Description: This story is about a young boy who goes to visit his grandpa. They do not speak the same language, but this does not keep them from connecting. When the boy first gets to his grandpa's it is a bit frustrating that they can't communicate through speaking. They begin to draw together and they realize they both share a love for art and story telling. This creates a bond between the two that does not need words.

Description: Fry Bread is a story about a modern Native American family making Fry bread with family and friends. The story explains how Fry bread is made and all the fun they have together baking this bread. It explains that Fry bread is not only food but, art, history, a place, a nation, and everything.
Author & Ill: Kevin Maillard & Juana Martinez-Neal
Genre: Children's Lit., Fiction
Publication: Oct. 22, 2019

Description: This is a story about all the different crayons in a crayon box writing to the child that owns them. Each color is writing a persuasive letter to the owner about something that has been on their mind. These things include, being used too much, not being used enough, and even being used to color things they do not want to color! It is a fun and entertaining read aloud story with a lot of personality!
Author: Drew Daywalt

Award: Whippoorwill Book Award
Reason for Award: Recognizes the best books written for young adults set in rural places
Description: This story is about two characters, Chris and Maia. Chris has come out as transgender and is struggling with his past traumatic experiences. Maia is also struggling with a traumatic past grieving his sisters death. The two come together in a strange way and find out they are neighbors for the summer.

Author: Christopher Paul Curtis
Description: This story is based on an 11 year old boy named Elijah. He was the first freeborn child in Buxton in Canada. This is where escaped slaves run to when trying to be free from the South. He is considered a fragile boy and is trying to prove himself in this grown up world. A man ends up taking advantage of Elijah's desire to be looked at as grown. This is where Elijah's adventures begin and where he has to

Pura Belpré Award

Description: This story follows Little Lobo and his side kick Bernabé as they work for their delivery business. They get an urgent message from their favorite wrestler, El Toro. The wrestlers are very hungry as they train for a big show, and Lobo knows all the best food trucks in town! Little Lobo, Bernabé, and their rooster friend Kooky Dooky go on an adventure to help the wrestlers satisfy their hunger!

Sylvia Mendez is a young girl who moved to California with her family. When her and her brothers tried to enroll into the neighborhood school, they were denied entry. They were told they needed to go to an all Mexican school instead. This was confusing for her and her family. Her family took control of the situation and organized a law suit. The Mendez family helped bring segregation to an end in the California school systems.

This story is about a woman named Eugeine Clark who adored sharks. She began studying sharks but she realized quickly that people think sharks are mindless killers. Eugeine was determined to prove everyone wrong. She was the first scientist in the world to train sharks and became known as the “Shark Lady“. Through her practice, she was able to teach people that sharks were much more than mindless killers.

This book is about a young boy who owns a pet fox. As they are in the car the fox notices that his boy is upset and crying. A cry he has never seen before. He can understand some human language at this point and hears the boy telling his father “no“. The dad has enlisted in the army and is making his son let his fox go back into the wild. It is a story about the fox and the boy finding their way back to one another.
Publication: 2/2/16

This is a story about a young girl admiring her older sister (Asiya) who is wearing her hijab for the first time at school. Asiya is wearing a bright blue hijab and her little sister looks at her as a princess and admires the way her sister wear this proudly. There is a mean boy who is rude and misunderstand their culture, her older sister does not let this ruin her shine. Asiya is strong and beautiful as she proudly wears her blue hijab.

This inspiring story is about a boy named Alan with a severe stutter. His teachers think he needs to be put in a class for disturbed kids, but his family know that is not true. This made Alan feel broken and not worthy. He felt comfortable singing and speaking to animals, especially the jaguar at the zoo. He relates to animals because they are unable to get their words out either, he promises that he will be their voice to keep them from danger.

This book written by Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes and illustrated by Scott Magoon. It was Published in April of 2018. This true story is about a partnership between a service dog and a young girl who was an amputee. It talks about the loving relationship between the two and all the things that they did together. It is an inspiring story that talks about what Jessica faces while Rescue stands by her side helping her through it all.

