My Friend May

My Friend May

My Friend May

My Friend May by Julie Flett

A gentle and touching story about friendship, memory, and the changing seasons. Told with simple, thoughtful language and beautiful illustrations, the book explores how connections can continue even when someone is no longer physically present. Flett’s use of nature and quiet moments helps young readers understand feelings of loss in a calm and reassuring way. It is a heartfelt book that encourages reflection, empathy, and appreciation for the bonds we share.

Percy the Park Keeper: A Classic Treasury

Percy the Park Keeper: A Classic Treasury 

Percy the Park Keeper: A Classic Treasury by Nick Butterworth 

A warm and charming collection of stories that celebrates kindness, friendship, and helping others. Set in a peaceful park, the book follows Percy as he looks after both the park and the animals who live there, always finding clever and caring solutions to their problems. Butterworth’s gentle humor and detailed illustrations make the stories engaging and comforting, especially for younger readers. This treasury is a delightful read that encourages empathy and shows the joy of looking out for others.

Sitti's Bird

 

Sitti's Bird

Sitti's Bird: a Gaza Story by Malak Mattar

A recounting of her own lived experience growing up in occupied Palestine, the plot takes place during the 2014 airstrikes on Gaza when a little girl finds strength and hope through her painting. Malak goes to school, plays in the ocean, and visits her grandmother Sitti’s house on Fridays. Sitti keeps a white bird in a cage and the girl wonders if they, too, are in a cage. Her grandmother consoles her by encouraging her to fly in her dreams. One day bombings begin and Malak spends the next fifty days at home with her parents worrying and feeling scared, until one day she finds some paints and begins to create. Months later, an international art exhibit invites her to attend with her parents, but sadly she must decline, for Gaza is closed and she cannot leave. The focus of the book is the love and support of family throughout a heartbreaking ordeal, with themes of hope, freedom, and art expression. Art is shown as an escape and a strategy to keep dreams from completely dying. It’s a thoughtful, hopeful, age-appropriate introduction to events in Gaza for children aimed at grades 3-5. Even though children in Gaza suffer much worse, the author kept the story child-friendly.

The Day the Babies Crawled Away

The Day the Babies Crawled Away by Peggy Rathman

A boy follows fives babies who crawl away from a picnic and saves the day by bringing them back.

The Capybaras

The Capybaras

The Capybaras by Alfredo Soderguit

In this beautiful and simple book, hens and their chicks are living safe and secure in their coop, or at least it seems that way... until the day the capybaras appear! As time passes and days change, minds begin to open and new possibilities appear. Can the hens accept the capybaras after all?

Supposing

Supposing

Supposing... by Alastair Reid

Follow playful possibilities on fanciful and humorous journeys, powered by the limitlessness of the imagination. A child imagines many silly, impossible, and even naughty things and their possible consequences, from learning unusual languages to building a tiny boat and sailing around the world.

SUPPOSING I looked in the mirror one day and saw someone who wasn’t me at all…
SUPPOSING I sailed around the world and when I was a mile from my hometown, I just turned the boat and sailed round again the other way…
SUPPOSING ...

Corner

Corner

Corner by Zo-0

A quirky and relatable story about balancing creativity and connection

A crow finds itself in an empty corner and begins to make the space its own. First, it furnishes the corner with a bed, a bookshelf, a rug, even a potted plant. In the newly decorated space, the crow reads and eats, listens to music and waters the plant, but something’s missing. What is it?

The crow decides to decorate more, drawing geometric patterns on the walls in yellow. The corner is filled with color and shapes, but something is still missing. The crow adds a window, and finally discovers what it needed all along―a way to connect with the world outside and to make a new friend.

This highly original, almost-wordless picture book is the first title by award-winning Korean author and illustrator Zo-O to be published in English. Soft, detailed illustrations of the cozy corner will inspire kids to express themselves in their own spaces, and the crow’s problem-solving skills encourage readers to think about how they can comfortably step outside of their comfort zone.