(The content below contains Amazon affiliate links. When you buy through these links, Mrs. Ferraris may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you.)
Our Pool
by Lucy Ruth Cummins (Author, Illustrator)
Brief summary: We watch as many wake up and go to the city pool with other families. They change into a bathing suit, get covered with sunblock, and go into the cool blue water. Everyone plays above and below the water until it’s time to eat lunch on spread-out towels on concrete. They do more swimming before heading home with a treat from the ice cream truck.
Comments: The bright summer colors illustrations are showcased in many two page spreads with details and descriptive words that had me feeling like I was at the pool smelling the chlorine, hearing the shouting and laughter, and the coolness of the water.
Rating: 5/5 📗📗📗📗📗
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When You Can Swim
by Jack Wong (Author, Illustrator).
Brief summary: A young child encourages those to learn how to swim and shares all the aquatic wonders they could experience while swimming in various types of waters.
Comments: The back pages include the author sharing his experience of learning how to swim and going back to some of his favorite swimming spots for inspiration to write and illustrate the book.
Rating: 3.5/5 📗📗📗1/2
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A Dive Into the Blue
by Ellie Huynh (Author), Bao Luu (Illustrator)
Brief summary: A young girl shares her fear of diving into the public pool while standing at the edge of the diving board and letting her imagination almost overcome her from swimming. Will she be able to dive into the blue water?
Comments: I would share this book with students to help them learn coping skills to navigate their fears.
Rating: 3.5/5 📗📗📗1/2
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Waiting on Mr. Sloth
by Katy Hudson (Author, Illustrator)
Brief summary: Sasha is excited to go swimming with her best friend, Mr. Sloth, but is losing her patience with his slowness every step of the way. They finally walk to the lake and have lunch before entering the water. Sasha’s friend is taking too long, and she goes into the lake without him, only to realize it’s not as much fun. Sasha returns to their picnic to find Mr. Sloth in a tree enjoying his surroundings. Will Sasha and Mr. Sloth go swimming together in the future? Will Sasha learn to be patience?
Comments: In the back of the book, there is a discussion of ways to calm oneself when waiting.
Rating: 3.5/5 📗📗📗1/2
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Facing Your Fear of Water (Facing Your Fears)
by Heather E. Schwartz (Author). Nonfiction Hardcover.
Brief summary: Young readers get advice on ways to be calm if they are afraid of the water and are encouraged to take small steps to learn to be able to go swimming.
Comments: The back sections are Sink or Float, Glossary, Read More, and Internet Sites.
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Children’s book titles are carefully handpicked by a certified elementary school librarian who, although retired, still enjoys reading children’s books, especially picture books, and recommending them to busy teachers, school librarians, parents, grandparents, and other book lovers.
Most of the books Mrs. Ferraris reads before recommending are checked out from the public library, except for those much-appreciated complimentary copies sent to her for an honest review. Those are noted.
(The content below contains Amazon affiliate links. When you buy through these links, Mrs. Ferraris may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you.)
Garden Walk
by Virginia Brimhall Snow (Author)
Brief summary: Grammy and her four grandchildren walk through the forest and to the garden, learning about plants, animals, and insects. They place a blanket on the ground and picnic while Grammy reads to them. Narrated by one of the children.
Comments: Blue ink illustrations with the plants, animals, or insects highlighted with full-colored words that match the subject.
Picnic recipes are in the back.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
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If you enjoy this book, you may be interested in Virginia Brimhall Snow’s Seasonal Walks series. For more details or to buy, continue reading o this book’s Amazon page.
Love Makes a Garden Grow
by Taeeun Yoo (Author, Illustrator)
Brief summary: A young girl and her grandfather tend a garden together until he moves to an apartment where he brings some of his plants.
She grows up and lives far away, but her grandfather sends her a gift of peonies. When her daughter grows, the granddaughter visits the man showing her little one how to tend the house plants and flowers like he taught her.
Comments: An Author’s Note in the back explains how this story is based on her relationship with her grandfather.
