Monarch and Mourning Cloak by Melissa Stewart and Sarah S. Brannen

Monarch and Mourning Cloak

Learn from this gorgeous and factual book about two very different butterflies, the monarch and the mourning cloak. Replete with information, poetry, and terrific illustrations.
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Houdini's Library by Barb Rosenstock and Mar Delmar

Houdini’s Library

Yes, Houdini was a magician and an escape artist. He was world famous. But that’s not what this book is about. Harry Houdini was a reader.
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This Pirate Needs Your Help by David LaRochelle

This Pirate Needs Your Help

This time of year, I like to recommend books that make ideal holiday gifts. As a kid, I especially liked books that could DO something, that would play with me.
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The House on Rondo by Debra J. Stone

The House on Rondo

If someone from the government came to your house and said, “You’ll have to abandon this house. We’re going to tear down your neighborhood and put a major highway through here.” How would you feel?
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The Metamorphosis of Bunny Baxter

The Metamorphosis of Bunny Baxter

Barbara Carroll Roberts’ evident love of gardening and insects and not-sports and reading and kids and families and friends gives us a page-turning book that I spent happy hours reading.
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A Day at the Beach

A Day at the Beach

Lately, I find myself beguiled by short story collections. I have always been someone who enjoys a long book. What’s happening?
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The AI Incident

The AI Incident

What does it mean to be human? Not every middle grade novel tackles that question. The AI Incident doesn’t shy away from examining AI, robotics, learning, and being human. It does so with laughter, caring, and intrigue.
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I Love Blueberries

I Love Blueberries!

Celebrating a terrific book for young people that will get them excited about growing their own food. Hydroponics, yummy blueberries … you’ll want to share this one.
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We Miss You, George Floyd by Shannon Gibney

We Miss You, George Floyd

Our democracy asks that every citizen has the right to life. This picture-book tribute to George Floyd is eloquent and powerful in its simplicity. The words flow like a song.
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Tumble

Tumble

Adela doesn't know who her father is. Now her stepfather would like to adopt her but state law requires the birth father to give up parental rights. With some research, Adela finds her father and a family she knew nothing about.
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My Incredible India

My Incredible India

I am utterly mesmerized by this book! The author and illustrator express their love for the wonders of this vast and many-faceted country, which shines from each double-page spread, irresistibly inviting the reader to discover more for the sheer joy of learning.
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Hands

Hands

Trev is a talented artist. He’s kind, thoughtful … and he doesn’t want to learn how to fight. But … he needs to protect his family.
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Thank You, Moon

Thank You, Moon

Night is my favorite time of day, so I was entranced by this book about the many ways in which moonlight affects animal behavior ... including humans.
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Walking Grandma Home

Two Books about Grief

Take these books to heart: two books that will help adults and children find paths into discussions about this part of life, Sitting Shiva and Walking Grandma Home. 
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Library Girl

Library Girl

I eagerly waited for this book. I wasn’t prepared to fall in love, which I most definitely have.
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Maizy Chen's Last Chance

Maizy Chen’s Last Chance

This book has everything going for it. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wind up caring about the characters, and you'll want to eat at the Golden Palace in Last Chance, Minnesota.
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One Winter Up North

One Winter Up North

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, stretching for 150 miles along the Canadian border, is the setting for John Owens’ newest wordless picture book.
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The Voice of My Heart

The Voice of My Heart

It works well to read poems here and there from The Voice of My Heart ... but I often find myself caught up in the expressions of love and longing, moving from one poem to the next, contemplating, learning, feeling.
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Garvey in the Dark

Garvey in the Dark

With her usual positive and hopeful storytelling, Nikki Grimes reminds us that lives changed during the Covid pandemic, affecting many people in many different ways. Garvey's story will resonate deeply with readers of all ages.
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We Belong

We Belong

I've seen many questions on social media, asking which books teachers will read aloud to their classroom during the first week of school. I don't teach in a classroom but I've thought about this question anyway.
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The Genius Under the Table

The Genius Under the Table

Eugene Yelchin grew up in Stalinist Russia, the Cold War Soviet Union. We grow to love his parents, his grandmother, his brother Victor, but most especially Eugene. His memories are at once sad and humorous.
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Samira Surfs

Samira Surfs

 I don't think I've ever read a novel about surfing before Samira Surfs. I was fascinated by the setting, the sport, and the culture, different than my own.
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Finding Junie Kim

Finding Junie Kim

The author unfolds the story in a way that young readers will find mesmerizing, imagining her characters in real life, turning the page again and again to learn what will happen next, both in mid-century Korea and in the United States today.
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Good Luck Gold & More

Good Luck Gold & more

This book will make you feel, many different feelings. It is filled with poetry and a short essay about the poem on the facing page. There are two or three questions at the bottom of each essay that encourage digging deeper ... into your own experience.
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Girls Solve Everything

Girls Solve Everything

Reading this book, I jumped up and down with excitement. I kept turning the pages until I had read every one of the true stories. My brain revved into high speed as I learned about girls and women, problem solving and innovating.
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Loyalty

Loyalty

Leave it to Avi to find a way to help me look at the Rev­o­lu­tion­ary War from a new per­spec­tive. Make that two. Young Noah is the son of a Loy­al­ist and min­is­ter, pledged to the King. When local rev­o­lu­tion­ar­ies tar and feath­er his father, the fam­i­ly flees to Boston. Need­ing work, Noah finds a job as a British spy and a serv­er in a tav­ern, where he can eas­i­ly over­hear plans and report on them.
more
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Ten Ways to Hear Snow

