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Great Illustrated Books
Blood on the River: James Town 1607
This captivating and gritty novel, narrated by Samuel Collier, one of the boys who came to Jamestown, will not just turn kids on to reading, but American history as well. In his clear-eyed, harrowing account of the first year of the Jamestown Settlement, eleven-year-old orphan Samuel accompa......Read More
Aboard the gargantuan airship, Aurora, riding high above the Pacificus, heading from Sydney to Lionsgate City, 15-year-old cabin boy, Matt Cruse, helps to rescue an unconscious man in a hot air balloon that is listing in the night sky. The sixty-year-old pilot, Benjamin Malloy, who had been atte......Read More
11 Birthdays
Amanda and Leo, born on the same day and in the same hospital, are about to turn 11. Until now, they have shared a birthday party every year, but this year will be different. At their tenth birthday party last year, Amanda overheard Leo making a disparaging remark to his buddies about her, and s......Read More
11 Experiments That Failed
11 Experiments That Failed | ReadKiddoRead.com Attention all wannabe scientists! Reading this book will spare you the time and effort it would take to test these 11 hypotheses. Each one of these experiments was such a spectacular and complete failure they need never be tried again. Besides, re......Read More
1-2-3: A Child's First Counting Book
Though I work in a bookstore, I discovered 1 2 3 when my brother gave it to my one-year-old daughter with the intention of helping her learn to count. At first glance I thought it was a nice counting book with beautiful illustrations. Once we read it a couple times, though, I began to notice d......Read More
A Black Hole is NOT a Hole
Children know that stars eventually die -- even our own sun will, someday. If the star is big enough -- WHOOOOOSH! CRASH! BOOM! -- it might turn into a black hole after it collapses. But what is a black hole? The book playfully explodes the misinformation that surrounds black holes, from the......Read More
A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever
A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever | ReadKiddoRead.com James and his friend Eamon spend a week at the beach with Eamon's grandparents, Bill and Pam, so the boys can attend nature camp together. Each day Bill drives them to camp where they seem underwhelmed by the activities. Since this s......Read More
A Drop Of Water
One day, when I was in third grade, I started to wonder about chalk. I wanted to know if a stick of chalk would melt in a sinkful of water. Unfortunately, I was in school at the time, and though I began my experiment in the bathroom adjacent to the classroom, I never got to complete it. My teach......Read More
A Sick Day For Amos McGee
Winner of the 2011 Caldecott Medal, this should be on every child's bookshelf. Amos McGee is a punctual man of routine who works at the zoo. Each day he wakes at the same time, puts on his uniform, has tea and oatmeal, and catches the bus to work. Once there, he looks forward......Read More
A Visitor for Bear
A Visitor for Bear | ReadKiddoRead.com Though the sign on his front door says "No Visitors Allowed," Bear hears a knock and opens the door only to find a mouse, "small and gray and bright-eyed." "Go away," Bear says firmly, but that little mouse keeps showing up everywhere: in the cupboard ("P......Read More
A Week in the Woods
You remember Frindle, of course, and fifth grader Nick Allen who invents a new word for the word "pen"? Natalie Nelson, a sixth grader who wants to get published in School Story? Greg Kenton writing and selling his own comics at school in Lunch Money? The war between fifth graders, boys versus g......Read More
A Wizard from the Start: The Incredible Boyhood and Amazing Inventions of Thomas Edison
A Wizard from the Start: The Incredible Boyhood and Amazing Inventions of Thomas Edison | ReadKiddoRead.com This brief picture book biography, filled with interesting anecdotes and quotes, hits the highlights of Edison's life, experimenting, tinkering, and reading. Growing up in Port Huron, Mi......Read More
ABC3D | ReadKiddoRead.com Here's a spectacular addition to your alphabet collection, a chunky little pop-up book with a graphically thrilling rendering of each letter of the alphabet. No A is for apple here; each letter is its own celebration. The first clue is the holographic cover; depending......Read More
Actual Size
Actual Size | ReadKiddoRead.com All of the eighteen animals and parts of animals are shown actual size in this spectacular oversized science picture book. Children can compare and contrast the smallest fish (dwarf goby, length: 1/3 inch) with the twelve-inch eye of the giant squid. They can ex......Read More
Adventures in Cartooning: How to Turn Your Doodles Into Comics
Adventures in Cartooning: How to Turn Your Doodles Into Comics | ReadKiddoRead.com "Uh-oh! Someone needs cartooning help," says the little green-clad Magic Cartooning Elf, showing up at the side of a young princess who is discouraged that she can't draw well enough to make a comic. He starts a......Read More
This little green dragon is a demon for books! Especially at bedtime, he just can't get enough of his favorite book. Like many tots, he asks to have it read again, and again, and again . . . The story about our dragon starts on the endpages. In a series of vignettes, he plays sword-fight, ha......Read More
Aggie Gets Lost (Aggie and Ben series)
Aggie Gets Lost (Aggie and Ben series) | ReadKiddoRead.com Reading is a walk in the park with Ben and Aggie! The trick with kids at the transitional reading stage is to offer them lots of books that hook them with appealing characters and engaging stories that they cannot wait to dig into......Read More
Al Capone Does My Shirts
In 1935, when Moose Flanagan's father gets a job as electrician and guard at Alcatraz prison, the family moves to the twelve-acre rock island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, joining the other families and kids who live there, not to mention the prisoners, including gangster Al Capone. Moose ......Read More
Alice-Miranda Takes the Stage
Alice-Miranda is a petite seven-year-old girl from a very wealthy family. She is the child who literally has everything, including a precocious intelligence and a determination to always do the right thing. She loves her parents, she loves her boarding school, she loves her friends (and they lov......Read More
All of This Is True
All of this Is True: A Novel By Lygia Day Peñaflor All of This is True joins the ranks of One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus and We Were Liars by E. Lockhart as a new brilliant psychological thriller. In this suspenseful book, author Lygia Day Peñaflo......Read More
All Shook Up
"Looking back, I would say everything in my life changed the summer I turned thirteen and my dad turned into Elvis." Isn't that a killer first sentence? Josh Greenwood is already what he calls a "shared kid," having spent the last eight years shuttling between his mother's place in B......Read More
Alphabeasties: And Other Amazing Types
Alphabeasties: And Other Amazing Types | ReadKiddoRead.com You've never seen an alphabet book like this before. A is for alligator, but the accompanying picture is composed of hundreds of uppercase and lowercase black A's. Each page contains an animal-bat, camel, dog, elephant- rendered entir......Read More
Alphasaurus and Other Prehistoric Types
Alphasaurus and Other Prehistoric Types | ReadKiddoRead.com The previous five Llama Llama bestselling and beloved picture books focused in tightly on the mother-toddler relationship, warmly and comically exploring feelings and universal experiences. Time to Share expands that world a little, a......Read More
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters | ReadKiddoRead.com Alvin Ho, middle child in a Chinese American family says, "I was born scared and I am still scared." He's afraid of the dark and of the great outdoors, where bad things like hurricanes, tornadoes, and mudsli......Read More
Amelia And Eleanor Go For A Ride
Amelia And Eleanor Go For A Ride | ReadKiddoRead.com On the night of April 20, 1933, the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, entertained her friend Amelia Earhart, the celebrated aviator, at a White House dinner party. Amelia described the mystery of flying at night, and then invited Eleanor to com......Read More
Amelia Bedelia
Amelia Bedelia | ReadKiddoRead.com Mr. and Mrs. Rogers can't be there for Amelia Bedelia's first day as their housekeeper, but leave her with a long list of things to do. Before setting to work, Amelia bakes her employers a lemon meringue pie--she makes good pies. Then she sets to work. "......Read More
Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart's disappearance continues to fascinate us nearly seventy-five years later because it remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of the 20th century. And Amelia herself continues to intrigue us because she was a woman so clearly ahead of her times. Candace Fleming alternates......Read More
And Then It's Spring
And Then It's Spring | ReadKiddoRead.com In Julie Fogliano's poetic text that flows from page to page as smoothly as the seasons move from one to the next, we see the brown of late winter/early spring slowly change to a"hopeful, very possible sort of brown." Yet the seeds one little boy has p......Read More
Angel in My Pocket
Writing with a genuine understanding of how kids feel, think and behave, and out of a belief that there are powers beyond our own that help us through difficult times, Ilene Cooper presents the story of four middle-school kids who are facing tough times. "Do you believe in angels?&rdqu......Read More
Anna and the French Kiss
This book follows the story of Anna, who is from Atlanta, Georgia. As Anna enters her senior year of high school, she is unexpectedly sent to a boarding school in Paris, France. Anna is less than thrilled to be leaving behind her best friend, her high school and a crush on a cute boy. But once s......Read More
Anna Hibiscus
Anna Hibiscus | ReadKiddoRead.com In this first of a series of four chapter books we meet the exuberant Anna as she goes about her life in "... Africa. Amazing Africa." While the city Anna lives in is never identified, the story is based on the Nigerian childhood of author and professional sto......Read More
Antsy Does Time
Ninth grader, Anthony "Antsy" Bonano, whom you may already know from his first venture, The Schwa Was Here, provides a teaser on the front flap about his latest escapade: "It was a dumb idea, but one of those dumb ideas that accidentally turns out to be brilliant-which, I've come to realize, is ......Read More
Anya's Ghost
Misfit teen Anya attends a private high school where the only people who really talk with her are tough-girl frenemy Siobhan and fellow Russian immigrant Dima, whom Anya deems too "fobbie" (fresh off the boat) to be her friend. She wants to be more American, especially more slender l......Read More
Are You A Horse?
Are You A Horse? | ReadKiddoRead.com Roy's friends give him a great big birthday present. "What's this thing?" he asks. It's a saddle. It comes with instructions: "1. Find a horse. 2. Enjoy the ride." Take a look at Roy. He's wearing a big cowboy hat, vest, cowboy boots, bandana, and a map of ......Read More
Art & Max
Art & Max | ReadKiddoRead.com Every time you think David Wiesner can't surpass his last award-winning picture book, he gobsmacks you anew with something astonishing. Meet Art and Max, two desert lizards who love to paint. Arthur, the establishment guy, is a slightly pompous brown horned li......Read More
Artemis Fowl-The Last Guardian
Dwarves and dwarf phlegm. Trolls and troll patties. Killer crickets. Coded fireflies. Centaurs. Fairies. An evil pixie. A few humans. Magic. Black magic. And gadgetry produced with profound intelligence and creativity. Mix these elements together in a war that threatens the whole human race. Eve......Read More
Alex is celebrating his first weekend home alone. At 16, he's glad to be free of parental hassles and his bratty younger sister. All is well until the unimaginable shatters his world and destroys life as Alex knows it. A volcano in Wyoming erupts, and the force of the eruption shoots a gia......Read More
Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity
Hakata Soy leaves his past as the leader of a superhero team to attend Astronaut Academy, a school on a space station orbiting Earth. He hopes to make a fresh start in life, but his heroic past keeps catching up with him. All he wants to do is study for his classes in Fire Throwing and Anti-Gr......Read More
At Gleason's Gym
At Gleason's Gym | ReadKiddoRead.com Follow nine-year-old boxing champ Sugar Boy Younan as he spends a Saturday in Brooklyn training with other athletes—kids and adults, male and female—in "the most famous boxing gym in the world." Combining a poetic descriptive text, gritty, reali......Read More
Atomic Ace (He's Just My Dad)
Atomic Ace (He's Just My Dad) | ReadKiddoRead.com Graphic novels are the in thing now. Here's an instantly appealing graphic picture book, in the classic style of the Captain Marvel or Superman comics some of us inhaled when we were growing up. Illustrated in glorious glossy ink and brush illu......Read More
Baby Mammoth Mummy: Frozen in Time: A Prehistoric Animal's Journey into the 21st Century
All those scientific investigation methods that we love seeing each week on CSI television programs are real. Scientists used them to uncover facts about a 42,000 year-old baby wooly mammoth. Yuri Khudi and his sons were out on the Siberian frozen tundra in their reindeer-pulled sled when t......Read More
Babymouse #1: Queen of the World! (Babymouse series)
Babymouse #1: Queen of the World! (Babymouse series) | ReadKiddoRead.com Babymouse: Queen of the World. Babymouse connives to gets herself invited to a sleepover at the house of her arch nemesis, a popular cat named Felicia Furrypaws, but ultimately realizes she far prefers to hang out with......Read More
Bad Kitty Gets a Bath (Bad Kitty series)
Bad Kitty Gets a Bath (Bad Kitty series) | ReadKiddoRead.com You think you have a problem pet that rules your roost? Get a load of this quintessential bad kitty, a sleek, black, rowdy ruffian who is none too happy about getting a bath. OK, that's an understatement. Usually, Kitty licks hersel......Read More
Ballerina Dreams
Ballerina Dreams | ReadKiddoRead.com When you first pick up this pink book with the three little girl ballerinas on the cover, you think this will be a book your little girls will love, and that's true. But the very young dancers—Nicole, Shekinah, Veronica, Abbey, and Monica—are no......Read More
Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade
Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade | ReadKiddoRead.com More than forty million (!) people worldwide watch the Macy's Parade each year, enchanted by the huge balloons that travel through New York City's canyons, nodding, smiling, and engaging the audience. ......Read More
How much emotion can you invest in the word "banana"? A lot. In this nearly wordless book, a googly-eyed, ropy-tailed, ebullient brown monkey in a red and white striped shirt pursues a monkey in a blue and white shirt, who is tossing a banana in the air. "Banana!" the first monkey shouts, while ......Read More
Bark, George
Bark, George | ReadKiddoRead.com "George's mother said: 'Bark, George.' George went: 'Meow.' 'No, George,' said George's mother. 'Cats go meow. Dogs go arf. Now, bark, George.' George went: 'Quack-quack.'" Every time the floppy-eared brown dog tries to bark, he meows, quacks, ......Read More
Bartholomew and the Oobleck
Bartholomew and the Oobleck | ReadKiddoRead.com King Derwin of the Kingdom of Didd gets angry a lot. The year he started grumbling at the sky, though, his page Bartholomew Cubbins just didn't know what to make of it. He growled at the spring's rain, the summer's sunshine, the autumn's fog, and......Read More
Bats at the Library
Bats at the Library | ReadKiddoRead.com The same bats that cavorted in Bats at the Beach are back for another nocturnal adventure on an otherwise dull night. "We've feasted, fluttered, swooped, and soared, / And yet, we're still a little bored." So when "word spreads quickly from afar" that a ......Read More
Battle Bunny
In this hilarious send-up of over-sweetened, "fuzzy wuzzy" children's books, mayhem and side-splitting chaos rule the day. Imagine your 7-year-old taking a pencil and creatively "editing" a children's book about a cutesy, woodland rabbit's birthday surprise party, and you have the premise for Sc......Read More
Before I Let Go
Marieke Nijkamp, bestselling author of This is Where it Ends, once again brings a powerful story of heartbreak and survival in Before I Let Go. Corey and Kyra are best friends in a small isolated town called Lost in Alaska. Like the name implies, the few hundred residents of Lost are separated f......Read More
Behind the Gates (Tomorrow Girls series)
This first book in the Tomorrow Girls series is the perfect book for a summer camping trip! Although it is set in a futuristic world in the middle of a war, much of the content has more of an old-fashioned feel. Best friends Louisa and Maddie are sent off to a boarding school where they will be ......Read More
Ben Franklin's Almanac: Being a True Account of the Good Gentleman's Life
What the author describes as a scrapbook is a handsome and mesmerizing collection of biographical and often humorous anecdotes, "bits and pieces" arranged within a broader subject, starting with "Boyhood Memories," and covering all aspects of Franklin's life and career, from scientist to statesm......Read More
Best Shot in the West: The Adventures of Nat Love
In this graphic novel, the mild-mannered train porter who wrangles a stampeding horse before it stomps on a child is none other than Nat Love, aka Deadwood Dick. An old friend who witnesses the rescue encourages Love, once widely known as a crack shot, roper, and bronco buster, to write up his O......Read More
Better Nate Than Ever
At home in a small town outside of Pittsburgh, PA, Nate Foster, 13, feels like a fish that flopped out of the Monongahela River and is gasping for air to survive. He is decidedly unsure about his own sexual orientation, but the jerks at school have decided he's gay and pummel him with &ldq......Read More
Big Nate: In a Class by Himself (Big Nate series)
Often compared with Jeff Kinney'sDiary of a Wimpy Kid (http://www.readkiddoread.com/book/121) for its ability to make kids fall off the bed in hysterics, this series delivers its own fresh dose of cringe-worthy comics and comedy. Nate Wright may look like an average sixth grader, and he ad......Read More
Billy and Milly, Short and Silly!
