2008 Teacher's Choices-Primary Readers (Grade K-2)

Award-winning artist Sylvia Long and author Dianna Hutts Aston have teamed up again to create this gorgeous and informative introduction to seeds. Poetic in voice and elegant in design, the book introduces children to a fascinating array of seed and plant facts, making it a guide that is equally at home being read on a parent's lap as in a classroom reading circle. Plus, this is the fixed format version, which looks almost identical to the print edition.

The jungle comes alive as children learn about a wide variety of animals and plants living in the Amazon rainforest, in this adaptation of the song "The green grass grew all around." Includes "For Creative Minds" section with animal and plant adaptation facts and a recipe.

Learning is fun while discovering one of the most beautiful ecosystems in the world! Begin to appreciate the adorable baby animals in and around jungles like butterflies that flit, parrots that squawk, and sloths that creep. Explore the world around you, and inspire a bond with nature through curiosity and wonder! Parents, teachers and gift givers will find: a book filled with baby animals from jungle habitats. educational backmatter about this habitat and the animals that live there. a nature book to explore new and beautiful habitats! The creative art will inspire many projects at home and at school! Kids will explore the jungle habitat and learn about baby animals like boas, dart frogs, and more creatures around the jungle habitat in this bestselling book for young explorers!

Delly Porter has a happy life. She needs new shoes, but doesn't really mind because she loves the soft, silky feel of the dirt road beneath her bare feet. She's a good artist, too, even if she has to make her own art supplies. And she loves her schoolteacher, Miss Violet, who lets her help in the classroom. Life only looks brighter when Miss Violet announces the school will have a Shoebox Social to help raise funds for new art materials. But when what should be a festive occasion is threatened by prejudice and cruelty, Delly finds out that one must stay true to oneself to successfully navigate life's joys and sorrows. From Trinka Hakes Noble, the author of The Scarlet Stockings Spy and The Last Brother, comes the story of a young girl who learns the most precious things in life are not measured in dollars and cents but by the warmth of one's heart. And that truth, beauty, and love are in the eye of the beholder.

Sam, a shy but creative mouse who lives in a library, decides to write and illustrate his own stories which he places on the shelves with the other library books but when children find the tales, they all want to meet the author.

Charlie, the smallest child in his first grade class, is amazed to discover that of the three pumpkins his teacher brings to school, the tiniest one has the most seeds.

A fictionalized account of how in 1849 a Virginia slave, Henry "Box" Brown, escapes to freedom by shipping himself in a wooden crate from Richmond to Philadelphia.

Crack, crack...animal babies are hatched all over the place. Can you figure out who's who? Watercolor and collage illustrations depict close-up scenes of an egg or eggs about to hatch. The text hints at what the eggs contain: "Hidden in a rock cave/ Deep beneath the ocean waves/ Their mother wraps her long arms around/ To keep these eggs safe and sound." The observant young nature lover will find a visual clue of what animal the mother might be. The next spread provides the answer-in this case, it's an octopus. The second spread also provides fascinating facts about the species. The book features a number of species ranging from spiders to penguins to octopuses, and the back matter provides more information about the actual size of various eggs and how they develop.

"Using the alphabet to introduce its contents, this book includes topic such as abolitionists, cowboys, Harlem Renaissance, and Kwanzaa"--Provided by publisher.

Two Caldecott Honor recipients join to bring you the incredible journey of one man, as he recounts the story of his passage on the Underground Railroad to his granddaughter. His message is one of cheer, for although he and his family found troubles during their escape, he found that folks, black and white, "helped lift us up when we was down." How, then, could he ever turn his back on another human being?