Babies & Toddlers | Picture Books | Early Readers
Middle Readers | Young Adults | Fantasy

Little Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Jen Corace

It’s not fair! All Little Hoot wants is to go to bed at a reasonable hour, like his friends do. But no…Mama and Papa say little owls have to stay up late and play. But in the end he finally gets to go to bed! A great bedtime story from the creators of the fabulous Little Pea.

How to Paint the Portrait of a Bird by Jacques Prevert Illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein

A child wakes up, puts up an easel, picks up a brush and paints a perch, a tree, the warmth of the sun and the sound of the summer breeze and waits for the bird to come to his painting. A joyful meditation on art, creativity, and wonder that will ring true for every reader.

Arrival Written by Shaun Tan

I find it very difficult to write about any of Shaun Tan’s work without gushing and this book is no exception. It may be his finest work yet. For older readers, it’s the wordless story of a man who has to leave his family and immigrate to a new, strange land. There, he meets many fascinating people who share with him their stories of immigration. When the rest of his family finally has the money to move to the new land, he has made the new country feel like home.

Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach By Melanie Watt

Seriously, we can’t get enough of Melanie Watt. Thank goodness she keeps giving us more hilarious Scaredy Squirrel to feed our addiction. In this story, Scaredy heads to the beach where he confronts his fear of crowds (crowds of people, flocks of seagulls, mobs of lobsters, the list never ends). As usual, Scaredy is able to find the good in his situation until he can make his way back to his clean, safe home.

Waiting for Mama Written by Lee Tae-Jun Illustrated by Kim Dong-Seong

First told in a Korean newspaper in 1938, this absolutely stunning bilingual picture book tells the touching story of a young boy waiting for his mother. A small child waits for Mama at the streetcar station. It is cold and snowy, but the child waits patiently until Mama finally comes. In the last wordless spread, we see the child’s small hand in his mother’s firm grasp as they walk away from us.