Storyline: It’s spring cleaning at the farm. After scrubbing clean his horses, ducks, cows, dogs, goats and other animals and birds on Farmer’s yard, all was left, were the hogs. So Farmer took his pail and soap and headed to the pigs’ pen. Continue reading Hogwash! by Karma Wilson→
Storyline: Mama Frances is in the kitchen, preparing vegetables for cooking when ‘Tricia Ann asks her if she can go Someplace Special all by herself. She’s all dressed up in a nice blue dress with a yellow ribbon, a hat, and a hand purse. ‘Tricia Ann is about 12 years old but as her grandmother, Mama Frances, says, “goin’ off alone is a mighty big step”. Continue reading Goin’ Someplace Special by Patricia C. McKissack→
Storyline: Darlings are the blessed kind. According to Grandma Darling, the Old Blue Chair that sat in the living room was a love soaker (we, on more everyday language, would call it a love chair): everybody that sat in it was touched by love and luck. And, as we can see from the first page of the book, there sat cats, dogs, Grandma Darling herself and her granddaughter, Paige Elizabeth Darling, who was visiting from time to time after school. Continue reading Bun Bun Button by Patricia Polacco→
Storyline: It seems that there isn’t much to say about this book – “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom”-, that all is self-explanatory, and yet, for those of us who didn’t got a chance to read it, or forgot about it, here is a summary.
Storyline: The kids are out on a school trip. Today, they are going to the Observatory on the Empire State building. The place is huge; from the ground you cannot see its end. The kids climb the stairs all the way up and the building is so tall that its tower is surrounded by clouds. Up at the top visibility is very low. It looks like the for is dense. As you go further, Continue reading Sector 7 by David Wiesner→
Storyline: Peter wakes up one morning to see that had snowed overnight. Peter is a little boy. He puts on his snowsuit and runs outside to play. He makes footprints on the snow, he knocks the snow from the trees and watch it falling, Continue reading The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats→
Storyline: This is a very emotional story about a special bond between a teacher, that has a change of heart, and a student who grows up to think of her as his own family.
Storyline: It was a peaceful night on the house of a rabbit family. The multiple kids were quietly playing on the floor where the toys, one more electronical then other, were laying all over. One child had a baby remote, another was speaking with a friend on its laptop, still some other bunnies were listening to iTunes or playing on their tablets. Continue reading Goodnight iPad by Ann Droyd→
Storyline: Chicken is looking at a wall where few framed pictures hang and is telling us the story about the time he used to live on a farm. It was an “old dump” says chicken. The farmer, Mr. Tanner, was a waist making machine. He littered the nature and didn’t care about anything else then himself and how to make his house bigger. Continue reading We Lift-Off by Sean Taylor→
Storyline: This is the story of a day dreamer bear that dares to imagine himself in the most exotic places, gathering treasures from all over the world. While he is resting against a hay stack, with his friend, mouse, at his side and a bottle of milk, surrounded by friendly farm animals, he recalls all the places he had traveled in search of precious treasures and unmatched adventures. Continue reading The Treasure Hunter by William Boniface→
Storyline: Agate, the moose, looks at his own image as reflected in the water at the edge of the lake. He doesn’t like what he sees. He thinks of himself as a “big brown mistake”, as a “Tinker Toy project gone wrong”. Continue reading Agate by Joy Morgan Dey→
Storyline: It is late fall and people are going about their business like usual, the postman delivering the mail, the farmer stacking wood, the policeman watching the streets, his wife cleaning the house. But the fall won’t last much longer. The winter is coming, everybody says it. Continue reading White Snow Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt→
Storyline: This is a story for kids that cannot sleep in their own bed…
By day, Hamilton SquidLegger, a creature of the swamp and forest, is a “do-er and a dream-come-truer.” But by night, when the sun disappears behind the “scrintelberry trees” and is time to go to bed, Hamilton gets scared. Because each noise in the swamp … Continue reading The Almost Fearless Hamilton SquidLegger by Timothy Basil Ering→
Storyline: It was a normal evening in a normal loud and busy city. Inside their apartments, people were doing their normal things. Our story’s family was no different. Dad was cooking dinner, mom was working on a computer, an older girl was talking on her phone while a younger one was unsuccessfully trying to get someone’s attention. And as they were going about this mundane businesses, suddenly the lights went out. Continue reading Blackout by John Rocco→
Storyline: A teaching tool with a very funny touch, this is a story about a dog and a cat trying to live in peace despite the differences between them. A good read for parents, too.
