Edward and the Pirates by David McPahil

Another delightful book about Edward, a voracious reader of anything he can get his hands on, even seed catalogs in a pinch. One night, while reading a book about pirates, Edward finds himself surrounded by the salty sailors who think his book might tell them where their treasure is buried. They beg, threaten, and bribe him to no avail, but when Edward's father scares the pirates with a shower of arrows, Edward feels sorry for them and relinquishes the book. As it turns out, the pirates can't read, so Edward reads the book aloud to them.

Listen to the book by clicking here!

Alice in Pastaland

Written by Alexandra Wright

An imaginary trip through Pastaland provides Alice with opportunities to explore number concepts and basic arithmetic as she tries to help a white rabbit solve a math problem.

A Place for Zero

Written by Angeline Sparagna Lopresti

LoPresti plays with words as well as number concepts as she take us into the land of Digitaria, ruled by King Multiplus and Queen Addeleine, where "every number knows its place." But Count Infinity, who formed the strange new digit Zero, doesn't know what to do with it, for it "meant nothing." Zero does work with the Count's Numberator machine, only to discover that adding himself doesn't change a number. But it is when he goes to the king and asks to be multiplied that really interesting results occur: more zeros and then combinations from 10 on up. Not only does Zero find his place, but he can finally play the game of Addemup with the other numbers. Hornung's light-hearted colored illustrations add arms, legs, and eyes to the numbers and place them in simple, double-page scenes. They graphically describe the interrelationships mentioned in the text. Zero can be a more complicated concept than its "nothing-ness" suggests; for its simple function in the decimal system these animated visuals are a clever introduction.

14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy

This is a lovely picture book about foreign aid involving the United States and a remote village in ­Kenya, but it’s not what you think. Instead of an earnest tale about Americans helping an impoverished people far away, it opens with a Kenyan named Kimeli returning to his village from New York City in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

A Pirate's Night Before Christmas by Philip Yates

Young mateys will find plenty of holiday joy in this humorous, colorful, and thoroughly piratical version of the beloved Clement C. Moore classic. On this ship of mischievous brigands—who have visions of treasure chests, not sugarplums, dancing in their heads—you wouldn’t expect a visit from nice St. Nick. Instead, here comes Sir Peggedy, with his peg leg and hook arm, cracking his whip and driving eight giant seahorses: Salty, Scurvy, Sinbad, Mollie, Cutthroat, Cross-Eyes, Roger, and Jolly.
Philip Yates’ rollicking rhymes and Sebastià Serra’s sprightly, fun-filled pictures—featuring whimsically multicolored seahorses, stockings hung on the ship’s bowsprit with tar, child-friendly pirates, and a complete treasure map—turn this Christmas perennial into a jubilant celebration!

How Full Is Your Bucket? for Kids by Tom Rath

This is the story of a little boy who antagonizes his little sister and one day is caught by his grandfather.  The grandfather tells him that his actions “empty his sister’s bucket”.  The boy wakes up the next day puzzled about the concept of a bucket but soon understands the lesson his grandfather was teaching him.  His day begins with a series of negative interactions but it soon turns around and the boy realizes that his bucket is filled through kindness which is much better than hurt negative behavior generates.

Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine

Recounts the true story of Henry Brown, a slave who mailed himself to freedom. Readers will feel as if they can experience Henry’s thoughts and feelings as he matures through unthinkable adversity. As a boy, separated from his mother, he goes to work in his new master’s tobacco factory and eventually meets and marries another slave, with whom he has three children. In a heart-wrenching scene, Henry watches as his family-suddenly sold in the slave market-disappears down the road. Henry then enlists the help of an abolitionist doctor and mails himself in a wooden crate “to a place where there are no slaves!” He travels by horse-drawn cart, steamboat and train before his box is delivered to Philadelphia address of the doctor’s friend on March 30, 1849. A concluding note provides answers to questions that readers may wish had been integrated into the story line, such as where did Henry begin his journey? (Richmond, VA); how long did it take? (27 hours) Readers never learn about Henry’s life as a free man-or, perhaps unavoidably, whether he was ever reunited with his family. Still, these powerful illustrations will make readers feel as if they have gained insight into a resourceful man and his extraordinary story.

My Name is Not Isabella by Jennifer Fosberry

If Everybody Did by Jo Ann Stover

The hilarious and terrible consequences of everyone doing his own thing are portrayed by author/artist Jo Ann Stover in If Everybody Did. Children and adults alike will enjoy this precautionary tale with its concise rhyming text, and amusing illustrations.

Tough Boris by Mem Fox

Tough Boris is a treasure. This easy-to-read picture book features a repetitive, engaging text; Boris von der Borch is a scruffy and fearless pirate who is nonetheless tender enough to cry when his pet parrot dies. As the story ends, the boy is taken ashore, mourning his exile from the ship but still clutching the precious violin.