Skip to main content
  • Tags: imagination
Lemonade serenade or the thing in the garden
Madden, Don
Woodrow and Miss Twig have cookies and lemonade every afternoon in Miss Twig's wild garden. One day, they hear a frightening noise. They discover a musical elf and soon invite him and his music to their afternoon party.

Buster loves buttons
Manushkin, Fran
Buster loves buttons and even goes so far as to take them right off of people's clothing. Finally, a little girl and her dog set Buster straight.

George and martha round and round
Marshall, James
George and Martha are two hippos who learn about friendship, not hurting others' feelings, using their imagination, and learning forgiveness in five short stories.

The cut-ups (Los bromistas)
Marshall, James
Spud Jenkins and Joe Turner are a couple of boys who have wild imaginations, create chaos through their neighborhood, help a girl get some toys and start off on the wrong foot with the assistant principal.

White dynamite and curly kidd
Martin, Bill Jr.
A young child, Curly Kidd, wants to grow up to be just like Dad. Dad is a bronco rider, and together they ride the toughest bulls in all the country. In the end, the reader learns that Curly Kidd is a girl.

The ghost-eye tree
Martin, Bill Jr.//Archambault, J
A brother and sister go to get milk, but they must first pass a scary tree. On the way home, they think they see a ghost.

Will's mammoth
Martin, Rafe
Will has been told that Wooly Mammoths haven't been around in 10,000 years. Will goes out into the snow one day and with the help of his imagination he finds one.

Close your eyes
Marzollo, Jean
If you close your eyes, your imagination can take you anywhere. In this book, closing your eyes can first offer great things to imagine and then to dream about.

Pretend you're a cat
Marzollo, Jean
A series of questions ask children to use their imaginations so they can leap like a cat, beg like a dog, and act like many other animals.

Moon jump
Matura, Mustapha
Cayal loves jumping. He jumps everywhere. One day, he jumps to the moon where he meets a moon man and has tea with him. When he is tired, he jumps home.

The cherry tree
McCaughrean, Geraldine
A family tries to recuperate after a war in which they lose their father and their home. The children meet and help an old man take care of a sickly cherry tree. As the tree grows and begins to blossom, so does the village and its people.

The fantastic drawings of danielle
McClintock, Barbara
Danielle loves to draw and use her imagination. While her father photographs real things, she spends her time drawing flying fish and dogs with human heads. One day her father becomes ill, and Danielle has to find a way to help her father get well and raise enough money for them to survive. She finds a way by doing what she loves, drawing.

Popcorn at the palace
McCully, Emily Arnold
Based on real events, Maisie Ferris, a girl from the mid-1800s, and her family don't really fit in with their neighbors in the small town of Galesburg, Illinois with their new ideas. They take one of their American creations, popcorn, to England and impress everyone with their corn that turns to snow.

The crystal apple
McDermott, Beverly B.
Three sisters work in the fields all day. Their father goes to market and bring each of them a gift. Marusha receives a crystal apple, but her sisters break it. She realizes that she did not need it, because she has her imagination so she forgives her sisters.

Ant and honey bee: What a pair!
McDonald, Megan
Ant and Honey Bee use their friendship to create a two-things-that-go-together pair of costumes for Cricket's party. As it starts to rain on the walk to Cricket's house, what will happen to Ant and Honey Bees costumes?

Baxter Barret Brown's bass fiddle
McKenzie, Tim A
Baxter Barret Brown loves to play his bass fiddle. He decides to take it with him wherever he goes and turn it into whatever he needs. However, he soon learns that when he changes the fiddle he can't play the music he loves and must change it back if he wants what really makes him happy.

A million fish...more or less
McKissack, Patricia C.
Hugh Thomas lives in a place where weird things happen and people spin tales. Elder Abbajon and Papa-Daddy tell Hugh Thomas a tale about Bayou Clapateaux. On the way home from fishing, Hugh Thomas makes up his own spin tale.

The bear's bicycle
McLeod, Emily Warren
A little boy and his teddy bear go on a bicycle ride through an imaginative trip. They are cautious and safe along their trip.

Roxaboxen
McLerran, Alice
Roxaboxen is a magical, little place where several friends build their own home and have their own shop on Main Street. Their children grow up but never forget Roxaboxen.

Grandfather's trolley
McMillan, Bruce
A little girl shares exciting adventures with her grandfather on his trolley. Sounds and photographs make it an exciting trip!

Once upon an ordinary school day
McNaughton, Colin
An ordinary boy has no idea what is in store for him one fateful, ordinary day. Everything appears to be normal until his new school teacher; Mr. Gee walks through the door. The once ordinary day turns into a whirlwind of adventures

The train
McPhail, David
Matthew loves trains. One night, he lets his brother run the train and he crashes it. Matthew cannot sleep so he gets up to fix it. All of a sudden, it was a real train. Matthew fixes it, loads up the baggage, and helps the engineer.

Edward and the pirates
McPhail, David
Edward falls asleep while reading a book about pirates, then awakes to find them in his room. Edward's mother and father come to the rescue.

Lola loves stories
McQuinn, Anna
Lola and her dad go to the library on Saturdays to pick out books to read during the week. Every time Lola reads a book, she acts it out the next day. If she reads about building, she becomes a builder. If Lola reads a book about fairies, she becomes a fairy. What will Lola be next?

Somewhere in Africa
Mennen, Ingrid//Daly, Niki
A boy named Ashraf lives in a city in South Africa. He compares the city to the countryside of Africa.

