By sharing her own struggles as a child and later as a successful author, Helen Lester demonstrates that hurdles are part of the process. She uses her unique ability to laugh at her mistakes to create both a guide for young writers and an amusing personal story of the disappointments and triumphs of a writer’s life.
Author: A True Story
A remarkably rounded picture of Shakespeare’s life and the period in which he lived includes a thoughtful attempt to relate circumstances in his personal life to the content of his plays.
Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare
Bentley and Egg
An easy to read biography of the woman who made the first American flag.
Betsy Ross
The witch has grown the biggest pumpkin ever, and now she wants to make herself a pumpkin pie for Halloween. But the pumpkin is so big she can’t get it off the vine.
Big Pumpkin
A brightly colored and intricately detailed space shuttle prepares for liftoff, then shoots into space, leaving Earth’s atmosphere and going into orbit.
Big Silver Space Shuttle
Sal and her mother set off in search of blueberries for the winter at the same time as a mother bear and her cub. A quiet comedy of errors ensues when the young ones wonder off and absentmindedly trail the wrong mothers.
Blueberries for Sal
Bob’s Valentine Surprise
Max and Ruby prepare for Grandma’s birthday as they bake a cake and look for the perfect present in these companion books. The distinct personality of each bunny sibling comes through loud and clear in these humorous stories that introduce important concepts.
Bunny Cakes
A traveling peddler takes a nap under a tree and wakes up to find his hats on the heads of monkeys on the branches overhead. How he retrieves his hats is real monkey business in this colorful, repetitious classic.
Caps for Sale
A pictorial biography about love, war, culture and ambition shown through the story of Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt.
Cleopatra
Farmer Brown has his hands full when the cows on his farm get a typewriter. Duck, however, negotiates successfully for all parties in this very funny farm story of very clever animals. Be prepared to talk about typewriters or take a trip to a museum to see one!
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type
Having Clifford around makes every day special for Emily Elizabeth. Not every girl can invite the kids at school to ride home on the back of her big red dog. In this look at the life of Clifford’s best friend, young readers are likely to imagine what life would be like if their family pet was larger than life.
Clifford’s Best Friend: A Story About Emily Elizabeth
Clifford loves holidays, especially Halloween. What will Clifford be for Halloween?
Clifford’s Halloween
From simple love to love mysterious, love oh so hot to love rather coolish, Sandra Boynton and her ubiquitous hippos, turkeys, and cats consider the moods (and “many ways”) of love. In impressive rhyming verse, Boynton holds forth on myriad kinds of love, accompanying each rhyme with illustrations of various romancing critters.
Consider Love: Its Moods and Many Ways
Cool Melons—Turn to Frogs!
Corduroy, a teddy bear, comes to life to search for his lost button after the store closes. Though he doesn’t find the button, he does find friendship in this enduring tale.
Corduroy
Corduroy’s Best Halloween Ever!
Curious George
All families have their own way of doing things; sometimes some people consider these unique. But the Robinsons have a very unusual home and a very particular way about them. Humor abounds in the contrast between the text and illustrations for a memorable day. Be sure to see the film adaptation that came out in 2007.
A Day with Wilbur Robinson
Dear Benjamin Banneker
Dear Zoo
While on a family excursion to Africa, the Lazardos find a dinosaur and bring him home to their small town. Dinosaur Bob becomes part of their family and the town’s best baseball player.