How Many Hatchlings? Ducks On The Road by Anita Lobel

It's a sparkling, sunny, spring morning. The trees are leafy and the flowers are blooming, and Mama and Papa Duck are proudly parading their new ducklings down the road to the pond. Then little ones trail their parents in a proper straight line...

... UNTIL, THE TENTH DUCKLING IN LINE TURNED BACK TO QUACK,

"HELLO, FROG!"

Unaware that one duckling has quit the queue, Mama and Papa march on, with nine ducklings in tow behind them.

And one by one, the rest of the ducklings also stop along the way to greet the animals they meet: first Frog, each duckling in turn stops to salute a newly-met neighbor--Mouse, Squirrel, Rabbit, Cat, Dog, Pig, Sheep, and Owl, and one surprise.

The tenth duckling turns around to greet--another duckling.

"HELLO, DUCK!" THEY SAID TO EACH OTHER.

And when Mama and Papa reach the pond and look back to introduce their TEN little ducks to their destination, they discover something surprising:

"OH, NO! OUR LITTLE DUCKS ARE GONE!"

"NO. HERE WE ARE!" QUACKED ELEVEN LITTLE DUCKS.

The suprised parents find more than they expect--nine new animals, furry, feathered, and amphibian, and especially one more duckling than they had counted on!

"ELEVEN DUCKS?" QUACKED PAPA.

"EVEN BETTER!" QUACKED MAMA.

And there's always room for one more duckling to splash into the pond, in the celebrated author-illustrator Anita Lobel's latest, Ducks on the Road: A Counting Adventure (Simon & Schuster, 2021). A Caldecott Medalist herself, Anita Lobel, part of a notable author-illustrator pair with her husband Arnold Lobel, creator of the famous Frog and Toad are Friends series and other notable picture books, has come up with a counting book filled with cute and curious ducklings and a surprise ending. Count on Anita Lobel for a picture book just right for the spring season, illustrated in her delightful artistic style that gives youngsters a chance to count ducklings and other familiar animals along the way. Anita Lobel's Caldecott Award went to her for her classic On Market Street and her charming story of how woolly sheep provide warm winter wear, A New Coat for Anna.

The Garden That Keeps On Giving! The Ugly Garden by Grace Lin

IN THE SPRING I HELPED MY MOTHER START OUR GARDEN. IT WAS HARD WORK.

WHEN WE STOPPED TO REST, I SAW THAT THE NEIGHBORS WERE STARTING THEIR GARDENS, TOO.

But the neighbors get their gardens dug faster because they use big shovels. Ours are small.

And when the neighbors' seeds sprout, green leaves begin to show right away. When ours came up, the green things look like grass blades!

Soon the neighbors' gardens are beginning to bloom--with big flowers of all kinds of bright colors. They smell so fragrant that the bees buzz all around them.

OUR GARDEN WAS ALL DARK AND UGLY. I SAW ONLY BLACK AND GREEN-PURPLE VINES AND WRINKLED LEAVES. OUR VEGETABLES WERE BUMPY.

SOME WERE JUST PLAIN ICKY!

It's very sad.

But one day we pick our vegetables, and Mom works hard, peeling,  chopping, and dropping a mixture of them into a really big pot of water on the stove.

And it's not long before a delicious aroma is drifting out of the kitchen, all the way into the neighbors' yards. The neighbors begin to follow their noses to the kitchen door, bringing bunches of beautiful flowers to trade for some  of the soup. They all sit down and have an ugly vegetable soup party!

IT WAS THE BEST DINNER EVER!

It takes all kinds to make a world and all kinds of gardens to make people happy, in the award-winning Grace Lin's spring tale of two kinds of gardens, The Ugly Vegetables (Charlesbridge Books). Author-illustrator Lin's cheery story of garden envy is resolved in appreciation for all that the good earth gives us, edible and beautiful. Grace Lin is also the author of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.

Bedtime Countdown: Arithmechicks Take Away by Ann Marie Stephens

TEN CHICKS IN THE COOP WITH THEIR FRIEND MOUSE!MAMA SQUAWKS! "TIME TO HIT THE HAY!"

NO WAY!" THEY SAY!

Arithmechicks scatter for cover, with one hightailing it to conceal himself behind Mouse. Mama does the arithmetic. 10-1= 9. Mama catches three. 9-3=6. Four chicks hunker down, but Mama catches them. 6-4=2. The two chicks split up.

READY OR NOT HERE COMES MAMA!

But just as Mama corrals them all, one chick calls for a subtraction redaction! They scoot and scurry and conceal themselves again, in cubbies and cabinets--all except for 1. 10-1=9!

But Mama swoops down and wraps her feathery wings around that one wayward Chickie Little. It's a happy hug. Now the others are jealous.

WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF US?

Now that it's getting dark in the chicken coop, they are ready for a bedtime story and to hop quickly into their nesting boxes to count sheep--or whatever chicks count to fall asleep. Mama counts chicks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 little nestling chicks snoozing--and one mouse, too.