This is a book filled with short poems that can be memorized and said aloud. Each page has writing on one side for one person to read and writing on the other for the other person to read. They are poems that include familiar tales. There are great illustrations and this would be fun to have children do in front of the class to incorporate poems and rhyming.
Genre: Children's Poetry
Author&Illustrator: Mary Ann Hoberman, Michael Emberley

This is a book full of poems written by Joyce Carol Thomas and illustrated by Floyd Cooper . These poems are about family life, love, freedom, and dreams. These are emotional and moving poems that are beautifully written and can be used in a children's class. It celebrates the beauty and heritage of African Americans in a beautiful way.
Genre: Poetry
Awards: Coretta Scott King Honor
Published: 1993

This book is written by Lois Lowery and published in 1989. It is a story about a young 10 year old girl living in Copenhagen during the year 1943. The young girls name is Annemarie who lives with her mother, father, and sister. The young girls finds herself in the middle of rescuing the Danish Jews while they were trying to reach Sweden before they could be relocated by the Nazi's. This book is amazing and one I remember reading when I was younger

This book is written by Jeanette Winter that talks about a true story from Afghanistan.Nasreen's father and mother have been taken from her in the night and she is so upset she stops communicating with others.Her grandmother puts her into a secret school where Nasreen is able to learn with other young girls. Nasreen and her grandmother miss the rest of their family, but the continue on and keep their distance form the soldiers who roam the street.

This book is about a little boy who heads down Market Street and stops at all the shops. He is buying presents for a friend, and each present starts with a letter in the alphabet. The illustrations in this book are incredible and would be great to use in the classroom when learning the alphabet. This book is written by Arnold Lobel and illustrated by Anita Lobel. It was published on April 1st, 1981 and

A ten year old girl named, Keladry of Mindalen who is a daughter of the nobles is serving as a page. She needs to prove herself to all the men around her that she is just as worthy to be there as much as they are if she ever wants to fulfill her dreams of becoming a night.

This book is written and illustrated by Jon Klassen. It is about a little tiny fish who decides to steal a bog fishes hat while he is sleeping. He thinks the big fish will not notice, and if he does, he will not know it was the little fish, but if he does know it was little fish, he will not be able to find him. Little fish runs away to go find big plants to hid in where he can not be seen, on the way he tells one crab, who he thinks will not tell

This is a story about three friends, a cat, a squirrel, and a duck. They all live together in a cabin in the woods. While making pumpkin soup, the cat and the squirrel get into an argument with the duck. The duck stormed out of the house and left the cat and the squirrel. after sometime waiting for the duck to come back, he cat and the squirrel being to feel bad about excluding the duck and go to look for him in the scary woods...

Knuffle Bunny is a story about a little girl named Trixie who goes to the laundromat with her dad, she brings along her favorite stuffed animal to help out. She helps her dad load the washers and they head home. When she realizes Knuffle Bunny is gone... she needs to figure out how to communicate with her dad that they have to go back. The issue is, she cant talk yet! Her father has to guess what is going on with Trixie and why she is screaming

This is a children's picture book about a boy who wants to become a mermaid. This dream seems uncommon for the typical boy Julian's age so he hides in his room when he dresses up. He then nervously decides to share this dream with his abeula. His abeula is more than understanding and even brings him to a parade where everyone is dressed as mermaids. Julian feels relief when he seems to have found his community. This is a great book to use in the

King and King is a modern fairy tale about a King who needs to find his Queen. He is on the hunt to find the perfect queen, but none of them seem to meet his expectations, until one of the contestants brothers shows up with her. When the King sees the brother, he immediately understand why he could not find the right Queen. It was because he wanted a King by his side. After they get married and live happily ever after.

