This book is adorable! It features native plants that you would find along the 49th parallel 🇨🇦 &🇺🇲. The author is Canadian. It would be a fun book to read to a preschooler or kindergartener in chunks. Maybe a baby shower gift or for no other reason than it's sweet. It's also gender neutral.

Sophie Blackall never fails. I have a friend that is just like a golden retriever, anyone else? If I were a dog, I'd be a chihuapotato or a potatohuahua. What dog would you be?

I love this idea, but I was turned off by the rhyming. I had no idea fish and undersea creatures are so noisy and I want so bad to read this as nonfiction. Am I alone? Anyone else sick of the rhyming couplet? I can't retire for another 8 years.

I may 🐝 obsessed 😁! This book focuses on reasons to love bees and never mentions hornets or wasps. It leans towards how to make space for wild solitary bees in your garden explaining how bees have been in danger without dwelling on the doom.

Nominated for the 2026 Washington Children's Choice Award ?? I've read this book to all my K-5 classes. We have a core value, "We all belong". And this book spoke to that. We will revisit the book soon when the character trait for the month is empathy. 2 books this year feature unhoused characters and I worried they would be uncomfortable reads, but the students were interested and thoughtful. I ❤️ this book!

An unusual commute to school includes crossing the border and getting breakfast from a street vendor while waiting 2 hours in line.

Filled with references from standard classics in the illustrations, this seems very nostalgic and may be a great gift for someone who loves the classic. It was published in 2016 and it had escaped my notice this whole time.

This looks like a Canadian problem to me, but then it rarely snows here. I've never seen a children's book explain starting a business so well. The author is Iraqi American Deena Shakir and the illustrator is Pakistani Palestinian Nez Riaz. My take away: children who do chores will succeed.

The toilet rug kills me. Do people still use those? This book is relatable, my kid went through a kraken obsession. Every kid seems to go through a costumed identity stage. This book leads to swim lessons and success.

A picture book of poetry describing things in nature like rain, leaves and skunks. The illustrations are beautiful. The end papers are featured here. My favorite poem was Pond.

The front flap summary of the book THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROCKS by Nahid Kazemi. It might be a nice read to soak up when you are feeling homesick. I remember when I was a kid feeling homesick for my old house or having the sensation at home and realizing maybe I'm just depressed.

Sequel to the award winning Knight Owl, early Bird wants to be like owl but isn't nocturnal.

Written by Rachel Carson and illustrated by Nikki McClure, this book is a gift of genius. I don't think children will appreciate this picture book the way I did. I could see reading it out loud a page or two at a time, but it's heavy with beauty, wonder, and science.

Sibling relationships and creative block (like writer's block). The crayons are too new. I love how the illustrator surrounded the character with potential drawings anticipating their creation. The sisters have crayon-names Violet and Marigold.

Cute sequel to the Buffalo Fluffalo

"One molecule of carbon dioxide. Small quiet insignificant."
A book about how one person can make a difference and climate change. I think we'll read this before or next day of service.

Lala speaks kindly to her plants and they grow. Her mother learns from her, the importance of using kind words.

This is a fun read aloud. It fits with the season, and it opens conversation about what nocturnal animals need and it introduces the existence of nocturnal plans and bioluminescence. A lot to unpack and it's adorable.

Digging into the classic for more about courage. No one checks out Polacco books in my library, but I refuse to weed them. I started reading them to the kids to see if I can make them move. We are all curious about the secret ingredient. I'm not brave enough!

"I sing for those who dare not sing!"
Reading ahead for character trait of the month COURAGE in November. We seem to love Carmen Agra Deedy's books at my school. Also suitable for talking about #resistance and #nokings

I started reading this to the students and they really love Ember. Everyone wants a dragon now. And bread. This book will make you hungry.

Nominated for the 2026 Washington State Children's Choice Award, Built to Last is a simple story with intense illustrations about perseverance, patience, and friendship.

Nominated for the 2026 Washington Children's Choice Picture Book Award, The Bakery Dragon delivers the simple moral that working for gold is better than stealing. Kids will love the detailed illustrations. I plan to practice reading for details using a short list of questions. #wsccpba

Nominated for the Washington State children's choice picture book award 🇺🇲, this is a bit of a tongue twister and includes the word humpiest. So reading aloud to K-5 will be interesting. Buffalo learns that he doesn't have to be tough to cover up his true size. #WSCCPBA

Nominated for the Washington State children's choice picture book award 🇺🇲, this starts out silly. The super power has an element of surprise and I don't want to spoil it. Let's just say that this would be an excellent book to share when you need to prove that one small thing can make a huge difference. #WSCCPBA #bethechange

1st of all, I never read mysteries much less murder m. 2nd of all, I've been in a slump 4 a long stretch. Go to the book profile because enough has already been said. So I'll just emphasize how much fun this book was. It's for kids, but I'd rec 4th grade and up. Some may find the murders a bit gruesome. The vocab might be tiresome for some kids, but this would be a great listen for the whole family or read aloud. Perfect for a budding logophile.