The Arithmechicks are back, in Ann Marie Stephens' brand new mathematical exercise book, Arithmechicks Take Away: A Math Story (Boyd's Mill Press, 2020).

The youngest kids will love counting up the chicks as they scurry to hide in different combinations of numbers, while older arithmetickers will enjoy discovering the different patterns in which the clever chicks conceal themselves in the snug chicken coop. How many different ways are there to make a group of ten chicks? Let's count the ways, and in her appendix, author Stephens provides diagrams--a decomposer, a number line, a number bond, and a subtraction equation, and even that original calculator--ten fingers--all ways to come to ten. Artist Jia Liu individualizes each chick and alternately conceals and reveals their hiding places for counting fun for preschoolers and primary students.

Pair this one with its companion book, Arithmechicks Add Up: A Math Story. Kirkus Reviews' account says, "Feathery fun for the newly numerate. Take it away, Arithmechicks!"

Make Room! Two Many Birds by Cindy Derby

Housing is in short supply in Birdville, and birds are  flocking  to rent a roost in a leafless apartment. The line is long, and the prospective landlord is a curmudgeonly cop, a blackbird with a megaphone whose rules are authoritarian:

NO RESTING! NO NESTING! NO PESTING!

NO HAIR GEL! NO POOPING ON THE GROUND!

(A Birda-Potty is provided on the grounds.)

The avian authoritarian surveils the premises strictly from his towering seat, abandoning bis watch only for his acorn meals, served by a servile waiter in black tie. The rest of the birds gingerly clutch their crowded twigs in fear, afraid of an infraction which will leave them perchless.

But there is a free spirit among the feathered residents who sneaks her nest in, concealed as a hairdo, and inside that nest are ....

... which in due course, become...

TWO MANY BIRDS!!!!!!

But when the intractably curmugeonly cop evicts the young mother and her brood, the birds of a feather flock together, and taking flight to a nearby pasture, they cultivate the watchman's acorn stock and grow enough trees for a powerful flock of their own, filling the air with the sweet song of birds, and with new signage:

NO SHOES? NO SHIRT?

NO PROBLEM!

FREE AS A BIRD is the watchword for Cindy Derby's new flight-of-fancy, Two Many Birds (Roaring Brook, 2020). Author-illustrator Derby, who was the recent winner of the 2021 Caldecott Medal for her illustrations in Deborah Underwood's Outside In, makes use of her insightful and unique storytelling and artwork in this latest timely story. There always room for one (or two) more in this off-beat story of population growth that also advocates planting plenty of oak trees. For another quirky story written and illustrated by Cindy Derby, check out her recent outing, How To Walk An Ant.

"... worth perching prominently on the shelf," tweets Publishers Weekly's starred review.

Growing Time: Zee Grows a Tree by Elizabeth Rusch

Growing up is hard to do!

On the same spring day that Zee emerges as a newborn, a new seedling Douglas fir emerges from its pot at Coopers' Christmas Tree Farm. Her parents name it "Zee's Tree."

 As her parents care for baby Zee day and night, they also take care to see that the baby tree gets the right nutrients, water, and temperature for it to thrive. As baby Zee gets big enough to get around on her own, the tiny fir, still inches short of a foot tall, is planted in the soil, and at first it grows below ground, putting down deep roots. Both grow, but Zee and her tree are a little shorter than most of the others of their age, but her father says...

"EVERYONE GROWS AT DIFFERENT RATES."

And Dad's right: during that summer Zee gets to big for her spring clothes and Zee's Tree grows a whole foot taller in a month--now taller that she is!

Zee gets all new clothes--school clothes--as she boards the Kindergarten bus, and her tree gets its first trimming, too. Soon Zee is a first grader and then it's time to lose some baby teeth. Her tree puts on new buds and begins to shoot up, too.

But late in spring, the rains stop and the tree's top branches grow brown in the drought. Zee waters her tree often, and following directions, spreads ice cubes around its roots to keep the soil cool.

"DON'T WORRY. I'LL TAKE CARE OF YOU!" SHE SAYS TO HER TREE.

In the fall she spreads mulch to keep the moisture in the ground around her tree, and come cold weather, she and Dad put up a windscreen to keep away the dry, ice-chilled winds of winter, and when her eighth birthday rolls around in the spring, Zee's Tree is sturdy and well again.

In fact, by late fall it is so tall and beautiful that Zee needs a ladder to put the star on top for its first year as an outdoor Christmas tree, in Elizabeth Rusch's newest, Zee Grows a Tree (Candlewick Press, 2021). With loving attention to care for a child and the cultivation of a young tree, this how-to story book, part fiction and part nonfiction, shows how a child transfers the love devoted to her nurture to the growth of her very own tree. In author Rusch's gentle text, the little fir tree grows and thrives along with its young arborist, shown in the soft but realistic artwork of Will Hillebrand, and bolstered by an index of tree-growing terms and a brief bibliography of books about the joy and skills of growing your own tree. Says School Library Journal, "... a brilliant combination of storytelling and factual information."

Calamitous Catitude! Bad Cat by Nicola O'Byrne

Fluffykins is on a tear, one of those calamitous rampages that cats sometimes indulge in!

