Skip to main content
If I had my way
Klein, Norma
Ellie wishes that - for just one day - she could have her way. She is tired of being told what to do! Why canメt she have a say? In her dreams, the tables turn and Ellie finds herself in charge. Giving her parents orders and trading in her baby brothers are Ellieメs first orders of business. Her old life doesnメt seem quite so bad.

Elephant prince:  The story of Ganesh
Novesky, Amy
In this mythical story, that takes place in India, a girl grows up listening to her motherメs and grandmotherメs stories. As a princess, she meets her love and is married. He promises her a baby and has one within a year. When gods gather around the babyメs head vanishes. Another god helps save the baby with the help of an elephant offering his life. The little boy was saved and became the elephant prince, listening to his motherメs stories everyday.

Not norman:  A goldfish story
Bennett, Kelly
When a boy gets Norman, a goldfish, for his birthday he is disappointed. He wants an energetic pet with which to run and play. He makes a plan to take Norman back to the pet store and get another pet. After show and tell at school, he decides to keep him. Norman likes his music and makes him laugh; besides any other pet just wouldnメt be the same, they would not be Norman.

Baby danced the polka
Beaumont, Karen
While mom and dad are trying to do the chores, baby is supposed to be sleeping. However, baby canメt sleep and is dancing with the farm animals.

Silly chicken
Khan, Rukhsana
Rani is jealous of Amiメs affection for Bibi, a chicken. Rani finally learns how to lay an egg - much to the motherメs delight. However, when left alone one day, the chicken dies and Ami is sad. An egg from Bibi is found, which hatches a new baby chick.

The village in the valley of darkness
Mashiri, Pascal
I want to see my people in the village. It is no fun to search alone. At last, I can see the light.ヤ During my travel, a dog at my side with brother and I. People in the village are thankful and at peace!

Be boy buzz
hooks, bell
bell hooks poetically describes the pleasures of being a boy. Boys are beautiful. Sometimes, they are all boy. Sometimes, they like to laugh and talk, and sometimes they like the quietness of being alone. Boys have many moods, actions, and emotions.

The man who called the crocodiles
Mashiri, Pascal
Gyiii-eee! This is the sound that calls a crocodile. In this land, the wealthy king takes Lulaba as his new wife. She eventually has Gobango as her only son. She tells Gobango of stories about her father calling crocodiles. Eventually Gobango has to flee from his mom or the dead kingメs enemies will kill him. He flees to meet Lulabaメs father, his grandfather. He goes on a fishing trip and meets one of the fishermanメs beautiful daughters, Nanjobe. Gobango asks her father if he can marry her. He says no because he isnメt rich enough to take care of his daughter. Therefore, he works to raise money for her. Six months later, Nanjobe is to marry an old man. Gobango and Nanjobe both hate this idea and flee to Gobangoメs boat. Nanjobeメs father sends people after the two, so Gobango calls the crocodiles, Gyiii-eee. Crocodiles surround their boat. The rest of the people search for the lovers and assuming they are dead, take their boats back to the village.

The giant and the beanstalk
Stanley, Diane
Otto, the gentle giant, lives in the magical kingdom of giants. Otto loves his pet chicken, Clara, so when a human named Jack climbs up a beanstalk and steals Clara, Otto must search for Jack. While looking for Jack, Otto meets many other Jacks from different nursery rhymes before he finds the Jack that has Clara and takes Clara home.

I wanna iguana
Orloff, Karen Kaufman
A little boy wants an iguana, but first he has to convince his mother that he is responsible enough to have it. Through a series of letters written between the boy and his mother, they both provide reasons to support whether or not he should get the iguana. They decide that the boy may have the iguana on a trial basis to prove he will take care of it.

Leo in the library
Mkatshaw, Dumazile
Leo was in the class watching ants crawl on the wall when his teacher asked on what animal he would be doing his project. He could only think of ants, about which he knew nothing. Leo goes to the library looking for a book and causes a terrible mess. Leo must find his book about ants, but he doesnメt know what it would look like.

The wreck of the zephyr
Van Allsburg, Chris
A young boy's dream of being the greatest sailor brings him to ruin when he misuses his ability to sail his boat above land.

Junk pile!
Borton, Lady
When Jamie Kay helps her dad in their magical junk yard, Robert Haines and other kids make fun of her. Jamie Kay has to find a way to show the kids that her junkyard is magical. But most of all, Jamie has to find a way to make a friend.

