Books! Books! Books!

A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever!—By Martin Farquhar Tupper

Old MacDonald Had a Farm In this rollicking rendition of an old favorite, the farmer rides his tractor at breakneck speed to catch his runaway mule, and that night a pig sneaks under his bed with the dog. Music is included.
Tracey Campbell Pearson
3–7 years

Katy and the Big Snow All kinds of vehicles are seen working all year in all kinds of places in town, but it is Katy, a beautiful red crawler tractor, that saves the town during a blizzard.
Virginia Lee Burton
3–7 years

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs At first the hamburger-and pie-carrying winds were literally “good enough to eat.” Then things got out of hand. You’ll find new things to laugh about with every reading of this hilarious tall tale.
Judi Barrett
3–10 years

Star Boy This Blackfeet Indian legend tells how Scarface became Star Boy and taught his people the Sun Dance so that their sick would be healed.
Paul Goble
all ages

A Child’s Garden of Verses Just maybe your mom or dad can remember the rest of this delightful poem (one of many in this book): “I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,/And what can be the use of him is more than I can see. /He is very, very like me …”
Robert Louis Stevenson
4–8 years

Hattie, Tom, and the Chicken Witch Inside this funny story is an exciting play that you can put on too! An easy-to-read book.
Dick Gackenbach
5–8 years

Where Do They Go?/Insects in Winter Many female flies, for instance, go into a sort of hibernation with fertile eggs inside them. Then, when the weather warms up, they “can lay about five batches of [a hundred] eggs. So it pays to swat each fly you see.”
Millicent E. Selsam
5–8 years

Nadia the Willful As she changes her stubborn, fiery temper into loving determination, this child of the desert teaches her father and helps her people. No wonder she becomes known as Nadia the Wise!
Sue Alexander
5–9 years

Pickle in the Middle The recipes in this book are easy to read and easy to make, and none of them call for sharp knives or use of the stove. And the Bologna Roll-Ups, Fruit Spears, Candy Blips, etc., are yummy!
Frances Zweifel
6–8 years

The Laziest Robot in Zone One Sol-1 hasn’t done his homework or weeded the space garden. And he didn’t lock the gate, so his dog is lost. But he did help his friends, and they helped him. An easy-to-read book.
Lillian and Phoebe Hoban
6–8 years

Purple Cow to the Rescue This book has something for everyone—things to do, make, cook, sing, draw, plan, think about, feel good about!
Ann Cole, Carolyn Haas, and Betty Weinberger
6–10 years

The Nutcracker If you’ve never seen the ballet based upon the story by E. T. A. Hoffman, read this book first. If you have seen the ballet, you’ll love this adaptation, too, because it explains such things as why the Nutcracker and the King of the Mice were enemies.
Janet Schulman (adapter)
6 years and up

A Lion to Guard Us Amanda, Jemmy, and Meg were aboard the Sea Adventure when it was shipwrecked while sailing from England to America. The names of the people are made up, but the happenings are true. And Shakespeare wrote a play, The Tempest, based upon the stories recorded about the ship.
Clyde Robert Bulla
7–10 years

Wild Appaloosa This is the story of how a lone filly survived after horse hunters had caught the rest of the wild herd.
Glen Rounds
8–11 years

Secret Languages Invisible ink, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Indian signs, runes, codes in chocolate candy and in computers—these are only a few of the secret languages explained in this book.
Julian A. Bielewicz
8–12 years

Golden Daffodils Janis does more than win a grudge match against her class’s bullies—she helps herself and Barney’s brother, too, in their struggles to live normal lives.
Marilyn Gould
9–12 years

The Green Book After escaping from Earth just before it was destroyed, three children and their father save their little colony on their new planet.
Jill Paton Walsh
9–12 years

The Luttrell Village: County Life in the Middle Ages Many delightful, detailed drawings help to show a year in the life of an English village of long ago. Truly fascinating.
Sheila Sancha
9–12 years

The Trouble With Tuck Tuck, a lovable golden Labrador, saved Helen’s life twice! Then, in a way, Helen saved Tuck’s life too. This story, with its happy ending, is based on true events.
Theodore Taylor
9–12 years

It’s a Mile from Here to Glory Not only the smallest boy for his age, Early had always been smaller than all the girls too. But when the track coach discovered how fast Early was, he became a star—until the accident! Then Early discovered what he was really worth.
Robert C. Lee
9 years and up

Feeling Good About Myself “Jealousy, when it is not exaggerated, is normal. … It helps us to survive.” Titles of other chapters that describe our personal emotions and situations, and give tips on how to cope with them, include: Boredom, Death, Embarrassment, Single Parents, Stress, Video Games, Happiness.
Hiley H. Ward
10–14 years

Mr. Marley’s Main Street Confectionery You’ll wish you had lived in the “olden days” when you read about the old-fashioned penny candies, ice cream, marzipan pigs, Miss Pickering’s candy castle, and much, much more!
John J. Loeper
10 years and up

No Way of Telling The snowflakes falling on the isolated Welsh hillfarm were beautiful until Amy and her grandmother were trapped there by too many of them—and by two international criminals!
Emma Smith
10 years and up

The Song of Pentecost This “thoughty” animal saga strikes a classic note somewhere between The Incredible Journey and The Hobbit.
W. J. Corbett
10 years and up

Magazine Using Sports Illustrated as his standard, the author illustrates the various aspects of magazine publishing, from how articles are planned to getting each issue on and off the press and distributed to its readers.
William Jaspersohn
11 years and up

I’m Nobody! Who Are You? Emily Dickinson was a recluse. Yet her short poems revealed that she understood life very well—and rejoiced in it! This biography is exceedingly well written.
Edna Barth
11 years and up

Illustrated by Beverly Glazier