Billy and Milly, Short and Silly! | ReadKiddoRead.com Fourteen two- and three-page short stories amaze and amuse in this easier-than-easy reader. In fact, each story is no longer than four rhyming words. How can you tell a story in three or four words? With pictures. "Stoops," it says on one p......Read More
Bink & Gollie: Two for One
Bink & Gollie: Two for One | ReadKiddoRead.com In this amply-illustrated easy reader, Bink and Gollie go to the State Fair, have some fiascos and learn their future from a fortune-teller: they will always be friends. That is all they need! The book's three short chapters feature bri......Read More
Binky to the Rescue (A Binky Adventure)
Binky to the Rescue (A Binky Adventure) | ReadKiddoRead.com Kids may have met Binky earlier in Binky in Space, when this tubby hind-leg walking black and white kitty built a rocket ship in his litter box. Now,.he's an official certified space cat, and his relentless pursuit of aliens (wasps) ......Read More
Blackout | ReadKiddoRead.com In this plugged-in world we live in, can you imagine the panic one family feels when the lights go out in the city one hot summer night? Well-known author and illustrator John Rocco was inspired to write this book after the widespread blackout in New York City in 2......Read More
Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems
First there was the uproariously kinetic book, Technically It's Not My Fault: Concrete Poems narrated by Robert, who, in 28 concrete or shape poems, spends a fair amount of time complaining about his annoying big sister, Jessie. Now it's Jessie's turn to snipe. She's in ninth grade, so she has l......Read More
Bobs and Tweets Vol 2: Perfecto Pet Show
Bobs and Tweets Vol #2: Perfecto Pet Show Review by Lawrence N. Caldwell. Having read and reviewed the first volume of Meet the Bobs and Tweets for this site I was eager to get my hands on the 2nd volume and continue the kooky adventures of these mismatched neighbors. As a quic......Read More
Bon Appetit! The Delicious Life of Julia Child
Bon Appetit! The Delicious Life of Julia Child | ReadKiddoRead.com Julia Child affirmed living life outside the box preaching to the readers of her ten cookbooks and the millions of viewers of her television show to find and be true to their own passions. She was a strong believer in following......Read More
Bones Rock!: Everything You Need to Know to Be a Paleontologist
Peter Lawson, the paleontologist who found and dug up Sue, the biggest Tyrannosaurus rex ever, reveals his down-in-the-dirt trade secrets about finding, excavating, preparing, and studying dinosaur fossils. For dinomaniacs, this is a gorgeously laid out hands-on manual, packed with color photos ......Read More
Boxers & Saints
At the end of the 19th Century, Chinese peasants outraged at their country being overtaken by European merchants and missionaries formed a people's army intent on throwing out the "foreign devils." They practiced kung fu, which the Europeans mistook for a kind of hand-to- hand comb......Read More
Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman
Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman | ReadKiddoRead.com With balloon dialogue and classic retro comic book style illustrations, heavy on the yellow, this picture book biography looks like an old time true confessions story. During the Great Depression, in 1930, two nebbishy guys, Jerry Sie......Read More
In this novel based on Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen, the real magic is in how Anne Ursu shapes a distant classic winter favorite into a beautiful, thought-provoking contemporary tale, while enhancing the richness of the message, imagery, and characters. The book asks readers......Read More
Brown Girl Dreaming
BROWN GIRL DREAMING is the winner of the 2014 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, the 2015 Coretta Scott King Book Award, and received the 2015 Newbery Honor. It is a truly incredible, and in my opinion, essential read for ages 10 and up. In her memoir, Jacq......Read More
Bud, Not Buddy
Ten-year-old Bud Caldwell awakens, that first night in his new foster home, feeling like something is stuck in his nose. Opening his eyes, he sees Todd Amos, the bullying son of his latest set of foster parents, holding a #2 Ticonderoga pencil and exclaiming, "I've never gotten it in as deep as ......Read More
Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery
The book begins with a letter signed by Harold X, a very articulate dog who wishes the story of his family to be heard. The X family, aka the Monroes, have two boys, Toby and Peter, and live with Chester, a cat and of course the narrator, Harold the dog. And then there's an addition to the ......Read More
Buster Goes to Cowboy Camp
Buster Goes to Cowboy Camp | ReadKiddoRead.com I love Denise Fleming's paper pulp-illustrated picture books in general, but this one left me howling, it's that cute. You may already be acquainted with Buster, a soulful reddish-brown dog with black-tipped paws, ears and nose, from his eponymous......Read More
Can I See Your I.D.?: True Stories of False Identities
Who hasn't imagined being someone else? For most of us, assuming a new identity remains the stuff of daydreams, but in Can I See Your I.D.? Chris Barton profiles ten people who successfully lived their lives as imposters. Some assumed false identities for criminal purposes; others for self-prese......Read More
Fergal Banfield's reputation for being clever weighs heavily on him. It makes him want to hide from the world. The boy looks like an eccentric genius, with his untamable hair sticking up in clumps, and glasses that make his eyes look big. And then one day, at the market with his mum, Fergal pick......Read More
Captain Raptor and the Space Pirates
Captain Raptor and the Space Pirates | ReadKiddoRead.com The dinosaur citizens of Jurassica are in a panic when a mob of misshapen mutants and reptilian cyborgs from the pirate ship Blackrot rampages through the Imperial Palace, making off with the famous Jewels of Jurassica. The President cal......Read More
Capture the Flag
Three kids, strangers to each other, are stranded in the Washington, D.C. airport.A monster blizzard cancels flight after flight and makes it impossible to enter or leave the area. Anna, a seventh grader, is a relentlessly-aspiring journalist.She is after every interview and scoop she can fi......Read More
Cartboy and the Time Capsule
There is barely a mom alive today who is not part of something called "book club."For reasons my brain can't begin to process, once a month they all get together at someone's house to discuss a book they have read for fun.Not because they had to read the book, but because......Read More
Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888
In Christopher Bing's brilliant, Caldecott Honor-winning interpretation of Thayer's classic 1888 narrative poem, we are astonished, amazed, and awestruck at his multilayered, wondrous scrapbook, set up like an old 1888 newspaper. Baseball lovers of all ages will spend hours poring over the ticke......Read More
Cat the Cat, Who Is That? (Cat the Cat series )
With his new "Cat the Cat" emergent reader series, the versatile Mo Willems tackles the easiest of the easies. The first four books range from a total of just 18 to 31 words, proving that you can indeed do more with less sometimes. More laughing, that is. Cat the Cat, the lead animal, a light br......Read More
Cats of Tanglewood Forest
"When it comes to spirits, it's best not to draw their attention. Elsewise you never know what you might be calling down on yourself." So Aunt advises. But Lillian longs to see fairies and other magical beings, and when she needs help, Lillian appears to have no choice and sets......Read More
By Ursula Leguin | ReadKiddoRead.com "Mrs. Jane Tabby could not explain why all four of her children had wings." So starts the first of four magical little books about cat siblings Thelma, Roger, James, and Harriet. The four live with their mother in a terrible neighborhood, filled with rubbis......Read More
Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Extra Credit
Charlie Joe Jackson is back with more wisdom to share with middle-schoolers. As before, every bit of his advice is hard-won. Readers know they can trust Charlie; he's been there, done that. Early in the novel, we learn just why Charlie's such an expert on "extra credit.&r......Read More
Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading
Tommy Greenwald's new book Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to NOT Reading is a perfect book for the non-reader or reluctant reader in your life. Charlie Joe has made it all the way to Middle School without ever, EVER, reading a book cover to cover. It hasn't been easy, but he came ......Read More
Charlotte's Web
"Where's Papa going with that ax?" eight-year-old Fern Arable asks her mother at breakfast, and from that first line, we're pulled right into a masterfully told story filled with compassion, humor, and heart. Yes, Fern saves the runt of the litter, but it's not just a story about a girl and her ......Read More
Chato and the Party Animals
Chato and the Party Animals | ReadKiddoRead.com Party animal Chato, the coolest cat in el barrio, is having a great time at the neighborhood birthday party that the mice next door are throwing for Chorizo the dog. They play shake-paws, jiggle-the-mice, and toss-the-cat-in-the-blanket. Chato's ......Read More
Chicken Cheeks
Chicken Cheeks | ReadKiddoRead.com The front flap says, "This is a story with a beginning, a middle, and a whole lot of ends." The back cover says, "The end is rear." In between is a story told in pictures, about a bear that stacks an array of animals atop his head to reach the top of a tree.......Read More
Children Make Terrible Pets
Children Make Terrible Pets | ReadKiddoRead.com In this laugh-out-loud twist on the perils of pet ownership, Lucy the Bear happens upon a little boy hiding behind a bush while she's busy "practicing her twirls" in the woods one day. Lucy quickly sees "the cutest critter in the WHOLE forest!", ......Read More
An action-packed tale, plenty of hilarious situations, some fun and interesting animal facts, a bit of social commentary, and well-drawn, realistic characters add up to make this one wild adventure that kids and adults alike won't want to miss! Meet the Cray family of Florida: Wahoo Cr......Read More
Chuck Close: Face Book
This is an inspiring, interactive profile of the artist -- playful and jam-packed with information in text and images with an added perk: a brilliant insert of "mix 'n match" self-portraits. The book is based on an interview fifth-grade students did with the artist. An introduc......Read More
City of Dogs
On Sam's birthday, the one he thinks will be the worst ever, his Aunty Dot brings to the house a small white dog she has just hit with her car. The dog, which Sam names Jenny, has no obvious injuries, though in her mouth, she is holding a sprig of mistletoe carved like a dart. What Sam does not ......Read More
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type | ReadKiddoRead.com "Farmer Brown has a problem. His cows love to type. All day long he hears Click, clack, moo. Click, clack, moo. Clickety, clack, moo." Have you ever read a more absurd and hilarious first page of a picture book? The black-......Read More
"Who wants a ride," asks Mr. Horse. Upon his back jump a black and white cat, a yellow dog, a little pink pig, and a white goose. Clippity-clop, off they go. "Can you go a little faster, Mr. Horse?" they beg. "Hold on tight!" he tells them. They go faster and faster, but they don't hold on tight......Read More
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs | ReadKiddoRead.com After flipping a pancake atop Henry's head, Grandpa spurred to tell his grandkids a story about the town of Chewandswallow. "The only thing that was really different about Chewandswallow was its weather. It came three times a day, at breakf......Read More
Code: A Virals Novel
Code is a suspenseful page-turner, a mystery, an insight into relationships, a series of intellectually challenging puzzles based on science, and random thumbnail explanations of things like how to balance a chemical equation. Most of all, this book tells of the harrowing, life-or-death struggle......Read More
Confessions of a Murder Suspect
When sirens blare outside of her upscale New York City high rise, fifteen-year-old Tandy Angel believes it is just the sounds of the city … That is, until two police detectives show up at her door, demanding entry into the apartment she shares with her family. The home quickly turns into ......Read More
Coraline has just moved with her parents to a flat in a big old house where the other tenants are eccentric and odd. Behind the big, brown, carved wooden door at the far corner of the drawing room is a wall of bricks. At night, she dreams of black shadows that gather together under the moon. The......Read More
Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa
Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa | ReadKiddoRead.com Red-ponytailed Cowgirl Kate and her chocolate-colored talking horse Cocoa are the best of buds. In four cheerful, easy-to-read chapters, Kate tells Cocoa the story of how she found him, gives him a surprise in a box, counts cows with him, and sleeps ......Read More
Dark Lord: The Early Years
"He looked into [the mirror] and saw the face of a brown-haired, unremarkable, somewhat tubby human child of about twelve years of age. He couldn't bear the sight – where were his majestic horns, great canine fangs, and bony skull ridges? If you asked him what the worst p......Read More
Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Seraphim and chimera, love and war, humans and beasts come together in this brilliantly-written fantasy intricately woven by Laini Taylor. Karou is a young art student living in Prague, but readers will quickly recognize – from her bright blue hair and fantastic artistic ability &ndash......Read More
D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths
Peer into just one chapter of this oversized collection of Greek myth character stories and you'll see why it's been such a favorite classic for fifty years. Husband and wife team Edgar and Ingri d'Aulaire disintegrate the often stuffy format that's concealed some of the best stories ever told&m......Read More
Dave at Night
After his adored father dies falling off a roof in 1926 and no one else in the family is able or willing to take him in, eleven-year-old troublemaker Dave is sent to the Hebrew Home for Boys in Harlem, New York. At the HHB, nicknamed the Hellhole for Brats, Dave is accepted by the other Elevens,......Read More
Dead End in Norvelt
"Write what you know" is a maxim of the author's trade so perhaps it was only a matter of time before Gantos, who has previously written the "Jack Henry" books based on his childhood diaries, would drop the pretense altogether and name a protagonist for perhaps the ......Read More
Dear Hot Dog: Poems about Everyday Stuff
The things that we don't normally celebrate – in fact, the things we hardly even notice – are center stage in this book of poems that takes us through the day, following a bunch of active, thoughtful, welcoming kids. The subjects of the poems range from the lowly toothbrush and a pa......Read More
Dear Zoo: A Lift-the-Flap Book
You'll have a basket of fun with this interactive lift-the-flap board book which will get your babies and toddlers joining right in. It starts, "I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet. They sent me an . . ." On the right hand page, there's a yellow box marked "VERY HEAVY!" Pull down on the little t......Read More
Death Cloud (Young Sherlock Holmes series)
For youthful readers with a taste for that grand master of sleuthing Sherlock Holmes, here is a treat --- a clever imagining of what life might have been like for the young fictional sleuth. About to begin his summer vacation from boarding school, the fourteen-year-old Sherlock learns that due t......Read More
Delicious: The Art and Life of Wayne Thiebaud
This innovative and enticing biography introduces 20th century painter Wayne Thiebaud, famed for painting ordinary objects like cakes, slices of pie, ice cream cones, rows of shoes, and pinball machines. Color runs riot in this compact little book that reminds you of a box of candy. Each smooth-text......Read More
Detective LaRue: Letters from the Investigation (Ike LaRue series)
Detective LaRue: Letters from the Investigation (Ike LaRue series) | ReadKiddoRead.com We first met hypochondriac, serial exaggerator, and kvetcher, Ike LaRue, Mrs. LaRue's melodramatic black and white terrier, when he was "imprisoned" at the posh Igor Brotweiler Canine Academy, where he had b......Read More
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Wimpy Kid series)
The surprise hit of the year, this easy-to-read first person expose of middle school life told by sixth grader Greg Heffley through cartoons and hand-written journal entries has sold more than a million copies. It's throw-yourself-on-the-floor-and-roll-around-howling hilarious, and boys, especia......Read More
Diary of a Worm
Diary of a Worm | ReadKiddoRead.com Doreen Cronin, who gave us the incomparable Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type, here introduces an otherwise disparaged creature for whom you'll gain great respect and affection, a brown earthworm. Start with the endpapers, a scrapbook of captioned photos like ......Read More
Dinosaur vs. Bedtime
Dinosaur vs. Bedtime | ReadKiddoRead.com "ROAR! I'M A DINOSAUR. ROAR! NOTHING CAN STOP ME!" says a pointy white-toothed red dinosaur as he leaps into a pile of leaves. "DINOSAUR WINS!" he exclaims, triumphantly. He takes a bow and keeps on roaring. With Dinosaur versus a big slide, a bowl of s......Read More
Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow?
Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? | ReadKiddoRead.com What fun! Sit down with a four-year-old, a kindergartener, a first grader, and "do" this book together. On the left-hand page of each spread, you'll find a living being and the start of a question: "If a calf grows and becomes a cow…......Read More
Dodger is a 17-year-old street urchin in Victorian London, a "tosher" who makes his living by scrounging in the mire and muck of the sewers below the city and pawning any lost and discarded treasures for a day's wages. His work brings him into contact with many in the London un......Read More
Dog and Bear: Two Friends, Three Stories
Dog and Bear: Two Friends, Three Stories | ReadKiddoRead.com Dog, a little brown dachshund, and his best friend Bear, a multicolored stuffed teddy, have three little adventures together. Bear is scared to jump down from a tall chair until Dog coaches him to slide down his long back; Dog wants ......Read More
Dog in Boots
Dog in Boots | ReadKiddoRead.com And the children laughed. And laughed and laughed. Every page of this silly, funny book keeps readers and listeners asking just how much more ridiculous this story can get. The answer is: totally ridiculous. It stays ridiculous all the way to the totally satisf......Read More
My own synopsis of the whole story, in haiku? Little Rat Sets Sail . When Little Rat's parents sign her up for sailing lessons, she's afraid of everything: running down the hill, being out in the middle of the water in a floating bathtub, jumping in the water, and clipping on the jib, the s......Read More
Dogs Rule!
Dogs Rule! | ReadKiddoRead.com Dog lovers will have a blast with this large, personable book of 22 meaty dog-narrated poems, all accompanied by soulful paintings of the notable pooches. Every aspect of dogdom is covered here; titles include: "In My Doghouse," "Pet Me," "Lapdog," "Chowhound," "......Read More
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! | ReadKiddoRead.com People look at this Caldecott Honor winner and scratch their heads. The story seems so elemental—a big-eyed light blue pigeon tries to persuade readers to let him drive the bus, even though the bus driver has warned us not to. When.......Read More
Down the Colorado: John Wesley Powell, the One-Armed Explorer
In 1841, seven-year-old Wes Powell was taunted, beaten, and stoned by classmates angry at his father, Reverend Powell's, abolitionist sermons. Wes left school and was tutored by a neighbor, a self-taught naturalist who believed in learning through observation and firsthand experience. Unnerved b......Read More
Dragonbreath: Curse of the Were-wiener (Dragonbreath series)
Dragonbreath: Curse of the Were-wiener (Dragonbreath series) | ReadKiddoRead.com Third and maybe wackiest in the Dragonbreath series so far, this hybrid novelette starts with Danny Dragonbreath, in the middle of a scary dream lit by a full moon, where he has a premonition that there is somethi......Read More
Drawing Comics is Easy! (Except When It's Hard)
"Art is a thing that everybody does different. Nobody's drawing is better than someone else." That's what the author/illustrator states in her remarkable and instructive first book, though you may soon conclude that her drawings are way better than your own. Mind you, the author was only 8 when ......Read More
Duck! Rabbit!
