Tomás and the Library Lady


Pat Mora - 1997
    Colon's beautiful scratchboard illustrations, in his textured, glowingly colored, rhythmic style, capture the warmth and the dreams that the boy finds in the world of books. A 1999-2000 Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List Book.

The Tree in the Courtyard: Looking Through Anne Frank's Window


Jeff Gottesfeld - 2016
     The tree in the courtyard was a horse chestnut. Her leaves were green stars; her flowers foaming cones of white and pink. Seagulls flocked to her shade. She spread roots and reached skyward in peace. The tree watched a little girl, who played and laughed and wrote in a diary. When strangers invaded the city and warplanes roared overhead, the tree watched the girl peek out of the curtained window of the annex. It watched as she and her family were taken away—and when her father returned after the war, alone. The tree died the summer Anne Frank would have turned eighty-one, but its seeds and saplings have been planted around the world as a symbol of peace.

I Have a Dream


Martin Luther King Jr. - 1973
    The appendixes include texts of some of King's most famous speeches.

The Lotus Seed


Sherry Garland - 1993
    “Exquisite artwork fuses with a compelling narrative--a concise endnote places the story effectively within a historical context--to produce a moving and polished offering.”--Publishers Weekly

Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei


Peter Sís - 1996
    Galileo Galilei was just such a man--a genius--and the first to turn the telescope to the skies to map the heavens. In doing so, he offered objective evidence that the earth was not the fixed center of the universe but that it and all the other planets revolved around the sun. Galileo kept careful notes and made beautiful drawings of all that he observed. Through his telescope he brought the starts down to earth for everyone to see.By changing the way people saw the galaxy, Galileo was also changing the way they saw themselves and their place in the universe. This was very exciting, but to some to some it was deeply disturbing. Galileo has upset the harmonious view of heaven and earth that had been accepted since ancient times. He had turned the world upside down.In this amazing new book, Peter Sís employs the artist's lens to give us an extraordinary view of the life of Galileo Galilei. Sís tells his story in language as simple as a fairy tale, in pictures as rich and tightly woven as a tapestry, and in Galileo's own words, written more than 350 years ago and still resonant with truth. This title has Common Core connections.Starry Messenger is a 1997 Caldecott Honor Book.

The Airport Book


Lisa Brown - 2016
    From checking bags and watching them disappear on the mysterious conveyor belt, to security clearance and a seemingly endless wait at the gate to finally being airborne.But wait! There's more! The youngest family member's sock monkey has gone missing. Follow it at the bottom of the page as it makes a journey as memorable as that of the humans above.

Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille


Jen Bryant - 2016
      Louis Braille was just five years old when he lost his sight. He was a clever boy, determined to live like everyone else, and what he wanted more than anything was to be able to read.   Even at the school for the blind in Paris, there were no books for him.   And so he invented his own alphabet—a whole new system for writing that could be read by touch. A system so ingenious that it is still used by the blind community today.   Award-winning writer Jen Bryant tells Braille’s inspiring story with a lively and accessible text, filled with the sounds, the smells, and the touch of Louis’s world. Boris Kulikov’s inspired paintings help readers to understand what Louis lost, and what he was determined to gain back through books.   An author’s note and additional resources at the end of the book complement the simple story and offer more information for parents and teachers.

Child of the Civil Rights Movement


Paula Young Shelton - 2009
    Paula grew up in the deep south, in a world where whites had and blacks did not. With an activist father and a community of leaders surrounding her, including Uncle Martin (Martin Luther King), Paula watched and listened to the struggles, eventually joining with her family--and thousands of others--in the historic march from Selma to Montgomery.Poignant, moving, and hopeful, this is an intimate look at the birth of the Civil Rights Movement.

The Matchbox Diary


Paul Fleischman - 2013
    Then I’ll tell you its story." When a little girl visits her great-grandfather at his curio-filled home, she chooses an unusual object to learn about: an old cigar box. What she finds inside surprises her: a collection of matchboxes making up her great-grandfather’s diary, harboring objects she can hold in her hand, each one evoking a memory. Together they tell of his journey from Italy to a new country, before he could read and write — the olive pit his mother gave him to suck on when there wasn’t enough food; a bottle cap he saw on his way to the boat; a ticket still retaining the thrill of his first baseball game.

Freedom in Congo Square


Carole Boston Weatherford - 2016
    Here they were free to set up an open market, sing, dance, and play music. They were free to forget their cares, their struggles, and their oppression. This story chronicles slaves' duties each day, from chopping logs on Mondays to baking bread on Wednesdays to plucking hens on Saturday, and builds to the freedom of Sundays and the special experience of an afternoon spent in Congo Square. This book will have a forward from Freddi Williams Evans (freddievans.com), a historian and Congo Square expert, as well as a glossary of terms with pronunciations and definitions.AWARDS:A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2016A School Library Journal Best Book of 2016: NonfictionStarred reviews from School Library Journal, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and The Horn Book Magazine

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!

James Herriot's Treasury for Children: Warm and Joyful Tales by the Author of All Creatures Great and Small


James Herriot - 1992
    From the springtime frolic of Oscar, Cat-About-Town to the yuletide warmth of The Christmas Day Kitten, these stories-radiantly illustrated by Peter Barrett and Ruth Brown-are perennial favorites, and this new complete edition will make a wonderful gift for all readers, great and small.

Our 50 States: Our 50 States


Lynne Cheney - 2006
    Travel a few miles in any direction, and you'll encounter an amazing story that helps explain all the multitude of ways our country came to be." -- Lynne CheneyLynne Cheney and Robin Preiss Glasser, creators of the bestselling America: A Patriotic Primer and A is for Abigail: An Almanac of Amazing American Women, take you on an unforgettable tour of America -- from the Everglades of Florida to the grasslands of Kentucky to the Sierra Mountains of California.Listening to her grandchildren's enthusiastic account of all they saw and did on a family road trip inspired Lynne Cheney to collaborate with Robin Preiss Glasser and create Our 50 States -- the greatest family vacation imaginable. Pack your bags and celebrate our diverse heritage state by state and sea to shining sea in this treasure trove of America's people, places, and history.A scholar of American history, Mrs. Cheney has drawn on a lifetime of study and travel for Our 50 States. Robin Preiss Glasser has brought her inimitable wit and exuberance to every illustration. Together they have created a joyful book that reminds us how fortunate we are to call America our home.

Pancakes to Parathas: Breakfast Around the World


Alice B. McGinty - 2019
    Explore the meals of twelve countries in this playful approach to the world!From Australia to India to the USA, come travel around the world at dawn. Children everywhere are waking up to breakfast. In Japan, students eat soured soybeans called natto. In Brazil, even kids drink coffee--with lots of milk! With rhythm and rhymes and bold, graphic art, Pancakes to Parathas invites young readers to explore the world through the most important meal of the day.

Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth


Oliver Jeffers - 2017
    Oliver Jeffers offers a personal look inside his own hopes and wishes for his child--a missive about our world and those who call it home.