Skip to main content
Once in a wood: Ten tales from aesop
Rice, Eve
Follow the Fox, the Lion, and other animals through the various lessons of life. Aesop's Fables teach many lessons about being clever and playing the fool.

The way home
Richardson, Judith Benet
Savi, a baby elephant, is left at the beach, because he did not want to return home with his mother. He becomes scared and finally follows a trail of bananas home.

Simple simon and the magic fish
Richter, K
Simon is made fun of all the time because he is very simple. One day, he catches a magic fish who grants him some wishes. Simon's life changes forever.

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.

Mr. Sugar came to town
Rohmer, Harriet//Gomez, Cruz
When Mr. Sugar first came to town, Alicia and Alfredo could not get enough of his sweet treats. However, in the weeks that followed, the children gained weight and developed cavities. The children realized that Mr. Sugar was not really a good friend because he encourages them to only eat sweets.

Meet wild boars
Rosoff, Meg
Morris, Boris, Horace, and Doris are four wild boars that are not good at all. Although the children try to be polite and help the wild boars or share their snack with them, the boars still cannot be good. The contrast of good and poor behaviors are pointed out in the humorous text.

Meet m and m
Ross, Pat
Mandy and Mimi are best friends. They do everything together. One dya they get in a fight which makes them both miserable. They quickly Plan to continue their fun.

Super dooper jezebel
Ross, Tony
Jezebel is a little girl who is perfect in every way. She never does anything wrong or anything she is not supposed to do. Jezebel is in for a surprise when her perfectness brings her face-to-face with a hungry alligator.

Three little pigs and the big bad wolf
Rounds, Glen
The three little pigs leave home to seek their fortunes. Along the way, the big bad wolf tries to eat them. They rely on each other when their homes are destroyed and they are almost eaten by the wolf.

Wind says goodnight
Rydell, Katy
A child is having a hard time going to sleep. The wind must convince all of the night creatures to go to sleep. The moon is loud and eventually stops glowing. It begins to rain and finally it is time to rest.

Miss maggie
Rylant, Cynthia
Nat is terrified to go into the house of Miss Maggie because he has heard that there is a snake inside her house. But he is so curious that he begins peeking through the windows. Even though Nat does not find a snake, he does find a good friend.

The long way westward
Sandin, Joan
Carl Erik and his family arrive in America off of an immigrant boat from Sweden. They have an adventurous, yet hard, journey westward to Minnesota.

Solo plus one
Scamell, Ragnihild
Solo is a cat who is very bad and enjoys eating gooey eggs. One day, an egg breaks open next to him and the duckling thinks he is his mother. This relationship brings a change in Solo's attitude.

The busy world of Richard Scarry: A big operation
Scarry, Richard
After contracting his third sore throat of the year, Huckle is told that his tonsils need to be taken out. Afraid of the hospital and the word operation, Huckle tries to sneak out. His friend, Lowly, takes Huckle around the hopital to show how others are brave. Huckle decides that he too is brave and will go through with the operation.

Farmer goff and his turkey sam
Schatell, Brian
Farmer Goff has a turkey that he wants to enter in the county fair turkey contest to win a blue ribbon. Sam the turkey likes Mrs. Goff's pie and eats it all the time. Farmer Goff is upset because his turkey will not win a blue ribbon at the fair. But in the end Farmer Goff and Sam still win a blue ribbon, but in the pie eating contest.

Little frog's song
Schertle, Alice
Little frog loves to sing in the pond where he lives. One night a hard rain washes him far away and he cannot find his home. He meets a lamb and a dog and goes to their homes, but their homes do not make him sing. Finally, he meets a boy who takes him back to his pond, where once again he can sing.

Witch hazel
Schertle, Alice
A boy makes a scarecrow out of a witch hazel branch. The scarecrow, Hazel, has special powers only the boy knows of. Hazel saves a pumpkin to make a large harvest moon with it.

Tales for very picky eaters
Schneider, Josh
James battles his father on what to eat. James tries the disgusting broccoli, the smelly lasagna, repulsive milk, lumpy oatmeal, and slimy eggs. As James' father suggests very creative alternatives to the food that James doesn't like, he settles for the food that was offered to him originally.

Jenny and the tennis nut
Schulman, Janet
A father wants his daughter to be a tennis player. She would rather do gymnastics in the yard. Finally her father realizes that she should do what she is interested in and allows her to take gymnastics lessons.

A tale of stolen time
Schwartz, Evgeny
Peter is a lazy boy that never does his homework. He soon falls behind all the other students. Peter always thinks he will have time to catch up. Until one day, he becomes an old man.

Abiyoyo
Seeger, Pete
A little boy and his father are banished from town. The little boy is banished because he plays his ukelele all the time and his father is banished because of his magic and his storytelling about the monster Abiyoyo. When the monster comes to terrorize the town, the boy puts it to sleep with his ukelele music and then his father makes the giant disappear with his magic. They are welcomed back into the town.

The story of mrs. lovewright and the purrless cat
Segal, Lore
Mrs. Lovewright felt lonely so she thought that a cat would make everything better. Instead, she was let down, because the cat was a loner and did not enjoy the company of others. Instead of friends, they became housemates.

Where the wild things are
Sendak, Maurice
Max gets sent to his room without dinner. There he dreams about a new world of his own where he sails to an island and becomes the king of all the beasts. After all of his fun frolicking with the beasts, he comes home where a hot meal is waiting for him.

Pierre: A cautionary tale
Sendak, Maurice
Pierre does not care about anyone or anything in his environment. After a lion eats him, Pierre learns the importance of caring.

