Tag: Patricia Toht

Children's Book Recommendations

Ten New Easter, Spring, and Passover Picture Books

The Retired School LibrarianLeave a comment

recommended by Angela Ferraris, The Retired School Librarian

(This content contains Amazon affiliate links. When you buy through these links, I may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you).

The picture book cover of Happy Easter From the Crayons with a red, purple, and green crayon inside of an Easter basket

Happy Easter from the Crayons 

by Drew Daywalt  (Author), Oliver Jeffers (Illustrator). Publisher ‏ : ‎ Philomel Books. 2023. PreK-1. Hardcover.

Brief summary: The crayons prepare for Easter by making various shapes to paste onto an egg. This small picture book(5.88 x 0.36 x 7.13 inches) could fit inside an Easter basket.

For more details or to buy, click here.

Rating: 3/5 📗📗📗

The picture book cover of Easter with a chocolate bunny and colored eggs instide of a basket

Easter (Happy Holidays! Series) 

by Rebecca Sabelko (Author). Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bellwether Media. 2022. K-1. Early reader. Nonfiction paperback. ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1648348532.

Brief summary: This early reader nonfiction chapter book has nonfiction text features explaining what Easter is and how it is celebrated. A site word chart is at the beginning.
This smaller hardcover book(5.22 x 0.07 x 8.59 inches) could fit nicely in an Easter basket.

For more details or to buy, click here.

Rating: 3/5 📗📗📗

The picture book cover of Easter Eggs and Matzo Balls with a boy looking outside a window and seeing a white rabbit hiding Easter eggs in the garden

Easter Eggs and Matzo Balls 

by Janie Emaus  (Author), Bryan Langdo (Illustrator). Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sky Pony. 2023. PreK-1. Hardcover. ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1510769229.

Brief summary: Michael texts the Easter Bunny to let him know that he has a new stepsister, Anna, who celebrates Passover but wants to make sure she gets something special in the Golden Egg since both holidays were at the same time. Both siblings hunt for the Easter Egg and Afikoman bag needed to celebrate the holiday.

The back includes a chicken soup recipe and a matzo balls recipe. There is a glossary of Passover and Easter terms.

For more details or to buy, click here.

Rating: 3/5 📗📗📗

The picture book cover of Passover with a family standing around the table saying a prayer with religious food on the table for the holiday like Matza

Passover: A Celebration of Freedom (Big Golden Book) 

by Bonnie Bader  (Author), Joanie Stone (Illustrator). Publisher ‏ : ‎ Golden Books. 2023. PreK-2. Hardcover. ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593563885.

Brief summary: This narrative nonfiction story explains why Passover is celebrated by retelling the freedom of the Israelites led by Moses, the Ten Plagues, and the Red Sea’s parting. Young readers learn about the food and the symbolism of the Passover Seder.

For more details or to buy, click here.

Rating: 3/5 📗📗📗

The picture book cover of Pick a Perfect Egg with cute little yellow checks and baby birds and eggs all done in pastel water colors

Pick a Perfect Egg 

by Patricia Toht  (Author), Jarvis (Illustrator). Publisher ‏ : ‎ Candlewick. 2023. PreK-2. Hardcover. ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1536228472.

Brief summary: This beautiful digitally illustrated rhyming story begins with a mother and daughter going to the country farmer to pick out their eggs to decorate for Easter. They use natural coloring from plants as well as dye tablets to color their eggs. The two decorate with care and then go to a festive egg hunt the next day.

For more details or to buy, click here.

Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗

The picture book cover of Pete the Cat and the Easter Basket Bandit with Pete the Cat holding up Easter eggs in his paws while the Easter bunny is in the background; eggs allover the ground and in a tree

Pete the Cat and the Easter Basket Bandit

by James Dean  (Author, Illustrator), Kimberly Dean (Author). Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperFestival. 2023. PreK–2. Paperback. ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0062868374.

Brief summary: Poor Pete wakes up on Easter morning and finds that his Easter basket is missing. He follows a trail of jellybeans to a friend’s house who has not seen it. Pete the Cat follows more candy trails, all leading to various friends. Who has his basket?

Includes a poster in the front, stickers, and Easter cards. Cute book for a child’s Easter basket.

For more details or to buy, click here.

Rating 3/5 📗📗📗

Board book cover of Happy Easter, Little Bunny with a cute real brown bunny and watercolored flowers and leaves and Easter eggs

Happy Easter, Little Bunny (Baby Animal Tales) 

by Amanda Wood  (Author), Vikki Chu (Illustrator), Bec Winnel (Photographer). Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harry N. Abrams. 2023. Baby-Prek. Board book. ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1419766640.

Brief summary: Bunny and Mouse wake up on Easter Morning looking for eggs until a Fox appears causing them to go back in Bunny’s burrow where there is a beautiful surprise. The first board book in the Baby Animal Tales series.

For more details or to buy, click here.

Rating: 3.5/5 📗📗📗1/2

Board book cover of I'm a Little Bunny with three bunnies sitting on grass with bees, butterflies and flowers near them

I’m a Little Bunny

by Hannah Eliot  (Author), Liz Brizzi (Illustrator). Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little Simon. 2023. Baby-toddler. Board book. ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1665927024.

Brief summary: Bunnies and friends discover Spring all around them. This story can be sung to “I’m a Little Teapot!”

For more details or to buy, click here.