When a big orange tabby discovers a vase of flowers near the edge of a table, there's only one likely outcome--

CRASH! SPLASH! TINKLE-TINKLE!

"FLUFFIKINS! THAT WASN'T VERY NICE.

DON'T WALK AWAY! I THINK YOU NEED TO APOLOGIZE!"

Fluffikins spots a basketful of colorful yarn balls, just ready for knitting.

But not for long!

No apologies are forthcoming as Fluffikins continues his cantankerous rounds. He rips the upholstery on the sofa, stretches out territorially on the computer keyboard, unreels the toilet tissue in the bathroom, and scales the blinds on the window..., that is, just before he goes potty on the floor.

It's time for some kitty timeout in the great outdoors.

"NOW GO AND THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"

Fluffikins' owner has had it. Fluffi is one housekeeping cat-astrophe after another. He cools his paws in the great outdoors while his owner cleans up.

But, wait! Now it's raining repentant cats outdoors--with Fluffikins' desperate, sad, and soggy face at the window!

MEOOOW!

One might expect that about now Fluffikins will morph into an apologetic, purring bundle of fur, but, true to type, once inside, he makes a beeline toward the goldfish bowl..., in this hilarious account of a truly bad cat day. Any one who has raised a cat from cute kittenhood to more cunny catitude will have to laugh at Fluffykins in O'Byrne's latest, Bad Cat! (Candlewick Press, 2021).

The noted O'Byrne's superbly comic artwork is the perfect foil for her one-sided dialogue with a rip-roaring cat, one who can't resist tampering with the lettering on his own title page. Readers who have cats will relish this portrayal of the sly mischief and charm of these mercurial mood-shifting pets, in the illustrator's outsized full- and double-page focus on this rambunctious feline. Although perfect for giggly preschool read-alouds, the brief text and plentitude of visual cues make this story a great choice for emerging readers as well.

Beware of Predators Bearing Gifts! My Best Friend by Rob Hodgson

HI, THERE! I'M MOUSE AND I WANT TO TELL YOU ABOUT MY BEST FRIEND... GREAT OWL!

What a good friend Giant Owl is! He takes Mouse to live with him in his tree. And Great Owl loves to play with Mouse.

WE PLAY CHASE, AND SOMETIMES GREAT OWL NEARLY CATCHES ME.... BUT NOT QUITE.

And Great Owl loves to share his food with Mouse--all the donuts Mouse can eat and more! Such a generous friend!

Mouse has some questions, of course, about his best friend's sometimes strange behaviors. He won't let Mouse out of his sight, and Mouse never gets to enjoy a moment alone! And when Mouse tries to get a bit of space, Great Owl is a bit rough when he grabs him. It is annoying. But Great Owl shows Mouse how much he loves him when he gives him a trendy wire house that fits right over his head. How does Owl know that Mouse's favorite thing to do is have a sleepover--especially in his new portable house! ZZZZZZZZ!

But then.... Mouse awakes in a very dark place....

It's a strange turn in the plot, especially since Great Owl begins to feel some gastric distress! Glurk! Ooooch! Burble! ACCKKK!

At this point in the tale, youngsters will have figured out exactly where Mouse is and will cheer when Great Owl is forced to disgorge his, er, friend with an enormous BURP, in Rob Hodgson's tongue-in-cheek story of a devious and dubious friendship, My Best Friend (Francis Lincoln Childrens Books, 2020). This bit of dark humor is just right for savvy primary graders who know a bit about the role of predators in the food chain and will begin to giggle as the wily predator fattens up his prey and his true intentions become more and more obvious--while Mouse remains, well, in the dark! "A fresh page to the annals of obliviousness," quips Booklist.

Ask Me Another One! Riddles at School (Riddle Me This) by Lisa Regen

 

Why is a piano so hard to open

Because all the keys are inside.

Lisa Regen's Riddles at School (Riddle Me This!) (Windmill Books) is not for the unschooled. These are real brain teasers, and some of the them are real brain twisters too:

What chemical substance is this: HIJKLMNO?

Water (H to O)

Author Lisa Regen covers school subjects, but some of her teasers also require logic.

If a doctor is likely to catch a cold at work, what does a pilot on the job catch?

A PLANE!

And for those lovers of vocabulary, there are specialty riddles called Tom Swifties, in which the fun is to complete the sentence with an appropriate adjective turned into a adverb.

"I itch all over, but I won't go to the doctor," said Tim, _ _ _ _ ly."

RASH

In this title from the Riddle Me This series, author Regen pretty much covers the curriculum, with all subjects, right down to the music room.

"What does the violinist say when she hits a wrong note?"

"Fiddlesticks!!"

For riddle-loving readers, this one gives middle readers a chance to have their riddles and be educated, too. Other books for the scholarly riddler are Regen's Riddles at Home (Riddle Me This!) and Underwater Riddles (Riddle Me This!).

Can't Please 'Em All! Pete the Cat~Too Cool For School by Kimberly and James Dean

PETE WANTED TO LOOK COOL.