The Button family decides to have pets. One day they go shopping and Mrs. Button buys a smart looking black cat while Mr. Button comes home with a friendly dog. Continue reading Dog vs. Cat by Chris Gall→
Storyline: Our character lives in a city where nothing grows, where people are harsh and mean, and where everything is grey and nobody smiles. Her heart is shriveled and she lives by stealing from people like her, who have only as much as they need to survive. She is a thief crawling the dark streets in search of easy victims to prey. One night she sees an old woman with a big bag. Continue reading The Promise by Nicola Davies→
Premise: Old or young, a bear’s life is better in a pair.
Storyline: Little Cub is alone in a meadow. It looks like he has always been alone with no one to take care of him. But he doesn’t like the dark night. He doesn’t know how to catch fish so he is hungry and he is afraid to get honey as well. He wished he wasn’t alone. Deep in the forest, Continue reading Little Cub by Olivier Dunrea→
Storyline: Patch sets up to fulfill his dream of making a new dog food that everybody will love. This pursuit requires sacrifices and he is ready for them but what he doesn’t know is that he has to give up the most important things in his life. Ultimately, he has to choose: is it going to be his dream coming true or is it going to keep his happy life and all his loved ones? Continue reading It’s a Dog’s Life by Mark Stern→
Storyline: Dexter is a little dog, with a long body mounted on very small legs, like a sausage on four meatballs, as the author says. Even a cat is bigger than he is. Because of his size, he is overlooked by other dogs, laugh at and, sometimes, bullied, especially by the tomcat Cleevis. But despite his stature, Dex dreams to be a superhero.
Storyline: It was a hot summer day and the farmer was out, working on his land. He was an tall, old farmer, black boots, pants with suspenders, a large brim black hat and a long white beard. On the horizon, the circus train was just happening to pass by when something fell out. Continue reading The Farmer and the Clown by Marla Frazee→
Storyline: Ginger is an accomplished pianist and teacher, with a great love for clothes. Her fashion style is very sophisticated and she often says “you are what you wear”. She also has a pig pet, called Petunia, to whom she dedicates all her love and attention. One day, Ginger has to attend an out of town musical event, on a short notice. It is the first time that she must leave Petunia alone. Continue reading Ginger and Petunia by Patricia Polacco→
Storyline: This story comes from the village of Tos in Cameroon and it is narrated by a girl that left the place when she was almost a grown up. The village has, indeed, two kind of houses: square houses for men and round houses for women, and the girl tells us why. Continue reading The Village of Round and Square Houses by Ann Grifalconi→
Storyline: Tuesdays, Martha’s family used to have green beans for dinner. Martha, a girl about 5 years or older, didn’t like green beans and never ate them in spite the fact of being left alone at the table. She did not believe that green beans are good for you, as her mother said, or that they make you strong, as her father put it. Continue reading How Martha Saved Her Parents from Green Beans by David LaRochelle→
Storyline: Camilla Cream is a school age girl that loves lima beans and wants to please everybody. But she cannot admit to other kids that she likes the beans because nobody like them and she is afraid they might laugh at her. Also she cannot decide what to wear to school because she cannot find an outfit that may please everybody. Continue reading A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon→
Storyline: This is retold a legend of the Inlet People of Alaska and their legacy. It is said that, long ago, there lived some giant people on the shores of Cook Inlet. The weather was warm, the natives had flower, fruits, and wild animals roamed the forest. The Inlet people were living in harmony with the land, in peace and happiness. But soon, this will come to an end. Continue reading The Sleeping Lady, retold by Ann Dixon→
Storyline: One day, Sylvester Duncan, a donkey youngster, finds an unusual looking pebble, small and red, that he takes it to add it to his collection. While studying it, he discovers that the pebble has magic powers, precisely that it fulfills any wish as long as you hold it. Excited, he runs home to tell his parents. But on his way home, just about Strawberry Hill, he meets a hungry lion and because he panics and cannot think clear, he wishes he was a rock (so the lion won’t see him and eat him). And so, his wish comes true. Continue reading Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig→
Storyline: Roxaboxen is the name of a play town that some children built out of old wooden boxes, stones, pebbles and sticks. At first, Marian found some wooden boxes just across her street. Continue reading Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran→