Picture Books

A Million Dots

Author(s): 
Andrew Clements
Illustrator(s): 
Reed, Mike

There are indeed a million dots in the book, although the book states it would take over eleven days for the reader to actually count them! On each page one of the dot numbers is highlighted and a large illustration depicts what that number represents. For instance, dot number 265,000 represents the number of different kinds of moths and butterflies on earth, and dot number 615,100 represents the number of words in the Oxford English Dictionary.

My Librarian is a Camel

Author(s): 
Margriet Ruurs

The libraries I grew up with did not even resemble what we have available today... truly. I am not able to go to my weekly visits to the library without being amazed at how fortunate we are. This friendly book will help your children appreciate what some other children in the world go through to be able to borrow a book!

Going beyond that, the book has information and maps on each country discussed and lots of fun photographs!

Plant Secrets

Author(s): 
Emily Goodman
Illustrator(s): 
Phyllis Limbacher Tildes

I confess I have a stack of books here waiting... some about libraries under different themes. Alas, the warmth today brings our minds to travel towards a green world, full of sunshine and growth.

A page from the book, Plant Secrets

Look! Seeing the Light in Art

Author(s): 
Gillian Wolfe

I found this quite accidentally when browsing the art shelves in the non-fiction children books section at our library system's main branch last week.

Mind you, I am always carting around mountains of books in huge, oversize bags, and I am thankful for strong, teen sons, and for downtown ballet and piano classes allowing me the time to browse at the library.

Fun with Roman Numerals

Author(s): 
David A. Adler
Illustrator(s): 
Edward Miller

I showed this book and read it aloud to my kids in Junior Classical League's last meeting, and except for one kid, the  club's president and a Latin aficionado, none of us knew about the Roman numerals on the two last pages! Have fun learning!

From the publisher: 

What's The Deal?

Author(s): 
Rhoda Blumberg

National Geographic published some longer, generously illustrated non-fiction picture books, and this is one of them. A great aid to any homeschool's History curriculum. We have picked up several different titles from the library like this one. I, for one, learned a lot! From their site:

Twenty-Odd Ducks

Book cover: Twenty-Odd Ducks
Author(s): 
Lynne Truss
Illustrator(s): 
Bonnie Timmons

Lynne Truss does it again, this time stressing the correct use of the hyphen, parenthesis, question and exclamation marks and also more comma use. I feel that my younger kids will have a wonderful and visual grasp of punctuation as they grow up exposed to Truss' humor and fresh approach to grammar! If you haven't enjoyed her first punctuation picture books, don't miss them: Eats, Shoots and Leaves and The Girl's like Spaghetti!

Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek

Book cover: Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek
Author(s): 
Deborah Hopkinson
John Hendrix

Another fun book we found at our library on Abe Lincoln! A good way to help celebrate President's Day!

Little is known about Lincoln's playmate and the event told in this darling book. I liked the perspective the author and illustrator take to retell the tall, thin tale...!

Addition by Suchi, Feb 2024: Lincoln's friend, Austin Gollaher, told the tale of the 1816 event as follows.

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