HE ASKS EVERYONE, "WHAT SHOULD I WEAR?"

Pete begins with his Mom.

"WEAR YOUR YELLOW SHIRT!" SHE SAYS. "IT'S MY FAVORITE!"

Pete puts on the yellow shirt and starts out for school. But everyone has a different suggestion. His big brother Bob likes the blue shirt better.

His teacher favors long pants, and the school bus driver prefers polka dot socks with his red shoes. Callie the cat says she loves his shorts with the fish print. Pete pulls the shorts on over his long pants, feeling rather silly, and when Grumpy Toad advises he wear cowboy boots with his ensemble, Pete is beginning to feel more than a bit ridiculous. Still, Emma Dog proposes that a striped tie would please her, and Coach counsels a two-toned baseball cap to set it all off.

Pete is way too hot in all those clothes. He wants to please everyone, but... does he look cool?

NO. PETE LOOKS SILLY.

Pete discovers a truth. You can't please everybody, so you might as well suit yourself. Pete sheds the extra clothes for his tee, his shorts, and his red shoes, and learns a lesson, To look cool...

.. BE YOURSELF!

Kimberly and James Dean's early reader, Pete the Cat: Too Cool for School (My First I Can Read) (Harper I-Can-Read Books), offers a little sartorial advice along with Harper's little reading lesson that will get the giggles as Pete sweats in front of an air conditioner on full blast and ponders the wisdom of crowd sourcing his school wardrobe. Youngsters just starting out with reading will find gentle humor, visual cues, and a few life lessons in the company of Pete the Cat.

Wheels? Wheee!: On the Go Awesome by Lisl Defletsen

Wheels are wonders and things that go on them are wonderful!

TRAINS ARE COOL. CONDUCTING A TRAIN THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS?

CHUGGA CHUGGA, AWESOME!

Excavators on their big wheels are excellent! And it's extremly excellent to operate one. Digga Digga Doo! Watching planes take off is exciting, but being in the pilot's seat is even better! Up, Up, and Away!

Subways are super. Monster trucks are crushingly terrific! Sailing a ship is splendid, and captaining an ocean liner across the sea?

AYE, AYE! AWESOME!

Cruising the country in your camper is cool. Spacecraft rolling out are stunning and superb!

VISITING A LAUNCH PAD? STELLAR!

FAR OUT!

Wheels are the way to go, in Lisl Defletsen's On the Go Awesome (Alfred A. Knopf, 2020), a picture book of the all the ways we know to go, illustrated with rollicking rolling stock by artist Robert Neuberger. A good way to introduce youngsters to the variety of vehicles in our world... and with a vocabulary lesson on superlatives along the way. Kids that dote on big equipment or various vehicles for human transport will want to park this one to their story book garage

E Pluribus Unum! All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold

The school bell is ringing. It's time to cine together in a classroom. What will it be like? Well, all kids like a lot of the same things.

LET'S ALL TAKE PART.

WE'LL ALL MAKE ART.

Kids are clapping and singing, and then sprawling on the floor to finish coloring their pictures of things they like. And then it's time for recess.

OR IF YOU COME FROM FAR AWAY...

ALL ARE WELCOME HERE.

Kids of different colors and in different clothes are ready to run outside. They like to swing and slide, and hop on the merry-go-round and take a ride!

Back in the classroom it's time to learn about dinosaurs and slime, bugs and volcanos. The world is full of different things to know. And when at lunch, there are a dozen kinds of bread in different people's lunches, anyone can have a taste. There are so many new things to try that school time seems to fly. Tomorrow is another day, another time to say, "All are welcome."

Author Alexandra Penmore's rhyming story of a day at school, All Are Welcome (Alfred E. Knopf) demonstrates her theme that diversity is the best way to deal with adversity, as our motto E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One) bravely says, and she shows all kinds of kids who get to school in all kinds of ways, sharing their school days. Artist Suzanne Kaufman fills her busy and colorful illustrations with humor and fun as the kids sing and play, learn and share their day with each other in this New York Times best-selling picture book about school days for all.

How Did This Happen? Secrets of Pollution and Conservation by Andrew Solway

Humans have lived on earth for several hundred thousands years, but only in the past 10,000 years has the population increased rapidly. Mastering tool-making, farming, herding, and manufacturing of goods beyond one family's needs pushed human population into rapid growth. Along the way, some forests were obliterated, some becoming deserts, some species, such as the mammoth, were hunted to extinction, and with Industrial Revolution and its invention of steam engines, powered by wood and coal fueled exponential growth of populations. And long with the benefits came pollution of air, soil, and water and loss of species and habitats forever.

Noted children's science writer Andrew Solway's Secrets of Pollution and Conservation (Science Secrets (Hardcover)) (Cavendish/Brittanica) is a well organized and straightforward exposition of how all that happened and what we are trying to do about the problems of too many humans competing for what is now too few, diminishing resources.