Ten Ways to Hear Snow

When you grow up in Min­neso­ta, snow is a part of your world. From play­ing in it until your feet are so cold and wet that your grand­moth­er will scold while you drink hot cocoa to lift­ing your feet high as you trudge through knee-deep snow to a bus stop that’s far­ther away than it has ever been, snow is a fix­ture in your thoughts. 
more
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Love is Powerful

Love is Powerful

This book will lift you up in its arms and make you believe that “Love is Powerful”! It’s the right choice to help us under­stand what a group of peo­ple can accom­plish if they are unit­ed in their pur­pose and mov­ing toward treat­ing all peo­ple with love and kindness. Writ­ten by Heather Dean Brew­er from Michi­gan and illus­trat­ed by LeUyen Pham from Cal­i­for­nia, both of whom marched in the 2017 Women’s March­es, this book is inspired by Mari, a real lit­tle girl who trav­eled with her moth­er from Harlem to Mid­town New York to march with large crowds of peo­ple who were protest­ing inhu­mane actions and poli­cies of a pres­i­dent who reviled many people.
more
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Planetarium

Planetarium

My fas­ci­na­tion with out­er space is well-doc­u­ment­ed. I had star charts on my child­hood bed­room walls. But this book would have enthralled me … in fact, it still does. The illus­tra­tions by engraver and print­mak­er Chris Wormell are detailed in a way that aids under­stand­ing. Scale is a tough con­cept for our com­pre­hen­sion but this book tack­les that with info­graph­ics that give a sense of how enor­mous our uni­verse is.
more
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The Range Eternal

The Range Eternal

I am delight­ed by the re-issue of The Range Eter­nal, a pic­ture book that reach­es back into his­to­ry and con­nects with our sens­es, our fam­i­lies, our fears, and our reas­sur­ances. I have read all of Louise Erdrich’s books for adults and chil­dren. She nev­er fails to bring me new ways of look­ing at the world. So it is with this book.
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You Are (Not) Small

You Should (Not) Read These Books

I remem­ber my neigh­bor­hood friends stand­ing on oppo­site sides of a dri­ve­way, angry, yelling loud­ly at each oth­er. I don’t recall why, but I can still feel those emo­tions. That’s how strong feel­ings are. Our chil­dren deal with a mul­ti­tude of emo­tions every day. You were prob­a­bly remem­ber­ing sim­i­lar instances from your child­hood. And what hap­pened after­ward? Most like­ly you were all friends again, because you need­ed to be.
more
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Wild Girl

Wild Girl

WOW!*!&! I want to car­ry a back­pack with me wher­ev­er I go, hand­ing out a copy of this book to every per­son I see. I loved every dare­dev­il, detailed, aston­ish­ing minute of read­ing this book. I believe you will, too. Mind, I grew up at a time where I heard two phras­es con­stant­ly: “Sit still” and “Ladies don’t rough­house.” Rough­house meant any kind of run­ning, climb­ing, jump­ing, or play­ing in the dirt.… more
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The Book Rescuer

The Book Rescuer

I have had The Book Res­cuer on my desk for sev­er­al months. I imme­di­ate­ly knew I want­ed to write about it because I feel such a strong attrac­tion to this sto­ry (a true sto­ry) but I had a hard time putting into words how deeply I am moved by the actions of this book hero. The sto­ry begins this way: Kum aher. Sit down.… more
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Yasmin the Zookeeper

Yasmin

Once I finished reading Yasmin the Zookeeper, I was charmed. I wanted to find out more about this young Pakistani American girl who is curious about everything.
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The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs

The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs

Our col­lec­tion of cook­books is vast. Some of them are in use more than oth­ers, and some of them are in rough shape from too much use. I’m always on the look­out for good cook­books that will encour­age young peo­ple to cook and to read about cook­ing, just as I did with the gift of my first, Bet­ty Crock­er’s Cook­book for Boys and Girls.… more
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The Next President

The Next President

Who the next U.S.A. pres­i­dent will be is pre-occu­py­ing many minds around the world right now. This book takes a stance by telling us about the dis­tinc­tive pres­i­dents of the past, a cou­ple of sen­tences about every one of them, #1 through #45, and asks us to real­ize that the next ten pres­i­dents are prob­a­bly alive right now.… more
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Girls Garage

Girls Garage

Don't miss adding Girls Garage by Emily Pilloton to your bookshelves. It's a terrific book specifically written to help young women gain the confidence they need to build anything they want to build. Highly recommended.
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Bedtime for Sweet Creatures

Bedtime for Sweet Creatures

Such a charm­ing book! From Nik­ki Grimes, we hear the sto­ry of a young boy stalling his bed­time, all the while col­lect­ing a menagerie of imag­i­nary crea­tures. This is a child who has well-prac­ticed ploys for avoid­ing bed­time. His par­ents respond with play­ful­ness and good humor. Mom and dad are patient but, final­ly, the child is too sleepy to stay awake.… more
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Equality's Call

Equality’s Call

Writ­ten by Deb­o­rah Diesen in read­able-out-loud verse with a refrain that reflects the cumu­la­tive action in the pre­ced­ing pages, this pic­ture book traces the dili­gent efforts of those who worked for decades to make Amer­i­ca’s vot­ing rights more inclu­sive. There is his­to­ry here for every­one to know. The illus­tra­tions add pas­sion and under­stand­ing to the text, help­ing us with more infor­ma­tion.… more
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Under Threat

Under Threat

This oversized book is unforgettable. Both the art and the text are strong testaments about animals that are "threatened with extinction: critically endangered (the most threatened), endangered, and vulnerable (the least threatened)."
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A to Zåäö

A to Zåäö is an alphabet book, a museum exhibit catalog, an introduction to the Swedish language, and a picture book illustrated  by a mother's watercolors and her son's pen-and-ink drawings.
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