Ketzel, the Cat Who Composed


Lesléa Newman - 2015
    But Moshe didn’t mind. Everything he heard was music to his ears. One day, while out for a walk, he heard a small, sad sound that he’d never heard before. It was a tiny kitten! "Come on, little Ketzel," Moshe said, "I will take you home and we will make beautiful music together." And they did—in a most surprising way. Inspired by a true story, Lesléa Newman and Amy June Bates craft an engaging tale of a creative man and the beloved cat who brings unexpected sweet notes his way.

The Dinosaur that Pooped a Planet!


Tom Fletcher - 2013
    Danny and Dinosaur are back, and this time they are going to space!But when Danny realises he's forgotten Dino's lunch box, the very hungry dinosaur eats everything in sight, including their only way home: the rocket!How will Dino get them back home?There's poop, planets and pandemonium in this supersonic space adventure!

Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting with the Great Whites of California's Farallon Islands


Katherine Roy - 2014
    Each fall, while the city's inhabitants dine on steaks, salads, and sandwiches, the great white sharks return to California's Farallon Islands to hunt their favorite meal: the seals that live on the island's rocky coasts. Massive, fast, and perfectly adapted to hunting after 11 million years of evolution, the great whites are among the planet's most fearsome, fascinating, and least understood animals. In the fall of 2012, Katherine Roy visited the Farallons with the scientists who study the islands' shark population. She witnessed seal attacks, observed sharks being tagged in the wild, and got an up close look at the dramatic Farallons—a wildlife refuge that is strictly off-limits to all but the scientsts who work there. Neighborhood Sharks is an intimate portrait of the life cycle, biology, and habitat of the great white shark, based on the latest research and an up-close visit with these amazing animals.

Dazzle Ships: World War I and the Art of Confusion


Chris Barton - 2017
    Dazzle camouflage transformed ordinary British and American ships into eye-popping masterpieces.

Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday and the Power of a Protest Song


Gary Golio - 2017
    This is also the story of two outsiders - Billie Holiday, a young black woman raised in poverty, and Abel Meeropol, the son of Jewish immigrants - whose combined talents created a truly unforgettable song.

Jazz Day: The Making of a Famous Photograph


Roxane Orgill - 2016
    Could he pull it off? In a captivating collection of poems, Roxane Orgill steps into the frame of Harlem 1958, bringing to life the musicians’ mischief and quirks, their memorable style, and the vivacious atmosphere of a Harlem block full of kids on a hot summer’s day. Francis Vallejo’s vibrant, detailed, and wonderfully expressive paintings do loving justice to the larger-than-life quality of jazz musicians of the era. Includes bios of several of the fifty-seven musicians, an author’s note, sources, a bibliography, and a foldout of Art Kane’s famous photograph.

How to Read a Book


Kwame Alexander - 2019
    Kwame Alexander’s poetry and Melissa Sweet’s artwork come together to take readers on a journey between the pages of a book.

Shackleton's Journey


William Grill - 2014
    His impeccably researched drawings, rich with detail, fastidiously reproduce the minutiae of the expedition.Children will love examining the diagrams of the peculiar provisions and the individual drawings of each sled dog and packhorse. This book takes the academic and historical information behind the expedition and reinterprets it for a young audience.

Anna at the Art Museum


Hazel Hutchins - 2018
    Everything is old and boring and there are so many rules: Don’t Touch! Do Not Enter! Quiet! A vigilant guard keeps a close eye on the energetic little girl, but even so, Anna manages to set off an alarm and almost tip over a vase.A half-open door draws Anna’s attention, but the No Entry sign means yet again that it’s off-limits. This time, however, the guard surprises her by inviting her to go in. Here she finds a “secret workshop” where paintings are being cleaned and repaired. Staring out from one of the canvases is a girl who looks grumpy and bored—just like Anna herself. With the realization that art often imitates life, Anna discovers the sheer joy to be had from the paintings on the wall, especially those that reflect what is happening all around her.Filled with representations of paintings from many world-class galleries, this charming book is the perfect prelude to a child’s first visit to an art museum.

Gallop!: A Scanimation Picture Book


Rufus Butler Seder - 2007
    It's impossible not to flip the page, and flip it again, and again, and again. A first book of motion for kids, it shows a horse in full gallop and a turtle swimming up the page. A dog runs, a cat springs, an eagle soars, and a butterfly flutters. Created by Rufus Butler Seder, an inventor, artist, and filmmaker fascinated by antique optical toys, Scanimation is a state-of-the-art six-phase animation process that combines the "persistence of vision" principle with a striped acetate overlay to give the illusion of movement. It harkens back to the old magical days of the kinetoscope, and the effect is astonishing, like a Muybridge photo series springing into action—or, in terms kids can relate to, like a video without a screen. Complementing the art is a delightful rhyming text full of simple questions and fun, nonsense replies: Can you gallop like a horse? giddyup-a-loo! Can you strut like a rooster? cock-a-doodle-doo!Every child who opens the book will be amazed—and so will every parent.

Gingerbread for Liberty!: How a German Baker Helped Win the American Revolution


Mara Rockliff - 2015
    When cries of “Revolution!” began, Christopher was determined to help General George Washington and his hungry troops. Not with muskets or cannons, but with gingerbread!     Cheerfully told by Mara Rockliff and brought to life by Vincent Kirsch’s inventive cut-paper illustrations, Gingerbread for Liberty is the story of an unsung hero of the Revolutionary War who changed the course of history one loaf at a time.

Home


Carson Ellis - 2015
    Home may be on the road or the sea, in the realm of myth, or in the artist's own studio. A meditation on the concept of home.

The Fabled Life of Aesop: The Extraordinary Journey and Collected Tales of the World’s Greatest Storyteller


Ian Lendler - 2020
    Stunningly illustrated by two-time Caldecott Honor winner Pamela Zagarenski.

White Rabbit's Color Book


Alan Baker - 1999
    Soon the little rabbit is jumping from bucket to bucket and learning all about colors and how they mix. Quivering with excitement, Brown Rabbit nudges open a square gift box and finds five balloons which take on all sorts of shapes. Gray Rabbit and Black-and-White Rabbit have their own adventures as they discover numbers and the alphabet. Toddlers will have fun and learn with these concept books, warmly illustrated with meticulous detail by Alan Baker.

Little Humans


Brandon Stanton - 2014
    They won't be little for long. Soon they will be... BIG!Street photographer and storyteller extraordinaire Brandon Stanton is the creator of the #1 New York Times bestselling book Humans of New York as well as the wildly popular Humans of New York blog. To create Little Humans he combined some of his favorite children's photos with a heartwarming ode to little humans everywhere.