finder

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ancona’s thoughtful color photographs capture the spirit, movement, and the form of basic finger spelling used by the deaf (and by hearing children) as a group of kids go on an adventure to the zoo.

Five-year-old Luna is afraid she’ll find monsters at her new school until a kind teacher and her new classmates show her that she has nothing to fear in this touching bilingual story.