1. Allsburg, V. C. (2019). The polar express. London: Andersen Press.
Blog: Van Allsburg's Polar Express is an old-fashioned steam train that takes children to the North Pole on Christmas Eve to meet the red-suited gentleman and to see him off on his annual sleigh ride. This is a personal retelling of the adult storyteller's adventures as a youngster on that train. The full-page images are theatrically lit. The light comes only from windows of buildings and the train or from a moon that's never depicted. Shadows create dark spaces and model the naturalistic figures of children, wolves, trees, old-fashioned furniture and buildings. Santa Claus and his reindeer seem like so many of the icons bought by parents to decorate yards and rooftops: static. These are scenes from a memory of long ago, a dreamy reconstruction of a symbolic experience, a pleasant remembrance rebuilt to fulfill a current wish: if only you believe, you too will hear the ringing of the silver bell that Santa gave him.
Summary: A magical train ride on Christmas Eve takes a boy to the North Pole to receive a special gift from Santa Claus.
Similar Titles: The first flight of St. Nicholas by Harry Knights; SantaKid by James Patterson
2. Brown, M. (2020). Stone soup. Atheneum Children's Books.
Blog: Three soldiers came marching down the road towards a French village. The peasants seeing them coming, suddenly became very busy, for soldiers are often hungry. So all the food was hidden under mattresses or in barns. There followed a battle of wits, with the soldiers equal to the occasion. Stone soup? Why, of course, they could make a wonderful soup of stones...but, of course, one must add a carrot or tow...some meat...so it went. Marcia Brown has made of this old tale a very gay book, a carnival of activity, of dancing and laughter. So much goes on in the pictures that children who have once heard the story will turn to them again and again, retelling the story for themselves.
Summary: When three hungry soldiers come to a town where all the food has been hidden, they set out to make soup of water and stones, and all the town enjoys a feast.
Similar Titles: Stone soup by Ann McGovern; Bone soup by Cambria Evans
3. Burton, V. L. (1946). The little house. story and pictures by V.L. Burton. London: Faber & Faber.
Blog: The story centers on a house built at the top of a small hill, far out in the country in 1900 America. Her builder decrees that she "may never be sold for gold or silver" but is built sturdy enough to one day see his great-great-grandchildren's great-great-grandchildren living in her. The house watches the seasons pass, and wonders about the lights of the city, which grow ever closer in the year 1915. Eventually a road is built in front of the house. This is followed by roadside stands, gas stations, and more little houses. Next, the small houses are replaced by tenements and apartments in the year 1925. Streetcars, an elevated railroad, and a subway appear to surround the house in the year 1930. Finally, two gigantic skyscrapers are built—one on each side; now living in the city in the year 1940, the house is sad because she misses being on the small hill in the countryside and that her exterior looks shabby due to no one living in her and the city's environment thanks to urban sprawl and poor planning. One day the great-great-granddaughter of the builder sees the house and remembers stories that her grandmother told about living in just such a house, albeit far out in the country. When the great-great-granddaughter discovers that it is the same house, she arranges to have her moved out of the city, to a hill in the country where she can once again watch the seasons pass and live happily ever after.
Summary: A country house is unhappy when the city, with all its buildings and traffic, grows up around her.
Similar Titles: A house that once was by Julie Fagliano; The little house: her story by Virginia Lee Burton
4. Lionni, L., & Reenen, C. V. (1977). Swimmy. Deventer: Ankh-Hermes.
Blog: Swimmy, the little black fish and lone survivor in a school of red ones, devises an ingenious scheme for protecting a new school of fish friends. Lionni has illustrated his clever story with a series of astonishingly beautiful seascapes full of undulating watery nuances of shape, pattern, and color.
Summary: Swimmy, a small black fish, finds a way to protect a school of small red fish from their natural enemies.
Similar Titles: Fish is fish by Leo Lionni; Louis the fish by Arthur Yorinks
5. Lobel, A. (1970). Frog and toad are friends. Toronto, ON: Scholastic.
Blog: In this chapter book, Frog and Toad go on many adventures as friends. The story opens with Frog going to Toad’s house to wake him up from his long nap. Toad refuses to get up but Frog convinced him that it was springtime and that it was time to explore. Later, Frog and Toad go on a walk and Toad loses the button on his coat. The two of them search all day for the button but soon Toad realizes the button fell off at his house. The next chapter is about a day when Frog and Toad go swimming. Toad is very embarrassed by his swimsuit so he asks that Frog not look at him while he gets into the river. Frog and Toad are having a great swim but when it’s time to go Toad again asks Frog and all the other animals not to look at him. None of the animals agree and when Toad gets out, they all laugh at him. This makes Toad sad so he goes home. The final chapter is about a letter that Frog wrote to Toad. He wrote Toad the letter because Toad said he never got mail. In the letter Frog thanks Toad for being a great friend! Almost every page has an illustration on it. The illustrations are small but have great detail in them when you take a close look! The illustrations breakdown the text, making the text easier to read for kids in the younger elementary grades.
Summary: Presents five tales about the adventures of best friends Frog and Toad.