Solway introduces middle readers to the processes and vocabulary of human efforts to conserve the resources that support human life on earth--food chains and food webs, ozone and other greenhouse gases and the role of pollutants such as Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPS), acid rain and ozone layer--to cite a few, and what they have to do with the survival of our species in a future threatened by global warming. With simple experiments that illustrate problems such as particulate pollutants from burning fossil fuels, for example, early earth science students meet hands-on with the problems produced by population growth and the waste products--smoke, heat, and the detritus of human wastes, from greenhouse gases to oil spills and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The author of Food Chains and Webs: What Are They and How Do They Work? (Let's Explore Science), Solway's direct writing, set-in boxes, "Science Secrets," and dozens of illustrations, graphs, and charts illuminate the text, which is accompanied by an appendix with a glossary, bibliography, and index, make this nonfiction book good for science reports, science fair activities, and just plain learning about the world students live in now and in their future.

A Wider World: Will You Be My Friend? by Sam McBratney

LITTLE NUTBROWN HARE WANTED TO PLAY, BUT... BIG NUTBROWN HARE WAS VERY BUSY.

"CAN I GO AND PLAY BY MYSELF?" ASKED LITTLE NUTBROWN HARE."

"WELL, YES," SAID BIG NUTBROWN HARE," BUT DON'T GO TOO FAR."

Little Nutbrown Hare happily hops off up the stony path to explore the path up Cloudy Mountain. He stops at a puddle to study his own reflection staring back at him.

"YOU'RE ONLY ANOTHER ME!" HE SAYS.

He runs on up the path, racing his shadow keeping pace with him and only stopping when he stops.

"YOU'RE ONLY ANOTHER ME!" HE THINKS.

But up the heathery hill he sees a a more surprising sight, staring back at him!

"SOMEONE REAL!"

It's another little hare, just his size, but one with white fur, and she wants to play!"

And play they do, chasing each other, digging a hole big deep enough to hide both of them, and having a game of hide-and-seek in the heather. But when it is Little Nutbrown Hare's turn to hide, Tipps doesn't come to find him.

Sadly, he heads down the path to find Big Nutbrown Hare, who asks if he has enjoyed his explorations. But before Little Nut Brown Hare can answer, they hear the sound of someone else on the path. It's Tipps, smiling! Surprised, Big Nutbrown Hare wonders aloud where this little snow hare came from.

"HER NAME IS TIPPS--" ANSWERED LITTLE NUTBROWN HARE. "SHE'S MY FRIEND."

Little Nutbrown Hare discovers a wider world in Sam McBratney's latest in his best-selling series, Will You Be My Friend? (Guess How Much I Love You) in which Little Brown Hare finds his first friend, very lucky to have a father who loves him well and wisely enough to let him venture out to find that friend.

Sweet and subtle, author Sam McBratney's newest tale portrays the moment in which a youngster begins to move outside the parental circle toward independence in the wider world. Skillfully crafted, the author's carefully-shaped storytelling lets the lovely pen and watercolor artwork of Anita Jeram, reminiscent of Beatrice Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit books, visually tell the story of a first friendship found. In a long series such as this one, it's a pleasure to see the depth of meaning that this author continues to bring to his wise father and son tales. Says Kirkus Reviews, "Readers are likely to love it to the moon and back."

Just a Click Away: Online Safety by Caitie McAneney

The good news is that with home computers, tablets, and cell phones, the world is just a click away!

The bad news is that with home computers, tablets and cell phones, everything in the world is just a click away!

And like Little Red Riding Hood, that flower-lined path to Granma's house can have its dangers.

To help adults guide primary grade children through the sometimes dark woods of the internet, Caitie McAneney's book, Online Safety (Let's Talk about It) (Rosen Publishing), guides children through their first uses of internet devices, which like many new experiences, have possibilities for good and bad encounters.

THE INTERNET GIVES PEOPLE THE ABILITY TO LOOK UP AND ANSWER TO ALMOST EVERY QUESTION.

THERE ARE MANY BENEFITS TO USING THE INTERNET. THERE ARE DANGERS, TOO. YOU MAY BE AN INTERNET PRO, BUT IT'S IMPORTANT TO LEARN HOW TO USE IT SAFELY!

Large inviting photos of young primary graders with parents or teachers help point out that, along with the fun of finding information, watching movies and programs, and online games, there can be STRANGER DANGER, and author McAneney suggests that it's best to rely on contact with family and known friends most of the time, using aliases (screen names) in games and other activities, staying clear of sites that ask for names, addresses, passwords, and other private information and advising adult guidance in downloading and signing up for websites open to the public such as chat rooms. The author also stresses ways to avoid hackers, and viruses, and offers methods for dealing with cyber bullying and limiting gaming and the time-consuming surfing of screens. The author recommends choosing sites from reputable producers such as PBSKids and National Geographic Kids, with adults involved in making choices.

Caitie McAneney's easy-to-read text defines many new words in the context of the activity and offers reinforcement for the rules for being "A GOOD CITIZEN OF THE INTERNET" and includes an appended glossary and index.

Nothing Like Home Weekend Dad by Haseem Hrab

One Monday morning, my dad moved out of our home and into an apartment.