Unhurry harry
Merriam, Eve
Harry is a daydreamer. Throughout his day, his dreams are interrupted consistantly by routine activities such as school, eating, playing, and reading. At the end of the day, Harry retires happily to his dreamworld.

Cows can't fly
Milgrim, David
A little boy's drawing of flying cows becomes a reality. He tries to tell his parents, teacher, and some others but no one believes him. He is the only one that is lucky enough to see the cows and now he wonders what else can fly.

Here in space
Milgrim, David
A boy sets out for an adventure on his bike. As he travels around, he discovers many strange wonders about planet Earth. But his biggest discovery of all is that we are all living in outer space.

Little bear
Minarik, Else Holmelund
A collection of four short stories about Little Bear who goes on imaginary adventures that his mother tells him about.

What if?
Minarik, Else Holmelund
Two kittens are thrown out of the house because they climbed up the Christmas tree and destroyed it. They begin to think What if... they had their own Christmas tree to play in.

Little bear's friend
Minarik, Else Holmelund
Little Bear made a new friend named Emily one summer. They play with each other until Emily has to go back to school in the fall. Little Bear is sad to lose his friend.

Father bear comes home
Minarik, Else Holmelund
Father bear has been fishing out in the ocean. Little bear misses his dad and wants to be just like him when he grows up. Little bear is hoping his dad will bring him a mermaid.

If i built a village
Mizumura, Kazue
The narrator of this story speculates about the going's on in several different imaginary villages. At the conclusion of the story, the narrator realizes that people will care about any village and fill it with love.

How Willy got his wheels
Mohler, Diana & Turner, Deborah
As a homeless and handicapped dog, Willy never finds true happiness until he is rescued from the animal hospital and given a home and family. However, Willy lacks the ability to walk on his own and his owner Deborah tries several attempts to help Willy. Finally, Willy is given a wheel chair which enables him to finally be free and live his life to its fullest.

Lucy's picture
Moon, Nicola
Lucy's blind grandpa is coming to visit today, and she wants to make him a special collage. Lucy gathers many different materials to make the collage that her grandpa can see with his hands. She uses sticks and leaves to make a tree, sand to make a path, and her own hair to make a dog with fur.

The night before christmas
Moore, Clement C.
On the night before Christmas, one little boy sees Santa Claus outside his window. Later he sees him in his living room, bringing presents for all.

I want to be
Moss, Thylias
This young girl is asked, What do you want to be? She spends all day going around her town imagining all the things she wants to be. Finally, she figures it out. She wants to do everything.

If the dinosaurs came back
Most, Bernard
A little boy dreams that dinosaurs come back and thinks of all the neat thing that could happen with modern day dinosaurs.

The magic paintbrush
Muller, Robin
Nib is an orphan boy who dreams of being an artist. One day as a reward for a kind deed, Nib is given a magical paint set with a paint brush that brings things to life. Nib encounters a terrible king who uses Nib for his talent.

The blues of flats brown
Myers, Walter Dean
Flats the dog loved to play the blues on his guitar, but his master, A.J. Grubbs had another idea. He wanted Flats, and his friend Caleb, to become fighting dogs. Finally tired of Grubbs' abuse, Flats and Caleb run away. They decide to pursue Flats' musical career, but everywhere they go Grubbs finds them. In the end, their owner has a change of heart about Flats playing the blues.

Is that josie?
Narahashi, Keiko
An adult and child play an imaginative question and answer game. The questions are real situations that Josie experiences, but Josie becomes wild animals when she uses her imagination to answer the questions.

Mary wears what she wants
Negley, Keith
One day, a young girl named Mary decided to wear pants instead of dresses at a time when girls always wore dresses. Mary took her very daring idea into town where she was challenged by people for wearing boys clothes. Mary reminded them that "Im wearing MY clothes".

The house I'll build for the wrens
Neitzel, Shirley
A young boy plans to build a house for the wrens in the yard. He starts with a diagram showing what the house will look like. He gets out a toolbox which holds wooden boards, a ruler, hammer, sandpaper, nails, a level, paintbrush, paint, and a scredriver. While he is constructing the birdhouse, his mother comes home. The boy and his mother hang the birdhouse from a tree in the backyard and admire his accomplishment.

Mud for sale
Nelson, Brenda
Max sees that all of his friends are selling something. He wants to sell something too, so he comes up with the idea of selling mud. It is a big success.

Sam, bangs, and moonshine
Ness, Evaline
A girl learns the difference between real and make-believe through trouble caused by her own pretending.

Exactly alike
Ness, Evaline
Elizabeth has four brothers who look exactly alike and she cannot tell who is who. Though her brothers make fun of her, she decides to be nice and share her toys with all of them. In return, they are nice to her and tell her their names.

A giraffe on the moon
Nightingale, Sandy
A child dreams about animals doing very uncharacteristic activities such as a giraffe on the moon, a cat in a balloon, clowns performing in a pie, and many more.

Setting the turkeys free
Nikola-Lisa, W.
A young artist begins his journey by painting turkeys with his handprints. His imagination makes the turkeys come alive as he protects them from the hungry fox. The hungry fox chases them away until pieces of corn call them back home.

The halloween mystery
Nixon, Joan Lowery
It's almost Halloween, and Susan needs a new costume. Mrs. Foshee is an older woman who watches Susan and her two brothers one night. Susan and Mike think that she is a witch, and they cleverly try to solve the mystery.

The castle builder
Nolan, Dennis
Christopher goes to the beach and builds a magnificant sand castle. When his castle becomes life size, Christopher becomes its ruler. He faces many conflicts as ruler. In the end, he is saved from danger and returns to the beach.