Rating: 3.5/5 📗📗📗 1/2
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Linh’s Rooftop Garden (Where In the Garden?)
by JaNay Brown-Wood (Author), Samara Hardy (Illustrator)
Brief summary: Lihn needs to find blueberries for their brunch and walk around the rooftop looking at all the fruits and vegetables. The girl describes what a blueberry looks like and compares those characteristics to each plant methodically until she finds them.
Comments: There is a blueberry and banana pancake recipe in the back.
Rating: 3.5/5 📗📗📗 1/2
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If you enjoy this book, you may be interested in the other three books of the Where in the Garden?series:
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Watch Me Bloom: A Bouquet of Haiku Poems for Budding Naturalists
by Krina Patel-Sage (Author, Illustrator)
Brief summary: A collection of twenty-four haikus about different flower species, all illustrated with lovely bright colors, including the paste-down end pages.
Comments: There are Floral Fun Facts in the back of the book.
Rating: 3.5/5 📗📗📗 1/2
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Just a Worm
by Marie Boyd (Author, Illustrator)
Brief summary: Worm begins its day crawling through the garden when two humans cause it to have self-doubt. The worm crawls through a garden talking with each insect and creature it comes across, asking what it can do. Will the worm realize its importance to a garden and regain self-confidence?
Comments: The back pages include Make Your Own Quilled Butterfly, Earthworm Facts, and a Glossary. Illustrated using quilling techniques to make the plants.
I recommend that this picture book be read to supplement a quilling unit.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
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George Washington Carver: More Than “The Peanut Man” (Bright Minds): More Than “The Peanut Man”
by Janel Rodriguez (Author), Subi Bosa (Illustrator)
I’ve only known George Washington Carver as the “peanut man” and updated my education when reading this narrative nonfiction about this knowledgeable and talented man nicknamed “Plant Doctor.”
Brief summary: This book begins with his life as a child who studied plants and painted them. It continues with his young adulthood of going to college, learning, and experimenting with plants. The book tells of his adulthood of going around in a Jesup wagon, educating farmers on improving their crops and livestock. Readers will learn about many of his inventions and personal life too. I enjoyed reading about this remarkable man.
Comments: This book is full of a variety of nonfiction text features. The back sections include Your Turn!, Glossary, Index, and Further Reading.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
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Little Land
by Diana Sudyka (Author, Illustrator).
Brief summary: This is an ecological/environmental story from the beginning of the earth to its present of how the land and its inhabitant have changed and how to live in balance.
Comments: I included this book under gardening(although it could be under ecology or environmental) as it highlights how to tend a little bit of land.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
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Every Little Seed
by Cynthia Schumerth (Author), Elisa Paganelli (Illustrator)
Brief summary: A young girl with her mother and grandfather plant seeds in the spring garden and tend them to grow, observing how the seed changes to develop. Birds and bugs visit the garden. Soon fall comes when the plants begin to produce seeds they gather for the next planting.
Comments: A plant’s cycle.
A story in rhyme.
Facts about seeds are in the back of the book, including a seed diagram.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
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A Flower is a Friend
by Frieda Wishinsky (Author), Karen Patkau (Illustrator)
Brief summary: An animal/creature is paired with a flower in the garden, and readers are asked why they coexist so well. Answers are in the book of how they benefit each other.
Symbiosis.
Rating: 3/5 📗📗📗
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My First Garden: For Little Gardeners Who Want to Grow
by Livi Gosling (Author)
Brief summary: This nonfiction book is a beginning guide to gardening with step-by-step instructions. Everything one needs to know is covered with illustrations.
Comments: This is for the primary children to learn by looking at the lovely illustrations or for older elementary students who want to start a gardening club.
I usually stick to picture book reviews, but this nonfiction book’s illustrations make a difference with the covered topics by clarifying the lesson.
Ratings:4/5 📗📗📗📗
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A Garden in My Hands
by Meera Sriram (Author), Sandhya Prabhat (Illustrator)
Brief summary: A little girl has her hands Painted by her mother for a wedding the next day. Her mother tells her memories as she paints a garden of flowers and decorations. She sleeps with gloves on over the henna to wake and brush the flakes off to reveal her red garden of stories and the fragrance of henna.
Comments: Facts about henna are in the back of the book.
