Book Finder

The Man Who Tricked a Ghost

Laurence Yep

Illustrator:

Ksadore Seltzer

Age Level:

6-9

The Moon Ring

Randy DuBurke

Age Level:

6-9

Genre:

Fiction, Fantasy

With the tempo and rhythm of a Mexican fiesta, this bouncy Spanish rendition re-creates the folklore and traditions of the people of Oaxaca, Mexico, as the jealous moon decides to have her own fiesta where people can sing, eat, parade, and dance. The original stylized mixed-media paintings depicting native Oaxacan scenery and customs and the wonderful idea of the moon getting away with her “naughty” behavior add to the gusto and authenticity of this nocturnal Mexican fiesta. Also available in Spanish.

The Moon Was at a Fiesta

Matthew Gollub, Leovigildo Martinez

Illustrator:

Leovigildo Martinez

Age Level:

6-9

The Mysterious Tadpole

Steven Kellogg

Age Level:

3-6

Genre:

Fiction, Fantasy

The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists’ Club

Bertrand Brinley

Age Level:

6-9

The Night Before Kindergarten

Natasha Wing

Age Level:

0-3

Illustrator:

Peter Spier

Age Level:

3-6

The family in this story meets and plays with a stray dog while at the park. After they leave, they think about him all week long and decide to look for him the next Saturday — as does the dogcatcher. As the dogcatcher closes in, the children cleverly handle the situation for a happy resolution. Gentle watercolor illustrations add to the well-paced text to create a very satisfying story.

The Stray Dog

Marc Simont

Age Level:

3-6

Genre:

Fiction

A long time ago, an old man who lived in a rustic cabin in the woods ate the tail of mysterious critter. That night, the critter came back to get his tail saying, “Tailypo, tailypo, all I want is my tailypo.” Getting that tailypo makes for a satisfyingly spooky tale bound to make readers or listeners jump. Galdone’s cartoon-like illustrations add humor to a creepy yarn drawn from the oral tradition.

The Tailypo: A Ghost Story

Joanna Galdone

Illustrator:

Paul Galdone

Age Level:

6-9

Genre:

Fiction, Fairytales, Folk Tales, and Tall Tales

A mandarin duck is held captive for its beautiful feathers. The duck pines for its mate until a kind kitchen servant recognizes the bird’s misery and releases it, infuriating the cruel lord. Later the duck returns with its mate and saves the servant from death. Rich, detailed illustrations capture the drama of this traditional Japanese story that won the Boston Globe/Horn Book award for illustration.

The Tale of the Mandarin Ducks

Katherine Paterson

Illustrator:

Diane Dillon

Age Level:

3-6

The Three Little Witches Storybook

Georgie Adams

Illustrator:

Emily Bolam

Age Level:

6-9

The Ugly Duckling

Hans Andersen

Illustrator:

Jerry Pinkney

Age Level:

3-6

Children will love counting from one to 10 as animals of the world gather around a water hole. As one rhino gives way to two tigers, then three toucans, on up to 10 kangaroos, die-cut pages reveal the water hole in 10 different worldwide habitats, from African plains to Himalayan mountains to the Australian outback. But the water hole keeps shrinking, and with it the number of frolicking frogs. Can anything bring back the water that the animals all need to survive? Careful readers will find additional animals, many of them endangered, silhouetted in the borders of every spread and hiding within every landscape.

The Water Hole

Graeme Base

Age Level:

3-6

The Witch Next Door

Norman Bridwell

Age Level:

3-6

Genre:

Fiction

If the World Were a Village

David Smith

Illustrator:

Shelagh Armstrong

Age Level:

6-9

One warm Wednesday morning, the sun winked through Wombat’s window and woke her up. “What a wonderful day to wander the world,” she thought. What if Wombat woke one Wednesday with wanderlust? What if she wrangled her wander-worthy companions – Weasel and Woodchuck – to wend their way through the world with her? What if the world, the woods, and its wicked things wrestled with their wishes for wild adventure? But what if these wily wanderers used their wits to ward off worries and all the world’s wild creatures? Why, then it would be a most wonderful day to wander the world.

The Worrywarts

Pamela Duncan Edwards

Illustrator:

Henry Cole

Age Level:

3-6

Genre:

Fiction

This Land is Your Land

Woodie Guthrie

Illustrator:

Kathy Jakobsen

Age Level:

3-6

Genre:

Poetry

An adventurous chick travels the barnyard and becomes multilingual in this noisy, attractive offering. A repetitive, singsong rhyme describes how the chick goes to visit the other animals, and the text prefaces each stop with “What do you think they heard him say?” With the cows, the chick moos; with the pigs, he oinks; and so on, until he’s speaking in a cacophony of barnyard noises by the time he reaches his mother.