Duck! Rabbit! | ReadKiddoRead.com Look at the white animal head on the striking blue cover, outlined in a heavy black line. Quick--what is it? Is it a duck? Look on the left. It must be a duck; it's saying, "Quack." But, wait. Now look to the right. See the nose sniffing, just like a rabbit w......Read More
Earwig and the Witch
Earwig was left in a basket on the doorstep of St Morwald's Home for Children with a note suggesting she had been left there by a witch. Choosing to ignore the note, the headmistress renames the baby Erica Wigg and treats her like all the other children. Earwig is happy at St Morwald's , and ......Read More
Eleanor & Park
In this convincing chronicle of first love set in Omaha, Nebraska in 1986, Rainbow Rowell introduces the reader to two high school students, Eleanor and Park. Eleanor is an outsider. She's the new girl in town: redhead, tall, complex, and abundantly sarcastic; Park is the unwitting, low-ke......Read More
Eleanor & Park
If you do not reach for some tissues while reading Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, then you must not believe in first loves. This beautifully written and heart-wrenching story transported me to 1986 Omaha, Nebraska, and made me feel as if I were experiencing the hardships these two misfits......Read More
Ella Enchanted
What's the real scoop on Cinderella? In her very first children's book, author Gail Carson Levine blows us away with an innovative, insightful, and riveting novel told by Ella, no shrinking violet or uncomplaining doormat to her new step-family. Cursed at birth by the interfering fairy Lucinda's......Read More
Encyclopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs: The Definitive Pop-Up
Encyclopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs: The Definitive Pop-Up | ReadKiddoRead.com Here's the cocoa table book of the year, a treasured present for all your dinosaur-obsessed friends and relatives, ages 3 to 300, who will be bowled over and enraptured by Sabuda and Reinhart's latest feat of paper ......Read More
Epossumondas (Epossumondas series)
Epossumondas (Epossumondas series) | ReadKiddoRead.com Storyteller and children's literature professor, Coleen Salley, who died in 2008, refashioned the noodlehead folktale, "Epaminondas," to reflect her New Orleans background, using a profusion of local animals including an alligator, a racco......Read More
Eragon (Inheritance Cycle series)
The story behind the story is one that really grabs kids: a fifteen-year-old boy from Montana, born in 1983 and home-schooled all his life, loves to read books about magic and dragons, spurred by reading Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville. He starts to write his own book about a fi......Read More
Eruption!: Volcanoes and the Science of Saving Lives
The title and the cover say it all. Eruption! How do populated cities and towns, farms, animals, and people survive an eruption of a volcano? Is it possible to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people that live in the shadows of active volcanoes? If a volcano has been dormant for hundreds o......Read More
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library
Kyle Keeley isn't much of a reader. He's more into games. Board games, video games, you name it. Especially the brilliant world of Luigi Lemoncello's Imagination Factory, which continuously puts out the best games ever. So when the town of Alexandriaville announces it will......Read More
Esperanza Rising
Born into a prosperous ranching family in Mexico, Esperanza lives a life of privilege and plenty with her parents and her grandmother, Abuelita, until the eve of her fourteenth birthday in 1930, when her adored Papa is murdered by bandits. Esperanza's mother is now faced with the prospect of bei......Read More
Etiquette & Espionage
"No one said learning etiquette and espionage would be easy, my dear." So Sophronia Angelina Temminnick learns when she is covertly recruited for Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality in this madcap steampunk-mystery-paranormal mash-up set in Vi......Read More
Eve and Adam
What would it be like to create your perfect mate? What if you were a fifteen year old, who had that opportunity and the smarts to do it? Really, who is not fascinated by the technology that could create new life and the chance to do it? This is the exciting and topical premise for the first......Read More
Every Thing On It
Every Thing On It | ReadKiddoRead.com The beloved creator of Where the Sidewalk Ends lives on in a new collection of never-before-published poems. Shel Silverstein was aware that his legacy was his poetry. Appropriately, this collection of posthumously published poems – 145 in all &......Read More
Everything for a Dog
"My tale begins with a tail," begins Bone, a stray dog, in his first-person (first-dog?) narrative, recollecting his earliest memory. Starting at the age of 12 days, when he and his timid sister, Squirrel, first opened their eyes and became aware of their surroundings, he describes their mother ......Read More
Everything I Never Told You
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng follows a Chinese-American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. The Lees project the image of a perfect, happy family. Marilyn and James Lee have placed all of their hopes and personal aspirations on the shoulders of their middle child, Lydia. But the......Read More
Extra Yarn
Extra Yarn | ReadKiddoRead.com Annabelle lives in a cold, colorless town where everything is covered with snow and soot. One day, she stumbles upon a small box of colorful yarn, and she decides to knit herself a sweater. When she's finished, she finds she has extra yarn and decides to knit one......Read More
Finn Throws a Fit
Look at the cover with that woebegone, discontented toddler. If ever there was a book to show to kids with the simple question, "What do you think this story is about?" this is it. It begins, "Finn likes peaches. Usually." Look at the sweet little toddler on the first page, sitting there in his ......Read More
javascript:void(0); "It wasn't much, really, the whole Jessica Feeney thing. If you look at it, nothing much happened. She was a girl who came into my class after the beginning of the year and was only there for a couple of weeks or so. Stuff did get a little crazy for a while, but it didn't las......Read More
First to Fly: How Wilbur and Orville Wright Invented the Airplane
Arguably the finest of the many books published for children in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight on December 17, 1903, this scrapbook has it all: good looks; a meaty, quote-filled text that reads like a dream; scientific explanations children will inhale ......Read More
Fitz - A Father. a Son. and a Gun.
A sixteen year-old boy lives with his single mom. He is so desperate to meet his biological dad that he devises a plan to kidnap his dad at gunpoint. Fitz really wants to meet his father. Just how badly does he want to meet this man -- a total stranger? So badly that he stalks his father to learn h......Read More
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
"One fell off and bumped his head. The Mama called the doctor. The doctor said, No more monkeys jumping on the bed." Originally published as a picture book in 1989, this classic rhyming bedtime story about five ebullient monkey siblings now comes in many formats: an easy read-along paperback wit......Read More
Bryce Loski describes how he has scrambled, ever since second grade when his family moved to the neighborhood, to avoid all contact with his pesty, oddball neighbor, Julianna Baker; while Juli recalls the past six years of being smitten with and pursuing blue-eyed Bryce, hoping he would kiss her......Read More
FLORA & ULYSSES: The Illuminated Adventures
Holy bagumba! As Flora is looking out her window, she sees an out-of-control vacuum cleaner in the yard next door suck up a squirrel. Leaving behind the comic book she's been reading, Flora rushes to save him. After successfully administering CPR (something she learned from reading the TER......Read More
Noah's idealistic dad is spending Father's Day in a holding cell in their little Florida Keys town and he doesn't want to get bailed out just yet. Dad admits he went a little overboard this time, though he's not at all sorry he sank Dusty Muleman's 73-foot gambling boat, the Coral Queen. He know......Read More
Food for Thought: The Complete Book of Concepts for Growing Minds
Food for Thought: The Complete Book of Concepts for Growing Minds | ReadKiddoRead.com You'll drool over the sharp color photos, taken of a cornucopia of real fruits and vegetables, carved, posed, or assembled to look like animals and objects. The food creatures, made from bananas, peppers, che......Read More
Fortunately, the Milk
Did you know that sometimes, the strangest things can happen just by stepping outside your own house to pick up some milk? In "Fortunately, the Milk," the latest offering from the ever-fertile mind of Newbery Award-winning author Neil Gaiman (TheGraveyard Book), the consequences of l......Read More
Fractions = Trouble!
Numerator, denominator – What is that teacher talking about? Wilson has no idea and would much rather be drawing pictures of Pip his pet hamster or thinking about his project for the science fair coming up in three weeks. Yikes! That's the same day as the big math test. In thi......Read More
Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom
Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom | ReadKiddoRead.com Franklin Lorenzo Piccolini, more commonly known as Frankie Pickle, is a kid with a rich fantasy life. Black and white graphic novel panels of Frankie as an adventurer in the belly of the jungle, in prison, and as the caped superhero, Wo......Read More
Friends with Boys
A girl haunted by her mother's abandonment and saddled with a ghost must navigate her first days of high school. In this moody, atmospheric graphic novel, she gets unexpected help putting her anxieties to rest. Maggie won't admit that she is nervous about attending high school fo......Read More
Friends: True Stories of Extraordinary Animal Friendships
Friends: True Stories of Extraordinary Animal Friendships | ReadKiddoRead.com Talk about "odd couples!" Who would imagine a friendship between a baby macaque and a pigeon? A lion cub and a piglet? A polar bear (all 1200 pounds of him) and an Eskimo sled dog? In zoos, wildlife refuges, and ......Read More
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
"Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away . . . Therefore, she decided that her leaving home would not be just running from somewhere but would be running to somewhere. To a large place, a comfortable place, an indoor place, and preferably a beautif......Read More
Front Desk
2018 was a banner year for fiction with Asian and Asian-American representation. From To All the Boys I've Loved Before becoming a crossover best-seller and streaming hit to Crazy Rich Asians breaking box office records worldwide, there is no shortage of great contributions to this emerging genr......Read More
Get the Scoop on Animal Poop: From Lions to Tapeworms, 251 Cool Facts About Scat, Frass, Dung and More!
There comes a time in every kid's life when poop becomes an object of fascination, and this entertaining and informative introduction to coprology, the study of feces, is sure to satisfy every imaginable scatological curiosity. Ever wonder why rabbits, hamsters, pigs, and gorillas eat thei......Read More
Get Well, Good Knight
Get Well, Good Knight | ReadKiddoRead.com In a dark cave in a dense forest in a faraway kingdom, three little dragons are in their beds, not feeling well. "Methinks I heard a sneeze," declares the Good Knight, out on his daily ride, and gallops through the forest to attend to their fevered sni......Read More
I always look forward to Telgemeier's work. She has been an incredibly bright addition to the growing middle-grade and young adult graphic novel landscape. Before I get into the plot and the writing itself, I will remark that Telgemeier's cartooning style has progressively gotten better thro......Read More
Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator (Gilda Joyce series)
Thirteen-year-old Gilda Joyce has been interested in surveillance ever since reading Harriet the Spy back in elementary school. One of her plans for her boring summer vacation is to continue spying on Plaid Pants, AKA Hector Flack, who works at the convenience store and whom Gilda thinks could b......Read More
Gilgamesh the Hero
Wow! WHAT a heart-thumping adventure I had the day I read this spectacular collection of twelve adventures of Gilgamesh. Based on seventh century B.C. Assyrian clay tablets that recorded the legend of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk in Mesopotamia (now Iraq) sometime between 3200 B.C. and 2700 B.C, this......Read More
Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella
Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella | ReadKiddoRead.com Taking bits and pieces of plot and descriptions from 17 different versions of the Cinderella story worldwide, Newbery Medal winner Paul Fleischman (Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices; HarperCollins, 1988) offers up a compos......Read More
Glory Be
Every summer, Glorianna June Hemphill (Glory) celebrates her Fourth of July birthday at the community pool, and she expects this summer to be no different. But it's the summer of 1964 in Hanging Moss, Mississippi, and change is coming. To Glory's dismay, the pool is closed "f......Read More
Go, Go America
Go, Go America | ReadKiddoRead.com On the first page, there is an announcement, in a dialogue balloon, from Fran, the youngest member of the Farley family: "May I have your attention, please?" Yes, Fran? Oh, she wants us to read the sign she is holding. It says, "WARNING: Many of the facts in ......Read More
Gone Fishing: Ocean Life by the Numbers
Gone Fishing: Ocean Life by the Numbers | ReadKiddoRead.com As a companion to his Caldecott Honor winner, Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet , which was illustrated in red, black, and white, McLiman's ocean counting book uses a deep blue hue. He uses pencil, brush, India ink, and compute......Read More
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village
Baltimore school librarian, storyteller, and playwright Laura Amy Schlitz has a passion for history. When her fifth grade students were studying the Middle Ages, she set to writing 17 short monologues to stage so each child could have a decent part to memorize. It evolved into this powerful 2008 New......Read More
Goodbye Stranger
I wish I had nicer things to say about Goodbye Stranger, a middle-grade and up novel by Rebecca Stead. It is a thoroughly well-written novel, but does not have the clarity of focus of the rest of her work. Ultimately a narrative device plummets this once hopeful read into a bit of a mess; howeve......Read More
Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site
Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site | ReadKiddoRead.com A welcome addition to the wide array of bedtime books, Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site is sure to charm young children with its tale of what happens when the sun goes down on a construction site. Little ones who play as hard ......Read More
Just right for little hands is a winsome series about gosling friends, with spare, irresistible watercolors on all-white square pages. Start with Gossie. about a small, yellow gosling, her orange bill always open in an expression of happy anticipation. Gossie likes to wear her bright red boots e......Read More
Grace for President
Grace for President | ReadKiddoRead.com Meet a spunky and determined African American schoolkid, Grace Campbell, who, upon inspecting her teacher's big poster of the presidents, exclaims in outrage, "Where are the GIRLS?" Mrs. Barrington explains, "The truth is, our country has never had a wo......Read More
Granite Baby
Granite Baby | ReadKiddoRead.com Five giant sisters from the Granite State of New Hampshire each have a special talent: Jade can twist a river in her hands, Em whittles wood, Golda is handy with string, Ruby is as strong as a bear, and Beryl is the finest stonecutter. After Beryl carves a whol......Read More
Gregor The Overlander (Underland Chronicles series)
Gregor's mother needs him to stay home this summer to take care of his two-year old sister, Boots, instead of going to camp. Since his father disappeared, two years, seven months, and thirteen days ago, twelve-year-old Gregor hasn't had a day when he's felt real happiness. Gregor knows his dad i......Read More
Grin and Bear It
Grin and Bear It | ReadKiddoRead.com What do you get when a bear walks through your vegetable garden? SQUASH. Of course! Bear wants to be a stand-up comic and tell jokes that make his friends laugh. And he's got a million of 'em. Bear has a plan, too. He writes his jokes, practice......Read More
Groundhog Gets a Say
Groundhog Gets a Say | ReadKiddoRead.com On February 3, after the crowds of humans have dispersed, Groundhog bemoans the fickleness of being a once-a-year wonder. "I don't get it. Where is everybody? Yesterday I was BIG news, a star, king of the mound! Everyone wanted my weather report. Today ......Read More
Guinness World Records 2012
Longest snowmobile journey? Largest monkey? Most valuable guitar? Longest fingernails? (The record holder, Lee Redmond, has fingernails 28 feet, 4.5 inches long, and they're still growing strong.) Who publishes the best collection of superlatives year after year? Only one name is on the tip of e......Read More
Gunslinger Girl
There is perhaps no genre that is more underrepresented in YA fiction than the Western, once a singularly American staple of the literary canon. So the arrival of Serendipity Jones, the titular gunslinger of Ely's debut novel, is worth noting for sure. Pity, as she's unfortunat......Read More
Hana's Suitcase: A True Story
Here's a book that will break your heart. In 2000, when Fumiko Ishioka, Director of the Tokyo Holocaust Center, acquired the suitcase of a Jewish child who was at Auschwitz during World War II, she set out to discover what happened to that child. First, there's the photograph of the big, brown s......Read More
Harold and the Purple Crayon
Harold and the Purple Crayon | ReadKiddoRead.com Harold decided to take a walk in the moonlight. So he drew a moon, and then a path to follow it. He decided to take a short cut, and veered off the path that he originally drew to keep him from getting lost. "The short cut led right to where Har......Read More
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter series)
This past decade, we have been blessed with the Harry Potter effect, and that fantastical boy wizard is still casting his dazzling spell across the Earth. What is it about Harry Potter that has worked its way into the lives and psyches of readers worldwide? There have been many good books about ......Read More
Helen's Eyes: A Photobiography of Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller's Teacher
Beginning with one of many well-chosen quotes-"I know that the education of this child will be the distinguishing event of my life, if I have the brains and perseverance to accomplish it."-this is a somber and absorbing biography of Annie Sullivan, who any schoolgirl can tell you was Helen Kelle......Read More
Hello, Nebulon! (Galaxy Zack Series)
It's the year 2120, and Zack Nelson and his family are leaving their home on Earth to move to the planet Nebulon, where Zack's dad has accepted a new job. Zack isn't at all sure what to expect of his new home or of a new school and new friends. The first book in this new series opens with Z......Read More
Help Me, Mr. Mutt!: Expert Answers for Dogs with People Problems
Help Me, Mr. Mutt!: Expert Answers for Dogs with People Problems | ReadKiddoRead.com If you think Cesar Millan, TV's Dog Whisperer, gives good advice, wait'll you meet Mr. Mutt, a certified Canine Counselor. Desperate and beaten down dogs send heartfelt letters and attached photos to Mr. Mutt,......Read More
Henry Aaron's Dream
Henry Aaron's Dream | ReadKiddoRead.com Every kid has a wish – a dream for his or her own future. Henry Aaron was no exception. He wanted to play baseball – professional baseball -- when he grew up. But baseball stadiums in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama in the l940s were for "......Read More
Henry and Mudge and the Great Grandpas
Henry and Mudge and the Great Grandpas | ReadKiddoRead.com Congratulations to Cynthia Rylant and Suçie Stevenson, the winners, in 2006, of the first annual Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for " . . . the most distinguished contribution to the body of American children's literature known as b......Read More
Henry's Freedom Box
The first page of this eloquent picture book will stun readers and listeners of all ages. Look at the handsome full-page painting of a somber young African American boy, barefoot, sitting on an upturned wooden barrel, his back against a brick wall. The text on the facing page states, simply, &ld......Read More
Here's A Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry
This gathering of more than 60 poems from the U.S., Great Britain, the Caribbean, and Australia into one big luscious book is just the ticket for little ones. The poems are as simple and chantable as nursery rhymes, like Aileen Fisher's interactive verse which starts, "After my bath / I try, try......Read More
Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword
Mirka wants to slay dragons not that she has ever seen one in her Orthodox Jewish community. But in this exuberant graphic novel nothing is as you would expect. Take her step-mother Frumka. Sharp, intelligent, and ultimately very clued into her stepdaughter, she's not the nasty sort so oft......Read More
Hey Batta Batta Swing!: The Wild Old Days of Baseball
What was the game of baseball like when it began, more than a century ago? First off, back then, you could get a runner out by soaking him. What's that? First, examine the old-timey yellow and red watercolor and pencil-crayon cartoon illustration on the second page, and you'll see a ......Read More
Hi! Fly Guy
Hi! Fly Guy | ReadKiddoRead.com A boy named Buzz sets off in his pith helmet to catch something smart for The Amazing Pet Show. Boink. He bumps into a fly. The fly stomps his feet and says, "Buzz!" "You know my name!" Buzz exclaims. "You are the smartest pet in the world!" At first, the judges......Read More
Hi! Fly Guy
Hi! Fly Guy | ReadKiddoRead.com A boy named Buzz sets off in his pith helmet to catch something smart for The Amazing Pet Show. Boink. He bumps into a fly. The fly stomps his feet and says, "Buzz!" "You know my name!" Buzz exclaims. "You are the smartest pet in the world!" At first, the judges......Read More
A story that could have been taken from the headlines grabs readers from the first lines and never lets them go. Wren was just eight years old when she was unknowingly abducted by the man who stole her mother's car. She had been waiting in the backseat while her mother ran inside a conven......Read More
Hidden Child
The very first page of this astonishing, harrowing, and heartbreaking memoir by children's book author/illustrator, Isaac Millman, will grip readers. In the middle of the large, stark white page is a 2"x3" snapshot of a little boy dressed in winter gear, standing on the pavement, with a toy car ......Read More
Hiding Out at the Pancake Palace
Pancakes and pine trees. Pine trees and pancakes. B-O-R-I-N-G. But Cecelia Wreel, almost 11, is used to her tiny, out-of-the-way town of Wares Grove. She's lived there her whole life and spent most of her time absorbed in her mission to discover the song that her parents say played in the ......Read More
Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow
Bartoletti won both a Newbery Honor and a Sibert Honor for her provocative, chilling exploration of the mass movement of children and teenagers who willingly or reluctantly joined Hitler Youth, the Nazi Party's organization formed in 1926. Starting with 15-year-old Herbert Norkus, whose murder b......Read More
Hokey Pokey
Wholly original, completely familiar, this is an allegorical tale where childhood is not just a stage, it is aplacecalled Hokey Pokey, totally separate from adults and adulthood. Grownups may be confused by the setting but that's because they have grown up and forgotten. Young readers, on ......Read More
For stealing a famous basketball player's sneakers, overweight, unlucky, but innocent Stanley Yelnats, is sentenced to hot, desolate Camp Green Lake in Texas, a detention center for bad boys. Every day each of the teen inmates must dig a hole five feet around and five feet deep in the bone dry l......Read More
Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball
Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball | ReadKiddoRead.com In 1891, a teacher walked into a rowdy gymnasium discouraged, anxious and frustrated. Two previous teachers had resigned, and James Naismith knew he had to find an innovative approach to working ......Read More
Hooray for Amanda & Her Alligator!