Rating: 3/5 📗📗📗
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G is for Gardening (A Gardening ABC Primer)
by Ashley Marie Mireles (Author), Volha Kaliaha (Illustrator)
Brief summary: Readers will learn their ABCs of gardening, discovering tools, plants, and animals in a garden.
Comments: Large and colorful illustrations. A good builder of garden vocabulary.
Rating: 3/5 📗📗📗
Continue reading for more details and buying options on this book’sAmazon page.
Children’s book titles are carefully handpicked by a certified elementary school librarian who, although retired, still enjoys reading children’s books, especially picture books, and recommending them to busy teachers, school librarians, parents, grandparents, and other book lovers.
Most of the books Mrs. Ferraris reads before recommending are checked out from the public library, except for those much-appreciated complimentary copies sent to her for an honest review. Those are noted.
(The content below contains Amazon affiliate links. When you buy through these links, Mrs. Ferraris may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you.)
Picture Books
A Bed of Stars
by Jessica Love (Author, Illustrator). Publisher : Candlewick. 2023. PreK-2. Hardcover picture book. ISBN-13 : 978-1536212396.
Brief summary: A boy with trouble falling asleep goes camping with his father. They pack up the pickup truck, Darlin’, and head for the desert. His father tells him about the plants and animal tracks. They build a fire and watch the sun set while sitting on the hood of the pickup until the stars come out. They get in the sleeping bag in the truck bed, enjoying the stars above them.
His father is able to teach his son how to connect with the universe and not feel so small. They drive home, where Mom has a surprise waiting for their boy.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
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Brief summary: Mai and her papa like to play crocodile chomp with their hands. Papa leaves Vietnam to go to America to make a better life for his wife and daughter. Mai does not understand where her father has gone and waits for him to return each day to play. Mama packs and bag and takes her little one on a long journey through the rice paddies, across a river, and onto a boat across the ocean to a refugee camp in Singapore until they are released when Mama travels in the city to find her husband.
Comments: This story is based on the author and her mother, who journeyed in 1983 from Vietnam to America. Both author and illustrator share their families’ journey of immigration.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
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Basketball Dreams
by Chris Paul (Author), Courtney Lovett (Illustrator). Publisher : Roaring Brook Press. 2023. Prek-2. Hardcover picture book. ISBN-13 : 978-1250810038.
Brief summary: Chris wants to become a basketball player and looks up to his granddad, Papa Chilly, for guidance as the man’s dreams have come true. He gets up early to practice. He learns how to be a good team player and to help others. Papa Chilly attends Chris’s games and cheers him on.
Comments: The back page has Chris Paul’s recollection of his grandfather and a photo of them.
Rating: 3.5/5 📗📗📗1/2
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Daddy & Me, Side by Side
by Pierce Freelon (Author), Nadia Fisher (Illustrator). Publisher : Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. 2023. Prek-2. Hardcover picture book. ISBN-13 : 978-0316055864.
Brief summary: A father and son go camping together. As they hike and fish, the father shares how he did the same with his father, who recently died. It almost feels like Pop-Pop is there with them as they create new and share old memories of being together.
Rating: 3.5/5 📗📗📗1/2
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Trucker Kid
by Carol Gordon Ekster (Author), Russ Cox (Illustrator). Publisher : Capstone Editions. 2023. PreK-2. Hardcover picture book. ISBN-13 : 978-1684466214.
Brief summary: Athena misses her father when he is trucking and has to leave the family for days. She loves ANYTHING to do with eighteen-wheelers and is proud to be a Trucker Kid. She shares her joy and enthusiasm with the kids at school. Her classmates understand her passion once her father visits the school via his semi to share everything about his job.
Comments: The back pages have sections Keep on Trucking and Author’s Note.
Rating: 3.5/5 📗📗📗1/2
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Baba’s Gift: A Persian Father’s Love of Family
by Ariana Shaheen Amini (Author), Christina Maheen Amini (Author), Elaheh Taherian (Illustrator). Publisher : Little Bigfoot. 2023. Grades 2-4. Hardcover picture book. ISBN-13 : 978-1632173232.
