Staff Picks

This gentle book encourages imagination and affirms that whoever you want to be you, you will be loved.

 

Publisher's description: 
A moving bilingual ode to the unshakeable bond between a parent and child in the tradition of Runaway Bunny and The Wonderful Things You Will Be.

Find Nosotros Means Us in our online catalog

Gorgeous photos and compelling rhyme take you on a deep-sea adventure in this nonfiction picture book. Informational boxes provide facts about hunting techniques, defenses, and even octopus personalities! Preschoolers and other young scientists will love diving into this entertaining book.
 

Publisher's description:
This playful picture book introduces young readers to the fascinating world of octopuses big and small, ink-squirting and shape-shifting, all around the planet. With their super smarts and awe-inspiring abilities, octopuses have captivated human imaginations. This book is a celebration of all things weird and wonderful about these beloved creatures--with their eight arms, nine brains, and one-of-a-kind personalities. Inside, find lyrical poetry paired with informational sidebars--perfect for a charming bedtime read or for pouring over for in-depth octopus info. Gorgeous photos of real octopuses give kids an up-close and personal glimpse of the sensational cephalopods--from the utterly adorable Dumbo octopus to the stunning blue-ringed octopus-and their incredible habitats and body parts.

Find Mysterious, Marvelous Octopus in our online catalog

This simple story with bright illustrations by Togolese-French artist, Magali Attiogbé, captivates with the beauty of animals, nature, and repetition.
 

Publisher's description:
When a little pea escapes a girl who is shelling peas, it rolls off the kitchen table, onto the floor, and an adventure begins. The runaway pea rolls passed several hungry animals. It manages to evade a mouse, a cat, a rabbit, a hen, a pig, and a wolf, finally resting in the perfect place. The girl will find it again after some time has passed for a surprise conclusion.

Find Roll, Roll, Little Pea in our online catalog

Eka loves visiting her Grandfather in Tokyo because she can slip out and sing, dance, and march with her spirit friends (yōkai) in a glorious night parade. She can't do this in New York where her family now lives, so she cherishes her participation in the wild procession and longs for her next visit.

 

Publisher's description:
The night parade is about to begin . . . The ground thunders in Tokyo. A gust of wind blows. The pitter patter of paws and claws draws closer. The air is thick with swirling, swooping demons. It's Eka's favorite evening of the year, the one night she refuses to miss. But it's become harder to travel to Japan now that she's living across the world in New York. Unsure of when she can return next to see her yokai friends, Eka tries to forget that this could be her last parade for some time. Instead, she'll march, sing, dance, hoot, and screech until sunrise. Because on this night, there's no time to waste--the night parade awaits.

Find Tokyo night parade in our catalog

In a beautifully illustrated picture book, Kari Percival takes little ones on a journey through a garden and all the friends that come with it! From greeting bees to growing peas, this is a sweet and messy guide to starting a garden and getting dirty outside.

 

Publisher's description:
The beautiful simplicity of a garden is depicted through digital woodcut illustrations and engaging nonfiction text presented as a series of sweet questions and gentle replies. Less of a traditional how-to and more of a how-to-appreciate, this soothingly sparse text paints an inviting and accessible picture of what a garden offers. And with an all-child cast, the absence of an adult presence empowers readers to view the garden and its creatures through their own eyes, driven by curiosity and wonder.

Find Say Hello to a Worm: A First Guide to Outside in our catalog

Philips incorporates several different perspectives that showcase the multiple ways we interact with beavers and how they interact with us. Made me fall in love with the semi aquatic goofballs. It's also a good book for those who don't always read non-fiction!

 

Publisher's description: 
In the rich naturalist tradition of H Is for Hawk and The Soul of an Octopus, BEAVERLAND tells the tumultuous, eye-opening story of how beavers and the beaver fur trade shaped America's history, culture, and environment. Before the American empires of steel and coal and oil, before the railroads, there was the empire of fur. Beginning with the early trans-Atlantic trade in North America, Leila Philip traces the beaver's profound influence on our nation's early economy and feverish western expansion, its first corporations and multi-millionaires. As Leila's passion for this weird and wonderful rodent widens from her careful observation of its dams in her local pond, she chronicles the many characters she meets in her pursuit of the beaver: fur trappers and fur traders, biologists and fur auctioneers, wildlife managers, PETA activists, Native American environmental vigilantes, scientists, engineers and beaver enthusiasts. What emerges is a startling portrait of the secretive, largely hidden world of the contemporary fur trade and an immersive ecological and historical investigation of these animals that, once trapped to the point of extinction, have rebounded to become one of the greatest conservation stories of the 20th century. Now, beavers offer surprising solutions to some of the most urgent problems caused by climate change. Beautifully written and filled with the many colorful characters-fur trappers and fur traders and fur auctioneers, wildlife managers and biologists, Native American environmental vigilantes. She meets a Harvard scientist from the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, using drones to create 3-dimensional images of beaver dams. She meets an environmental restoration consultant in the Chesapeake whose nickname is the beaver whisperer. BEAVERLAND transports readers into scenes of beavers in their ponds and the scientists and fur trappers in pursuit of them, widening arcs of information to reveal the profound ways in which beavers and the beaver trade shaped history, culture, and our environment. 

 

With only a word or two per page, this book's expressive illustrations show the interactions between a grumpy older cat and an energetic kitten—and what happens when the kitten's exuberance goes too far. This is a hilarious way to explore the concept of opposites!
 

Publisher's description:
"Meet Kitty! Kitty wants to play! Meet Cat. Cat just wants to nap. Bold, whimsical artwork and plenty of humor engage little ones in a sly and stylish introduction to opposites. This deceptively simple concept book introduces readers to grumpy, old, exhausted Cat, who just wants to be left alone, and to happy, new, energetic Kitty, who longs to make friends."--Publisher marketing.

Find Kitty & Cat: Opposites Attract in our catalog

I love this upbeat book about a dog who learns that even if you make a mistake you can have THE BEST DAY EVER!
 

Publisher's description:
A sweet dog-loves-kid/kid-loves-dog story, in which the kid uses a wheelchair, from an award-winning children's poet and talented debut illustrator.

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This is the first book on the famous Iditarod sled race as told by one of the trail veterinarians. Morgan tells his stories of trial, tragedy, and triumph in each of the 26 checkpoints from Anchorage to Nome in his humorous and engaging way. If you love dogs, this book is a must-read!

Publisher description:
In Four Thousand Paws, award-winning veterinarian Lee Morgan―a member of the Iditarod’s expert veterinary corps―tells the story of these heroic dogs, following the teams as they traverse deep spruce forests, climb steep mountain slopes, and navigate over ice-bound rivers toward Nome, on the coast of the Bering Sea, where the famed Burled Arch awaits. From the huskies of Iditarods past to the intrepid dogs of today, Morgan shows how these fierce competitors surmount the dangers of the Arctic, aided, along the way, by attentive mushers and volunteer veterinarians. A world away from his Georgetown veterinary clinic, Morgan examines dogs at each checkpoint, and sees how their body language reflects the thrill of the race―and how, when pulled from it, they often refuse to eat. As in any team sport, distinct personalities among the sled dogs create complex group dynamics, and Morgan captures moments of intense rivalry, defeat, camaraderie, and, ultimately, triumph