Hooray for Amanda & Her Alligator! | ReadKiddoRead.com These "6 ½ Surprising Stories About 2 Surprising Friends" will not surprise fans of Mo Willems. Each story is whimsical and funny, which is exactly what readers count on from this masterful author. Yet, as simple as the text and......Read More
Horrid Henry (Horrid Henry series)
Horrid Henry (Horrid Henry series) | ReadKiddoRead.com "Henry was horrid. Everyone said so, even his mother. Henry threw food, Henry grabbed, Henry pushed and shoved and pinched. Even his teddy bear, Mr. Kill, avoided him when possible." This kid is bad to the bone, and readers love him for i......Read More
Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest
Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest | ReadKiddoRead.com Take a tour of earth's natural wonders to find the longest river (the Nile: 4,145 miles), the highest mountain (Mount Everest: 29,028 feet); the coldest place (Vostok, Antarctica at 129 below zero), and the windiest spot (atop Mount Washin......Read More
House of Robots
Sammy Hayes-Rodriguez has a pretty interesting family. His father writes graphic novels and his mother is an expert in robotics. Sammy has a close relationship with his sister Maddie, who has an immunity issue and isn't able to attend school. Also, the Hayes-Rodriguez house is full of robots. ......Read More
How Chipmunk Got His Stripes
How Chipmunk Got His Stripes | ReadKiddoRead.com Dramatic pen and ink and watercolor illustrations bring to life a lively Native American pourquoi (how and why) tale from the East Coast. On a walk one autumn day, Bear begins to brag that he is the biggest, strongest, and loudest of all the ani......Read More
How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon?
How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon? | ReadKiddoRead.com Can children, and in particular, boys, ever read too many dinosaur books? Certainly not. Dinosaurs are forever fascinating in both fiction and nonfiction. They may be monstrous and terrifying, but conveniently, because they're extinct, we don......Read More
How I Became a Pirate
How I Became a Pirate | ReadKiddoRead.com Building a sand castle at the beach one day, young Jeremy Jacobs encounters Brain Beard and his motley pirate crew. He joins them aboard ship as their official digger and off they sail to find a safe place to bury their treasure chest of gold and jewel......Read More
How Strong Is It? A Mighty Book About Strength
How Strong Is It? A Mighty Book About Strength | ReadKiddoRead.com Astonishing facts abound in this eye-popping look at 22 of the strongest animals, substances, and elements on earth, including the Komatsu D575A, the strongest bulldozer in the world, and the stickiest glue on earth, made by Ca......Read More
How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous
Readers with a taste for the gross and grotesque will find How They Croaked, a consistently disgusting, gleefully ghoulish chronicle of the gruesome deaths of nineteen famous people, irresistible. Georgia Bragg opens with King Tut, discussing, in gory specifics, the embalming and mummification p......Read More
How to Eat Fried Worms
Billy's friends Tom and Alan bet Billy fifty dollars that he can't eat fifteen worms. Billy's going to need all the discipline and will-power he can muster if he has any chance to succeed. It's not an easy bet for Billy: at one point he has a terrifying nightmare that he is in a fancy res......Read More
How to Heal a Broken Wing
How to Heal a Broken Wing | ReadKiddoRead.com In the big city, no one saw the pigeon fall and land, wounded on the sidewalk. "No one looked down . . . except Will." Amid the muted-toned clothing of adult citygoers, we see the little boy, a bright spot on a gray day, in his red coat and blue pa......Read More
How to Steal a Dog
Sometimes you pick up a book and it just says, "Read me." This one has an irresistible cover, a compelling title, and a most unexpected first line that will hook readers and keep them riveted: "The day I decided to steal a dog was the same day my best friend, Luanne Godfrey, fo......Read More
Hunting Prince Dracula
Audrey Rose and Thomas are studying at Europe's most prestigious forensics academy. Students and faculty live and work in a gloomy, isolated Romanian castle, once home to Prince Dracula. After a series of disturbing deaths, rumors spread that Prince Dracula has returned. Thomas and Audre......Read More
Hurry! Hurry!
A chicken, racing across the barnyard, exhorts, "Hurry! Hurry!" "Coming! Coming!" bleats the goat, leaping over a fence. Across the green grass and under the blue sky, the ducks, cows, pigs, sheep, and a sheepdog cavort eagerly to the barn. There they encircle the nest of straw in the center of ......Read More
I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!
I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! | ReadKiddoRead.com Caught painting pictures on the floor, ceiling, walls, curtains, and door by his exasperated Mama, an unrepentant little boy sneaks down the paints she's just hidden at the top of the closet and proceeds to paint himself all over, one body part......Read More
I Am Invited to a Party! (An Elephant and Piggie Book)
I Am Invited to a Party! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) | ReadKiddoRead.com I Am Invited to a Party! When Piggie gets a cool invitation to go to her first party, she invites her best friend Elephant to go with her. "Party! Party! Party! Party!" the two chant joyously. Elephant declares, "I k......Read More
I Face the Wind
I Face the Wind | ReadKiddoRead.com A young girl demonstrates the properties of wind through her own observations and a series of easy-to-read-and-do activities and experiments, using common household materials, that teach science through experience. The collage illustrations are amiable and a......Read More
I Feel Better with a Frog in My Throat: History's Strangest Cures
If you have a cough, a cold, a sore throat, a wound, a stomachache, a fever, or a headache, perhaps you have a home remedy you swear by, whether it is tea, chicken soup, lozenges, or a good doctor. In this collection of cures that were considered effective way back when, from prehistoric times t......Read More
I Funny
Jamie Grimm talks right to readers – his honesty and his humor making full impact on each of us -- putting us firmly in his fan club. A good place to be. Not just because Jamie Grimm is one of the most entertaining and likable characters you'll ever meet in a book; not just because......Read More
I Lost My Tooth In Africa
I Lost My Tooth In Africa | ReadKiddoRead.com "My dad says if you lose a tooth in Africa and put it under a gourd, you will get a chicken from the African Tooth Fairy!" That's Amina speaking, as she and her family set out from their home in Portland, Oregon, to visit her father's family in Bam......Read More
I Must Have Bobo!
I Must Have Bobo! | ReadKiddoRead.com When Willy gets out of bed, he can't find Bobo. What an upset! Arms raised, eyes and mouth open wide, Willy proclaims: "I need Bobo. Bobo helps me with everything." Children will recognize the comical overstatement since Bobo is, well, a sock monkey, but t......Read More
I Stink!
I Stink! | ReadKiddoRead.com A no-nonsense, tough-talking New York City garbage truck explains how he scarfs down your bags of trash each night while you sleep. "See those bags? I smell BREAKFAST!" That truck's got a mug on him, by turns grinning, scowling, and looking tough. Thick, black-outl......Read More
Asa, Solvieg, and Harold are spending their winter tucked away in a hidden fjord, while their father, the king, leads the war back home. While they are reluctant to leave him to live in this desolate icy land, they are grateful to be safe and protected. However, when many of the warriors sent to......Read More
Ida B: . . . and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World
Ida B Applewood has a pretty perfect life, with her loving parents and her floppy-eared dog, Rufus. She's been home-schooled by her parents ever since the disastrous two weeks and three days she lasted in kindergarten class at the local public school. She's never missed having school friendships......Read More
If You Decide To Go To The Moon
If You Decide To Go To The Moon | ReadKiddoRead.com "If you decide to go to the moon in your own rocket ship, read this book before you start." So begins a resplendent you-are-there nonfiction picture book, narrated in second person, with sensational full-page paintings. We follow an eager blo......Read More
If You Lived Here: Houses of the World
If You Lived Here: Houses of the World | ReadKiddoRead.com Every page in this delightful non-fiction picture book offers a unique view into a different type of home, the reasons behind its design features, and a brief history of its people. Stunningly-beautiful collage illustrations, loads of ......Read More
I'm Bad!
I'm Bad! | ReadKiddoRead.com Glaring straight at you from the cover and from the first double-page spread is a big, bad, gleaming blue and green Tyrannosaurus Rex, with fearsome claws and huge white choppers, exuding a light blue stream of bad breath. "Are you BAD?" he growls ferociously. The ......Read More
I'm Still Here in the Bathtub: Brand New Silly Dilly Songs
I'm Still Here in the Bathtub: Brand New Silly Dilly Songs | ReadKiddoRead.com In 2001, Alan Katz started a new trend with I'm Still Here in the Bathtub, a collection of 14 seriously silly song parodies, all set to the tunes of well known songs. I'm partial to the selections in his second vol......Read More
Inside-Outside Dinosaurs
Inside-Outside Dinosaurs | ReadKiddoRead.com In a veritable visual panorama of dinosaurs, eight classic dinosaurs are presented in two ways: first as skeletons and then as living creatures. On the upper right side of the first oversized white two-page spread are gigantic red capital letters: B......Read More
Into the Unknown: How Great Explorers Found Their Way by Land, Sea, and Air
Relive some of the most daring voyages of all time in this dynamic, handsomely-designed, visually-stunning book. In engaging, informative chapters, author Stewart Ross dramatically chronicles the daring adventures of such intrepid explorers as Leif Eriksson, Marco Polo, Ferdinand Magellan, and C......Read More
Into the Wild (Warriors series)
This fierce and engaging series introduces a world of wild, brave cats fighting for survival. Clans of cats roam forests and marshlands, battling enemy clans for control over their scarce prey. When Rusty, a kittypet, owned by a pair of Twolegs and living on bland kitty food, ventures into the n......Read More
Invisible Inkling
start fourth grade without his best friend whose family has just moved to Iowa City. Older sister, Nadia, doesn't have time for Hank: she's studying for the PSATs and texting her boyfriend. Then, reaching beneath the store's sink to retrieve an errant Lego piece, Hank find......Read More
It's the First Day of School...Forever!
It's not every eleven-year-old who can survive maple syrup squirted into his hair; puddle-splashes leaving spots in indiscrete places on his pants; his dog following him to school and then attacking the principal; and a mishap – no two, make that three – that injures the most ......Read More
Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World
"This is my letter to the world, that never wrote to me…"- Emily Dickinson IVY ABERDEEN'S LETTER TO THE WORLD starts with a poignant Emily Dickinson quote which is symbolic to the protagonist of the story, but also a reoccurring theme throughout this ten......Read More
Ivy and Bean Make the Rules (Book 9)
Ivy and Bean Make the Rules (Book 9) | ReadKiddoRead.com Ivy and Bean were never meant to be friends. Ivy is intellectual, quiet, and loves to read books and wear skirts and dresses. Bean is rambunctious, adventurous, and even devious at times, and she hates dresses. But when Bean learns that ......Read More
Jacky Ha-Ha: My Life Is a Joke
In this second installment of the Jacky Ha-Ha series, Jacky leads the reader through a summer in Seaside Heights, her small town along the New Jersey coast. With carnival games, junk food, and plenty of leisure time, school is out and antics on the tourist-lined boardwalk are in! ......Read More
Long summer days filled with lazy floats down river, lounging with your best friend, soaking in the sun's rays, and finding adventure. This silly and delightful poem tells the tale of a young boy and his best friend exploring their woods, river, and town, has been a favorite in our home with reg......Read More
James and the Giant Peach
After his dear parents are eaten by an enormous and angry rhinoceros, escaped from the London Zoo, James Henry Trotter spends his next four years doing the bidding of the most odious and awful of relatives, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker. His life seems hopeless until the day he encounters a strang......Read More
January's Sparrow
With the assistance of the Underground Railroad, eight-year-old Sadie Crosswhite and her family make it from Kentucky, across the Ohio River, and travel for days until they reach Marshall, Michigan, a place where they should be safe. Sixty of the 2,000 residents are Negroes, but the family is wa......Read More
Jokelopedia: The Biggest, Best, Silliest, Dumbest Joke Book Ever
Kids might not read this whole big compendium cover to cover, but as a book to dip into for truly funny and classic jokes, riddles, practical jokes, spotlights on major comedians, and advice on becoming a comedian, it's an endless source of material. There are more than 1,700 jokes here, includi......Read More
Joshua Dread
Joshua Dread is having a rough year in middle school. Bullies pick on him, and he seems to be causing pencils to explode, leaving burning handprints in his wake. To top it off? The supervillains – The Dread Duo – are his parents, and they're trying to destroy the world. The ......Read More
Journey to the River Sea
Along with her new governess, Miss Minton, orphaned Maia Fielding is sent from her posh London boarding school in 1910 to live with her aunt and uncle and twin cousins on the Amazon River (the "River Sea" of the title), near the city of Manaus, in Brazil. On board their ship, The Cardinal, Maia ......Read More
Judy Moody Goes to College
Judy Moody Goes to College | ReadKiddoRead.com And now for the latest Judy Moody book, number eight in the popular series about that pun-loving third grader with PMS. Your readers who don't know Judy yet will dive for the rest of the series, with its good-natured wordplay, riddles, and an ear ......Read More
Julian Rodriguez: Episode One: Trash Crisis on Earth
Julian Rodriguez: Episode One: Trash Crisis on Earth | ReadKiddoRead.com "OUTRAGEOUS! That is the only word that can possibly describe the treatment I have received on this pathetic little planet!" In a hilarious graphic novel-ette, drawn in jumpy black line with light and dark green highlight......Read More
Julie Andrews' Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullabies
Look no further if you've been wanting to buy a gift-worthy anthology of poetry, not just for your classroom or library, but for all the kids in your life. Julie Andrews, author of many children's books, including two splendid fiction books children continue to read and love-Mandy and The Last o......Read More
Jump! | ReadKiddoRead.com Infectious rhymes and rhythm will get tots jumping out of their seats in this simple tale that builds from a tiny bug to a big whale. The story takes place near a house by the water: "Well, / I'm a bug. / I'm a bug. / I'm a snug little bug, / and I'm sleeping on ......Read More
Junie B., First Grader: Cheater Pants (Junie B. Jones series)
Junie B., First Grader: Cheater Pants (Junie B. Jones series) | ReadKiddoRead.com For read-alouds and read-alones, this comedic easy-to-read chapter book series also deals with real life issues. The irrepressible Junie B. Jones is in first grade now, and we continue to laugh and relate to her ......Read More
Junonia | ReadKiddoRead.com In a story that spans only seven days, Kevin Henkes perfectly captures the world of a nine (almost ten!) year old girl in this sweet and absolutely wonderful tale. Alice and her family travel from Wisconsin to Florida's Sanibel Island for their winter vacation each ......Read More
Just a Dog
Even kids who don't love dogs will love this book. Even if they don't own a dog, they will want to own this book so that they can read it again and again, and loan it to their friends and persuade their teacher to read it aloud in class. When Corey was three years old, his famil......Read More
Just Behave, Pablo Picasso!