He said he wouldn't be far, just a bus ride away. Down the street, past the park, and through the tunnel.

The boy slips some photos of himself into his dad's suitcase in case he might forget him during the week. On Tuesdays the boy goes to the grave of his hamster Abraham and remembers that his father cried when they buried him. On Thursday the boy and his mother have tuna sandwiches for dinner. The boy remembers that his dad hates tuna sandwiches.

On Friday his mom packs the boys' suitcase with pajamas, two pairs of jeans, two sweaters, socks and underwear, a toothbrush, and his toy, Wendell. When his dad rings the doorbell, the boy kisses his mom goodbye. They take the bus down the street, past the park, and through the tunnel. It's a long ride. Forty-eight minutes.

My dad says I have two homes now.

This home is home because dad lives here.

It's nothing like home because my mom isn't here."

It's not like home because they have pizza from a box for dinner at a tiny round table. It's nothing like home because his bedroom has only a sleeping bag and one pillow and a street light shines and a car horn's honk comes through the window.

"I'm scared."

On Saturday morning Dad suggests that they do something special, but the boy only wants to do the same things they always do--play cards in the morning and go to the park in the afternoon. After dinner, they go to bed. The boy wonders if his mom went to the pool without him. Sunday is the same, and then it's time to go through the tunnel, past the park, and down the street to the boy's bus stop. The two stand awkwardly on the porch.

"Aren't you coming in, Dad?"

-

"I'm sorry. I don't live here anymore. I wrote you a letter.

Now that I'm not seeing you every day, I'm worried that you might forget that you are always in my heart." his dad says.

That night Dad finds Wendell waiting on his bed. And the next weekend, they take the bus past the tunnel, past the apartment, and to the store to pick out the boy's new bed.

Narrated by the unnamed boy who suddenly finds himself with two homes, Haseem Hrab's Weekend Dad (Groundwood Press, 2020) is a child's-eye view of the end of a marriage, told in straightforward language, portraying both the feelings of loss and the essence of hope, shown sensitively in the poignant line drawings of illustrator Frank Viva, which end with the boy sleeping with his letter and his Dad sleeping with Wendell. In a starred review, Kirkus says, “Viva’s illustrations capture the abundant emotional subtext with simple but effective lines. Unsparingly compassionate; an excellent addition to the collection of books about separation and divorce.”

Hrab is also the author of the the well-reviewed story of being the new kid in the class, Ira Crumb Makes a Pretty Good Friend (Ira Crumb (1)), and Frank Viva is the author-illustrator of Outstanding in the Rain.

Just How We Roll! Pea, Bee, and Jay--Stuck Together by Brian "Smitty" Smith

"GOOD MORNING!" LITTLE PEA SAYS.

"SHUSH!" SAYS MA. "YOU'LL WAKE THE WHOLE POD. YOU KNOW HOW CRANKY GRANDPA GETS!" 

 "TIME TO GET ROLLING," SAYS PEA.

 "NO ROLLING TOO FAR FROM OUR ROW!" SAYS MA.

But Pea just rolls his eyes at his mother's advice and goes off in search of adventures. He runs into Blueberry and Strawberry.

"ROLL WITH ME AND YOU'LL BE ROLLING FAST AND FREE!  EASY PEAS-Y!" HE BRAGS.

They dare Pea to prove his prowess by rolling beyond the farm's fence and bringing back a red leaf from a tree on the other side. But it's not as easy as Pea thinks. Rain begins to fall, he's washed into a muddy ravine and when he grabs a vine to swing up on, he bumps into a bee, who brags there are buzz-illions just like her, and then into a blue jay who says he never learned to fly and fell out of his tree. Pea can sees no way this odd pair can be any help! Then he looks up at Jay's tree.

"THE TREE!" SHOUTS PEA.

That's IT! What does he see but the tree with red leaves. All he has to do is carry back a leaf and he'll be the hero of the garden patch! But there's one piece of this problem Pea didn't perceive! How can he carry the leaf?

It seems that they all just need to do what comes naturally, in Brian "Smitty" Smith's comic story, Pea, Bee, & Jay 1: Stuck Together (Harper, 2020), done up in graphic style, features an unlikely triumvirant--Pea, who just wants to roll, Bee, who is seeking to flee her job as queen of the hive, and a blue jay who needs to flap his wings--who together find their way back to the row where Pea needs to report to his pod before he is grounded. With plenty of funny, kid-pleasing puns, kids will be rolling with laughter at this silly tale of an unlikely trio who together have all the right stuff. "Readers will 'bee' delighted by this earnest and endearing tale," says Kirkus Reviews in a starred review.

One Brick At A Time! Rain School by James Rumford

 

IN THE COUNTRY OF CHAD, IT IS THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.

Like first days everywhere, the children wear new school clothes. The big sisters and big brothers lead the excited and nervous little ones, full of questions, along the way.

THOMAS ASKED, "WILL THEY GIVE US A NOTEBOOK?  WILL THEY GIVE US A PENCIL?  WILL WE LEARN TO READ LIKE YOU?"

