Children

Lovely book about a young immigrant girl who is embarrassed after other kids tease her about her Korean name. She asks her classmates for name suggestions and eventually decides that her name is truly special. Simple, moving story with a great lesson.

With terrific illustrations by Chris Raschka, this book begs readers to read poems aloud, and it contains a good sampling of many different types. From limericks to tongue twisters, bilingual poems to group poems, Janeczko provides readers another example of why poetry is one of the best ways to build students’ love of language.

The author, under the pseudonym “Lerch,” provides readers with a funny story of friendship, as a tiny goldfish searches for company in his lonely fish bowl. Highly entertaining read aloud. For some reason I am obsessed with funny children’s stories involving fish. Can someone psychoanalyze me about this?

Stone Arch produces all sorts of great books for kids, and boys especially love Michael Dahl’s books. Try this one as a way of enticing your reluctant reader son to read more.

I don’t know how I never saw this book before. Beautifully illustrated by one of my favorites, Christopher Myers, this collection of long-lost, one-line folktales is sure to spawn a classroom filled with students creating their own. Terrific fun.

I am an avid golf fan. One of the greatest sports stories in American history is largely unknown, and that is of teenager Francis Ouimet’s remarkable U.S. Open upset at Brookline 100 years ago this year. There are so many amazing parts to this story, one of which is that of the lifelong friendship of Francis with his then 10-year-old caddie Eddie Lowery. Herzog manages to cram a lot of great stuff in 32 pages, and Zachary Pullen’s illustrations are brilliant.

Had to include a fun Halloween title for the little ones. Donaldson’s fun adventures features terrific illustrations by Axel Scheffler and a memorable last page.

I met Keith Baker years ago at the Oregon Reading Association’s annual conference, and I found him to be a wonderfully engaging presenter. As happens too often, I forgot to feature any of his wonderful books. He is a stupendous children’s author and illustrator, and I hope you include this title in your library. This is a beautiful story of finding one’s uniqueness that should be featured in every classroom in America.

Want to get young kids excited about reading? Give them a board book with lots of beautiful illustrations, courtesy of Linda Bleck. One of the best ways to help kids become readers is to repeatedly share nursery rhymes together, and this book makes a favorite staple in any home (including my own).

I’ve been in enough airports this past month that I had to include this selection, as a family travels through an airport on a quest to find their missing sock monkey. Funny travelogue with nice illustrations.

Okay! I’m obsessed a little bit with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, so it’s no surprise I would include a beautifully illustrated children’s book to introduce young tykes to the infamous duel between a sitting Vice President and our nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury.

Beautiful watercolor illustrations by Kenard Pak complement this brilliant poetic work about nature helping nature. Truly a treasure!

All kids love Pete the Cat lift-the-flap books, and I am just intrigued by the married couple of authors/illustrators who left corporate America to pursue their passion for art. Kimberly and James Dean are my heroes!

Poor Duncan has to figure out a way to appease his crayons so they will let him color, as some colors are not even talking to one another in this very funny book with great illustrations by Oliver Jeffers.

An introduction to “The Time-Tripping Faradays” series, this book follows the adventures of a family of 25th-century time travelers. This edition takes our protagonists to 17th century Prague and does an excellent job of hooking upper elementary school students on the joys of science fiction.