Books! Books! Books!

All books listed here have been reviewed by the Friend editorial staff and are generally available in libraries/bookstores.

All that mankind has done, thought, gained or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.—Thomas Carlyle

The Three Little Pigs This wonderfully illustrated version of this children’s favorite emphasizes the closeness of the piggy brothers.
Jean Claverie (reteller)
3–5 years

A Hat So Simple When Edna Alligator buys a hat to wear while fishing with her husband, Paul, all her friends add things to it to “improve” it. A giggly kind of book in easy-to-read rhyme.
Jerry Smath
3–6 years

If You Give a Moose a Muffin He’ll want jam on it. Then he’ll want a lot of other things, and you’ll get them for him: a sweater, needle and thread, socks, a sheet, cardboard and paints, and much more. What fun!
Laura Joffe Numeroff
3–7 years

Floss Floss is a Border collie who goes with her elderly owner to the park, where she plays ball with the children. One day she is taken to be a shepherd dog on her owner’s son’s farm. She works hard to learn from his old dog, Nell, because the farmer needs her, but she yearns to play ball with the children again. Can she do both?
Kim Lewis
4–7 years

Grandfather’s Rock In this Italian folktale, everyone in the family loved Grandfather. But because they had barely enough to eat themselves, they decided to take him to the home for old people. On the way there, they came to the big rock. …
Joel Strangis
4–8 years

A Fruit & Vegetable Man “Six mornings a week, long before the sun was up, Ruby was.” He went to the market to choose the very best fruits and vegetables for his store. He juggled the potatoes and other things as he stacked them in beautiful displays, and he let his customers sample new things. He did all this for fifty years. When Sun Ho came to watch him, Ruby taught the boy all that he knew. Then, one day, Ruby was so sick that he didn’t even think about his store. But Sun Ho did, and he took very good care of it.
Roni Schotter
4–8 years

Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge Wilfrid lived next door to an old people’s home. He liked all the people there for different reasons, but he liked Miss Nancy Alison Delacourt Cooper best because she had four names too. One day Wilfrid learned that she had lost her memory. He didn’t quite understand what a memory was, but he helped her find it again. This delightful story is from Australia.
Mem Fox
5–8 years

Captain Snap and the Children of Vinegar Lane Was Captain Snap really mean? Was his house really made of rusty tin, rotten boards, and tin cans? Was he really dead when the children dared to go to his house that day? And how did he get his new name, Captain Scrap? A delightful story of bravery, service, and caring.
Roni Schotter
5–8 years

Deer in the Hollow Seth, a quiet boy, spent all his free time in the woods and fields with the birds and animals. Winter came early that year, and the snow was deep, so Seth took seeds and apples and carrots to them. Then he became very ill. Two more worrisome things happened before all ended happily in this gentle book.
Efner Tudor Holmes
5–8 years

White Thunder He isn’t the leader of the herd, but when men on horseback come to capture it, White Thunder must challenge its leader so that the herd can be led to safety.
Dave and Pat Sargent
6–8 years

The Riddle Streak Peter was two years older than Amy, so he always beat her at Ping-Pong, checkers, spelling, and everything. He even knew the answers to all the riddles she learned. It wasn’t fair! Then she finally came up with something that he was happy to learn from her. What do you suppose it was?
Susan Beth Pfeffer
6–9 years

Jane Martin, Dog Detective Jane solves three cases in this easy-to-read book: a dognapping, dog slander, and a missing dog.
Eve Bunting
6–9 years

Throw-Away Pets Evie found Wheeler, Jinx, and Mr. C. in cages in a building that had a door with a handle only on the outside. When she brought Megan to see the animals, the door shut behind them and they were as trapped as the thrown-away pets! The Animal Control officer rescued the girls—but could they rescue Wheeler, Jinx, and Mr. C.?
Betsy Duffey
7–9 years

Make Room for Elisa Elisa was Russell’s little sister. She accidentally helped him when he had stage fright at a recital. And he helped her when she accidentally broke a special vase. Their parents had two surprises for them—two wonderful surprises.
Johanna Hurwitz
7–10 years

The Printer’s Apprentice That people are not all bad nor all good and that their freedom to choose is vital are two things Gus must learn as he struggles between loyalty to his master and what he learns about his master’s enemy.
Stephen Krensky
7–10 years

