. .Business returns to a once-prosperous restaurant when a mysterious stranger pays for his meal with a magical paper crane that comes alive and dances. The Paper Crane is illustrated with cut-paper collages and paintings. It is a wonderful book to use with children learning about patterns in storytelling. "A delight to the eye and imagination."—The Horn Book. "An enchanting book."—School Library JournalSupports the Common Core State Standards

    When all the shoppers have gone home for the night, Corduroy climbs down from the shelf to look for his missing button. It's a brave new world! He accidentally gets on an elevator that he thinks must be a mountain and sees the furniture section that he thinks must be a palace. He tries to pull a button off the mattress, but he ends up falling off the bed and knocking over a lamp. The night watchman hears the crash, finds Corduroy, and puts him back on the shelf downstairs. The next morning, he finds that it's his lucky day! A little girl buys him with money she saved in her piggy bank and takes him home to her room. Corduroy decides that this must be home and that Lisa must be his friend. Youngsters will never get tired of this toy-comes-alive tale with a happy ending, so you may also want to seek out Dan Freeman's next creation, A Pocket for Corduroy. (Ages 3 to 8)

    Emily Elizabeth describes the activities she enjoys with her very big red dog and how they take care of each other.

    Fox's door "accidentally," the fox can hardly believe his good luck. It's not every day that dinner just shows up on your doorstep. It must be his lucky day! Or is it?Before Mr. Fox can say grace, the piglet has manipulated him into giving him a fabulously tasty meal, the full spa treatment (with bath and massage), and . . . freedom.In a funny trickster tale of her own, Kasza keeps readers guessing until the surprise ending when they'll realize it was piglet's lucky day all along.

    But she wants to be a knight. At night, she practises at becoming the best knight in the land. When her father, the king, stages a tournament for Violetta's hand in marriage, she knows she must win the greatest battle yet, for the most important prize of all - herself.

    Somewhere there must be a smart, strong, wonderful, magical little girl waiting to be best friends. In fact, far away (but not too far), a real little girl believes there is a unicorn waiting for her. This refreshing and sweet story of friendship reminds believers and nonbelievers alike that sometimes wishes really can come true.

    Very little. She's brave and bossy, fearless and determined, loving and funny. And like all toddlers she likes everything just so – woe betide anyone and anything that gets in her way!Join Very Little Red Riding Hood on a very important expedition to her Grandmama's for a sleepover.She's got some cakes, she's got red ted, she's got her blanket and she's got her tea set. And NOTHING is going to get in the way of her well-laid plans. Not even a Wolf!Will they all live happily ever after?Find out in Very Little Red Riding Hood's very big adventure.

    . . . The droll illustrations, with tones blended to luminescent shading, are complete and humorous themselves.' -- Association of Library Service to Children, ALA.

    Rambunctious Froggy hops out into the snow for a winter frolic but is called back by his mother to put on some necessary articles of clothing.

    What if he doesn't make any new friends? Nervous kitties wondering about friends and school will enjoy laughing along with Splat the Cat!Just in case, Splat decides to bring along his pet mouse, Seymour, and hides him in his lunchbox. The teacher, Mrs. Wimpydimple, introduces Splat to the class and he soon starts learning all his important cat lessons.But when Seymour escapes and the cats do what cats do (they chase mice!), Splat's worried again. Maybe now he'll lose all his friends, old and new! Just in time, wise Mrs. Wimpydimple takes charge and teaches everyone an important new lesson.Maybe Cat School is going to be okay after all! A fun school story to share in the classroom or at home.

    One night, when Ethan checks under his bed for his monster, Gabe, he finds a note from him instead: "Gone fishing. Back in a week." Ethan knows that without Gabe’s familiar nightly scares he doesn't stand a chance of getting to sleep, so Ethan interviews potential substitutes to see if they've got the right equipment for the job—pointy teeth, sharp claws, and a long tail—but none of them proves scary enough for Ethan. When Gabe returns sooner than expected from his fishing trip, Ethan is thrilled. It turns out that Gabe didn't enjoy fishing because the fish scared too easily.

    I know about pirates, because one day, when I was at the beach building a sand castle and minding my own business, a pirate ship sailed into view.So proclaims Jeremy Jacob, a boy who joins Captain Braid Beard and his crew in this witty look at the finer points of pirate life by the Caldecott Honor–winning illustrator David Shannon and the storyteller Melinda Long. Jeremy learns how to say “scurvy dog,” sing sea chanteys, and throw food . . . but he also learns that there are no books or good night kisses on board: “Pirates don’t tuck.” A swashbuckling adventure with fantastically silly, richly textured illustrations that suit the story to a T.

    What would you do if you were invited to the princess’s tenth birthday party but didn’t have money for a gift? Well, clever Jack decides to bake the princess a cake.Now he just has to get it to the castle in one piece. What could possibly go wrong?Candace Fleming and G. Brian Karas, creators of the bestselling picture book Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!, have teamed up again to bring us a modern fairy tale starring a determined boy and a story-loving princess with a good sense of humor. While girls will fall for a story featuring a princess’s birthday party, Jack’s adventures with trolls, bears, and gypsies make this the perfect read for young boys as well—and ideal for storytime.

    But cunning Mr. Dog tricks Salma, and before she knows it, he’s wearing her stripy ntama, her pretty white beads, and her yellow sandals. And he’s on his way to Granny’s house! African culture and flavor infuse this inventive retelling of a favorite fairy tale, and the vibrant lively illustrations bring it to life. The result is a story that combines new and old and spans cultures as successfully as it has spanned the centuries.

    But in this book, the youngsters are a wide variety of dinosaurs. And how do dinosaurs say good night?Filled with wonderful detail and humor, children and their parents will love the expressions and antics of the eleven different dinosaur children depicted here, and each species is spelled out somewhere in the young dinosaur's bedroom. In the end, young dinosaurs behave a lot like people do: They give a big kiss, turn out the light, tuck in their tails, and whisper "good night."Here is a new staple for bedtime reading, a book children will ask for again and again.