Mr. Cookie Baker by Monica Wellington

Monica Wellington has captured the joy of baking cookies. Mr. Baker obviously enjoys his job. He smiles as he starts each day by gathering the ingredients and then making and decorating cookies. The delicious scent and colorfully decorated cookies draw the neighborhood children into the store. Mrs. Baker sells the cookies until all are sold. [...]

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Spaghetti Eddie by Ryan SanAngelo, illus. by Jackie Urbanovic

This book catches the imagination right from the cover. Little boys are sure that Eddie is eating worms but his dish of choice is noodles with sauce. Spaghetti Eddie reads like an urban fairy tale. Eddie is the clever hero who is considered a bit silly by the people he meets and helps. As he [...]

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All You Need for a Beach by Alice Schertle, illus. by Barbara Lavallee

What are the ingredients for a perfect day at the beach? You need sand, surf, and sun, but that’s not all! Alice Schertle gives us a rhyming lesson in the items required for summer fun. Kids will love to help you think of what the narrator has neglected to mention. You’d never guess how many [...]

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Apple and Oranges: Going Bananas with Pairs, by Sara Pinto

What do an apple and an orange have in common? If you said they are both fruit, you’d be both right and not creative enough for this book. Pinto’s answer is “They both don’t wear glasses.” Try again: what do a bicycle and a motorcycle have in common? Ponder your answer while you read the [...]

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The Hiccupotamus, by Aaron Zenz

Poor Mr. Hippo has the hiccups. His friends Elephant, Centipede, and Rhinoceros try everything they can think of to rid him of them, but nothing seems to work. What makes this animal tale unique is the way author Zenz rhymes his lines. “There was a hippopotamus Who hiccupped quite-a-lotamus And every time he got’emus He’d [...]

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An Egret’s Day by Jane Yolen, photographs by Jason Stemple

An Egret’s Day combines various types of poetry with brief factual information on egrets, one of the birds you can spy in the waters here in Virginia. As Yolen uses Haiku, rhyming couplets, free verse and even a limerick to describe egrets, her son, Jason Stemple, shows beautiful photography of the majestic bird.  Dramatic light [...]

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In the Small, Small Pond, by Denise Fleming

My son really enjoyed this book when he was a youngster.  It was one of our favorites to read aloud because of the great sounds you could make.   Wiggle, jiggle tadpoles wriggle and dabble, dip, tails flip – it just puts a smile on your face to shape the words. The story shows different creatures [...]

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Monday is One Day by Arthur A. Levine, Illus. by Julian Hector

This picture book starts off by showing parents and children waking up and getting ready to start the week.  Levine makes a point of including many different types of family units – single parents, grandparents, an African-American family, and a single sex partnership.  It doesn’t represent all the different types of family combinations there may [...]

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Old Bear and His Cub by Olivier Dunrea

Families have changed in multiple ways in recent years. Old Bear and His Cub celebrates this change in a simple charming story. Old Bear and his cub are a family who love each other with all their hearts. But, as it happens in most families, Little Cub tests his loving “parent.” When told to eat [...]

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Whose Baby Am I? by John Butler

Young children are often fascinated by babies, human and otherwise. Butler’s book, Whose Baby Am I ?, will be a favorite for young animal lovers. Each baby animal is matched with the repetitive questions, “Whose baby am I?” Turn the page and you find the answer along with a charming illustration of the adult animal. [...]

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