The Sub It started as a harmless prank, trading places when the substitute teacher came, but soon it was Trouble with a capital T!
P. J. Petersen
8–10 years

Sharon Plays It Cool What would it be like to be rich, then, suddenly, not rich? When it happened to her, Sharon told all sorts of lies to keep people from finding out.
Diana Oliver
8–11 years

Abigail and Sally Ann First in the Mormon Girl Series is Abigail. Her story takes place before The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized; it tells of her wonderful family—and of the doll she longed for, then gave away just a month after she got it! Sally Ann’s story takes place in Indiana and tells of her father’s death, of learning about the Church, and of her family’s journey to join the Saints and be sealed in the temple.
Patti Landes Kinzie
8–12 years

Game Plan Desperate, the principal appointed the student manager to coach the season’s last football game. Beano was smart, but he didn’t know the opposing team very well, or how to handle the media. He also had to get the respect of the team members—and the starting quarterback quit rather than follow Beano’s directions. Full of plays and strategies, on a scale of 1 to 10, this book rates an 11!
Thomas J. Dygard
10 years and up

Nonfiction

The Thingumajig Book of Manners The Thingumajigs are gross—crude and disgusting—to match their manners. The cheerful children who watch their awful behavior tell how to be well-mannered and, therefore, happy.
Irene Keller
3–8 years

My Buddy “Buddy is my best friend. He never gets mad at me. He never runs off to play with another boy. He always listens when I need someone to talk to.” Buddy, a dog, does lots of things for his boy-master, who has a disease that makes his muscles very weak. Buddy goes to school with him, helps him shop at the mall, and even takes a shower with him!
Audrey Osofsky
5–8 years

The Brontës The four Brontë children lived in the remote moors in England. They had much fun together, and one of their favorite things to do was make tiny books and write stories in them. When they grew up, three of them had their stories published! This book is about when they were young and played together.
Catherine Brighton
5–9 years

What Is White? Jeffrey was blind, and so he didn’t understand about colors. If someone was “green with envy,” did that mean that he changed colors? And why was it so important to wear white when he was baptized? What would you have told him?
April Anderson Gohier
6–8 years

Peanut Butter Peanuts (a.k.a. goobers) grow underground from flower buds called pegs and are harvested with diggers and shakers. Drying, grading, shelling, shaking, roasting, fanning, separating in a gravity separator, testing, and vacuuming (at least twice!) are processes peanuts go through before being made into peanut butter and sent to stores. Photographs show the whole process, and several tasty recipes are included.
Arlene Erlbach
7–11 years

Mozart, Young Music Genius Do you play a musical instrument—piano? drums? a horn? Do you like to practice on it? Mozart did. And he started when he was only three years old! He played for royalty all over Europe. This is the story of his life, especially when he was just a young boy.
Francene Sabin
8–12 years

Hands-on Pioneers Find-these-things pictures and fun facts and anecdotes about both pioneers and Indians are included with the activities. You’ll love making tops, charm strings, honey candy, an eatable beehive and bees (with chocolate!), and much more. Make them for yourself or as gifts.
Yvonne Young Merrill and Emily Young Merrill
all ages

Holiday Books

Merry Christmas, Old Armadillo Old Armadillo hadn’t heard from his friends, and now it was Christmas Eve. They came to surprise him, and when their surprise was ready, they couldn’t wake him up! You get to see what was happening on the outside of his house while watching inside, too, to see if he woke up.
Larry Dane Brimner
4–7 years

How Do You Wrap a Horse? Charles and Jennie’s mother had a pony once, and she has always wanted to ride again, so they wanted to give her a horse for Christmas. They had a stable, but could they get a horse for $83.50? And if they could, how would they wrap it? In Christmas paper, of course!
Diana Klemin
4–8 years

Inside-Out Grandma: A Hanukkah Story This story is about a Jewish family getting ready for a Jewish holiday called Hanukkah. It begins with Grandma wearing her clothes inside out so that she’ll remember to buy enough oil for latkes. It ends with a recipe for latkes, a kind of potato pancake.
Joan Rothenberg
4–8 years

Young Claus: Legend of the Boy Who Became Santa This is not the story of a historical person but a touching legend of an orphan named Claus who learned from Mountain (the giant who rescued him), from the toy-making elves (he rescued two of them), and from the animals (he earned the privilege of understanding them).
J. Michael Sims
4 years and up