Brief summary: Baba shares stories with his six daughters while they sit and play on the Persian carpet of his boyhood in Iran and his stories of immigrating to America.
Comments: This is based on the true story of Dr. Fariborz Amini. Authors’ Notes in the back have a photo of the lovely family.
Rating: 3/5 📗📗📗
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Hurry, Kate, or You’ll Be Late!
by Janice N. Harrington (Author), Tiffany Rose (Illustrator). Publisher : Margaret Ferguson Books. 2023. PreK-1. Hardcover picture book. ISBN-13 : 978-0823445103.
Brief summary: Kate was late to preschool this morning, but why? Was it because of her breakfast? Because she and her dad stopped to wave at friends?
Comments: Young readers will follow Kate and her father’s journey to go to preschool and ask to figure out and predict why Kate was late.
Rating: 3.5/5 📗📗📗1/2
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Pop’s Perfect Present
by Corey Finkle (Author), Lenny Wen (Illustrator). Publisher : Henry Holt and Co. (BYR). 2023. PreK-3. Hardcover picture book. ISBN-13 : 978-1250819444.
Brief summary: A young girl tries to think of the best gift to give her father because he is such a wonderful Pop. As they spend the day together, each attempt of creating the present is a failure. Will she be able to give her father the perfect present?
Comments: Humorous rhyming with a fun rhythm.
Rating: 3.5/5 📗📗📗1/2
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No Fair!
by Jacob Grant (Author, Illustrator).Publisher : Viking Books for Young Readers. 2023. PreK-2. Hardcover picture book. ISBN-13 : 978-0593117699.
Brief summary: Pablo and his father get on their bikes while their dog, Waffles, runs aside them. It’s Market Day, and Pablo wants a donut, but it is allowed once all the shopping is finished. As Pablo tries to help, he finds that everything he picks out is too big. He protests, “Not fair!” Will he realize with the help of his dad that not all things are fair?
Comments: This book could be a shared read-aloud with the father’s voice in black ink and the son’s in red.
Rating: 3.5/5 📗📗📗1/2
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My Dad Is a DJ
by Kathryn Erskine (Author), Keith Henry Brown (Author, Illustrator). Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2023. PreK-3. Hardcover Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-0374307424.
Brief summary: Trevor’s parents separate, and his father moves out. They once shared time listening to music late in the night after his father returned from being DJ. They would shoot baskets after school. He would even hear his father dedicate songs to him over the radio.
Lately, though, they have yet to connect since he moved out. His food preferences are different. He has a new friend his father has yet to meet. The end-of-the-year dance is coming up that his father has DJed. Will combining the latest hip-hop that Trevor likes and the soul his father favors work out? Will DJing together bring them closer?
Rating: 3.5/5 📗📗📗1/2
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Brief summary: Harper packs a suitcase and drives to a huge family reunion in a park with her fathers, where she meets family members for the first time, like her cousins, second cousins, and first cousins once removed. She also meets family she already knows. Harper learns that she has some things the same and different from everyone, but they are all connected by their love for one another.
Rating: 3/5 📗📗📗
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Daddy Dressed Me
by Michael Gardner (Author), Ava Gardner (Author), Nadia Fisher (Illustrator). Publisher : Aladdin. 2023. PreK-2. Hardcover Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-1665921954.
Brief summary: Ava’s father is good at making things but especially sewing her dresses for special occasions. She will recite a poem onstage during Move Up Day and is worried she will forget the words.
Her father tells the nervous girl that he will help her memorize the lines and would like to sew a unique dress to boost her confidence. Will both of their hard work pay off on the big day?
Comments: Based on a true story which can be found in the back–The Story Behind the Story. Loved to see the photos of the real father and daughter duo.
Rating: 3.5/5 📗📗📗1/2
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Maribel’s Year
by Michelle Sterling (Author), Sarah Gonzales (Illustrator). Publisher : Katherine Tegen Books. 2023. PreK-3. Hardcover Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-0063114357.
Brief summary: Maribel must wait an entire year before her father, who is in the Philippines, can rejoin his daughter and wife in America. Each month the young girl tells about the memories of her father and the emotional thoughts she has that he is with them again.
