The creators of The Other Side and the Caldecott Honor-winning Coming on Home Soon team up again in another beautifully illustrated picture book that touches hearts and minds.

Just as snow falls on young Chloe’s community, a new girl named Maya appears at the door of her classroom. The first things Chloe notices are Maya’s ragged coat and broken springtime shoes. When Maya takes the seat next to Chloe and smiles, Chloe looks away without returning the smile—that day and every day after.

Jacqueline Woodson’s poetic narration and E.B. Lewis’ stunning watercolors, which use light, shadow and perspective for dramatic effect, capture the hurt feelings as Chloe and her friends whisper secrets and snub Maya’s attempts at friendship. One day Maya stops asking to play and jumps rope alone. The next day her seat is empty, the same day that teacher Ms. Albert drops a stone into a bowl of water, and the children watch as waves ripple away. “This is what kindness does, Ms. Albert said. Each little thing we do goes out, like a ripple, into the world.”

While each classmate drops a stone into the water and recalls a kind act, such as helping with a baby brother’s diaper or carrying the teacher’s books, Chloe can’t think of one act of kindness she has done lately. When she discovers that Maya will not be returning, she laments her missed opportunities to be kind to her classmate. A lesser author would have made this a didactic moment. In Woodson’s soft, lyrical tone, Chloe’s dilemma becomes an occasion for personal reflection. From now on, when they watch water ripple, readers of Each Kindness will ponder their own gifts to the world and the splash they can make.

Suppose you have to talk about a family member for show-and-tell at school and the only family member who isn’t busy is your grandfather. All you know about Granpa Frank is that he’s old and he prefers everything to be the way it was back in his day. This is the crisis that David Mackintosh’s young narrator faces in The Frank Show, the hilarious story of a boy who discovers that old age may make a person different, but it certainly doesn’t make him uninteresting.

Granpa Frank doesn’t like doctors, or today’s music, or haircuts. The only flavor of ice cream he eats is vanilla. His grandson can’t imagine there is anything else about Granpa Frank that he doesn’t know, and there is only so much one can say about preference for vanilla to fill “one full minute” during show-and-tell.

When he brings Frank to school, sure that Frank will embarrass him, his grandfather does just the opposite. Granpa Frank tells the wild story of his days as a soldier, including a glorious battle and the singlehanded capture of 100 men. Tom’s drum-playing uncle and Paolo’s Italian mother suddenly pale in comparison to the exciting adventures of Granpa Frank. As Frank becomes the class hero, the young narrator takes pride in his relative and basks in the adulation of his classmates.

Complete with lively pen-and-ink illustrations, this offbeat picture book is sure to become a family favorite. Along the way, it may prompt children to wonder what exciting details their grandparents have yet to reveal about their own life stories.

Do children really need another story about Helen Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan? If it’s Deborah Hopkinson’s enthralling picture-book biography, then the answer is an overwhelming yes. Blending riveting narration with portions of actual letters Sullivan wrote to her own teacher at the Perkins Institution for the Blind, the author begins with the arrival of 20-year-old Sullivan and her first charge, six-year-old Helen, who “was like a small, wild bird, throwing herself against the bars of a dark and silent cage.”

While the book does feature such famous scenes as Helen’s dinner disaster and her breakthrough at the water pump, the focus is on Helen’s need for language and how Sullivan taught her to communicate. Using the world as Helen’s classroom, Sullivan helped her understand sound by placing frogs and crickets in her hands, which allowed her to feel them vibrate as they croaked and chirped. The teacher even found ways to teach abstract concepts like thinking.

Readers may associate Helen’s learning with sign language, but Sullivan also showed her pupil how to read with raised alphabet letters and Braille. On her first trip away from home in 1887, Helen was able to write a letter home to her mother. Illustrated with award winner Raul Colón’s muted watercolors, the book also includes numerous black-and-white photographs, a copy of Helen’s letter to her mother and a Braille alphabet on the back cover for young readers to practice Helen’s skills. Most importantly, Hopkinson shows how in the process of learning to communicate Helen also learned to be a girl again.