Similar Titles: Frog and Toad storybook favorites by Arnold Lobel; Sir Toad and Mr. Frog: a hoppy hap chance encounter by Christine Dockrill
6. McCloskey, R. (1969). Make way for ducklings / (children books). New York: Viking Press.
Blog: The story tells of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard who travel to find a perfect place to raise their ducklings. After searching and searching, they finally find the perfect place near Boston’s Public Garden. The ducklings – Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouak, Pack and Quack- all have to travel together to meet Mr. Mallard across town. As the ducklings travel with Mrs. Mallard through the streets of Boston, the police aid them in their quest. At the end of the story the family is finally reunited. Before reading this book, students will need an understanding of words related to ducks.
Summary: Mr. and Mrs. Mallard proudly return to their home in the Boston Public Garden with their eight offspring.
Similar Titles: The other ducks by Ellen Yeomans; Little one step by James Simon
7. Newberry, C. T. (2008). Marshmallow. New York, NY: Harper.
Blog: Marshmallow is a small baby bunny who comes to live in an apartment in Manhattan, NY. He is the roommate of a spoiled cat named Oliver (a gray tabby). Oliver & Marshmallow are taken care of by Miss Tilly who is a housekeeper. Oliver gets his dinner every night served to him on a plate in the kitchen. This night however there is something else waiting for him…Marshmallow. When Marshmallow first arrives he is very scared & he misses his mother. But it isn’t long before he gets fed & gets his own bed, he doesn’t get along with Oliver though. One day while Miss Tilly is gone Oliver sees Marshmallow playing & hopping around, then before you know it the pair are like two peas in a pod. It turns out that Marshmallow with his red eyes & big ears, isn’t so bad after all!
Summary: Oliver, a set-in-his-ways tabby cat, gets a little shook up when his owner, Miss Tilly, brings a baby bunny named Marshmallow to live with them.
Similar Titles: Cat & Bunny by Mary Lundquist; Two bunny buddies by Kathryn Galbraith
8. Seuss. (2018). Bartholomew and the Oobleck. New York: Random House Children's Books.
Blog: Join Bartholomew Cubbins in Dr. Seuss's classic tale of one king's magical mishap. Bored with rain, sun, fog, and snow, King Derwin of Didd summons his royal magicians to create something new and exciting to fall from the sky. What he gets is a storm of sticky green globs called Oobleck, which soon causes a royal mess. But with the assistance of the wise page boy Bartholomew, the king (along with young readers) learns that the simplest words can sometimes solve the biggest problems.
Summary: Bartholomew Cubbins saves the kingdom when the oobleck comes down green and sticky from the sky.
Similar Titles: Sam and the tigers: a new telling of Little Black Sambo by Julius Lester; Cinder Edna by Ellen Jackson
9. Souci, R. S. (1989). The talking eggs. Dial.
Blog: A lively retelling of a rather hard-hearted Creole version of a widely collected folktale. Blanche does all the work while her mother and older sister Rose put on airs and treat her cruelly. To repay a kindness, a mysterious old woman leads Blanche to her magical shack deep in the backwoods, where the chickens have rainbow colors, the two-headed cow brays like a mule, and nattily dressed rabbits dance. As Blanche leaves the next morning, the woman tells her to help herself to any eggs that say "Take me." Though these prove to be the plainer-looking eggs, they yield great treasures on the journey home. Seeing her younger sister's wealth, Rose sets out to duplicate it, but behaving in her usual high-handed fashion wins her a fair reward: her eggs hatch snakes, frogs, yellow jackets, and a wolf. Blanche moves to the city, leaving Rose and her mother fruitlessly searching for the old woman. Pinkney sets the story in an eerily tangled southern forest; his black characters glow with personality, each one distinct and believable, while the cow and chickens are rendered so matter-of-factly that it takes more than one look to discern their unusual features. Blanche's gentle ingenuousness may seem at odds with her ready abandonment of her family, but that traditional ending does keep the thematic waters unmuddied.
Summary: A Southern folktale in which kind Blanche, following the instructions of an old witch, gains riches, while her greedy sister makes fun of the old woman and is duly rewarded.
Similar Titles: Wiley and the Hairy Man: adapted from an American folk tale by Molly Bang; American tall tales by Adrien Stoutenburg
10. Wenzel, B. (2020). They all saw a cat. San Francisco, California: Chronicle Books.
Blog: Each page turn reveals how a series of creatures sees the cat. To the child, it is big-eyed and adorably fluffy; to the fish in the bowl, it’s two huge, blurry eyes; and to the bee, it is a series of faceted dots. To create these varied visions, Wenzel uses the spacious width of double-page spreads and a wide range of materials, including oil, pastels, watercolor, and pencils. He plays with perspective in other ways, too. A yellow bird looks down at the cat below, and a flea peers through a forest of fur. The result is fascinating, thought-provoking, and completely absorbing. Rich in discussion possibilities and curriculum applications, this is a treasure for classrooms, story hours, and just plain enjoyment.
Summary: In simple, rhythmic prose and stylized pictures, a cat walks through the world, and all the other creatures see and acknowledge the cat.
Similar Titles: Edwina: the dinosaur who didn't know she was extinct by Mo Willems; Mr. Putter and Tabby pour the tea by Cynthia Rylant
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