Comments: Illustrations change with each month and capture the feelings and thoughts of Maribel.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
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Brief summary: A young girl asks her father to stand with his arms outstretched and become a tree.
This whimsical story continues throughout the day, with more creatures visiting the father and making themselves comfortable as though he were a real tree.
Rating: 3/5 📗📗📗
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Papa’s Home
by David Soman (Author). Publisher : Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. 2023. PreK-2. Hardback picture book. ISBN-13 : 978-0316427838.
Brief summary: Papa is going away for a little while, and Aunt Jessie will come to take care of the little bear. Father and son spend the day doing activities together. At the same time, the child asks questions about what it will be like when the father is away. The father quietly answers his child’s many questions with reassurance that everything will be okay.
Comments: Lovely illustrations that capture the emotional expressions of the father and child.
The text in this book allows for a reader’s theater opportunity with the child’s voice in green ink; Papa’s in purple ink.
Rating: 4.5/5 📗📗📗📗1/2
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Board Books
Daddy’s Hugs and Snuggles
by Linda Ashman (Author), Jane Massey (Illustrator). Publisher : Cartwheel Books. 2023. Baby-3. Board book with thick cardstock(not cardboard). ISBN-13 : 978-1338854046.
Brief summary: A child tells in rhyme what their father does with them in that part of the day while another child continues until young readers have learned the morning, noon, and evening routines.
Rating: 3/5 📗📗📗
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Daddy and Me
by Gary Urda (Author), Rosie Butcher (Illustrator). Publisher : little bee books. 2023. Baby-3. Board book. ISBN-13 : 978-1499813517.
Brief summary: Each child shares what activity they share with their father.
Comments: Diverse with different families, backgrounds, and what the child calls their father. Papa, Dada, Pops, Baba, and so forth.
The illustrations are full pages with happy and bright colors matching the happiness of each child and father relationship.
Rating: 3.5/5 📗📗📗1/2
Continue reading for more details and buying options on this book’s Amazon page.
Children’s book titles are carefully handpicked by a certified elementary school librarian who, although retired, still enjoys reading children’s books, especially picture books, and recommending them to busy teachers, school librarians, parents, grandparents, and other book lovers.
Most of the books Mrs. Ferraris reads before recommending are checked out from the public library, except for those much-appreciated complimentary copies sent to her for an honest review. Those are noted.
(The content below contains Amazon affiliate links. When you buy through these links, Mrs. Ferraris may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you. The Retired School Librarian is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program.)
Cat Jigsaw Puzzles
Beachcombers–300 jigsaw puzzle pieces
For more information, options, or to buy, please see the Amazon page.
Frederick the Literate— 750 jigsaw puzzle pieces
For more information, options, or to buy, please see the Amazon page.
Dog Jigsaw Puzzles
Dog stories–1,000 jigsaw puzzle pieces
For more information, options, or to buy, please see the Amazon page.
Children’s Books Jigsaw Puzzle
Story Time –1,000 jigsaw puzzle pieces
For more information, options, or to buy, please see the Amazon page.
I have this one on my wall:
Classic Novels Jigsaw Puzzles
1980s Novels–-1,000 jigsaw puzzle pieces
For more information, options, or to buy, please see the Amazon page.
Jane Austen–1,000 jigsaw puzzle pieces
For more information, options, or to buy, please see the Amazon page.
GreatAmerican novels–1,000 Jigsaw Puzzle pieces
For more information, options, or to buy, please see the Amazon page.
British Classics–1,000 jigsaw puzzle pieces.
For more information, options, or to buy, please see the Amazon page.
Mystery and Horror Jigsaw Puzzles
Murder Mystery Books–1,000 jigsaw puzzle pieces
For more information, options, or to buy, please see the Amazon page.
Mystery Books–1,000 jigsaw puzzle books
For more information, options, or to buy, please see the Amazon page.
Edgar Allan Poe’s— 1,000 jigsaw puzzle pieces
For more information, options, or to buy, please see the Amazon page.
Bookstore Jigsaw Puzzles
Bizarre Bookshop 2–1,000 jigsaw puzzle pieces. I own this own but have not put it together.