This is about a little boy names Max who is sent to bed without having dinner. When Max falls asleep, he is transported from his bedroom to a forest where he is surrounded by an ocean. This is the land Max escapes to go be with the Wild Things. He ends up meeting a lot of different creatures who are just as mysterious and wild as he is.
Awards: Caldecott Medal

The Perfect Nest is a Children's Literature story written by Catherine Friend and Illustrated by John Manders. This is a story about a cat named Jack who set up the perfect nest so the perfect chicken will come along to lay a perfect egg for Jack's perfect omelet. A perfect chicken did come along, and then shortly after a duck shows up, and then a goose. These animals are all fighting over this perfect nest and now Jack wants them out.

Chrysanthemum is written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes. This story is about a little mouse with a big name. As the mouse starts school she is then bullied by the other mice because of her unique name. Her parents try to explain that the uniqueness of her name is beautiful, but that does not heal her hurting heart. One day, the best music teacher intervenes and says her name is the prettiest name she's ever heard! Suddenly everyone who made fun

Pete the cat and the missing cupcakes is written by James Dean and illustrated by Kimberly Dean. I this story Pete and his friends are baking cupcakes for a party. Pete is going to perform with his band at this party and he is so excited! While him and his friends are busy baking, the begin to realize their cupcakes are going missing!? Pete and his friends have to go on a hunt to find the cupcake thief.On this mission,they learn about forgiveness.

Frindle is written by Andrew Clements and illustrated by Brian Selznick. It was published December 19, 1996. This is a story about a fifth grade boy named Nick who was the typical “class clown“. He is ready to go up against the hardest teacher in the school and challenge her patience. He begins challenging where words come from and starts calling a “pen“ a “frindle“. This does not just stay in the classroom, this begins spreading worldwide.

My Family Plays Music
Written by: Judy Cox
Illustrated by: Elbrite Brown
This children's story is about a little girl who is apart of a very diverse and musical family. She goes through her whole family and talks about the instruments they play and how she participates with them. It is full of different genres of music that may be new to the child you are reading to. This book can be for all ages and can be used in many different classes.

This story is about a little boy named CJ and his Grandma who ride the bus across town every Sunday after church. CJ begins to become curious as they are riding the bus and wonders why they do not have a car or electronics like his other friends? Why they have to get off the bus in the “dirty“ part of town? His grandma encourages him to see the beauty in what he does have and in the differences in their lives.

The Interrupting Chicken is written and Illustrated by David Ezra Stein. This childrens literature book was written in August 2010. This book is about a little red chicken who is being put to bed by his papa. Each story that his papa reads, the little red chicken interrupts the story and spoils the ending. The little red chickens papa then tells him to put him to bed and tell his papa his own story.

The Snowy Day is about a boy named Peter who wakes up and sees that snow had fallen and covered the ground overnight. The story follows Peter and his adventures throughout the day as he plays in the snow. He goes inside to warm up and realizes the snowball he put in his pocket for the following day is gone. He is sad about this, but wakes up the next morning to more snow covering the ground. He realizes he gets to do it all over again.

This book is about an old man and an old woman who are trying to find the prettiest cat. When the old man goes looking for the cats he finds millions and trillions of cats on the land and feels he must take them all home. The old man and old woman could not decide which one was the prettiest so they asked the cats to decide. The cats end up fighting each other because they all feel they are the prettiest. There is one cat left who did not claim

This story is a social emotional learning story. It talks about the ideas of sadness, what you feel sometimes when you are sad, and what you can do with sadness. This is a great story that shows children these emotions are okay and they are valid. It is so important to show children these emotions are normal and are apart of being human. It is a great story to use in the classroom with children of any age, but specifically, early childhood.

This book is about a young girl and her father as they head out on their journey owling. They need to stay very quiet in order to get the owls to come out. The father and daughter are very persistent as they send their owl calls and do not get a response.... until they do. They end up moving to different areas of the snowy woods and continue to call out to the owl until it finally comes out.They walk home together proud of their patience and hope.