Blue Sky White Stars


Sarvinder Naberhaus - 2017
    Each spread, sumptuously illustrated by award-winning artist Kadir Nelson, depicts a stirring tableau, from the view of the Statue of Library at Ellis Island to civil rights marchers shoulder to shoulder, to a spacecraft at Cape Canaveral blasting off. This book is an ode to America then and now, from sea to shining sea.

Sparrow Girl


Sara Pennypacker - 2009
    It was a terrible thought. Her country's leader had called sparrows the enemy of the farmers--they were eating too much grain, he said. He announced a great "Sparrow War" to banish them from China, but Ming-Li did not want to chase the birds away. As the people of her village gathered with firecrackers and gongs to scatter the sparrows, Ming-Li held her ears and watched in dismay. The birds were falling from the trees, frightened to death! Ming-Li knew she had to do something -- even if she couldn't stop the noise. Quietly, she vowed to save as many sparrows as she could, one by one...

Write to Me: Letters from Japanese American Children to the Librarian They Left Behind


Cynthia Grady - 2018
    Before they are moved, Breed asks the children to write her letters and gives them books to take with them. Through the three years of their internment, the children correspond with Miss Breed, sharing their stories, providing feedback on books, and creating a record of their experiences. Using excerpts from children's letters held at the Japanese American National Museum, author Cynthia Grady presents a difficult subject with honesty and hope." A beautiful picture book for sharing and discussing with older children as well as the primary audience" -- Booklist STARRED REVIEW "A touching tribute to a woman who deserves recognition" -- Kirkus Reviews"[An] affecting introduction to a distressing chapter in U.S. history and a brave librarian who inspired hope" -- Publisher's Weekly

The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage


Selina Alko - 2015
    That was the year that the Supreme Court issued its decision in Loving v. Virginia.This is the story of one brave family: Mildred Loving, Richard Perry Loving, and their three children. It is the story of how Mildred and Richard fell in love, and got married in Washington, D.C. But when they moved back to their hometown in Virginia, they were arrested (in dramatic fashion) for violating that state's laws against interracial marriage. The Lovings refused to allow their children to get the message that their parents' love was wrong and so they fought the unfair law, taking their case all the way to the Supreme Court - and won!

You Are Home: An Ode to the National Parks


Evan Turk - 2019
    In simple, soaring language and breathtaking art, acclaimed author-illustrator Evan Turk has created a stirring ode to nature and nation. From the rugged coast of Maine to the fiery volcanoes of Hawaii, You Are Home reminds us that every animal, plant, and person helps make this land a brilliant, beautiful sanctuary of life.

Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival


Kirby Larson - 2008
    In the tradition of Owen and Mzee, this beautiful picture book is a testament to the spirit that defined post-Katrina rescue missions. During Hurricane Katrina, evacuating New Orleans residents were forced to leave their pets behind. Bobbi the dog was initially chained to keep her safe, but after her owners failed to return, she had to break free. For months, Bobbi wandered the city's ravaged streets-dragging her chain behind her-followed by her feline companion, Bob Cat. After months of hunger and struggle, the Two Bobbies were finally rescued by a construction worker helping to rebuild the city. When he brought them to a shelter, volunteers made an amazing discovery about the devoted friends-Bob Cat was actually blind! He had survived the aftermath of the storm by following the sound Bobbi's chain made as she dragged it along the ground.At the shelter, the two bob-tailed friends refused to be parted, even for a moment. Could rescue workers find the Bobbies' owners? Or could they find a new home that would take them together?

An Egg Is Quiet


Dianna Hutts Aston - 2006
    From tiny hummingbird eggs to giant ostrich eggs, oval ladybug eggs to tubular dogfish eggs, gooey frog eggs to fossilized dinosaur eggs, it magnificently captures the incredible variety of eggs and celebrates their beauty and wonder.The evocative text is sure to inspire lively questions and observations. Yet while poetic in voice and elegant in design, the book introduces children to more than 60 types of eggs and an interesting array of egg facts. Even the endpapers brim with information. A tender and fascinating guide that is equally at home being read to a child on a parent's lap as in a classroom reading circle.

Bloom: A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli


Kyo Maclear - 2018
    Bloom: A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli is the enchanting story for young readers of how a young girl used her imagination and emerged from plain to extraordinary.As a young girl in Rome, Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973) felt “brutta” (ugly) and searched all around her for beauty. Seeing the colors of Rome’s flower market one day, young Elsa tried to plant seeds in her ears and nose, hoping to blossom like a flower. All she got was sick, but from that moment, she discovered her own wild imagination.In the 1920 and '30s, influenced by her friends in the surrealist art movement, Schiaparelli created a vast collection of unique fashion designs—hats shaped like shoes, a dress adorned with lobsters, gloves with fingernails, a dress with drawers and so many more. She mixed her own bold colors and invented her own signature shades, including shocking pink.Bloom: A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli is a stunning and sophisticated picture book biography that follows Schiaparelli’s life from birth and childhood to height of success.Kyo Maclear and Julie Morstad (creators of Julia, Child) have gorgeously interpreted Schiaparelli’s life. Maclear tells a lyrical story with moments both poignant and humorous and Morstad’s elegant imagery saturates the pages with Schiaparelli-inspired shapes and colors.Informative backmatter and suggested further reading included.