While researching books about #alzheimers and #senility on Litsy, I found this title. I did not care for the reader of this audio book, she sounded high falutin to me (probably because I'm low maintenance West Coast 🇺🇸). But the book hit the spot. It had more to do with Patti's grief given the circumstances of her father's disease and her parents' lack of affection which I can relate to.

I'm not a very good listener and bought the print edition so I could follow along or reread a little. I'm getting the reading bug back little by little, but it's slow. I found Case's stories relatable and close to home. The stories could have stood on their own with fewer metaphors and similes. #tacoma

Montie Sunshine is recovering from having 11 teeth extracted! But the real purpose of this post is that I am looking for book recommendations for dealing with #dementia or #alzheimers
How to communicate and not get frustrated. I'm about to fly to Florida and evaluate if I need to take the keys away.

Adventures in weeding. I tried reading the Warrior series and DNF after 5 pages. Maybe I should start with book 5? I almost never read a whole series.

This cracked me up. I am as likely to fast as I would be to run. Now I know why I'm unmarried, I'm not trying hard enough 😂

Actually in Olympia, Washington 🇺🇸
I didn't know half price books sold boxes of books this way. I need to put this on my wishlist for my little free library!

For #nationalindependentbookstoreday 🇺🇸, I spent a few hours hunting down books that would replace lost library books and delete student fines. It was so hard not to buy books I love and focus on specific titles. It's also #schoollibrarymonth. If your kids have outgrown their books, see if the local grade school will take them.

Questioning my teaching skills...

Happy #DEAR day! 🥳

My students responded to this book with audible gasps and sighs of relief. I thought the way the book was made was more interesting than the book.

This book is amazing! Picture books are a great opportunity for talking about injustice, but few of them bring up the topic of murder. This is really a middle grade book. The illustrations are amazing. But I love seeing the kids faces when I tell them that when I wake a little girl, I was not allowed to wear pants at school, and I'm not even that old! I also describe myself as having brown hair, so...

One of my closest friends gave me a beautiful hard back copy of In The Beginning by Virginia Hamilton. I love folklore and this book is gorgeous. I loaned it to another friend just before her apartment building caught fire. Her entire family had to jump from a second story window. I had to resist the urge to ask her if my book was okay. I had to get another copy. #sundayfunday @BookmarkTavern

Still recovering from Friday night. I almost left work only partially changing out of my library slippers after passing out free books at Bingo Night. I have a lot of catching up to do. February was a sick 🤢 month for us. And by us, I'm meaning most of my school. Stay healthy!

Happy international Clash day to all who celebrate. #KEXPRADIO

After reading the Red Jacket, I let the kids design their own. They needed to include infinite pockets and this kid chose kittens. I need a kitten now.

The kindergartners drew heart maps after reading What do you do with a problem.

On my tbr

Word of the month: #reflect
This is getting to be cliché.
Great book for taking about bossy behavior without using the word bossy or making it gender normative.

Word of the month: #reflect
A moment of reflection in Flat Cat by Tara Lazar. When the illustration conveys meaning without words so succinctly, what is that called?

Word of the month #reflect
Leo makes a decision.
Illustrations in kid-lit are often described as simple (condescending?). The concept of reflection is not simple. In drawing, gesture is the technique used to convey meaning, but we don't label illustrations like we name literary devices. Maybe if we did, educators would teach more using graphic novels. What would you call them though?

This book is cute and introduces the idea of personal preferences for ramen toppings, but I'm not sure I fully understand what happens in the story. Either the author thought it was obvious or the editor trimmed too much detail. It was nominated for the 2025 Washington Children's Choice Award, so someone loves it.

A classic story which takes place in a nostalgic library complete with the smell of the library catalog, maybe this resonates with gen X... I'll be sharing it with the kids this week as part of our response to word of the month: reflect. But the theme is about breaking rules when necessary.

I need to remember to read this to the kids. There's a great moment when Jane makes an observation, which could be used as an example. And it's cute.

Great middle grade adventure series starter. It ends on a cliff hanger. TW: it involves a bakery.