Have you seen wilhelmina krumph?
Chasek, Judith
Everyday, Wilhelmina Krumph disappears when she should be washing her windows like all the other housewives. They follow her one day and discover that she rides a motorcycle along a dirt road everyday. They see what fun it is and join her.

Marvin k. mooney, will you please go now!
Seuss, Dr.
The speaker describes many examples of ways for Marvin K. Mooney to leave town.

Horseshoe harry and the whale
De Leeuw, Adele
Horseshoe Harry is a cowboy who lives on the range in Wyoming. He gets tired of the range and wants to see the sea. So he sets off for the coast and ends up on a ship that captures whales. He finds out that he does not like the sea as much as he thought he would.

Little fox goes to the end of the world
Tompert, Ann
Little fox tells his mother about traveling to the end of the world. He tells elaborate stories of the things he encounters. At the end, he tells his mother that he misses her and comes straight home.

Aunt harriet's underground railroad in the sky
Ringgold, Faith
Cassie take a ride on the Underground Railroad with Harriet Tubman as her guide. She learns what steps slaves had to go through in order to reach freedom in the North.

Elvira
Shannon, Margaret
Instead of eating princesses, Elvira the dragon would rather dress like them. She is independent and wants to live life in her own unqiue way.

The hallo-wiener
Pilkey, Dav
Oscar is teased by the other dogs because of his oblong shape. He soon proves that a dog his shape can do things that other dogs cannot.

My rotten redheaded older brother
Polacco, Patricia
Patricia Polacco tells the story about her sibling rivalry with her brother. She wanted to be able to do something better than he could. Eventually, her wish comes true, but not exactly the way she had imagined.

The winter bear
Craft, Ruth
Three young children bundle up for a walk on a winter day. On the way home, they find a discarded cold, knitted bear. They take him home, clean him up, dress him warmly, and give him a new home.

Millicent and the wind
Munsch, Robert
Millicent lives on a mountain top and has no friend except the wind. They play tag and talk to each other. One day she asks the wind to bring her a friend, and it did.

Sleds on boston common: A story from the american revolution
Borden, Louise
It's 1774 and British troops are occupying Boston. King George closes Boston Harbor to punish people who speak out against his laws. Henry, a young boy from Boston, hopes to try out his new sled on his birthday. But when he and his brothers and sister get to the hill they find that the troops have set up camp there. After building up enough courage, Henry asks General Gage to move his troops because Boston Common is for everyone. Being a kind man of his word, General Gage agrees and the children can once again sled.

Marven of the great north woods
Lasky, Kathryn
A boy named Marvin leaves his family during the flu epidemic. He goes to a lumberjack camp in northern Minnesota and works and learns French while making some interesting friends. Marvin learns to ski, dance, and do the bookkeeping as a lumberjack.

Messenger, messenger
Burleigh, Robert
Being a bicycle messenger in a big city is a rigorous job, but someone has to do it. The messenger wakes early and works late to deliver the proper messages to their appropriate places. Nothing can stop him, not rain, snow, or distractions of others.

Chipper's choices
Boegehold, Betty
Chipper makes up five stories, riddles, and songs for his friends so they can have something to do when the winter season comes.

Arthur's pen pal
Hoban, Lillian
Arthur longs to be his pen pal's big brother, so they can wrestle and do karate. He does not like having to jump rope with his little sister. But one day, he learns something very surprising about his pen pal.

The biggest bear
Ward, Leila
Johnny brings home a baby bear that eats everything and grows bigger and bigger. Johnny tries to take him back to the woods, but the bear keeps coming back. Finally, the bear finds a home in a zoo.

The good tiger
Bowen, Elizabeth
Sara and Bob want to invite their tiger friend over for tea. When Sara fails to tell her mother that she invited a tiger, chaos occurs. The tiger leaves, but Sara and Bob find him in the forest where they have the best party ever.

Beyond old MacDonald
Hoce, Charley
Visit all the animals on old MacDonald's Farm and and learn how they really acted while learning language skills. Through rhyming poems, see all the silly moments and experiences the animals had living down on the farm!

Clouds
Bauer, Marion
A boy spends his day outside with his cat exploring different types of clouds and the different things that clouds do. He also explains in a colorful and easy way, what clouds are made of and how we interact with clouds on an everyday basis, using weather terminology.

Keep climbing, girls
Richards, Beah E.
Climb the highest tree possible with an ambitious young girl and learn never stop reaching for your hopes and dreams. Children are reminded that goal setting and perserverence are keys to success.

Amelia to zora
Chin-Lee, Cynthia
Explore in an alphabet formula, biographies that examine different successes and triumphs of famous women in history from Amelia Earhart to Zora Neale.