Ada Lovelace: The Poet of Science


Diane Stanley - 2016
    Like her mother, she had a passion for science, math, and machines. It was a very good combination. Ada hoped that one day she could do something important with her creative and nimble mind.A hundred years before the dawn of the digital age, Ada Lovelace envisioned the computer-driven world we know today. And in demonstrating how the machine would be coded, she wrote the first computer program. She would go down in history as Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer.Diane Stanley’s lyrical writing and Jessie Hartland’s vibrant illustrations capture the spirit of Ada Lovelace and bring her fascinating story vividly to life.

Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation


Duncan Tonatiuh - 2014
    Board of Education, Sylvia Mendez and her parents helped end school segregation in California. An American citizen of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage who spoke and wrote perfect English, Mendez was denied enrollment to a “Whites only” school. Her parents took action by organizing the Hispanic community and filing a lawsuit in federal district court. Their success eventually brought an end to the era of segregated education in California.

The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot July 25, 1909


Alice Provensen - 1983
    "This book...recounts the persistence of a Frenchman, Louis Bleriot, to build a flying machine to cross the English Channel....  The text is succinct, caption-like in its directness and brevity....The paintings...add the necessary testure and tone to this marriage.  This is vintage Provensen" – School Library Journal

The Houdini Box


Brian Selznick - 1991
    Then -- amazingly -- he actually meets his idol, and begs Houdini to explain himself. A mysterious locked box is the magician's only answer, and Victor is left to wonder: Does the box contain the secrets to the most famous magic tricks ever performed?

Miss Mary Reporting: The True Story of Sportswriter Mary Garber


Sue Macy - 2016
    “That’s Mary Garber. She doesn’t care who you are, but if you do something good, she’ll write about you.”Mary Garber was a pioneering sports journalist in a time where women were rarely a part of the newspaper business. Women weren’t even allowed to sit in the press boxes at sporting events, so Mary was forced to sit with the coaches’ wives. But that didn’t stop her.In a time when African-American sports were not routinely covered, Mary went to the games and wrote about them. Garber was a sportswriter for fifty-six years and was the first woman to receive the Associated Press Sports Editors’ Red Smith Award, presented for major contributions in sports journalism. And now, every year the Association of Women in Sports Media presents the Mary Garber Pioneer Award in her honor to a role model for women in sports media.Sure to inspire future journalists, athletes, and any child who has a dream, this illustrated biography of Mary Garber captures her feisty and determined spirit and brings her story to life.

Enormous Smallness: A Story of E. E. Cummings


Matthew Burgess - 2015
    cummings. Here E.E.'s life is presented in a way that will make children curious about him and will lead them to play with words and ask plenty of questions as well. Lively and informative, the book also presents some of Cummings's most wonderful poems, integrating them seamlessly into the story to give the reader the music of his voice and a spirited, sensitive introduction to his poetry.In keeping with the epigraph of the book -- "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are," Matthew Burgess's narrative emphasizes the bravery it takes to follow one's own vision and the encouragement E.E. received to do just that.Matthew Burgess teaches creative writing and composition at Brooklyn College. He is also a writer-in-residence with Teachers & Writers Collaborative, leading poetry workshops in early elementary classrooms since 2001. He was awarded a MacArthur Scholarship while working on his MFA, and he received a grant from The Fund for Poetry. Matthew's poems and essays have appeared in various journals, and his debut collection, Slippers for Elsewhere, was published by UpSet Press. His doctoral dissertation explores childhood spaces in twentieth century autobiography, and he completed his PhD at the CUNY Graduate Center in June 2014.Kris Di Giacomo is an American who has lived in France since childhood. She has illustrated over twenty-five books for French publishers, which have been translated into many languages. This is her sixth book to be published by Enchanted Lion Books. The others are My Dad Is Big And Strong, But . . . , Brief Thief, Me First!, The Day I Lost My Superpowers, and

Her Right Foot


Dave Eggers - 2017
    Have you seen her?She's in New York. She's holding a torch. And she's in mid-stride, moving forward. But why?In this fascinating, fun take on nonfiction, Dave Eggers and Shawn Harris investigate a seemingly small trait of America's most emblematic statue. What they find is about more than history, more than art. What they find in the Statue of Liberty's right foot is the message of acceptance that is essential to an entire country's creation.