Rating: 3/5 📗📗📗

The picture book cover of Sister Spring with Spring shaped like a girl with beautiful flowers all over her while she is floating through the sky touching flowers to bloom

Sister Spring

by James Christopher Carroll (Author, Illustrator). Publisher ‏ : ‎ Creative Editions . 2023. K-2. Hardcover. ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1568463841.

Brief summary: A young woman, Sister Spring, comes up from inside the earth and brings the daffodils, the rain, peepers, and all of the spring elements of Nature. A beautifully illustrated picture book with spring colors.

Teachers could include this book when studying personification.

For more details or to buy, click here.

Rating: 4.5/5 📗📗📗📗1/2

The picture book cover of Don't Touch That Flower with a squirrel and little blue bird in the forest

Don’t Touch That Flower!

by Alice Hemming  (Author), Nicola Slater (Illustrator). Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sourcebooks Jabberwocky. 2023. PreK-2. Hardcover. ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1728271361.

Brief summary: Squirrel wakes to the sounds of birds and bees and realizes it is spring. The informative blue bird helps the squirrel learn the proper way to care for the yellow wildflower he mistakenly claims to be his own.

“Our Flowers” section in the back explaining about the wildflower.

For more details or to buy, click here.

Rating: 3/5 📗📗📗

Children's Book Recommendations

Grandparent Picture Books

The Retired School Librarian1 Comment

Grandparent picture book recommendations are by Angela Ferraris, The Retired School Librarian.

(This content contains Amazon affiliate links. When you buy through these links, I may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you).

cartoon of grandparents and grandchildren

I’m always on the lookout for picture books with grandparents and grandchildren relationships and have been pleased to see five brand-new ones in our public library. I hope there are more to come this year.

Grandparent picture book cover of Mama Shamsi at the bazaar with her granddaughter clinging to her.

Mama Shamsi at the Bazaar 

by Mojdeh Hassani  (Author), Samira Iravani (Author), Maya Fidawi (Illustrator). Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dial Books. 2023. K-2. Hardcover. ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593110614.

Brief summary: Samira is a bit nervous about going to the bazaar with her grandmother for the first time to buy groceries. She repeatedly asks Mama Shamsi to hide in her chador, but the woman wisely resists using humor to soothe her granddaughter’s fear.

For more details or to buy, click here.

Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗

Grandparent picture book of a grandson standing with his grandfather behind him

At the Drop of a Cat 

by Élise Fontenaille (Author), Violeta Lópiz (Illustrator), Karin Snelson  (Translator), Emilie Robert Wong (Translator). Publisher ‏ : ‎ Enchanted Lion Books. 2023. K-3. Hardcover. ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1592703821.

Brief summary: A grandson visits his Grandpa Luis every Wednesday and Sunday. His grandpa is not only a talented artist but can make anything grow, creating the beautiful garden where they spend their days. The six-year-old is learning to read and write and tells us that his Grandpa does not know how as he was an immigrant from Spain to France who had to work in the fields as a child.

This is a French translation and captures the two kindred spirits. I like the mixed-up idioms and how the grandson narrates how he is getting to know Grandpa Luis.

For more details or to buy, click here (in ENGLISH).

Rating: 3.5/5 📗📗📗1/2

For more details or to buy, click here (in FRENCH).

Grandparent picture book of Abuela's Super Capa of the abuela and her grandson in capes flying in the air high fiving one another

Abuela’s Super Capa 

by Ana Siqueira  (Author), Elisa Chavarri  (Illustrator). Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins. 2023. K-3. Hardcover. ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0063113657.

Brief summary: Luis and his abuela have fun every Saturday going around the neighborhood being superheroes. One Saturday, she does not visit. Luis learns that his abuela is very sick in the hospital. She comes to stay with them as she recovers. Although Luis is saddened that his abuela is unable to be as active, he tries to come up with a way to have fun and realizes his sister, Isabel, can be his new sidekick and fight and do adventures together in their capes. 

There is a glossary of the Spanish words used in the book.

For more details or to buy, click here(in ENGLISH).

Rating: 3.5/5 📗📗📗1/2

For more details or to buy, click here in SPANISH.

The sun's rays coming down through the trees onto the road a the child runds to a grandparent

In Every Life 

by Marla Frazee  (Author, Illustrator). Publisher ‏ : ‎ Beach Lane Books. 2023. PreK-2. Hardcover. ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1665912488.

Brief summary: The text has seven lines with seven words each(except for the last line). Each line is across the top of a two-page spread with small illustrations below, and then the next two-page spread is an illustration matching that color scheme.

The words are calm and straightforward. The stunning illustrations are done with pencil and gouache and are detailed little scenes of family members with everyday interactions. I stopped and looked at the details of each one before continuing to the following line and was glad to see that grandparents were included.

For more details or to buy, click here.

Rating: 5/5 📗📗📗📗📗

Picture book cover of a grandmother and her grandchild walking in the rain

Together with You

by Patricia Toht  (Author),  Jarvis  (Illustrator). Publisher ‏ : ‎ Candlewick. 2023. PreK-1. Hardcover. ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1536223514.

Brief summary: A grandmother and her grandchild put on rain gear to play in Spring’s rain. Summer arrives with them cooling off from the hot sun. Autumn brings the wind they need to fly a kite and enjoy the falling leaves. Winter comes with them getting cozy and watching the snow from inside. Each season is spent with one another.

The seasonal color schemes go in hand with this gentle and calming book that blends from one season to the next.

For more details or to buy, click here.

Rating: 4.5/5 📗📗📗📗1/2

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