Books about Boxes

365 Pen­guins

writ­ten and illus­trat­ed by Jean-Luc Fromental 
Hol­i­day House, 2012

A fam­i­ly find a pen­guin mys­te­ri­ous­ly deliv­ered in a box to their door every day of the year. At first the pen­guins are cute, but with every pass­ing day they pile up and they cause the fam­i­ly sig­nif­i­cant prob­lems. Who on earth is send­ing these crit­ters? This book holds math con­cepts and envi­ron­men­tal con­cerns with­in its sto­ry, which is quite fun. Ages 4 to 8.

Box Sto­ry

writ­ten by Ken­neth Kit Lamug
illus­trat­ed by Rab­ble Boy
Rab­ble­Box, 2011

The author and illus­tra­tor uses pen­cil draw­ings to con­vey all the ways in which a box is not just a box. Ages 3 to 7.

A Box Can Be Many Things

writ­ten by Dana Meachen Rau
Chil­dren’s Press, 1997

An ear­ly read­er about a box that’s being thrown away and the two kids who res­cue it for their own adven­tures, slow­ly cut­ting the box up for the sup­plies they need, until there isn’t much left of the box. Ages 3 to 6

Box­es for Katje

writ­ten by Can­dace Fleming
illus­trat­ed by Sta­cy Dressen-McQueen
Far­rar, Straus & Giroux, 2003

A heart­warm­ing sto­ry about a com­mu­ni­ty in Indi­ana which, upon hear­ing about Holland’s strug­gles to find enough food, cloth­ing, and prac­ti­cal items after World War II, sends box­es of sup­plies to Olst, Hol­land. Ages 5 to 10.

Card­board

writ­ten and illus­trat­ed by Doug TenNapel
GRAPHIX, 2012

In this graph­ic nov­el, Cam’s dad is feel­ing depressed and there isn’t a lot of mon­ey to buy Cam some­thing for his birth­day. He gives him a card­board box and togeth­er they work to cre­ate a man from the box. It mag­i­cal­ly comes to life and all is well until the neigh­bor­hood bul­ly strives to turn the card­board man to his evil pur­pos­es. Ages 10 and up.

Card­board Box Book

writ­ten and cre­at­ed by Roger Prid­dy and Sarah Powell
illus­trat­ed by Bar­bi Sido
Prid­dy Books, 2012

If you’re in need of ideas and tips for mak­ing your own card­board cre­ations, or even if you are full of ideas, you’ll be inspired by this book that helps you fig­ure out how to make some amaz­ing but sim­ple card­board con­trap­tions. All you need is sim­ple house­hold art sup­plies like a pen­cil and glue and scis­sors. And maybe a lit­tle paint. Ages 5 and up (with adult supervision).

Christi­na Kate­ri­na and the Box

writ­ten by Patri­cia Lee Gauch
illus­trat­ed by Doris Burns
Boyds Mills Press, 2012

When Christi­na Katerina’s fam­i­ly buys a new refrig­er­a­tor, her moth­er is excit­ed about the refrig­er­a­tor but Christi­na Kate­ri­na is excit­ed about the box. She can do all kinds of things with a box, includ­ing a cas­tle and a play­house. Ages 3 to 7.

Har­ry’s Box

writ­ten by Angela McAllister
illus­trat­ed by Jen­ny Jones
Blooms­bury, 2005

When Har­ry and his mom come back from the gro­cery store, he grabs the box the gro­ceries came in and sets off for adven­ture with his dog, trav­el­ing the high seas, hid­ing from bears, and every­thing he can think of before he falls asleep to dream of more! Ages 3 to 7.

Hen­ry’s Free­dom Box: a True Sto­ry of the Under­ground Railroad

writ­ten by Ellen Levine
illus­trat­ed by Kadir Nelson
Scholas­tic Press, 2007

This is the true sto­ry of Hen­ry Brown, a boy born into slav­ery who is forcibly sep­a­rat­ed from his moth­er to work in his owner’s fac­to­ry. As a man, his wife and three chil­dren are sold away from his life. He makes plans with oth­er abo­li­tion­ists and mails him­self in a box to free­dom in Philadel­phia. Ages 5 and up.

Mee­ow and the Big Box

writ­ten and illus­trat­ed by Sebastien Braun
Box­er Books, 2009

For the preschool set, this book about a cat who cre­ates a fire truck from a box is filled with bright col­ors and tex­tures, and just enough text to read aloud. There are sev­er­al more Mee­ow books. Ages 2 to 4.

My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes

writ­ten by Eve Sutton
illus­trat­ed by Lyn­ley Dodd
Parent’s Mag­a­zine Press, 1974; Puf­fin, 2010

A rhyming text for begin­ning read­ers which also makes a good read-aloud, this dynam­ic duo tells the sto­ry of an ordi­nary cat who likes to hide in box­es while cats around the world do astound­ing things. Ages 3 to 7

Not a Box

writ­ten and illus­trat­ed by Antoinette Portis
Harper­Collins, 2006

Nar­rat­ed by a rab­bit, this sto­ry of the many pos­si­bil­i­ties of a box (It’s NOT A BOX! Oops, sor­ry.) are drawn with a sim­ple line that inspires any­thing but sim­ple ideas. New York Times Best Illus­trat­ed Book. Ages 3 and up.

Rox­abox­en

writ­ten by Alice McLerran
illus­trat­ed by Bar­bara Cooney
Lothrop, Lee & Shep­ard, 1991

A rhyming text for begin­ning read­ers which also makes a good read-Based on a true sto­ry from the author’s child­hood, the kids in Yuma, Ari­zona use found objects, but par­tic­u­lar­ly box­es, to cre­ate a city where they spend end­less hours play­ing and mak­ing up sto­ries and cre­at­ing mem­o­ries that will last a life­time. The book has inspired chil­dren around the world. There’s a park in Yuma to com­mem­o­rate the site of the orig­i­nal Rox­abox­en. Ages 4 to 7.

Secret Box

writ­ten and illus­trat­ed by Bar­bara Lehman
Houghton Mif­flin, 2011

There are secret mes­sages hid­den in secret box­es to be dis­cov­ered in secret places … a word­less book pro­vides beau­ti­ful­ly craft­ed images with intri­cate details that pro­vide much to think and won­der about, ulti­mate­ly encour­ag­ing the read­er to cre­ate the sto­ry. There’s time trav­el, mag­ic, and puz­zles with­in this book. Good for ages 4 and up.

Secret Box

writ­ten by Whitak­er Ringwald
Kather­ine Tegen Books/HarperCollins, 2014

When Jax Mal­one receives a gift in a box for her 12th birth­day, she and her friend Ethan soon dis­cov­er it’s not a gift but a cry for help from an unknown great-aunt. Set­ting off to solve the mys­tery of the box and pro­vide the request­ed help, the kids are soon on a wild, crazy, and dan­ger­ous road trip … a fast-paced tale and the begin­ning of a series of books. (The author’s name is a pseu­do­nym, by the way, a mys­tery in itself.) Ages 8 to 12.

Sit­ting in My Box

writ­ten by Dan Lillegard
iilus­trat­ed by Jon Agee
Two Lions, 2010

From the safe­ty of a card­board box, a lit­tle boy reads a book about Wild Ani­mals and — behold! — they come to vis­it him. How many ani­mals can fit in the box? It’s a cumu­la­tive sto­ry and the word­ing makes it a good choice for a read-aloud. Ages 2 to 5.

Tibet Through the Red Box

writ­ten and illus­trat­ed by Peter Sís
Green­wil­low, 1999

When the author was lit­tle, his father kept things inside a red box that his chil­dren were not allowed to touch. When the author is grown, he receives a let­ter from his father, telling him the red box is now his. The red, lac­quered box holds secrets about his fathere’s expe­ri­ences in the 1950s when he was draft­ed into the Czecho­slo­va­kian army and sent to Chi­na to teach film­mak­ing. At the time, Czechoslo­vokia is a secre­tive coun­try behind the Iron Cur­tain. The father is soon lost in Tibet for two years, where his adven­tures must be kept secret but are shared with his son. The book’s illus­tra­tions are inspired by Tibetan art. Calde­cott Hon­or Book, Boston Globe Horn Book Award. Ages 7 and up.

What To Do With a Box

writ­ten by Jane Yolen
illus­trat­ed by Chris Sheban
Cre­ative Edi­tions, 2016

What can’t you do with a box? If you give a child a box, who can tell what will hap­pen next? It may become a library or a boat. It could set the scene for a fairy tale or a wild expe­di­tion. The most won­der­ful thing is its seem­ing­ly end­less capac­i­ty for mag­i­cal adven­ture. Read this out loud to your favorite kids and watch the ideas light up their eyes. Ages 4 to 7.