Attention safari fans! It’s a jungle out there, literally, and you’ve got to know just how to behave to avoid major obstacles, like those presented by the titular character of What to Do if an Elephant Stands on Your Foot.

In this playful tale by first-time author Michelle Robinson, an androgynous safari guide (expertly and emotively drawn by acclaimed illustrator Peter H. Reynolds) demonstrates how to navigate in the wild with varying degrees of success—and a lot of hilarity.

Great pacing and suspense-inducing text will pique young readers’ interest to see what happens next. As the story progresses, the tension and silliness mount, and soon kids, like our protagonist, will be jumping around like monkeys and flailing as if in crocodile-infested waters. The ending brings us back to the beginning, with stern but helpful warnings for our next safari.

Reynolds’ illustrations are always lively and clever; his pictures here of the hapless guide and uncooperative animals are no exception. As one might expect after being stepped on by an elephant or chased by a rhinoceros, the guide reacts with fear, frustration and eventually relief, all delightfully captured in Reynolds’ portraits.

The cacophony of animal sounds and the safari guide’s frenzied exclamations make this title ideal for preschool storytime—but be warned, it could get loud!

Vernon the frog was very happy. He spent his days in the mud, searching out interesting things. Then one day, he finds a friend. Bird may not say much (or anything, really), but as Vernon says when he introduces his new friend to Skunk and Porcupine, “Bird is shy… but also a very good listener.” After Vernon and Bird spend more time together, Vernon begins to worry that Bird may be sad—after all, he still isn’t talking! And that’s when things begin to get interesting.

In A Home for Bird, the newest picture book by Philip C. Stead, author of the Caldecott Award-winning A Sick Day for Amos McGee, Vernon is determined to find Bird a home in which he will finally be happy.

However, it’s not always easy to find a home for someone who doesn’t talk. With help from his friends, Vernon creates first a boat (from a teacup, drinking straw, napkin and spoon) and later a hot-air balloon (from the same teacup, some string and a large red balloon), all in the quest to find Bird his home. The satisfying ending of the book is foretold from the dedication page, but will still bring surprise to some children, and the excitement of being able to “figure it out” to others.

A Home for Bird is a stunning book. In his usual way, Stead creates a story that is commanding in its simplicity. Never one to use too many words, Stead builds strong characters and powerful relationships with never more than five lines of text on a page. Stead is also able to create a vivid peek into the world of Vernon, Bird, Skunk and Porcupine with his unique scribbled illustrations. The humorous details in every picture make this book perfect for story time and group reading, and the compassionate characters make it perfect for reading cuddled together. Vernon is the type of caring, wonderful friend everyone wants to spend more time with.

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Meet Philip C. Stead!
Find out more about Philip Stead's workspace and how A Home for Bird was created.

“The pup with the pencil, the mutt with the marker, the dog with the drawing pad, the chap with the chalk.” Charlie Muttnik is a persistent pooch who has gotta draw. Just like his real-life counterpart, author-illustrator Bruce Degen, Charlie constantly searches for a place to draw in his family’s cramped Brooklyn apartment. He manages to find ways to draw in his neighborhood until summer ends and school begins with a strict new teacher, Miss Rich.

Now that his days are spent sitting in class with hands folded, Charlie has little time left for drawing, so he scribbles where he can, on spelling tests and fractions, until Miss Rich can’t tell his numerators from denominators. With exasperated parents and suffering grades, the young dog turns in a visually detailed report that gives his teacher a change of heart. Soon Charlie is allowed to draw during the school day while calling out his spelling words. The effect spreads until all the children become artists and participate in an art show. And Charlie’s grades not only improve, he finally earns respect for his drawing passion.

Adorable as ever, Degen’s mixed-media illustrations intensify with color as art is welcomed into his classroom. The beloved illustrator of Jamberry and the Magic School Bus series incorporates plenty of humor and expression to highlight both Charlie’s enthusiasm and dilemmas. As a reminder that abilities come in all forms, parents, teachers and librarians alike should keep the delightful I Gotta Draw on hand to encourage creativity and simple fun in our increasingly structured world.