Just Behave, Pablo Picasso! | ReadKiddoRead.com Readers should feel free to judge this book by its cover: The illustration of Picasso towering over Paris, stepping towards the viewer with a grin on his face makes clear that he is not going to heed the call to Just Behave, Pablo Picasso! Op......Read More
Justin Case: School, Drool, and Other Daily Disasters
His name is Justin Krzeszewski. Not so easy to pronounce. So he's called Justin K. Until some kids give him a nickname: Justin Case. He doesn't like that name, but it suits him. He's a kid who worries – all the time – about everything. Spend third grade ......Read More
Kate and the Beanstalk
Kate and the Beanstalk | ReadKiddoRead.com Inspired by Andrew Lang's version of "Jack and the Beanstalk" published in 1890, Mary Pope Osborne has reworked the familiar tale to give us a female protagonist, the plucky Kate. Like Jack of old, she sets out to sell the cow and ends up trading it f......Read More
King Jack and the Dragon
King Jack and the Dragon | ReadKiddoRead.com What Kiddo doesn't like a little make-believe, a bit of suspense, and a touch of adventure? Throw in a dragon, a sword and a castle, and it is a no-brainer. This is the perfect book to hook a young boy and introduce him to the power of his imaginati......Read More
Kitten's First Full Moon
Kitten's First Full Moon | ReadKiddoRead.com The night Kitten sees her first full moon, she thinks it's a little bowl of milk in the sky, and she wants it. She jumps at it, and chases it, and climbs a tall tree all the way to the top, but still she can't reach it, poor Kitten. When she sees it......Read More
Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Almost True Stories of Growing Up Scieszka
Look at this book's comic book cover with tanks blazing and airplanes dropping bombs and explosions everywhere. See that helmeted soldier coming up from the hatch, his fist pumping the air triumphantly? Hold on a minute—that soldier looks like a kid. Hey, it is a kid—it's Jon S......Read More
Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale
Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale | ReadKiddoRead.com eaving the Laundromat with her daddy, toddler Trixie realizes she's missing her constant and beloved companion, Knuffle Bunny. (Listeners will notice the face of the stuffed rabbit that Dad has just inadvertently loaded into the washing mach......Read More
Lady Lollipop
Lady Lollipop | ReadKiddoRead.com Not your usual princess story, this one's not a fairy tale, but the story of how Princess Penelope, spoiled rotten by her royal parents, learns to control herself for the sake of one lovely and intelligent pig. For her eighth birthday, the Princess knows JUST ......Read More
Larklight: A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Farthest Reaches of Space (The Larklight series)
Larklight is a rambling, ramshackle house that spins on its own remote orbit out in the deeps beyond the moon. It was constructed in the early 1700s, which, if you recall your history, was just a few years after Sir Isaac Newton's discoveries made it possible for people to travel and then live i......Read More
Last Stop on Market Street
Another Newbery-Award-winning picture book celebrating cultural diversity, differences, and community, Last Stop on Market Street provides a fresh perspective on the topic by providing wider context given to a young child by his elder grandmother. Every Sunday CJ and his grandmother cross th......Read More
Let's Do Nothing!
Let's Do Nothing! | ReadKiddoRead.com In one of my very favorite picture books of 2009, skinny red-haired Sal and his bespectacled, chubby blond pal, Frankie, are rehashing everything they've done today. So far they've: played every sport ever invented, painted "more pictures in a day than Van......Read More
Leviathan (Leviathan series)
Climb on board the Leviathan, a living airship, and join the action with two teenage heroes as they're swept up in an alternate universe version of World War I. In this roughly historical take on the Great War, Scott Westerfeld delivers thrilling adventure as he creates an intriguing world......Read More
Lewis and Clark and Me: A Dog's Tale
It's been more than two centuries since Meriwether Lewis and William Clark undertook their famed expedition with the Corps of Discovery to chart the lands west of the Mississippi in 1803. They spent two and a half years, journeying 7,000 miles to the Pacific Ocean and back. Along with their 33-m......Read More
Lexie | ReadKiddoRead.com The summer after her parents' divorce is a tough one for Lexie. For the first time in her ten years, she's spending her annual summer vacation at the Jersey Shore without her mom. Although she looks forward to having some quality time with her dad, everything just fee......Read More
Library Lil
Library Lil | ReadKiddoRead.com Librarians all cheer for this charming, witty, stereotype-bashing tall tale-like heroine, Library Lil, a passionate advocate of books and reading, but don't worry-kids love her, too. We meet her as a strong, book-toting tyke who, by age eight, had read all the ......Read More
Lightship | ReadKiddoRead.com "Here is a ship that holds her place." So begins the simple, lighthearted, and poetic text that describes the role of the U. S. lightship Ambrose, a ship that stayed anchored close to shore in all weather and acted as a floating lighthouse to other passing vessels......Read More
Lilly's Big Day
Lilly's Big Day | ReadKiddoRead.com Lilly's heart leaps when her adored teacher, Mr. Slinger, reveals to his class of mice that he is going to marry Ms. Shotwell, the school nurse. "It will be the biggest day of my life," she tells herself, confident that she will be his flower girl. In her b......Read More
Lincoln's Grave Robbers
Part thriller, part mystery, and all true, Lincoln's Grave Robbers reads like an intricately plotted novel told from multiple viewpoints. Although Abraham Lincoln is one of the most written about historical figures for both children and adults, this part of his story is little known; it in......Read More
Little Do We Know
Emory and Hannah were lifelong best friends and neighbors, with only 36 steps between their homes. That is, until an intense fight and a troubling secret rips their friendship apart. LITTLE DO WE KNOW alternates chapters between Emory's and Hannah's points of view and piece by piece unwinds what......Read More
Little Pig Joins the Band
Little Pig Joins the Band | ReadKiddoRead.com He's the youngest member of his family. Everyone calls him Little Pig. They don't even hear when he tries to remind them: "My name is Jacob!" All he wants to do is keep up. At a visit to Grandpa's, his brothers and sisters find Grandpa's old m......Read More
Little Rat Makes Music
Enchanted with the sound of other young rats playing tiny violins at the Community Hall, Little Rat can't wait to take lessons. Her new teacher, a short-tempered rabbit named Miss Wingbutton, has "little tolerance for silliness." She yells at Little Rat for sawing her bow back and forth on the s......Read More
Little Women
For a book to be considered a classic, it must be timeless. There is a reason we still read Austen, Melville, Hemingway and Brontë (both Charlotte and Emily) — these extraordinary writers captured the essence of their eras while also conveying a universal message that readers can rela......Read More
Living Color
Living Color | ReadKiddoRead.com In an innovative and intriguing animal book illustrated with dazzling cut paper collages, explore the animal kingdom sorted by color. There are four pages of red animals, with two or three profiles on each page, and an explanation of how the color red helps tha......Read More
Llama Llama Time to Share
Llama Llama Time to Share | ReadKiddoRead.com The previous five Llama Llama bestselling and beloved picture books focused in tightly on the mother-toddler relationship, warmly and comically exploring feelings and universal experiences. Time to Share expands that world a little, allowing Nelly ......Read More
Lockdown: Escape from Furnace 1
WARNING: If you and your teen reader are squeamish, violence-averse, or are looking for something light-hearted or romantic, please go look elsewhere at ReadKiddoRead for a great book tip. Otherwise, if you – or that teen – can stand a gripping, action-packed, downright scary thrille......Read More
Long Story Short
You don't have to have seen the film, The Crying Game, to know it's become shorthand for a story with a twist that turns a plot 180 degrees, undermining everything you thought you knew about what was going on. Parkinson, Ireland's first laureate for children's literature,......Read More
Looking at Lincoln
Looking at Lincoln | ReadKiddoRead.com Do you know all about Lincoln? This unusual profile, narrated by a curious child and illustrated with gouache paintings as colorful as a 64-count Crayola Crayon package, invites youngsters to find out. The zealous young researcher visits the library ......Read More
Looking for Bobowicz: A Hoboken Chicken Story
I've been a Pinkwater fan forever. Or at least since the 1970s when he started publishing bizarrely comical children's fiction books like Lizard Music and Fat Men from Space and one near and dear to New Jersey's little heart, The Hoboken Chicken Emergency. Who could forget young Arthur Bobowicz ......Read More
Throughout his earliest years at school, exuberant Donald Zinkoff smiles and laughs like crazy, even when a big kid steals his giant giraffe hat on the first day of first grade, and when his second grade teacher tells him his handwriting is atrocious and kicks him out of class just because he th......Read More
Lousy Rotten Stinkin' Grapes
Lousy Rotten Stinkin' Grapes | ReadKiddoRead.com Unable to reach the tantalizing bunch of purple grapes high in a tree, Fox, who considers himself sly, clever, and smart, makes a plan to get them. "Hop. Skip. Jump. Flying leap. And . . . No grapes." Which is when he turns to Bear for help. Bea......Read More
Love that Dog
"I don't want to Because boys Don't write poetry. Girls do." With this bold opening declaration about who can (and can't) write poetry, we're introduced to the engaging, opinionated voice of young Jack, a reluctant writer and the focus of a......Read More
Madeline | ReadKiddoRead.com Pen and ink renditions of French, stickmen-drawn girls give way to lush watercolor drawings of 1930's Parisian streets, allowing this classic picture book to withstand the test of time. The girls' teacher Ms. Clavel leads Madeline and her peers in two straight lin......Read More
Maggot Moon
Standish Treadwell, the hero of Sally Gardner's challenging, heartbreaking, unforgettable novel, is dyslexic, but his condition isn't understood in the grim community where he lives, an alternate 1950s England in which history has been rewritten: This is England imagined as if the Na......Read More
Mail Harry to the Moon
Mail Harry to the Moon | ReadKiddoRead.com "Before Harry was born, there was ME! Now there's me. And Harry." Pity the poor narrator—beleaguered, disillusioned, ignored, and aggrieved—a former only child for whom life used to be bliss. Harry, a winsome and contented diaper-clad bab......Read More
Malcolm at Midnight
"It began with a rat. There was also a glasses-wearing elderly iguana, a grumpy fish who could spell, a ghost in the clock tower, a secret message in the library, and a twisted evil that lived on the fourth floor of our school. But those'll all come later. First, there was a rat: Mal......Read More
"I have to show you something," skinny, red-haired Luke tells his friend, Heather. With his mother away for the evening, he's invited her over to share a secret. Heather loves secrets. When he pulls the sealed rectangle of black wax paper from his desk drawer, though, she feels herself go cold. ......Read More
Maniac Magee
Jeffrey Magee, orphaned at three years old, runs away from his aunt and uncle's house once he hits eleven. And literally runs—he runs for days and finally slows down when he gets to the town of Two Mills, Pennsylvania. He wows the residents of Two Mills with his extreme athletic prowess an......Read More
Many Rides Of Paul Revere
Get to know the man behind the legend and the famous ride in a clearly written and handsomely laid out biography amply illustrated with stately brown-toned portraits, paintings, reproductions, maps, and photographs. As an apprentice to his French-born father, a master silversmith, Paul learned t......Read More
Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale
Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale | ReadKiddoRead.com At the ripe old age of 21 days, Martina Josefina Catalina Cucaracha, a beautiful cockroach who lives with her family in a cozy street lamp in Old Havana, is ready to give her leg in marriage. Abuela, her Cuban grandmother, g......Read More
Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. | ReadKiddoRead.com Just look at that welcoming cover, a huge close-up portrait of a smiling Martin Luther King, Jr., done in shades of brown and black watercolors. (There's not even a title or author or illustrator listed; you have t......Read More
Marvin, a resourceful and talented beetle with a shiny black shell, lives with his parents in a damp cupboard below the kitchen sink of a New York City apartment. While Marvin doesn't much care for the human owner, sharp-tongued Mrs. Pompaday, a high-powered real estate agent, he does like her q......Read More
In Cassia's world everything is perfect. She wants for nothing. The Society provides her with the exact amount of food she needs for proper nutrition for her optimal weight, height, and age. She will live until her 80th birthday (80 being the optimal age for having a full life without fall......Read More
Max Einstein: The Genius Experiment
Max Einstein is no ordinary girl. At age 12, she's a student at NYU. She's working to ease the life of the homeless. And she's been tapped by a mysterious organization, The Change Makers Institute, to help solve some of the world's biggest problems. This thrilling adventure will have your young ......Read More
May I Pet Your Dog?: The How-to Guide for Kids Meeting Dogs (and Dogs Meeting Kids)
May I Pet Your Dog?: The How-to Guide for Kids Meeting Dogs (and Dogs Meeting Kids) | ReadKiddoRead.com Some children are too afraid of dogs. Others are not afraid enough. How should we behave when we encounter a strange dog? Harry, a longhaired, chocolate-dappled dachshund, encounters a young......Read More
Med Head: My Knock-down, Drag-out, Drugged-up Battle with My Brain
"One morning in March of 1989, just before my fifth birthday, I woke up as a normal, healthy boy. By that afternoon, I had an irresistible urge to shake my head—continually—and the course of my life changed in ways few people had ever seen or could begin to understand." ......Read More
Meet the Bobs and Tweets, Vol #1
Meet the Bobs and Tweets, Vol #1 In first identifying why I so enjoyed reading Meet the Bobs and Tweets it was difficult to parse if I more enjoyed Pepper Springfield's rich rhyming verses and energetic storytelling style, or if I was more immediately drawn to the exceptional cartoon......Read More
Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride
Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride | ReadKiddoRead.com Maybe you got to know Mercy, that free-spirited porcine wonder, in her first easy chapter book, Mercy Watson to the Rescue, which describes what happened the night Mr. and Mrs. Watson's bed broke and Mercy ran off to find some sugar cookies and......Read More
Mice And Beans
Mice And Beans | ReadKiddoRead.com In one week, Rosa Maria's youngest grandchild, Little Catalina, will be seven. The whole family will squeeze into Rosa Maria's tiny casita for the party. Each day of that week, she plans the menu: enchiladas, rice and beans-Rosa Maria knows no dinner is comp......Read More
Mick Harte Was Here
In an affecting novel almost too heartbreaking to read out loud, though it alternates between tragic and comical, eighth grader Phoebe takes us through the harrowing days following her adored brother's death in a bicycle accident. Mick, only ten months younger than Phoebe, was a funny kid and Ph......Read More
Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life
Middle School doesn't begin well for Rafe Khatchadorian. Between run-ins with the school bully, Miller "The Killer" and a book of rules that the school actually takes seriously, to say Rafe is disillusioned with the educational system would be understatement. And so it's tota......Read More
Middle School: Get Me Out of Here!
If anybody could use a fresh start, it's Rafe Khatchadorian, a seventh-grader with more than just the usual complement of adolescent problems on his plate. Rafe gets a chance to leave behind his troubled sixth grade year (chronicled in Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life) when the di......Read More
Mighty Jackie: The Strike-Out Queen
Mighty Jackie: The Strike-Out Queen | ReadKiddoRead.com On April 2, 1931, at an exhibition game between the New York Yankees and the Chattanooga Lookouts, something unheard of happened. Jackie Mitchell, the pitcher for the Tennessee team, took on the giants of the Yankees, Babe Ruth and Lou Ge......Read More
Miss Nelson Is Missing!
Miss Nelson Is Missing! | ReadKiddoRead.com Miss Nelson cannot control her classroom. "The kids in Room 207 were misbehaving again," the book starts off. "Spitballs stuck to the ceiling. Paper planes whizzed through the air. They were the worst behaved class in the whole school." Squat faces o......Read More
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Throughout Jacob's childhood, Grandpa Portman regaled Jacob with stories about how his parents in Poland had shipped him off to a children's home in Wales because monsters were after him. The monsters "stank like putrefying trash; they were invisible except for their shadows; a......Read More
Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller
Reading this biographical novel, narrated by Anne Sullivan and based on her many letters, I was reminded once again why I, like so many others, have always been captivated by the story of Anne and Helen Keller, the little girl whose life she transformed. It starts in 1887 with 20-year-old Anne o......Read More
Mission Control, This is Apollo: The Story of the First Voyages to the Moon
To commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, this substantial-sized volume is filled with conversational and quote-filled accounts of all 12 of the piloted Apollo missions. The text is full of surprising facts, heroic actions, and life-threatening moments. After a brief......Read More
Mister Max: The Book of Lost Things
Maximilian Starling is not your average twelve-year-old boy. For starters, he's the only child of an actor and actress and he plays many roles in their theater. Both of his beloved parents are flamboyant, dedicated to their craft, and unpredictable. Just when Max thinks he&rsqu......Read More
Moonshot | ReadKiddoRead.com In an oversized nonfiction picture book, illustrated with meticulous and often awe-inspiring full-page art, done in watercolor, ink, acrylic, and gouache, follow the preparations of Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins on their historic July, 1969 missi......Read More
Moving Day (Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls series)
"Rule #1: Don't Stick a Spatula Down Your Best Friend's Throat." That's the first of Allie Finkle's many engaging chapter headings and rules, along with her explanations of each one, which she's been recording in a notebook. There's "Never eat anything red." Which is partly to blame for he......Read More
Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Writing Thank-you Notes
Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Writing Thank-you Notes | ReadKiddoRead.com In a contemporary comedy with, perhaps, the most kid-friendly and irresistible book cover of the year, get ready to procrastinate big time with ten-year-old Moxy who has promised her mother she will write twelve thank-you n......Read More
Mr. and Mrs. Bunny — Detectives Extraordinaire
Award-winning author Polly Horvath sets up a perfectly preposterous premise and a romping pace that will keep readers hooked. Madeline, a human child, finds her ordinary world intertwining with the local animal societies when she comes home to discover that her spacey hippie parents have be......Read More
Mr. Putter & Tabby Write the Book
Mr. Putter & Tabby Write the Book | ReadKiddoRead.com Cynthia Rylant's easy readers have changed children's reading, with her whimsical and wise series about young Henry and his great Dane, Mudge; Poppleton the pig and his animal pals; and, most endearingly, the grandfatherly, avuncular Mr......Read More
Mrs. Noodlekugel
Mrs. Noodlekugel | ReadKiddoRead.com All children hope to find a bit of magic in their own backyards. Maxine and Nick actually do when they discover the cozy abode of Mrs. Noodlekugel, her cat Mr. Fuzzface, and four farsighted mice hidden behind their apartment building. Maxine and Nick h......Read More
My Animals
When should you start sharing books and stories with your children? As soon as they're born. Some studies have shown that babies in utero respond to being read to, especially rhythmic and rhyming books like early Dr. Seuss. Here, then, is a board book for newborns who will appreciate the stark c......Read More
My Best Friend
My Best Friend | ReadKiddoRead.com Oh, the heartbreak of liking someone who doesn't like you back. The narrator, six-year-old Lily, yearns to be noticed by seven-year-old Tamika at the neighborhood pool on Wednesday playgroup day. Lily is ever hopeful, claiming, "Tamika is my best friend. She......Read More
My Crocodile Does Not Bite
There goes Ernest walking to the bus stop with his pet on a leash, hoping to win the annual school pet show. Three classmates stand by holding their pets: goldfish, cat, and frog. And, oh yes, Cindy Lou and her dog are there, too, snooty and sure that they are going to win. But will they? Er......Read More
My Dog May Be a Genius
How delicious, how delightful, how utterly sensational it is to have a chunky-sized new book of Prelutsky poems. Our first Children's Poet Laureate does not disappoint, with a rousing compendium of 105 rhyming verses about a dog who can s-p-e-l-l; an underwater marching band, impossible to......Read More
My Father's Dragon
My Father's Dragon | ReadKiddoRead.com Elmer Elevator braves Wild Island to save an overworked baby dragon in Ruth Gannett's clever and humorous 1948 adventure. A talking alley cat persuades Elmer to undertake a journey to a dangerous island. He packs wisely: filling his father's knapsack wit......Read More
My Kindergarten
My Kindergarten | ReadKiddoRead.com Take a glorious month-by-month tour through the kindergarten year with master teacher Miss Cribbage, a guinea pig, as seen through the eyes of Emily the rabbit, one of eight animal students in the class. You'll get to know all of them: Diane, Emily, Louise, ......Read More
My Senator And Me: A Dog's Eye View Of Washington, D.C.