Island-style alphabet
Yee, Tammy
Learn the alphabet from a diverse perspective through the Hawaiian, Japanese and Chinese cultures. Learn more about these different cultures through the ethnic words and colorful illustrations.

The table where rich people sit
Baylor, Byrd
A young girl feels that her family is so poor that rich people wouldn't even sit at her family's table. She holds a meeting with her family to discuss the money her family has. During the meeting she discovers how rich her family really is. She also learns the important things in life such as, family is more valuable than money itself.

Talking
Xaba-Mashiri, Zadwa
A man digs out a talking yam from his garden. The man is confused and asks his dog if he is talking, but the dog says it is the yam talking. The man runs to the village to tell people about the talking yam and dog. People do not believe the man until things starts talking to them.

Lucy's quiet book
Medearis, Angela Shelf
An annoyed Lucy decides to go the library to get away from her brothers. The librarian gives her a book to quiet her brothers down. Once Lucy begins to read to her brothers, they quiet down and Lucy learns the positive effects of books.

Hannah is my name
Yang, Belle
Hannah and her family come to America from Taiwan to gain freedom. For them to become Americans and have their freedom, they must obtain their greencards. Hannah and her family's journey of over 2 years, encompasses many trials. Hannah and her family feel relief, excitement and prode as they finally receive their greencards and are now able to call American their home.

A song for ba
Yee, Paul
A young, ambitious boy spends a lot of time with his grandfather learning how to sing and follow in the footsteps of his father who travels with a Chinese opera troupe. Wei, the little boy, loves to go to the opera and watch his father perform hoping one day, he too, will be a star. Through difficult times and financial loss, a young boy comes to the rescue of both his father and his cultural background.

Tshepo rides the bus
Xaba-Mashiri, Zodwa
It is Tshepo's birthday and Auntie Sonto is taking him to the town on the bus. Tshepo loves to ride the bus. However, Auntie Sonto refuses to buy a bus ticket for Tshepo because she says Tshepo is too young.

Zen shorts
Muth, Jon
One day, three young children meet a panda after his umbrella lands in their yard. The children become friends with the panda, whose name is Stillwater. He passes on folktales to them to help them solve problems they are having.

Mr. COOL
Wilson, Jacqueline
Mr. Cool gives a fresh perspective on friendship and accepting people for who they are. There is a focus on emotional and social health which is brought to light in a positive manner. Kids will gain a better view of acceptance of their peers and helping with self esteem. Mr. Cool's band develops health skills, friendship, and confidence as they perform.

Alec's primer
Pitts-Walter, Mildred
Alec was a slave who wanted to be free. Ms. Josephine, one of his masters and three years older than him, told Alic if he wanted to be free he needed to learn to read. Ms. Josephine taught him to read and when Alec was old enough he couragously fights in the Civil War and obtained his freedom.

Corduroy
Freeman, Don
Corduroy lives in the toy department of a big store. He is a little lonely bear whom no one wants to buy. One day a little girl comes along and thinks that he is perfect. She comes back the next day and buys him with the money that she has in her piggy bank.

When I heard the learn'd astronomer
Whitman, Walt
A boy is overwhelmed by all the charts and figures about space, but he gets tired of listening to the lectures. He goes outside to look up at the night sky. He is able to make the connection between what he heard and what he sees.

Ugh

Ugh

Yorkins, Arthur
Many, many years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, there was a boy named Ugh who was looked down on and treated like a slave by his siblings. Ugh tells them he will be famous one day. After seeing a wheel, he invents the bicycle, and because of this becomes the boy king.

How the amazon queen fought the prince of Egypt
Bower, Tamara
The land of Khor was a peaceful place free of men, in which woman could live side by side in harmony. One day, Pedikhous, of Egpyt decides to test the strength of the women through various attacks. To his surprise the women are stronger and more determined than he ever imagined. Instead of fighting against them, de decides to live in peace and love beside them.

Fair monaco
Cole, Brock
Three sisters go to stay at their grandma's house. They ask to do things, but their grandma won't let them do anything but eat dinner and go to bed. She is too worried about all the horrible things outside. While the girls are dreaming, they end up in their grandma's horrible dream. The only way they can change it is to dream of their own good dreams. When their grandma wakes up, she is happy because of the good dream she had, since it was the same as her grandchildren.

Brave charlotte
Stohner, Anu
A sheep named Charlotte is very brave and loves adventures. Charlotte wanders off from the herd to go on her adventures. Since Charlotte is so brave she is able to get help for the shepherd when becomes hurt.