It's easy to appreciate a garden exploding with colorful flowers and fragrances, but what do you do with a patch of ugly vegetables? Author/illustrator Grace Lin recalls such a garden in this charming and eloquent story. The neighbors' gardens look so much prettier and so much more inviting to the young gardener than the garden of "black-purple-green vines, fuzzy wrinkled leaves, prickly stems, and a few little yellow flowers" that she and her mother grow. Nevertheless, mother assures her that "these are better than flowers." Come harvest time, everyone agrees as those ugly Chinese vegetables become the tastiest, most aromatic soup they have ever known. As the neighborhood comes together to share flowers and ugly vegetable soup, the young gardener learns that regardless of appearances, everything has its own beauty and purpose.
Sam is a super brother. He can run. He can leap. He can climb tall cliffs! But when his baby brother gets hurt, Super Sam must try his hardest to save the day. This simple, charming story and its bold, energetic illustrations are just right for lap sharing and story hour.
Petey wants to make something wonderful, but he can't help making a mess along the way. It's a good thing his big brother Sam is always there to fix his mistakes.
Here is a unique blend of love song and natural fact, celebrating the care that exists between the parents and offspring of many species. Baby mountain goat is guided up high cliffs. Baby beaver learns to build well. Baby bat is held in mother's protective embrace, upside-down. And YOUR baby, too, will feel the comfort and delight of nature's wonders. Here is a "sweet dream bedtime" book for nature lovers of all generations!
Upbeat, funny and irresistibly singable, this song was made famous by John Denver and now made doubly delightful by Christopher Canyon's illustrations. Especially if you listen along with Denver, kids will say, play it again! It is all about the cousins, the chicken pie, four hound dogs and a piggy, but as the song says, the best darn thing about Grandmas house was her great big feather bed. Vince Gill put it in a nutshell: "It just makes sense--John Denver and kids!"
To an outsider, Native American family life may seem simple. In reality, the societies within Native American tribes are incredibly rich and complex. Nor is family life the same from tribe to tribe. Some tribes are organized into clans; others trace their lineage according to matrilineal lines. This book discusses some of the familial arrangements of various tribes, including the reasons for such arrangements as well as the roles individuals played in their respective societies.
Where is Little Chick? Rooster and the other farm animals work together to find her.
Little Cat goes to the carnival with Mom and Dad. She likes fast, exciting rides. Mom and Dad do not!
Fishing is fun, but it's also hard work! Spend the day with a grandfather and granddaughter on their fishing trip.
There are many different types of families. Who are the people in your family?
This book shows young readers that, like a community, a family has members who perform roles. Parents teach and care for their children; children have rules to follow and household jobs to perform. Questions throughout the book encourage children to relate the information to their own families.
Families are built in many different ways. This interesting book describes the different members who make up a family including sisters and brothers, parents and stepparents, and grandparents. A creative activity asks children to write a book or a story about their families and add family photos.
Mary Clayborne, the teenage daughter of a country doctor and a piano teacher, dreams of going to a conservatory and becoming a concert pianist. When her mother falls ill, she temporarily puts aside her ambition in order to care for her younger brothers and sisters. A timeless coming of age story.
After two years in a loving home, TJ's mother got him back. She was clean. No pot. No meth. His chest felt like it was burning. His heart was racing. Trapped. He felt trapped. He didn't have a say. Everything he had come to care about would be gone: Miss Dixie, hot meals, friends, Mae's little hand, and Annabelle. And the brutal life he'd escaped quickly reclaimed him. Kaden Cruz didn't run after him. Instead his voice boomed, "You owe us." TJ didn't look back. But he knew this wasn't the end of Kaden Cruz. He could still hear his father's voice. "It's not free. You'll have to pay them back one day."
Kioko had been watching the matatus come and go for as long as he could remember. But today, for his fifth birthday, he climbs aboard one with his grandfather. As the matatu pulls away from the market, the village dogs chase after them. When Kioko asks his grandfather why the dogs always bark and chase after matatus, his grandfather tells him an entertaining tale about a dog, a goat and a sheep. Set in East Africa, The Matatu is a colorful story filled with many unexpected turns and twists along the way.
Tova lives with her family on a small farm in the famous town of Chelm, a mythical village populated, according to Jewish folklore, by fools. Tova's farm has hens and even a rooster, but no cow. Her mother, Rivka, wishes they could afford to buy a cow, so they could have fresh milk and butter every day. One night Tova's father has a dream about how to get milk without actually owning a cow. He asks Tova to help him find a way to get milk from their hens, and the results are hilarious. Finally, to the family's joy and the hens' relief, the problem is solved by none other than the wise Rabbi of Chelm himself, and a little extra help from Tova.
Everyone loves babies, and John Denver's love song For Baby (For Bobbie), interpreted as a children's picture book by award-winning illustrator Janeen Mason, reminds us that these feelings are universal. Captivating images lead us around the globe, from Sri Lanka to the Arctic, and deepen the experience of John Denver's enduring song, a legacy of love.
Learning responsibility at home and in school are addressed in this book. How it makes you feel better about yourself if you are responsible and do the right thing and how other people notice too.
Packing up and moving from a small house to a big city filled with tall buildings and bustling sounds is exciting.
When Charlie's grandfather gives him a harmonica as a present he can't stop playing it. His mom and dad are constantly telling him to put it away, but his efforts pay off when there is a talent show at school and all his classmates encourage him and his harmonica to enter.
When Dan and Dad go out for pizza they learn that just because it smells so good doesn't mean you should eat too much. It's much better if you share.
Wendy was always being forgetful. She never turns off lights or the TV, and always leaves the fridge open when searching for a snack. When her mom tells here that is like throwing money down the drain Wendy finally thinks she understands. She starts to empty the money from her piggy bank down the drain until her mom explains that was just a figure of speech.
Immigrants sailed from faraway lands to come to America for opportunity. This book includes their experiences at Ellis Island, the struggles of finding employment, and learning a new language in a strange new world.
Here is a gentle way to share a birth with a child. John Denver's hauntingly beautiful song "Ancient Rhymes" is about the birth of a baby dolphin, and Christopher Canyon's luminous illustrations - including a baby dolphin curled up with an umbilical cord and also a live birth - convey a sense of mystery, awe, and anticipation of things to come. The baby soon tastes the air and learns of dolphin ways, much the same way as a human baby does. There's something magical and indescribable about it - a timeless and endearing lullaby.