My Senator And Me: A Dog's Eye View Of Washington, D.C. | ReadKiddoRead.com "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." Senator Ted Kennedy did just that—an effusive black Portuguese Water Dog named Splash, who narrates this breezy and informative tour of the nation's capital and gu......Read More
My Very First Mother Goose
While there are loads of wonderful Mother Goose collections out there, this oversized book will quickly become a home and classroom treasure with its 68 well-chosen verses and personable entourage of typical Wells bunnies, pigs, and cats, rendered in grand and colorful watercolors. Nursery rhyme......Read More
My Very First Mother Goose
My Very First Mother Goose | ReadKiddoRead.com While there are loads of wonderful Mother Goose collections out there, this oversized book will quickly become a home and classroom treasure with its 68 well-chosen verses and personable entourage of typical Wells bunnies, pigs, and cats, rendered......Read More
Nate the Great
Nate the Great | ReadKiddoRead.com Nate receives a phone call from a girl he knows, Annie. He hoped it would be someone calling about missing diamonds or a million dollars, but it's just Annie. She has lost a picture of her dog, Fang. Nate tells Annie that he'll be over in five minutes. Nate ......Read More
National Geographic Kids Almanac 2013
Think of a subject – any subject: an animal, a place, a historical person or event, food, weather. It's very likely that you'll find information about it in the 2012 National Geographic Almanac for Kids. What's more, while you are paging through this eclectic collection......Read More
Navigating Early
Navigating Early is a survival story in every sense, physically and emotionally. Jack is adrift after his mother dies and his dad, just back from WWII, enrolls him in a boarding school in Maine. When he befriends Early Auden, a strange loner who rarely attends classes, Jack knows he'll be la......Read More
Nic Bishop Spiders
Nic Bishop Spiders | ReadKiddoRead.com Look closely at the cover of this book, with the glowing oversized color photo of a brown and reddish jumping spider, standing on tiptoes, gazing right at you. The details are mesmerizing, from its glossy black eyes (5 of 8 are visible; most spiders have ......Read More
Night of the Howling Dogs
Camping with his Boy Scout troop on a remote beach on the Big Island of Hawaii on November 29, 1975, Graham Salisbury's cousin, then 13, survived a massive earthquake followed by a tsunami. Now the author has retooled that momentous experience into a fine and thrilling adventure novel narrated b......Read More
No Talking
Meet fifth grader Dave Parker, a known loudmouth who is in the middle of his fourth hour of not talking. In spite of being called on to give his oral social studies report on India, he is determined to stick with his experiment of staying silent for an entire day. Reading a book about Mahatma Ga......Read More
No, David!
No, David! | ReadKiddoRead.com "Be quiet!," "That's enough, David!," and "Go to your room!" are just some of the admonitions that David's mom yells at him while the round-headed dynamo barrels around the house making mischief. "Come back here, David," she exclaims as the gleeful little terror......Read More
North of Beautiful
Terra Rose Cooper can't seem to escape. A permanent port-wine stain birthmarks her face, which causes stares from any and everyone she meets. Friends and family are no help. "Why not fix your face?" her own boyfriend, Eric, asks her. Her map-maker father discourages her from any surgery, but als......Read More
Notes From The Midnight Driver
Did you ever notice how serious, somber, and edgy so many YA books are, with all those screwed up teens, life and death dystopian situations, not to mention never-ending angst and alienation? When's the last time you laughed out loud while reading a YA novel? Oh, right, Sherman Alexie's The Abso......Read More
Okay for Now
"Terrific." That is fourteen-year-old Doug Sweiteck's sardonic response to pretty much everything, say Maryville, a tiny upstate New York town where his family has abruptly moved from Long Island in the late summer of 1968. With the dubious help of a shifty friend, his father h......Read More
Olivia | ReadKiddoRead.com The first captivating book about the delectable piglet, Olivia, begins, "This is Olivia. She is good at lots of things. She is very good at wearing people out. She even wears herself out." Olivia trundles stoically through her days, building a sand Empire State Buil......Read More
On the Day I Died
Mike picks up a hitchhiker and is lured to a graveyard for those who died too young. As the specters rise, he hears hair-raising stories about their untimely deaths. The question is: will he live to tell the tales? Set outside of Chicago, Mike is driving home one night long past his curfew w......Read More
One Came Home
"It was the day of my sister's first funeral and I knew it wasn't her last - which is why I left." Thirteen-year-old Georgie is as no-nonsense as they come - a sharpshooter with a sharp tongue. She feels guilty that her older sister Agatha ran away in the first place......Read More
One Crazy Summer
There are many poignant and inspirational middle grade novels about the civil rights era - The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963 is one outstanding example - but until now, almost none about its more radical aftermath. (One excellent exception is The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon, for ages twe......Read More
One Dead Spy
September 22, 1776, Manhattan, New York -- the day Captain Nathan Hale is to be hanged as a spy. A delay (the British Provost has misplaced the orders) gives Hale a chance for "last words" -- words that will make the history books: "I regret that I have but one life to give fo......Read More
One of Us is Lying
Are you looking for a new twisty, addictive YA book? One of Us Is Lying fits the bill. Reminiscent of The Breakfast Club, this book is a mustread for fans of E. Lockhart and Sara Shepard. Similar to the cult classic, the book starts off with five students in detention—the ......Read More
Open This Little Book
When children are encouraged to open this book, they will be irresistibly drawn deeper into a die-cut series of ever smaller books that work together as a playful cumulative tale about friends who read together. Youngsters, eager to become one of this circle of friends, will revisit this book ag......Read More
Orangutan Tongs: Poems to Tangle Your Tongue
The 35 tangue-tungling poems in this seriously silly book are rhyming tributes to tongue twisters like "Unique New York" (which no one can say fast), about which Agee writes: "Unique New York, unique New York, / You know New York's unique. / You know you need unique New York, / You know New York......Read More
Out of My Mind
Melody describes herself as a little girl with short, dark, curly hair; brown eyes, one of which is slightly out of wack; a head that wobbles a little; thin legs that have never been used; and feet that sometimes kick unexpectedly. "Not a lot of control there," she notes wryly. Melody has cerebr......Read More
Out of the Easy
The Big Easy has been anything but easy on Josie. Josie has tried distancing herself from her mother, Louise. An addict, prostitute and thief, Louise has stolen money and hope from Josie and targeted Josie's friends. And since Louise became enamored of one of Marcello's mobsters,......Read More
Owen & Mzee: The True Story Of A Remarkable Friendship
Owen & Mzee: The True Story Of A Remarkable Friendship | ReadKiddoRead.com Amidst the newspaper coverage of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004, there was a remarkable photo of a baby hippo snuggling against a giant tortoise. Moved by the story of Owen, the orphaned b......Read More
Owney, the Mail-Pouch Pooch
Owney, the Mail-Pouch Pooch | ReadKiddoRead.com In October of 1888, a stray brown and white terrier wandered out of the rain into the post office in Albany, New York, and sacked out on a pile of canvas mail pouches. He stayed, hopping aboard the mail wagon each day for a ride to the train depo......Read More
P.S. Be Eleven
The Gaither sisters – Delphine, who narrates their story, Vonetta, and Fern -- are returning to Brooklyn after spending the summer of 1968 with their (formerly) estranged mother, Cecile, a poet who lives in Oakland, California and is active in the Black Panther Party. Delphine, the o......Read More
Pale Male: Citizen Hawk of New York City
Pale Male: Citizen Hawk of New York City | ReadKiddoRead.com Starting with the day in 1991 that the young red-tailed hawk arrived in Central Park, this appealing and informative nonfiction picture book chronicles the life, loves, and troubles of Pale Male in New York City. Bird watchers were i......Read More
Panda Kindergarten
Panda Kindergarten | ReadKiddoRead.com Wolong Nature Reserve in China, giant pandas are raised and studied by researchers who are helping to ensure the survival of these endangered creatures. Mother pandas often have twins but can only care for one cub at a time, so the workers at the panda nu......Read More
Pandora Gets Jealous
The Prologue of this nifty, tongue-in-cheek little novel explains how, during the golden age of men and gods, Zeus became enraged at the lazy humans who took the gods for granted and removed fire from the earth as punishment. Prometheus, the Titan, stole the fire from Mount Olympus to give back ......Read More
Paper Towns
This book follows the beginning of a not-so-typical love story that involves the two main characters named Margo and Q. These two characters experienced something that bonded them together; however, as years passed, they had drifted apart. The novel not only has a love story, but also involves a......Read More
When his best friend goes on vacation, 11-year-old Victor Vollmer agrees to take over his paper route for a month. Victor is confident he can toss the paper from the sidewalk to the porch with accuracy – he's the star pitcher on his baseball team. But having to ring doorbells and spe......Read More
Pearl and Wagner: One Funny Day
Pearl and Wagner: One Funny Day | ReadKiddoRead.com "Phooey!" says little brown mouse, Wagner, "This is not my day." Usually he has a good sense of humor, but it's April 1 and everyone keeps fooling him. When he gets to school, his best friend Pearl, a gray rabbit, tells him their teacher, Ms.......Read More
Pel�, King of Soccer
Pelé, King of Soccer | ReadKiddoRead.com Though it's been three decades since Pelé dominated the professional soccer world, his fame endures and if you know a young soccer-player, this may be the perfect choice. In this electric picture book biography, written in both English and......Read More
Raven-haired Persephone is gathering spring flowers in the fields when the ground opens up, and Hades, King of the Underworld, ascends in his chariot and abducts her. "You will be Queen and light up my kingdom," he declares imperiously. Into the Underworld they race, while Persephone's friends r......Read More
Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes
Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes | ReadKiddoRead.com Pete the Cat, a lanky, skinny-tailed, indigo-hued kitty with big, almond-shaped, yellow eyes, is sauntering down the street in his brand-new lace-up sneakers and singing: "I love my white shoes, I love my white shoes, I love my white shoe......Read More
Piggy Bunny
When he grows up, Liam wants to be the Easter Bunny. But can a pig become the Easter Bunny? Can't you just hear your children answering: NO WAY! But don't tell Liam that. Liam knows he has to work hard to make his dreams come true. He practices hopping, eating salad and delivering eggs, with......Read More
Pirate vs. Pirate: The Terrific Tale of a Big, Blustery Maritime Match
Pirate vs. Pirate: The Terrific Tale of a Big, Blustery Maritime Match | ReadKiddoRead.com Two pirate captains set sail, each one determined to prove that s/he is the best in the world. They meet on the high seas, and the competition begins. Each demands, and refuses, to give way to the other ......Read More
Pocket Babies And Other Amazing Marsupials
"Marveling at Marsupials," is the first of many lively chapter headings, and that's just what you will do when you pore over the amiable narrative, fascinating descriptions, astonishing facts, and the plethora of color photos of that third group of mammals, the metatherians. What&rsq......Read More
Pranklopedia: The Funniest, Grossest, Craziest, Not-Mean Pranks on the Planet!
Whoopee cushions are the types of things that bring elated smiles to every little boy and girl.What eight year old would not roll over in uncontrollable laughter when their parent innocently sits down on a couch and an explosive sound originates from what appears to be their backside?This is pur......Read More
Press Here
Press Here | ReadKiddoRead.com Interactive engaging play without electronics! Press Here is the ultimate book for engaging very young children and holding their attention. It is so clever and simple; you'll wish you had thought of it yourself! The book begins with a simple yellow dot in t......Read More
Prisoner B-3087
Alan Gratz presents an utterly riveting story of survival and perseverance captured through the eyes and voice of a boy forced to grow up before his time during World War II in Poland. Based on the true story of Jack Gruener, Prisoner B-3087 lays bare the torture one boy endured for six long yea......Read More
Prophecy of the Sisters
Sixteen-year-old twins Lia and Alice Milthorpe are horrorstruck to find their father dead by unknown causes in their house's Dark Room, the room in which their deceased mother used to live. But his death pales in comparison to the dark events that follow Lia the next few days: her sister becomes......Read More
Public School Superhero
Kenny Wright lives in a bad area of Washington, D.C. His middle school, Anacostia, is a wreck. Luckily, he is being raised by his grandmother, who taught elementary school for 62 years and keeps a close eye on him. But, poor Kenny is also confronted with a group of bullies in his school, and his cl......Read More
Queen of Hearts
The next time your hear a teen complain about how boring their life is, here's a possible antidote – the very moving account of a 15-year-old diagnosed with tuberculosis who must do nothing but rest for months, perhaps years, on end. Marie-Claire Côté lives on a farm......Read More
Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea (Scientists in the Field Series)
As part of the "Scientists in the Field" series, author Sy Montgomery has written another stellar profile of an admirable and committed scientist, animal-lover Lisa Dabek, a woman who has spent the past 20 years trekking through the cloud forests of New Guinea, studying the Matschie's (MATCH-EEZ......Read More
Qwerty Stevens Back in Time: The Edison Mystery
Nicknamed "Qwerty" after the six letters on the top left side of a keyboard, 13-year-old Robert Edward Stevens, a computer-loving boy, digs up a mysterious box labeled "Thomas A. Edison" in his West Orange, New Jersey back yard. Inside is an unusual machine which appears to have been buried for ......Read More
Rachel Spinelli Punched Me in the Face
Fourteen years old may sound too young to need a fresh start, but after Zachary Beatrice's mother abruptly decides to fulfill her lifelong dream of working on a cruise ship, Zachary and his father decide seeing mom's hometown of Copper Lake, Colorado, in the rearview mirror would be ......Read More
Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective: The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit
Twelve-year-old Randi Rhodes has a big secret: she's been successfully keeping her Brooklyn neighborhood crime-free for the past year, thanks to some savvy detecting skills she's picked up from her father's bestselling "Glenn Street" crime novels. Dad, grief-stricken an......Read More
Redwoods | ReadKiddoRead.com On his bench in the 14th Street Station of the New York City Subway, a dark-haired young boy spots a book called Redwoods. (Intriguingly, the cover of the book he finds appears to be the same as the actual book,Redwoods, with the selfsame boy on the cover. Odd.) He......Read More
Reluctant Assassin: W.A.R.P. Book 1
In a new series, Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl) introduces two gutsy new heroes in an action-adventure blend of sci-fi, steampunk, horror, and humor that will leave readers gasping for more. In the same city, in the same house, unbeknownst to each other, two teens are being tested – one is......Read More
Revenge of the Witch (The Last Apprentice series)
Fifth and sixth graders who think they like scary books are going to clamor for this one, the first in a series of five, once they see the dark and foreboding moonlit cover, but let me warn you—it's really scary. Readers will not sleep at night if they're foolhardy enough to open the......Read More
Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party
"The summer of 1972, the year I turned nine, danger began knocking on doors all over China." Ling is the narrator, but the events that follow mirror the life of the author, whose parents were also doctors in the city of Wuhan at the time of the Cultural Revolution. Ling's father, a respected sur......Read More
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi | ReadKiddoRead.com Travel to India to introduce listeners to Kipling's classic tale of a stalwart mongoose, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, who saves Teddy, a little English boy, from the deadly cobras, Nag and Nagina. The little mongoose is first rescued from a roadside flood by Teddy's ......Read More
Robot Dreams
In a wordless graphic novel, a gray dog assembles, from a mail-order Tin Robot Kit, a new robot companion. Together, the dog and robot check books out at the library, cook popcorn, watch TV, and take a Greyhound bus to the beach where they cavort in the water and fall asleep on beach towels in t......Read More
Roman Diary: The Journal of Iliona of Mytilini: Captured and Sold as a Slave in Rome, AD 107
Iliona is starting a new diary on the advent of her family's journey from their home on the Greek island of Mytilini, and across the Aegean Sea to Alexandria, Egypt. It is Year 3 of the 221st Olympiad (or what we would call AD 107), and while she is excited to be setting off on an adventure with......Read More
Roxie and the Hooligans
Roxie and the Hooligans | ReadKiddoRead.com Whenever Uncle Dangerfoot, the world adventurer, comes to visit, nine-year-old Roxie Warbler sits at his feet hanging on every word of his hair-raising stories. She has virtually memorized the text of that famous book, Lord Thistlebottom's Book of Pi......Read More
Ruby Holler
At thirteen, twins Florida and Dallas are the oldest kids in the ramshackle Boxton Creek Home for Children, a place where rules are king. The two siblings—daydreamy Dallas and his spitfire of a sister, Florida—have broken all those rules many times, spending untold hours in the damp,......Read More
Running Out of Time
In 1840, with more of the children falling ill in their isolated little village of Clifton, Indiana, Jessie's ma takes her into the woods to look for herbs. Ma has been acting secretive and strange, but what she now tells Jessie is incomprehensible. It seems that Clifton isn't an ordinary villag......Read More
Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook
Fut a whunny bew nook! There are tworty-foo feally runny pyming rhoems about Runny Babbit and pots of his lals in this bazy crook. Didn't understand those last sentences? They are filled with Spoonerisms, where consonants are switched for pairs of words. Or, as the introductory poem says, "If yo......Read More
Safari: A Photicular Book
In a book that looks more like an old and treasured leather souvenir box than it does a traditional book, travelers will find the vivid experience of a safari. The photicular image of a cheetah races to life as the cat runs across the grasslands when you lift open the cover. You eagerly turn t......Read More
Samantha on a Roll
Samantha on a Roll | ReadKiddoRead.com The cover painting of an exuberant Samantha on roller skates, arms high and wide, bright-eyed and smiling, tells it all! Sammy cannot wait to try her new skates, but Mama tells her, "No Samantha. Not today. / Please, go put those skates away. / You're sti......Read More
"When my brother Fish turned thirteen, we moved to the deepest part of inland, because of the hurricane and, of course, the fact that he'd caused it." With that first sentence washing you over like a storm, meet Mibs Beaumont, from a most unordinary family, each member having an exceptional tale......Read More
Say Cheese And Die! (Goosebumps series)
Shari, Michael, Bird and Greg have nothing to do in the boring, remote town of Pitts Landing, and decide to explore the creepy ramshackle Coffman house down their street. After pillaging the basement, they find old treasures: boas, old coats, and even a working automatic camera. Greg takes a pho......Read More
Say What?