But when they get to school, there is no school building. There is a smiling teacher, who gets them right down to work--building the school. Kids get busy, making bricks from mud. Others gather long sticks and tie them together to form the framework of the walls. They gather branches and straw, and the agile ones clamber up the ladder to weave a roof to keep out the hot sun. The brick makers make seats and desks and put them in rows under the roof. It is cool inside.

The teacher has them take a seat and brings in a blackboard.

"A," SHE SAYS.

The children draw the shape of the letter in the air, and when they learn to do the same, the teacher passes out pencils and notebooks and they make the letters on their first page. As time passes they learn to make words out of the letters and read what they write. Sometimes she brings out an atlas and shows them a map with their country right in the middle of Africa. The year passes quickly, and their heads and notebooks are filled with what they have learned.

And when the school year ends, they take those notebooks home, and the big rains begin. The mud bricks and desks melt away and the winds bring down the poles and grass until the school seems to be gone. But is it?

The building will have to be re-built by the students the next year, but what they have learned stays in their minds, in James Rumford's Rain School (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Based on author-illustrator James Rumford's time spent teaching in Chad, his experiences provide the basis for the charming pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations of the eager young students dressed in their best, as they learn and grow in a school they built for themselves. An interesting take on starting back to school for most kids, this one gives them a new idea of the meaning of "the first day of school" and a sense that a school is not just a building, but what happens there. Says Booklist, "Without a heavy message, this spare and moving offering will leave kids thinking about the daily lives of other young people around the world."

The Power of One Voice: Anne Frank: A Light in the Darkness by Tamara Leigh Hollingsworth

Billions of words, millions of pages, thousands of books, and hundreds of films have been published about World War II, but if there is one voice that continues to bring the time between 1939 and 1945 alive, it is that of Anne Frank, a young teen-aged Jewish girl in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.

For her thirteenth birthday in 1942, Anne was given a journal, and, written in hiding from the enemy in the attic of a warehouse, Anne Frank's diary is the best known and loved book from that time. Protected by non-Jewish friends, Anne was a gifted and devoted writer, and her account of her early adolescent years concealed from the enemy has made her short life one of the tragedies and beloved memoirs of that time. Only Anne's father survived their years in a German concentration camp, and when, after the war's end Otto Frank returned to Amsterdam and visited their hiding place, "the secret annex," among the strewn articles left behind at their arrest, Anne's father found her plaid-bound journal, and the rest is ... history.

Published in Europe in 1947 as The Secret Annex and in the United States as Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, has become beloved and required reading for upper elementary and middle school readers, and Tamara Leigh Hollingsworth's Anne Frank: A Light in the Dark (TIME FOR KIDS® Nonfiction Readers) (Teacher Created Materials) is recommended collateral reading for middle readers. This title recounts the story of Anne Frank's short life beautifully, and the book's pages provide many photos of Anne and her father, the outside and inside of the warehouse where they were hidden, including the famous moving bookcase which kept them hidden from the warehouse workers below, along with fact boxes which illuminate the text and quotations from Anne's journal that capture her spirit well:

"The nicest part is being able to write down my thoughts and feelings. Otherwise I would absolutely suffocate!"

"Nearly every morning I go to the attic. From my favorite spot on the floor I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree on whose branches little random raindrops shine, like silver, and the seagulls and other birds gliding on the wind."

"We're all alive, but we don't know why or what for. We're all searching for happiness; we're all leading lives that are different and yet the same."

With moving descriptions and quotations and an appendix which features a timeline of Anne's short life, a glossary, and full index, this compact book supports English class book studies and women's and world history lessons, a succinct and valuable resource for young nonfiction readers and researchers.

The World from Space! To the Stars: The First American Woman to Walk in Space by Carmella Van Fleet

Kathy Sullivan loved to explore. Whenever planes flew over, Kathy dreamed of a pocketful of airline tickets.

"I want to see the whole world," she said.

And she did! Kathy Sullivan saw the world, the whole planet from space, and not just from the tiny window of a spacecraft, but from outside the craft, walking in space!

When she was little, Kathy was adventurous. She studied her dad's airplane blueprints and cannonballed into the lake. Not stopping at just swimming, she learned to scuba dive, and dared to fly in a tiny open aircraft called a "Breezy, and just had to learn to pilot a plane." She did, but she was also in love with the ocean and space. But although she knew she loved science and adventure, she didn't like being asked what she wanted to be when she grew up. There were so many exciting places and things to do, she couldn't choose, but after majoring in earth science in college, she found herself fascinated with the earth and its place in space.

Like other female space pioneers like Sally Ride and Mae Jemison, Kathy was sure that she could do important work in space. Kathy became an astronaut and flew aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger with Sally Ride, eventually becoming the first American woman to "space walk," working outside the craft and seeing the "whole world" from space. Soon, serving aboard the Discovery, she helped launch the Hubble Telescope on its mission to see deep in outer space. And Kathy served as payload commander of the Atlantis and eventually became a member of the Space Hall of Fame.

Astronaut Sullivan says, "I worked hard to develop my skills, and I had the courage to set big goals.... goals that most people thought girls could not do."

Carmella Van Vleet's To the Stars!: The First American Woman to Walk in Space (Charlesbridge Books) is a great book about women in space to share with young students during Women's Month, one that will appeal to the most adventurous of them. Other books about American women and the race to space are Sally Ride: Life on a Mission (A Real-Life Story), and Mae Among the Stars, and those women mathematicians and scientists who helped get them into space, Dorothy Vaughn in Hidden Figures Young Readers' Edition, and Katherine Johnson in Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13. Ad astra, girls!

Blooming! Spring Blossoms by Carole Gerber

Sometimes it seems as if spring is a long time coming--and then suddenly it's here, taking the landscape by storm, in a tsunami of blooming trees in a spectrum of shapes and colors.

SPRING IS BURSTING OUT ALL OVER. THE SUN IS WARM! LET'S GO!

TREES, SO BARE AND PLAIN ALL WINTER, ARE DRESSED UP FOR THEIR YEARLY SHOW.

Some buds are tiny and pale and some are boisterous in color and size.

Dogwood spread their low branches wide to show off their white crowned blooms, and crabapple trees are covered with small flowers, white and fragrant, both dressed for Eastertide. Other flowers show their colors! Cherry trees bare bouffant pink ruffles on stubby stems that bounce and flounce in the breeze.

THE OAK BEARS TWO KINDS OF BLOOMS.

MALE FLOWERS DROOP. THEY'RE GREENISH GOLD.

THE FEMALE BLOOMS ARE SMALL AND RED.

BOTH OPEN AS NEW LEAVES UNFOLD.

The red maple, true to its name, bears its spring red clothes, but the redbud blooms are rose pink. And conifers like pine and balsam firs hide their quietly colored flowers so well that most of us don't see them, just their potent pollens borne on the breeze. And a windy, warm spring rain can bring the trees' bright petals down in a colorful shower of flowers!

People wax poetic over flowering trees, but for the trees, it's just their job to flower and pollinate and provide their fruits and nuts to secure that more trees will grow and bloom for many springs to come, in Carole Gerber's poetic Spring Blossoms (Charlesbridge), offering sybillant verses and a bit of botany, while artist Leslie Evans follows two girls out under the flowering trees to celebrate the spring beauty, illustrating the botany session as they go. Appended are charming illustrations of each bloom for easy identification in a lovely spring lesson.

Moments to Remember! A Year of Everyday Wonders by Cheryl B. Klein

First Wake-Up of the Year.

It's Janaury 1. The tree outside the sleepy girl's window is leafless, as dry leaves drift by, blown by a wintry wind. Dad escorts her sleepy older brother, still in his PJs, toward the kitchen, where New Year's waffles are on the menu. Soon her brother is awake and flipping a piece of waffle her way from a spoon, for their First Fuss of the year.

The First Snow follows, with the First Snow Day, and as soon as the two kids suit up, the First Snowball Fight occurs, just before the First Hot Chocolate of the Year.

Soon comes the First Valentine, a heart of red jam on her toast created by Mom. It's winter, so of course there's the First Sneeze, made more significant by the boy who smiles as he offers her his box of tissues, and she has her First Crush. Then, snow becomes rain, and she gets her First Umbrella, which is blown inside out in the March wind, to be followed by her Second Umbrella.

And then come the First Green Buds on the trees, the First Missed Bus, with the 97th Fuss of the year with her brother. There's her First Haircut, given by herself, and almost immediately the Second Haircut at the barber's. Along with warmer weather comes the First Ice Cream Cone, the First Beach Trip, followed immediately by the First Sunburn and the first Splash Battle. There are July 4 First Sparklers, and summer ends with the First Family Reunion and the First Exploding Cola Bottle assembled by the cousins.

All too soon it's that time, with her First New Teacher and Second Crush, the First Golden Leaves, and her Last Costume Cape on Halloween. And before they know it, there is a Snow Day and First Snowman, and another Snow Day, and another, and another, which prompts her 284th Fuss with her brother, and then it's time to sing her First "Silent Night" with the others, followed almost immediately by the Last Week, the Last Day, and the Last Stories and bedtime kiss on the Last Night of the Year/

But there's always the First Day of the next year with waffles, as true to form, her brother launches a chunk off his spoon at her--and perhaps fires off a New First Fuss for the New Year, in Cheryl B. Klein's A Year of Everyday Wonders (Abrams, 2020).

Essential to this book of few words are artist Qin Leng's affectionately humorous illustrations of the two kids making their way through a year made memorable by all the nostalgia-inducing sorts of things that adults fondly recall. Each event is given a page or double-page spread with plenty of details to induce page perusals. Told in vignettes of rather ordinary events, all together this picture book creates a moving but joyful tableau of days that all too soon become years past. Says School Library Journal's starred review, "Leng's effortless watercolor and ink illustrations pair with Klein's spare words on every page, showing the significance of everyday moments as the young girl grows and spends time with her family... Through detailed visual elements, this quietly delightful picture book speaks to the potential treasure of small moments in childhood."