Books! Books! Books!

More appealing illustrations are not to be found than those by Kay Chorao. In The Baby’s Good Morning Book are poems by Robert Louis Stevenson, A. A. Milne, Emily Dickinson, and others. The Baby’s Story Book includes all the best-loved nursery tales.
Kay Chorao (complier)
1–6 years and 1–4 years, respectively

Cars, in a general, young way, is about cars and where they go. Trucks includes toy trucks, a moving van, a bookmobile, a fire engine, a camper, and many more fascinating vehicles. Both books have little text and many joyous pictures.
Anne Rockwell
3–6 years

Tracey Campbell Pearson’s rollicking illustrations make both Sing a Song of Sixpence and We Wish You a Merry Christmas as much fun to “read” as to sing. Music is included.
Tracey Campbell Pearson
3–6 years and 3–8 years, respectively

Tugford Wanted to Be Bad • Because it was more fun to play an outlaw than a sheriff, Tugford decided to be an outlaw. But somehow things went wrong. … A beginning reader.
Audrey Wood
4–7 years

The Microscope • This tiny book uses catchy rhymes to tell a little bit about the scientist Anton Leeuwenhoek and what he saw through his microscope.
Maxine Kumin
4–8 years

Flossie & the Fox • In the deep South of times past, Flossie outwits the sliest of foxes—or is he? Rachel Isadora’s art is as wonderful as the tale.
Patricia C. McKissack
4–8 years

The Prince & the Pink Blanket • This amusing story and its delightful pictures show that all grown-ups, even kings, were once kids too.
Barbara Brenner
5–8 years

The Silver Cow • The Tylwyth Teg—Welsh fairy folk—are so pleased with Huw’s harp music that they reward him with a silver cow. Then the boy’s greedy father decides to kill it!
Susan Cooper
5–9 years

Only One Woof • Gyp and Sweep were brothers and best friends. And the only time in eight years that Gyp barked was when Sweep won the sheepdog trials.
James Herriot
5 years and up

Leo, Zack, and Emmie • Zack and Leo were best friends, a real twosome. Then Emmie came. She and Zack had a race; she and Leo did a science project. They could all wiggle their ears. They became best friends, a real threesome. A beginning reader.
Amy Ehrlich
6–8 years

The Legend of Scarface: A Blackfeet Indian Tale • Scarface, ridiculed by others in his tribe, goes on a quest to find Father Sun. An easy-to-read story of wisdom and heroism.
Robert San Souci
6–9 years

Wrongway Applebaum • Can’t do anything right? Maybe you’re like Applebaum, who became a hero by almost winning the big game.
Marjorie Lewis
6–10 years

The Beast of Lor • If you wonder if you’d like historical fiction, try this book about an elephant taken to England by a Roman army—and about the boy who becomes its master.
Clyde Robert Bulla
7–10 years

Meg Mackintosh and the Case of the Missing Babe Ruth Baseball • A truly superior mystery with clues in the art as well as the text so that you can solve the mystery with Meg.
Lucinda Landon
7–10 years

Everyday Plays for Boys and Girls • Mysteries, parodies, plays about familiar book friends, and more. All are easy to do, and all have simple props.
Helen Louise Miller
7–10 years

Long Meg • Like Robin Hood, Long Meg fought with a sword to help defeat the “bad guys.” Legends about both are centuries old—but there is a slab of blue marble in Westminster Abbey that is said to mark the grave of this English heroine!
Rosemary Minard
8–11 years

Draft Horses • No other horses have been more constant companions or harder workers than these gentle giants, man’s teammates in work and comrades at war—and willing partners and sharers of both joy and sorrow.
Dorothy Hinshaw Patent
8–12 years

Chinese Brush Painting for Beginners • This simple-to-follow book for those serious about art, especially oriental art, is interesting browsing material for everyone.
Vickey Aubrey
8 years and up

Paper Circus: How to Create Your Own Circus • You will have hours and hours of fun making an entire circus—lions, acrobats, even a “human cannonball”—with minimum and inexpensive supplies. Patterns and clear, detailed instructions are included.
Robin West
8 years and up

The Gift of the Pirate Queen • Grania O’Malley, the Pirate Queen, called herself the equal of Queen Elizabeth—to Queen Elizabeth’s face! Gracie O’Malley wasn’t brave like that. What she needed desperately was to be “everyday brave. And that’s the hardest kind of courage there is.”
Patricia Reilly Giff
9–13 years

The Book of Holidays Around the World • Each “holiday” is fascinating; for example, in November in Thailand there is a tug-of-war between 200 Thai soldiers and 1 elephant. The pictures alone make this book a treasure!
Alice Van Straalen
9 years and up

The Mormon Church: A Basic History • This very readable, very complete, and very accurate history of the Church was written especially for older children, teenagers, new converts—and anyone else!
Dean Hughes
9 years and up

Behind the Attic Wall • A fantasy so powerful that you will be in Maggie’s world long after you have read the last page.
Sylvia Cassedy
10 years and up

Find the Kirillian! • If you make the wrong decisions, you may end up a Kirillian prisoner—or worse! A paperback book with over thirty space games.
Seth McEvoy
10 years and up

How to Be a Reasonably Thin Teenage Girl • The author was a fatty. Then she found a way “to enjoy eating without feeling guilty and have a respectable figure.” Wanting to share what she’d discovered, she wrote this funny-but-practical book.
Bonnie L. Lukes
10 years and up

The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, The Story of the Champions of the Round Table, The Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions, and The Story of the Grail and the Passing of Arthur • “For ever they brought aid to those who were in trouble and … no man can do better than that in this world: to bring aid to the afflicted; food to the hungry, and a release from trouble to those who are in anxiety.” Compiled from ancient manuscripts.
Howard Pyle
11 years and up

Anno’s Britain • Wordless. “Every scene contains a wealth of historical and literary characters,” from Shakespeare to Prince Charles and from Robin Hood to Mary Poppins. Typical activities, such as cricket and bagpipe playing, are featured along with London’s famous landmarks and the beautiful British villages and countryside.
Mitsumasa Anno
all ages

The Story of a Castle and The Story of an English Village • These two books show (with little text) how a castle and a village came into being in the Middle Ages, how they grew and changed during the centuries, what celebrations in them were like, how wars affected them, and what they’re like now.
John S. Goodall
all ages