At one point or another, all children will have to say goodbye to their mothers for the first time—whether for hours (nursery school) or days (a business trip for mom). In Meet Me at the Moon, Gianna Marino captures the pain of parting with a parent, and the comfort that comes from remembering that parent’s love while she is away.

Little One is an elephant on the African plains. During a drought, his mother “must climb the highest mountain to ask the skies for rain.” Little One is upset at the prospect of being alone, but his mother tells him that he shouldn’t worry. She says, “You will feel my love in everything around you.” The baby elephant needs only to listen to the wind, feel the warmth of the sun and seek out the brightest star in the sky. He will hear, feel and see his mother’s love all around him in nature. Besides, while Mama is away, Little One isn’t really alone, since friendly giraffes and zebras look after him.

Marino’s quiet story of separation is sweet and relatable, although it is her gorgeous illustrations, vivid and textured, that will have young readers eagerly turning pages. The gentle animals loom large on the page—loving and expressive—and the African landscape is pictured in bright colors. After Mama leaves, children will be able to feel her presence through the swirling wind—depicted as a stream of dots—and the warm beating sun. They will especially feel Little One’s relief when he remembers to sing out the calling song after the rain has come and gone; Mama suddenly reappears on the plains, and the small family is united and overjoyed. After all, while it may be reassuring to have reminders of a loved one, there is nothing better than saying “I love you” in person and getting a big hug from mom when she finally comes home.

Any bibliophile will tell you that a book is wonderful just for being a book. If the story inside is captivating too, well, that’s icing on the cake. Beautiful and oft-read books in particular are loved by all readers, and it’s not hard to imagine those books having lives of their own.

In The Lonely Book, Kate Bernheimer imagines how a children’s book would feel when it is placed on the New Book shelf in a library, fast becoming popular and in high circulation. Over time, as with all books, the Lonely Book finds itself checked out less and less until eventually it doesn’t circulate at all.

A young girl named Alice finds it quite by accident and is immediately enchanted by its cover. Alice takes the book home and borrows it again and again. The Lonely Book (whose “real” title is never revealed) is no longer lonely and is happy to be with Alice. As readers, we feel the book’s anguish when it is separated from Alice and left with the library’s books to be discarded. We also feel the elation of both the book and Alice when they are reunited in the end.

This is a sweet story with beautiful, dream-like illustrations by Chris Sheban. Any booklovers who read it will be inspired to find a forgotten and once-treasured book for themselves.

With the ease of buying milk at the grocery store today, many children now know very little about where milk comes from. Recalling her own delightful memories of growing up on a Minnesota dairy farm, Phyllis Alsdurf lets children vicariously experience the hard yet joyful work in It’s Milking Time. The blend of her poetic text— with “cuds a-chewing, / tails a-swatting, / hooves a-pounding”—and the accompanying paintings in soft, muted colors gives a nostalgic feel to this gentle story.

After a young girl leads a parade of Holsteins into the barn, she helps her father feed and prepare them to be hooked up to the milker. As each one of the alphabet of cows (“Alphie, Bertha, Cassie, Di . . .”) finishes, Dad empties the milk into a pail and carries it to the milking house, where the milk is strained and ends up in a milking can. Finally, it’s stored in a cooler until it can be picked up the next day, taken to the creamery and made into butter and cheese or placed in bottles for stores.

When the cows head back to the fields, there’s still more work to do, such as shoveling manure into gutters to be used later as fertilizer and scrubbing the milkers and strainers. Although milking requires never-ending diligence, it’s not all drudgery. The girl relishes the responsibility of feeding the cows; petting and giving milk to the calves; and spending time with her father. And in the morning, after her mother skims the cream off the top, there’s fresh milk to drink with her pancakes.

Fans of Jane Yolen’s Owl Moon, with its quiet father-daughter bond, will adore this equally beautiful and loving book—and learn more about their favorite drink in the process.