Say What? | ReadKiddoRead.com Meet six-year-old Sukie as she runs through the living room with big plastic tubs of glitter in each hand. "No running in the house. This isn't a playground." That's what her parents would say if they saw her. And, "You have to ask before you use glitter. And only......Read More
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
On the American Library Association's list of the 100 most-challenged books of the 1990's, Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is number one with a bullet. The first volume in Schwartz's three-part Scary Stories series is, in film terms, the Citizen Kane of books that parents have......Read More
Nick's biology teacher, Mrs. Bunny Starch, nearly six feet tall, with died blonde hair, bright violet eye shadow, and polyester pantsuits, is the most feared teacher at the Truman School in Naples, Florida. Nick's friend, Marta, still has nightmares since she threw up in class and Mrs. Starch as......Read More
School!: Adventures at the Harvey N. Trouble Elementary School
School!: Adventures at the Harvey N. Trouble Elementary School | ReadKiddoRead.com Laugh-out-loud funny, from the endpapers to the final page, this illustrated novel tells about a week of what would be very ordinary happenings – except that this particular hotsy-totsy, tippy-toppy, supe......Read More
Scooter in the Outside
Scooter in the Outside | ReadKiddoRead.com THE OUTSIDE! It makes Scooter so happy he wags his tail: THWAPPA-THWAPPA-THUMP! Scooter is a plump, sunny yellow dog. He lives in the suburbs with Lucy and the highlight of his day is their walk. But when he and Lucy get to THE CORNER, Lucy alway......Read More
Scorpia Rising: An Alex Rider Misson (Alex Rider series)
Action and adventure abound in this ninth and final installment of Anthony Horowitz's thrilling Alex Rider series. After eight dangerous and daring missions, the teen spy has come to his last. But this mission is like no other. The danger is greater, the stakes higher, the villains deadlie......Read More
See You at Harry's
At the center of See You at Harry's is Fern, who is about to embark on her first year of middle school. On the first pages of the novel, Fern reflects on a childhood memory of her mother reading to her from Charlotte's Web. Once finished, her mother asks: "Do you......Read More
Seraphina is a first novel (by a comic book creator) and it is astonishingly good; intelligent, original, heartbreaking, and I say this even though I am not a big fan of dragon fantasies, which this is (at least in part). It must also be said, upfront, that it's a challenging read – ......Read More
Shark vs. Train
Shark vs. Train | ReadKiddoRead.com With teeth bared and menacing looks on their fierce profiles, a big turquoise shark and a smoke-belching gray-blue train engine are gearing up for an intense confrontation. The shark sneers, "I'M GOING TO CHOO-CHOO YOU UP AND SPIT YOU OUT," and the unintimid......Read More
Hoshi is a small starfish that doesn't want to live in the sea; he wants to shine in the heavens among the other stars. As he laments his life underwater he wishes for more colorful friends (while swimming past beautiful coral and tropical fish), endless possibilities (while in the midst ......Read More
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackeleton and the Endurance
Filled with intriguing details and written with dramatic intensity, this riveting account of the ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition reads like a gripping adventure novel. In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton attempted to be the first explorer to cross Antarctica by foot "from sea to sea." O......Read More
Shredderman: Secret Identity (Shredderman series)
Shredderman: Secret Identity (Shredderman series) | ReadKiddoRead.com Now that he is in fifth grade, Nolan Byrd—called Byrd-the-Nerd by his arch enemy, his lying, cheating, stealing, bullying classmate, Bubba— would love to do something about Bubba. Problem: Nolan is half Bubba's s......Read More
A superhero, smart pets with incredible powers, and a story told in graphic novel format are all sure ways to captivate young readers' hearts! Captain Amazing decides he needs a sidekick when, while trying to collar four supervillains, he falls and crashes into a peanut vendor, trigge......Read More
Sideways Stories from Wayside School
There are strange things afoot on the thirtieth story of Wayside School. The classroom's first teacher, the wicked Mrs. Gorf, turned all her children into apples, but had to be replaced when they reversed her spell, turned her into an apple, and she accidentally was eaten by Louis, the sch......Read More
Younger children with a bat phobia learn to get over it and love the flying mice when they read Janell Cannon's classic picture book, Stellaluna. Older readers are enthralled when they meet Shade, the rebellious and nonconformist bat in Kenneth Oppel's trilogy, starting with Silverwing. Run......Read More
Simms Taback's City Animals
Simms Taback's City Animals | ReadKiddoRead.com Labeled a "giant fold-out book," this appealing and colorful animal book contains a series of six riddles that even the youngest child will delight in solving again and again. On the first heavystock page is an illustration of what appears to be ......Read More
Sketchy: The Bea Catcher Chronicles, Book 1
Bea is fresh out of rehab, fending off her former drug dealer and struggling to stay straight. Her parents don't trust her. Their vigilance, suspicions and over-protectiveness are unnerving. She's been kicked out of her fancy day school, and is unenthusiastically starting over at the......Read More
Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio
"Polio is a highly contagious disease. In 1949, there were 42,033 cases reported in the United States. One of those was a twelve-year-old girl in Austin, Minnesota: Peg Schulze. Me." Chapter 1 of children's book author Peg Kehret's astute memoir is titled "The Diagnosis." It started on a Fri......Read More
Smart Dog
On her walk to school, fifth grader Amy Prochenko encounters a medium-sized, long-furred brown, white, and black dog with floppy ears. "Excuse me," he says, "I'm in trouble. Could you please help me?" Though she is panicked at encountering a talking dog, Amy stops to listen. The dog's name is F-......Read More
Snake and Lizard
Snake and Lizard | ReadKiddoRead.com Though their first encounter ends with a heated argument when Lizard accuses Snake of blocking his path with her tail, they soon realize they like each other a lot. Through 15 delightful short stories, rich with dialogue and illustrated with diminutive pen ......Read More
Snow Day
Snow Day | ReadKiddoRead.com Mommy wakes the little rabbit narrator early one morning to announce that it has been snowing all night. Kindergarten is closed, the school bus is stuck, and Daddy's flight has been canceled. Mama doesn't want her little one to catch cold, but the bunny sneaks outs......Read More
So You Want to be President?
"There are good things about being president and there are bad things about being president." Thus starts the 2001 Caldecott Medal winner, a riotously funny, trivia and anecdote-loaded picture book tribute to the number one job in the U.S., illustrated with grandly humorous but affectionate wate......Read More
SPHDZ Book #1! (Spaceheadz series)
It's Michael K.'s first day in a new school, P.S. 868, in a new city, Brooklyn, New York, and though he's only been there for twenty minutes, it's already seriously weird. His new teacher, Mrs. Halley, has put him in the slow group with two strange new kids. How strange? The new girl just ate ha......Read More
Splendors and Glooms
Justice, redemption and salvation all come into play in this gripping mix of gothic horror and historical fantasy. In a Dickensian London made eerie by evil and magic, two orphans, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall, live with the puppeteer Grisini. Their lives are grim enough when they make a sinist......Read More
Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth
Prez Mellows is already a bit traumatized when he's sent to live with a foster family on a farm near Scotland's border with England. When the doorbell rings during his first dinner with the very talkative, incredibly loud, Blythe family, Prez goes to answer it even though the recent ......Read More
Stanford Wong Flunks Big-time
Because he's just flunked sixth-grade English, Stanford Wong, who thinks of himself as "the only stupid Chinese kid in America," won't be able to go to basketball camp this summer. Instead, he'll be taking a summer school English class with Mr. Glick, AKA Teacher Torturer. If he fails it, he'll ......Read More
Stink: The Incredible Shrinking Kid (Stink series)
Stink: The Incredible Shrinking Kid (Stink series) | ReadKiddoRead.com Fans of the Judy Moody series about an outspoken and assertive third grade girl have been glad to see a whole new spin-off series about her younger brother, Stink, just as Beezus fans love books about her little sister, Ram......Read More
Stinky | ReadKiddoRead.com In an easy-to-read purple and green-toned graphic novel, greet the day with Stinky, a round-headed purple swamp creature, and his pet toad, Wartbelly, as they emerge from their smelly cave filled with rats, bats, and pickled onions, and go for a morning stroll in the......Read More
Straight to the Pole
Straight to the Pole | ReadKiddoRead.com "Frozen and alone. Pressing on through the snow." Swathed in winter gear and a backpack, a solitary child trudges through a fierce snowstorm, braving wind and ice. Wearing a stocking cap and a scarf tied around his (or her-the gender is never specified......Read More
Strong Man: The Story of Charles Atlas
Strong Man: The Story of Charles Atlas | ReadKiddoRead.com Remember the Charles Atlas ads in the back of the comic books declaring, "Don't be a 97-pound weakling! Don't let bullies kick sand in your face!"? Did you know he was a real guy? An inspiration for all us flab-filled folks, this peppy......Read More
Stuck on Earth
Ketchvar III, a snail-like creature on a mission from the planet Sandoval IV, begins his narrative thus: "We are skimming over the New Jersey countryside in full search mode, hunting a fourteen-year-old." Down below, a target has been selected: Tom Filber. Much to Tom's horror, Ketchvar crawls o......Read More
Ethan Feld hates baseball. The whole league calls him "Dog Boy," because he's always wanting a walk-he's the worst player in the history of baseball. The day the Roosters face the Angels, the only people holding Ethan back from quitting for good are his father and the team's star, Jennifer T. (n......Read More
Super Emma (Emma series)
Super Emma (Emma series) | ReadKiddoRead.com Even though Emma has never thought of herself as especially brave, when Jared Matthews takes her friend EllRay's plastic action figure and threatens to break the wings off, Emma jumps into the fray, grabbing the toy and yelling, "Quit it, you big bu......Read More
Sure as Sunrise: Stories of Bruh Rabbit and His Walkin' Talkin' Friends
Sure as Sunrise: Stories of Bruh Rabbit and His Walkin' Talkin' Friends | ReadKiddoRead.com Retold by a master storyteller who recalls each story from her North Carolina childhood, these five crackling traditional African American folktales about the crafty trickster Bruh Rabbit and his animal......Read More
Surprising Sharks
Surprising Sharks | ReadKiddoRead.com Learn about sharks and their way of life, thanks to a punchy text, easily accessible to all, water-logged acrylic and pastel illustrations, and cool facts—"Sand tiger sharks give birth to just two live young— which is all that's left after thos......Read More
Survivors: The Empty City
In SURVIVORS, Erin Hunter, creator of the popular WARRIORS series, introduces us to a world of dogs rather than cats. Readers will find it as compelling, eye-opening and exciting as its feline counterpart. Lucky, a sheltie-retriever mix, wakes from a dream of his mother telling him the stor......Read More
Sixth grader Griffin Bing is known as the Man with the Plan. But out of the 29 kids he invited to his secret sleepover at the old Rockford house the night before it is to be torn down, only Griffin and his best friend Ben Slovak show up. Just because it's dusty and dark and supposedly haunted is......Read More
This rhyming, interactive, lift-the-flap, elongated board book introduces the Goodnight, Moon and Dear Zoo set to dozens of smiling animal parents and their little ones, all proudly displaying their singular tails. "Tails furry," it begins, and indeed, the tail of the tiger cub is rendered in bl......Read More
Tales From Outer Suburbia
Tired of living in suburbia or wherever you are? Why not try an alternate reality with the bizarre stories, poems, and musings, accompanied by even more surreal drawings, doodlings, and full-color paintings from the strange brain of Shaun Tan. (Tan is the innovative Australian artist who brought......Read More
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
Peter Hatcher has an almost-three-year-old brother named Fudge, who not only receives all their parents' attention, but gets away with everything. The only time Peter likes him is when Fudge is sleeping, sucking his thumb and making a slurping sound. Peter walks home to his family's apartment on......Read More
Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon
When reading nonfiction, it's grand to discover something new. Tell me something I don't know! Or tell me something I do know, but present it in such a way as to make it feel brand new. In 2009, we celebrated the fortieth anniversary of a most memorable summer. Here on Earth, the New York Thruwa......Read More
Tell Me the Day Backwards
Tell Me the Day Backwards | ReadKiddoRead.com Parents and children will know they have found a tale destined to become a classic as soon as they open the cover and find endpapers featuring a sepia-toned, full-spread illustration of a hillside. This has been Timmy Bear's playground throughout t......Read More
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
"There was one little baby who was born far away. And another who was born on the very next day. And both of those babies, as everyone knows, had ten little fingers and ten little toes." In a rhyming tribute to babies across the globe, interspersed with the title's joyous chantable refrain, a mu......Read More
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes | ReadKiddoRead.com "There was one little baby who was born far away. And another who was born on the very next day. And both of those babies, as everyone knows, had ten little fingers and ten little toes." In a rhyming tribute to babies across the globe,......Read More
Ten Rules for Living with My Sister
Being Lexie's younger sister isn't easy. Pearl keeps a chart about just how unfair it is: Lexie Pearl Age: 13 going on 14 9 (just barely) Friends:......Read More
The 5th Wave
Depending on how attached you are to your smart phone/tablet/computer, the "first wave" of attack by malevolent aliens intent on wiping out the human race in Yancey's gripping thriller will either make you chuckle, or send a chill down your spine. The aliens opening move is to ......Read More
The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation
A graphic novel adaptation of the 9/11 Commission's 800-page The 9/11 Report: The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States? You saw it here first! This amazing comic book actuallybreaks down the events of and events leading up to the unforgettable attacks of September 11th......Read More
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
"I was born with water on the brain." So begins the digressive and loquacious narrative and cartoon drawings of 14-year-old Arnold Spirit, better known as Junior. He lays out his limitations straight off: too much cerebral spinal fluid at birth has left him nearsighted in one eye and......Read More
The Adventures of Nanny Piggins
Desperate to find a nanny for his three children—eleven-year-old Derrick, nine-year-old Samantha, and seven-year-old Michael—Mr. Green, a parsimonious and dreadfully boring lawyer, pounds a sign for a nanny on his front lawn. After three weeks with no response, he is only too willing......Read More
The Amulet of Samarkand (The Bartimaeus Trilogy series)
Harry Potter fans, rejoice. Here's the first of The Bartimaeus Trilogy, a crackling and original English fantasy that takes place in an alternate London. The viewpoint alternates between the overblown, self-possessed, wisecracking and sometimes put-upon narrative of a 5,000-year-old djinni, Bart......Read More
The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride series)
Many kids daydream about having wings and being able to soar across the sky. Be careful what you wish for. For the narrator, 14-year-old Max, it's no dream. "Welcome to our nightmare," she says in her Prologue to the first book in the electric Maximum Ride series. Maximum Ride ......Read More
The Arrival
When you first pick up this very brown and battered-looking wordless picture book graphic novel with the sepia-toned photograph on the cover, of a man in a suit and 1950s-style fedora, carrying an old suitcase, it looks like an old photo album you found up in your grandparents' attic. Then you l......Read More
The Astonishing Color of After
Leigh Chen Sanders knows her mother is a bird. She's seen her, a majestic red bird with a huge wingspan, on the doorstep late at night. In the long, quiet aftermath of her mother's suicide, Leigh craves her presence. Then one night, the bird delivers a box full of artifacts from her ......Read More
The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man
The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man | ReadKiddoRead.com Readers: Brace yourselves to meet Awesome Man. This young superhero is totally dedicated to vanquishing crime. His mission keeps him utterly absorbed 24/7, except for brief respites to eat and sleep. His nonstop, fantastic fantasy adven......Read More
The Austere Academy (A Series of Unfortunate Events series)
In Book the Fifth of the melodramatic but farcical and vocabulary-enhancing saga of the unremittingly unfortunate Baudelaire siblings, "A Series of Unfortunate Events," the three orphans are sent to Prufrock Prep, a dreadful boarding school whose uplifting motto is "Memento Mori" (Latin fo......Read More
The Bake Shop Ghost
The Bake Shop Ghost | ReadKiddoRead.com Miss Cora Lee Merriweather may not be the sweetest of women, with her "lemon-pucker mouth and hair scraped back into a hard little bun," but she runs the best bake shop in town. "The chocolate in her Mississippi mud pie was darker that the devil's own he......Read More
The Big Fat Cow That Goes Kapow
The Big Fat Cow That Goes Kapow | ReadKiddoRead.com The title pretty much sums it up: this is a silly book, containing sillier rhymes, to tell the silliest of stories. It stars characters such as "a mixed up cow which flaps its wings and says meow" and "Noel -- the hole-dwelling, coal-eating,......Read More
The Big Splash
Now you don't have to wait until you're older to appreciate the dark, hip, wiseguy first person detective style of Dashiell Hammett in The Maltese Falcon and Raymond Chandler in The Big Sleep. Move over Bogart, now there's Matt Stevens on the job, a worthy successor to Sam Spade and Philip Marlo......Read More
The Bill Martin Jr Big Book of Poetry
The Bill Martin Jr Big Book of Poetry | ReadKiddoRead.com When you're looking for larger, more substantial books to give as presents to the children in your life, books that will be savored and read over and over, don't neglect collections of poetry. Maybe you had to read too many serious anth......Read More