For more information, options, or to buy, please see the Amazon page.
The Book Palace–1,000 jigsaw puzzle pieces
For more information, options, or to buy, please see the Amazon page.
In the Bookstore–1,000 jigsaw puzzle pieces
For more information, options, or to buy, please see the Amazon page.
Miscellaneous
Book World–1,000 jigsaw puzzle pieces
For more information, options, or to buy, please see the Amazon page.
Cozy Retreat–500 jigsaw puzzle pieces
For more information, options, or to buy, please see the Amazon page.
First Lines of Literature–1,000 jigsaw puzzle pieces
For more information, options, or to buy, please see the Amazon page.
(The content below contains Amazon affiliate links. When you buy through these links, Mrs. Ferraris may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you.)
Finding Family: The Duckling Raised by Loons
by Laura Purdie Salas (Author), Alexandria Neonakis (Illustrator). Publisher : Millbrook Press ™ . 2023. Grades PreK-2. Hardcover Narrative Nonfiction Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-1728442990.
Brief summary: A mother and father loon raise a mallard duckling. The duckling learns the ways of the loons, like eating minnows and taking food from them.
Comments: This story in verse is based on a true story in 2019 in a Wisconsin Lake as part of the Loon Project, where researchers observed a loon pair taking care of a duckling. What makes this unique is that loons usually drive away mallard ducks.
The back pages include sections such as Is This Story True?, The Intruder, and Very Different Birds(with a Venn Diagram).
Continue reading for more details and buying options on this book’s Amazon page.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
Rise to the Sky: How the World’s Tallest Trees Grow Up
by Rebecca E. Hirsch (Author), Mia Posada (Illustrator). Publisher : Millbrook Press ™. 2023. PreK-3. Hardcover Narrative Nonfiction Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-1728440873.
Brief summary: Young readers will learn about a tree’s life cycle from a tiny sprout to a tall tree.
Comments: Back sections include How Does a Tall Tree Grow?, Where Do the Tallest Trees Live?, and two activities.
The illustrations are cut-paper collages with watercolor but have photographs of the tallest trees in the back of the book.
Continue reading for more details and buying options on this book’s Amazon page.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
Special Delivery: A Book’s Journey Around the World
Brief summary: A book is made and journeys in various forms of transportation across the city, sea, and through the country until it reaches Pip’s Bookshop, where it is bought and sent to a grandson.
Comments: The back has Special Delivery Numbers of interesting statistics about the book’s journey.
Full, detailed illustrations with bright colors. I stopped and looked at each page to get more details of the transportation story from them.
Continue reading for more details and buying options on this book’s Amazon page.
Rating: 4.5/5 📗📗📗📗1/2
Yoshi, Sea Turtle Genius: A True Story About an Amazing Swimmer
by Lynne Cox (Author), Richard Jones (Illustrator). Publisher : Anne Schwartz Books. 2023. PreK-3. Hardcover Narrative Nonfiction Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-0593425688.
Brief summary: A Loggerhead hatchling finds her way across the Australian beach when the moon is full. She swims for the first time in the Indian Ocean, encountering many marine and land animals and fish on her journey.
The turtle is tangled in a net until a fisherman rescues her and helps her return to good health. Unable to keep the turtle, the fisherman gives her to an aquarium, where she is released into the sea with a tracking device. People can watch where she swims in the ocean. Will she make it back to her home?
Comments: This is a true story with more information in the Author’s Note.
I kept reading to find out more about Yoshi and if she was going to be okay or not.
Continue reading for more details and buying options on this book’s Amazon page.
Brief summary: Young readers will learn about why some animals eat feces. One can read a simple narrative or include a more correlating detailed description as the story continues teaching readers everything they need to know, including the correct terminology of why animals eat poop.
Comments: Well, I learned a lot from reading this book and recommend it to children and adults who desire to learn more about this topic, which was done in a very tasteful manner (excuse the pun).
The back sections include The Scoop on Poop, Be a Book Detective, By Any Other Name, and Further Reading.
Continue reading for more details and buying options on this book’s Amazon page.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
Jumper: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider
Brief summary: As soon as I open the book, I meet the main character as big as bean, Jumper, a jumping spider. Jumper is hungry and goes hunting for food in the family’s backyard. She jumps without worry as her silk is a safety line. Vibrations help the spider know if a predator or prey is nearby. Will Jumper ever find dinner, or will she become dinner?
Comments: Excellent back sections with more details about his spider, with close-ups illustrated by hand. A few other spiders are discussed, along with the life cycle of a jumping spider. There is a Glossary, Author’s Note, Finding and Identifying Spiders, and Resources sections.
This book begins and ends on the paste-down end pages. There is a fold-out demonstrating how a spider sees with eight eyes.
This book asks readers questions to pause and reflect upon the spider’s life. Dialogic reading.
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Brief summary: Jadav Payeng, a tribal boy living in India, went to the elders in 1979 when the Brahmaputra River took large parts of the islands’ land mass away when it flooded. He wanted them to help him plant trees on an island called Majuli to help prevent the island from disappearing.
The forest department gave him bamboo seedlings and told him to plant the forest himself. So, he did. Has the past thirty years of his hard work helped the area and animals?
Comments: The front and end pages give more details about this passionate individual whose hard work and dedication completely changed Mujuli Island and the Molai Forest(named after him). It can take just one person to make a significant impact in a positive way.
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Rating: 3/5 📗📗📗
Nobody Likes Frogs: A Book of Toadally Fun Facts
by Barbara Davis-Pyles (Author), Liz Wong (Illustrator). Publisher : Little Bigfoot. 2023. PreK-2. Hardcover Narrative Nonfiction Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-1632173355.
Brief summary: A turtle narrates how much it does not like frogs while learning all about them as the story progresses. Does the turtle have a change of heart? Will the reader?
Comments: The back sections are Frog Facts and Be Somebody Who Likes Frogs by Helping Them!. The pasted-down end pages are full of different types of frogs.
This is a general book about frogs. I learned that frogs can live as long as twenty years.
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Rating: 3/5 📗📗📗
Children’s book titles are carefully handpicked by a certified elementary school librarian who, although retired, still enjoys reading children’s books, especially picture books, and recommending them to busy teachers, school librarians, parents, grandparents, and other book lovers.
Most of the books Mrs. Ferraris reads before recommending are checked out from the public library, except for those much-appreciated complimentary copies sent to her for an honest review. Those are noted.
Brief summary: Young readers examine the definition of “life” and where it all begins. The book explores a complex question by breaking it down into a slow progression of how the earth was created and how molecules formed.
Comments: Large and colorful illustrations also help clarify the concepts.
by Rosie Haine (Author and Illustrator). Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. 2023. K-3. Narrative Nonfiction Hardcover Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-0802856012.
Brief summary: The family and people are Upper Paleolithic hunter-gathers who lived about 25,000 years ago when humans rose with the sun and slept when it set. They made tools from Nature around them, ate what they picked or caught, and everything they owned was handmade. Some animals were their friends, while others were eaten (or run from). The stars were their GPS. They were closer to Nature. We are still human animals but are very different today in many ways.
Comments: Author’s Note briefly explains how the first humans lived on Earth.
How the Sea Came to Be: (And All the Creatures In It)
by Jennifer Berne (Author), Amanda Hall (Illustrator). Publisher : Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. 2023. K-4. Narrative Nonfiction Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-0802854780.
Brief summary: This narrative nonfiction picture book is divided into Part One: The Birth of the Sea, Part Two: The Birth of Life, Part Three: All That the Sea Came to Be…From Then to Now, and a section of informative back pages including a foldout of ocean creatures over time.
Comments: The text is in a stanza of four lines with lines 2 & 4 rhyming. The illustrations are large and colorful and had me stopping to soak up the way the creatures were evolving.
The selected children’s books are chosen by a highly qualified retired elementary school librarian, who passionately reads and recommends picture books to teachers, school librarians, parents, grandparents, and other book enthusiasts.
Most of the books Mrs. Ferraris recommends are checked out from the public library. The only exception is for the complimentary copies that she receives for an honest review, which are duly noted
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