Higglety pigglety pop
Sendak, Maurice
Jennie is a dog who has a great master. She receives lots of love and gives a lot of love. Unfortunately, Jennie is not satisfied and runs away to find her fortune.

Outside over there
Sendak, Maurice
Ida is supposed to take care of her baby sister while their father is at sea. One day when she is not paying attention, goblins come and kidnap her sister. Ida plays her horn to charm the goblins with her music and rescues her sister. From that day on, she never takes her eyes off her baby sister.

In the night kitchen
Sendak, Maurice
In his dream, Mickey falls out of bed into the batter of a cake in the kitchen. He goes through many obstacles to help the bakers get the milk they need for the cake.

The cat in the hat comes back
Seuss, Dr.
The Cat in the Hat returns to visit Salley and her brother's house while their mother is gone. The children shovel the sidewalk, causing mischief and a big mess. Then, the Cat in the Hat brings out his helpers, Cats A-Z, to help clean up.

Thidwick the big hearted moose
Seuss, Dr.
Thidwick was nice enough to let the other animals live on his antlers, but they took advantage of his generosity. Thidwick's life is threatened by a hunter, so he sheds his antlers and frees himself of all his guests.

The cat in the hat
Seuss, Dr.
It was too wet to play outside, so Sally and her brother just sat inside. Along came the Cat in the Hat with a bunch of silly tricks that made a huge mess. Right before their mother returns, they clean everything up.

The lorax
Seuss, Dr.
Trees are being destroyed in a small town and the lorax tries to stop the business that uses the trees to make clothes. Finally, all the trees are gone and the animals are dying, so a young boy decides to plant trees all over town.

Mcelligot's pool
Seuss, Dr.
As a boy fishes in Farmer McElligot's pool, he describes many of the fish he could possibly catch. The farmer tells him that he will never catch anything there. The boy is determined to be patient; if he waits long enough he may catch something.

Oh, the places you will go
Seuss, Dr.
A young person receives advice for going out into the world: expect life's ups and downs, be prepared for the unexpected, learn to roll with the punches, and perserverence pays off.

Yertle the turtle
Seuss, Dr.
Yertle the turtle is the king of all turtles and everything that he can see. In order to see more things, therefore becoming more powerful, he would stack turtles to stand on. Finally, the stack of turtles got so high that Yertle came crashing down and set all the other turtles free.

Horton hatches the egg
Seuss, Dr.
Horton the elephant is asked to sit on Mayzie's egg while she takes a break. He ends up sitting on it for a long time. After several seasons the egg hatches into an elephant bird. Horton takes the baby home with him.

Green eggs and ham
Seuss, Dr.
Sam-I-Am follows another person around trying to get him to eat green eggs and ham, but the person insists he would never eat green eggs and ham. Eventually he agrees to try them and decides he does like green eggs and ham and thanks his new friend, Sam-I-Am.

David goes to school
Shannon, David
David is quite the mischievous student, full of energy and always keeping his teacher on her toes. His entertaining antics make it impossible not to enjoy him.

Burton and dudley
Sharmat, Marjorie Weinman
Dudley likes to walk, while Burton likes to sit and look outside. They both try doing what the other likes best and finds some enjoyment in other activities.

I am not a pest
Sharmat, Marjorie//Sharmat, Mitchell
A girl believes she is not a pest, even though others tell her she is.

Gregory, the terrible eater
Sharmat, Michael
Since Gregory does not eat the typical goat food, his parents takes him to the doctor. The doctor says that they should add some goat food into his diet a little at a time. Eventually, Gregory and his parents compromise and he eats some of each.

An ocean world
Sis, Peter
A whale sails new seas and after several unsuccessful attempts, makes a friend.

Mandy's grandmother
Skorpen, Leisel
When her grandmother comes to town, Mandy thinks she is sad and mean. After awhile, they begin to understand one another and learn from each other.

A good place to hide
Slobodkin, Louis
Susan needs a good hiding place to get away from her brothers that want to show her a spider - her least favorite thing! After asking a lot of people where to hide, she finds a hiding place all on her own. When everyone goes to find her, nobody can!

Maybe tomorrow i'll have a good time
Soderstorm, Mary
Marsha Lou's mom decides to go back to work. This means the Marsha Lou will have to go to child care. She is very unhappy, but she soon adjusts.

Polly jumped over the moon
Soloman, Helen
A family has a pet parrot named Polly that refuses to talk. The family continually repeats nursery rhymes to him, until one day he repeats them back. Now they are all mixed up!

Alia's mission
Stamaty, Mark A.
Alia is the librarian of the Central Library in Basra, Iraq. When the war in Iraq begins to move closer and closer to Basra, Alia makes an important decision and takes huge risks to preserve the historical literaure of her country, as well as many other books in the library. The war progresses and Alia enlists the help of friends to do all they can to move and protect the contents of the library.

My little foster sister
Stanek, Muriel
An only child is upset about a foster child temporarily living in her home, but then she grows to love the child as a sister. A bond grows between them through reading, singing, and playing together. The little girl grieves when the foster child is adopted by her aunt and uncle.

The conversation club
Stanley, Diane
Peter the field mouse moves into a new house and is invited to be a member in the local Conversation Club. When he attends, he finds that everyone is speaking at once and nothing can be understood. With that, Peter decides to organize his own club - the Listening Club.

Rumpelstiltskin's daughter
Stanley, Diane
When Rumpelstiltskin's daughter is ordered by the King to spin straw into gold, she tricks him instead by telling him that sharing his gold with the townspeople is the way to increase his wealth.

Hooray for pig!
Stevens, Carla
With the help of his friends, Pig overcomes his fear of water and learns to swim.