The Birthday Box
"Happy birthday to me," sings the jovial little toddler, clad in a white diaper and a striped birthday hat. "Look! I got a present!" he announces. It's a box as big as he is, wrapped in polka dotted paper and ribbon. What's inside? A big brown box! What's inside? It's a doggy! He names the littl......Read More
The Black Book of Secrets
Young pickpocket Ludlow Fitch manages to escape from the dank and squalid basement where the notorious tooth surgeon of Old Goat's Alley, Barton Gumbroot, plans to extract the boy's teeth for money, assisted by Ludlow's own drunken and larcenous parents. There's no place he can hide in the......Read More
The Bloomswell Diaries
The Bloomswell Diaries is a steampunk adventure story, centered on eight-year-old Benjamin Bloomswell. (If you're unfamiliar with the term, steampunk is a new science fiction genre. Think Jules Verne, steam-powered machines, airships, and Victorian aspects.) While Benjamin is no hero, the......Read More
The Book Thief
How can humans be so beautiful and glorious…and so ugly and destructive? For teens who are ready to explore this question with author Markus Zusak, The Book Thief will be an unforgettable journey and quite a read. A warning, though: The book takes place in Germany during WWII and ......Read More
The Boy Who Invented TV: The Story of Philo Farnsworth
First, before you dig in to this handsome picture book biography about inventor, Philo (pronounced Phil-o) Farnsworth, the author includes a one-page essay about life on a farm in the American West in 1906, where Philo was born in a log cabin in Utah. Back then, there were no refrigerators, cars......Read More
The Candy Smash
What's fourth grade all about? Friendships, secrets, classroom drama, and the start of figuring out who you are. And, when it's close to Valentine's Day, fourth grade is about first romance. On top of that, Mrs. Overton, Jessie and Evan Treski's teacher, has chosen this......Read More
The Case of the Cat with the Missing Ear (The Adventures of Samuel Blackthorne series)
Meet Yorkshire terrier detective Samuel Blackthorne as seen through the eyes of his chronicler, friend, and fellow canine, Edward R. Smithfield, a retired veterinarian. In their first thrilling case together, they come to the assistance of elegant greyhound, Molly Kirkpatrick, who seeks their he......Read More
The Case of the Gasping Garbage
The Case of the Gasping Garbage | ReadKiddoRead.com Meet Doyle and Fossey, science detectives, in their first lively collaboration, a series of four pithy science mysteries. Fifth grader Drake Doyle, scientific genius, and his nature-loving lab partner, Nell Fossey, take on four tough cases. T......Read More
The Case of the Lost Boy (The Buddy Files series)
The Case of the Lost Boy (The Buddy Files series) | ReadKiddoRead.com What's that lovely smell? Eggs, bacon, toothpaste and dirt. King, dog detective, will have to sniff it out. But he's working alone these days, without his human partner Kayla, since she and Mom and Dad disappeared and King ......Read More
The Catcher in the Rye
"I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera. It's terrible." Holden Caulfield takes the reader from post-World War II prep scho......Read More
The Cheese
The Cheese | ReadKiddoRead.com "What a waste of a chunk of cheddar," the rat grumbles, gazing at the huge wedge of cheese down in the dell. It looks so yellow, so mellow, and so tasty. Defying the posted rules and regulations, which state, "The cheese stands alone," the rat grabs a napkin and ......Read More
The Chicken of the Family
The Chicken of the Family | ReadKiddoRead.com As the youngest of three, I put up with all sorts of teasing and tricks when I was a wee chick, so I completely identified with Henrietta, the smallest of three sisters in this satisfying tale of gullibility and chickens coming home to roost. "We h......Read More
The Chocolate Touch
The Chocolate Touch | ReadKiddoRead.com Most of the time, John Midas was a nice, well-behaved boy. In fact, he only had one fault, but it was a big one. He was candy mad. He devoured it every day, never shared it, and spent all of his money to buy more. In this modern-day cautionary tale, whic......Read More
The City of Ember (Books of Ember series)
In the City of Ember in year 241, the sky is always dark. There is no moon, or even sun in Ember. The electric lights come on every morning at six, and go out every night at nine. The city is old, and everything, including the power lines, needs repair. Whenever the lights go out, the city is pl......Read More
The Clockwork Three
If your kiddo has ever felt the pressure of overwhelming responsibility, a sense of being alone in an endeavor, or even just the strain of trying to make a few bucks, he or she will easily relate to the characters in this book. Add a touch of romance (not too much), a lot of adventure and a bit......Read More
The Conch Bearer
Since Anand's father left his family in India to go work in Dubai, he's stopped sending home checks, leaving 12-year- old Anand, his ill younger sister, Meera, and their mother destitute. Anand now works in the Bowbajar Market as a dishwasher at a tea stall, scrubbing the pots and glasses till h......Read More
The Dangerous Days of Daniel X (Daniel X series)
"I wish that I didn't sometimes, but I remember everything about that cursed, unspeakably unhappy night twelve years ago, when I was just three years old and both my parents were murdered." That's just the start of Daniel's extraordinary narrative that grabs you by the scruff of the ......Read More
The Dark Unwinding
The Dark Unwinding will wind readers up in deliciously complicated knots. Nothing is quite as it seems … until all is explained at the end with total satisfaction. This "dark and stormy night" sort of gothic tale is made even more captivating with its totally original premis......Read More
The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors
Just when you think you've read about every possible subject, someone comes up with a biography about someone you never heard of who did something groundbreaking. Think Wilson "Willie" Bentley (who was the first person to photograph snowflakes, as described in Snowflake Bentley......Read More
The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins: An Illuminating History of Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, Artist and Lecturer
While the cover looks like a large picture book fantasy story about dinosaurs, you'll quickly realize that this is the astonishing true account of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, who in 1853 put together the first ever life-sized cement-cast models of dinosaurs, including an iguanadon and a forty-f......Read More
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
The story begins at the end, with a letter addressed to the headmaster and Board of Directors at Alabaster Preparatory Academy, one of the country's most elite private boarding schools. It begins: "I, Frankie Landau-Banks, hereby confess that I was the sole mastermind behind the mal-doings o......Read More
The Doghouse
The sky is sky blue; the day is sunny. Cow kicks the red ball, but it goes over the outstretched arms of Mouse, Duck, and Pig. "Oh no! The ball went into THE DOGHOUSE!" On the next double page, the now indigo sky surrounds a sinister-looking orange doghouse, with a thunderbolt cracking above the......Read More
The Dogs of Winter
Readers will be riveted by five-year-old Ivan's tragic transformation from Mishka, his mother's little bear, into Malchik, dog boy, a member of a pack of feral dogs trying to survive on the streets of St. Petersburg. Although a stark lesson in human-failing, this story, based on an a......Read More
The Dragon of Cripple Creek
Katlin Graham, better known as Kat, loves gold. So much so that she named her childhood pony Goldie. So much so that when she was four and broke a front tooth she insisted on having it capped in gold. So much so that when she sees an ad on the interstate for tours of the Mollie Kathleen Gold Min......Read More
The Dragonfly Pool
It's 1939, and in London, it seems as if war with Hitler is imminent. Dr. James Hamilton, a dedicated, low-paid London doctor and a widower, is reluctantly sending away his only child, eleven-year-old Tally, on scholarship to Delderton, a boarding school in the south of England, to escape the expect......Read More
The Dunderheads
The Dunderheads | ReadKiddoRead.com "'Never,' shrieked Miss Breakbone, 'have I been asked to teach such a scraping-together of such fiddling, twiddling, time-squandering, mind-wandering, doodling, dozing, don't know dunderheads!'" If the Trunchbull (the terrifying headmistress from Roald Dahl'......Read More
The Emerald Atlas (The Books of Beginning series)
"Remember your father and I love you very much. And we will all be together again. I promise." Although only four-years-old at the time, Kate remembers the vow her mother made when she and her younger siblings were hurriedly, inexplicably sent away a decade ago. Since then, Kate,......Read More
The Fairy Ring: Or Elsie and Frances Fool the World
How long could you keep a secret? Sixty years? This is a true story about a nine-year-old girl named Frances Griffiths who saw fairies - tiny men, dressed all in green - by the waterfall behind her house in England. Impossible, you say? That's just what her parents said. But Frances&rs......Read More
The False Prince
Years ago, a rebellious prince named Jaron was sent away in exile from the castle; only his ship was attacked by pirates, and all aboard were presumed dead. Now the country of Carthya is on the brink of civil war. The royal family has been murdered and political tensions run high as the nobles p......Read More
The Fastest Game on Two Feet: And Other Poems About How Sports Began
Poet Alice Low has always loved sports and writing poetry, so it's only natural that she should have written a collection of twenty winning poems explaining how each of 19 sports came to be. An introductory paragraph before each poem lays out factual information, but the poems themselves are ful......Read More
The Fault in Our Stars
It's not hard to wrench emotion out of a story featuring two teens battling cancer; it's much harder to produce a novel on such a heavy topic that manages to be as funny as it is heartbreaking. Hazel Lancaster dropped out of school at 13 to concentrate on getting well. Now 16, sh......Read More
The Feel Good Book
The Feel Good Book | ReadKiddoRead.com I'm feeling kinda down in the dumps, out of sorts, not so great, when I pick up a copy of The Feel Good Book. There, on the cover, is a smiling lady with a bright yellow face and pink big hair, dancing beside a blue-faced guy with six ropes of black hair ......Read More
The Field Guide (The Spiderwick Chronicles series)
In the first book of the Spiderwick Chronicles, nine-year-old Jared, his twin, Simon, and their thirteen-year-old sister, Mallory, move with their mother to Great-aunt Lucinda's broken down Victorian mansion. Ever since their dad left, everything has gone wrong for Jared, and he has been getting......Read More
The Five Lives of Our Cat Zook
Oona has a gift for telling whoppers, but her story about Zook is as real as they come and illustrates that it is possible to endure loss and still feel hope and love. Oona has a world of worry on her mind. The family cat, Zook (short for Zucchini) is in an animal hospital, and Oona wants to......Read More
The Flint Heart
When Katherine Paterson, the United States Ambassador for Children's Books, and her husband John Paterson saw The Flint Heart on a list of author's picks from the 20th century that should still be read in the new millennium, they were intrigued. When they read Eden Phillpott's......Read More
The Fox Inheritance (The Jenna Fox Chronicles series)
A devastating car accident left three teens at the brink of death; one, the daughter of a biomedical pioneer named Matthew Fox, was saved; the other two languished for 260 years before technology caught up with their medical injuries. All that time, Locke and Kara, were not actually lying in......Read More
The Girl in the Park
The best mysteries give a reader all the clues needed to solve the crime. The best mysteries are full of surprises that keep a reader guessing and wondering and turning pages as fast as possible. The best mysteries end with a solution that ties up loose ends and makes satisfying sense. The G......Read More
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Lonely twelve-year-old September is well-versed in fairytales and ready for an adventure, so nothing seems more fitting than when a green man riding a flying leopard comes to whisk her away from a sink full of dirty dishes to Fairyland. September is not a cold-hearted child, but like popular her......Read More
The Girl With the Broken Heart
Having read a number of McDaniels books, The Girl With the Broken Heart tops the rest in sappy cliche moments, but buttons out on quality only a few chapters in. If you are familiar with any of the author's other offerings (she has written over 70 books), the track of this story will be a famili......Read More
The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials series)
Twelve-year-old orphan Lyra Belacqua lives at Oxford University's Jordan College, where she has managed to avoid being educated by the scholars who look after her and runs wild. In this parallel world to ours, everyone has a daemon attached to them always-a sort of alter ego in animal form. Lyra......Read More
The Grand Plan to Fix Everything
Eleven-year-old Dini adores Bollywood movies, those entertaining Hindi musicals set in India and filled with grand production numbers, adventure, and romance. But as summer vacation begins, Dini's life is upended when she learns that instead of the two weeks of Bollywood dance camp with her b......Read More
The Graveyard Book
The man Jack sets out to kill the whole family, especially the baby, barely a toddler, but the child wanders away in the night, ending up in the nearby graveyard. Mistress Owens and her husband, ghosts, both of them, dead 250 years now, discover the newly orphaned boy and they become his adoptiv......Read More
The Great Cake Mystery
The Great Cake Mystery | ReadKiddoRead.com There's no mystery about why mysteries are reliably popular. The best of them are so exciting that pages practically turn by themselves. Precious Ramotswe is the protagonist of Alexander McCall Smith's best-selling adult series, The No. 1 Ladies'......Read More
The Hate U Give
Instant #1 New York Times bestseller, 7 starred reviews, a major motion picture with superstar actors…who hasn't heard of THE HATE U GIVE? This debut novel is one of publishing's Cinderella stories: the book sold in a budget-busting 13-house auction to HarperCollins after the ......Read More
The Hazel Wood
All 17-year-old Alice Proserpine has ever known is life on the road, moving from one temporary residence to another, staying with people her mother Ella knows "till our welcome wore through at the elbows," always hoping to outrun an eerie string of bad luck. Then Ell......Read More
The Heart and Mind of Frances Pauley
"Figgrottten." This is the highly unusual name that eleven-year-old Frances Pauley invents for herself. As the reader may predict, the girl is probably as unusual as her name. That prediction would be correct. Figgrotten is very intelligent, introverted, loved by her parents and plagued by......Read More
The Helpful Puppy
Comfortably old-fashioned illustrations help to tell the simple story of the brown-and-white puppy who lives on a farm and wants, more than anything, to help out. After all, the other animals have jobs to do! This puppy will try anything, and in page after page he does. Maybe he can cr......Read More
The Homework Machine
Starting with a stern statement from the Grand Canyon, Arizona Police Chief Rebecca Fish, meet four fifth graders in big trouble. There's long-haired, rebellious, cool guy Sam Dawkins; fun-loving, unacademic, pink-haired Kelsey Donnelly, African American grind Judy Douglas, and friendless genius......Read More
The Houdini Box
The Houdini Box | ReadKiddoRead.com Awed by the feats of escape artist Harry Houdini, ten-year-old Victor aspires to be a magician, too. When he was eight, Victor read about Houdini's escape from an iron milk can in under twenty seconds. Locking himself inside his grandmother's trunk, Victor w......Read More
The Humming Room
After her father and his girlfriend are murdered, under-developed but life-hardened Roo is sent to live with a rich uncle she never knew she had. Uncle Emmett lives on Cough Island in a partly renovated tuberculosis sanitarium for children. Almost as soon as Roo arrives, he departs, leaving......Read More
The Hunger Games (Hunger Games series)
Katniss Everdeen, sixteen, lives with her mother and twelve-year-old sister Prim. The story is set in the future, in a land called Parem, a nation of twelve districts that rose from the ashes of an ancient area called North America long ago. It used to house thirteen districts, but a rebellion a......Read More
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Brian Selznick, who won a Caldecott Honor for his spectacular illustrations in Barbara Kerley's extraordinary biography, The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins, has written and illustrated a wholly original, innovative and breathtaking masterpiece that bends all the rules of novel writing and illus......Read More
The King of Show-and-Tell (Ready, Freddy! series)
The King of Show-and-Tell (Ready, Freddy! series) | ReadKiddoRead.com It's Freddy Thresher's turn for show-and-tell on Monday, and he'd sure like to find something as cool as the alligator head classmate Robbie brought for show-and-tell today. When he rescues a baby bird that has fallen from ......Read More
The Knights of the Kitchen Table (Time Warp Trio series)
The Knights of the Kitchen Table (Time Warp Trio series) | ReadKiddoRead.com Want your children to find the fun in history? Have them travel back in time with the "Time Warp Trio" series. Sure, it's been a hit on the Discovery Kids Channel on TV, but the wacky books came first, and they're sti......Read More
The Last Dragonslayer
Jennifer Strange is far too young to be in charge of running anything, but at Kazam Mystical Arts Management, she's all they've got. The real boss, the Great Zambini, disappeared in a puff of smoke at a child's birthday party and hasn't been seen or heard from in six mont......Read More
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles
Lindy, Thomas, and Benjamin, three ordinary siblings, ages 7 to 13, are at the zoo when they first encounter Professor Savant. You'll excuse me for butting in," he says to them. "But if you're looking for something really unusual, have you ever considered a Whangdoodle?" According to the profess......Read More
The Legend of Bass Reeves
If you still idolize Wild West men like Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, Wyatt Earp, and Kit Carson, author Gary Paulsen will soon set you straight. In his Foreword, he smokes out all of these icons as racist, thieving, shiftless cowards, chronic alcoholics, and outright thugs. In their place he of......Read More
The Lemonade War
Evan Treski has been feeling angry and humiliated ever since he found out that his little sister Jessie will be skipping third grade. "You ruin everything . . . I hate you," he tells her, even though he really doesn't. Evan has always been her friend and protector, and Jessie c......Read More
The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson series)
"Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life. Being a half-blood is danger......Read More