Submitted by Tess from Lexington Park!
Okay. I’m going to come right out and say it: The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkey is my favorite children’s picture book of 2009. This (mostly) wordless, beautifully illustrated, re-imagining of Aesop’s fable has a special place in my heart. A mouse dares hide from an owl in the mane of a jungle king. The lion spares the mouse’s life, and it scurries home to its large family. In the meantime, the majestic cat is trapped by hunters! When he ROARS for help, who shows up? His fated mouse friend, who chews him free, enabling him to return to his pride. It pays to be charitable, in the case of the lion, and corageous, in the case of the mouse. The art in this book is spectacular, and the lesson it provides will hopefully ring true with your child. It may also inspire you to learn more about the wildlife depicted in the story! I will gush no further, except to say I truly love this book and encourage you to check it out post haste! See this book listed in our catalog
Go Green
Miss Fox’s Class Goes Green
Submitted by county youth coordinator Janis!
Miss Fox’s Class Goes Green by Eileen Spinelli. Miss Fox rides her bicycle to school, and the kids think her car is broken. She explains to them that she is going green to help the environment. One by one, the kids in her class begin to take steps to make the world a better place. Mouse took shorter showers, Bunny took a cloth bag to the supermarket, and Possum turned the lights off when he went out. The end pages include “Tips for Going Green.” Ms. Spinelli makes a serious subject both fun and inspiring. See this book listed in our catalog
Big Bear Hug
Submitted by Tess from Lexington Park!
Meet an awesome tree-hugging bear in Big Bear Hug by Canadian artist Nicholas Oldland. This bear has so much love in his heart, he just feels compelled to hug everything in the forest, including things he’s supposed to eat like rabbits, big things like moose, and small things like birds. His favorite thing to hug though, is trees. You name a tree, this bear has hugged it. One day while attempting to hug a tree and a beaver at the same time, the bear sees a man about to chop down one of the most beautiful trees in the forest. It’s not in his nature to hurt a man, so the bear does what he does best. Thankfully, this man is not used to hugging bears and runs far, far away! Read this adorable book with your child, and then go hug some trees of your own! See this book listed in our catalog
Dinosaur Woods
Submitted by Tess from Lexington Park!
Dinosaur Woods: Can Seven Clever Critters Save Their Forest Home? by George McClements will appeal to all the environmentally aware children (0r their parents). It’s about a crew of woodland creatures whose home is soon to be destroyed for the sake of building a plastic tree factory. They try to speak up to those responsible, but of course are not understood. Finally they are inspired to build a life-like semi-robotic dinosaur! No one will mess with their forest if they see a terrifying dinosaur lives there! The plan backfires, when even more humans show up, now to study the dinosaur. What will happen when it’s revealed that the dino is a fake being run by a seemingly ordinary fox, bear, snake, bird, deer, and pair of rabbits? You’ll have to read to find out! See this book listed in our catalog
Redwoods
Submitted by Tess from Lexington Park!
Redwoods by Jason Chin is an awesome work of nonfiction. A boy on a big city subway train is reading a book about redwoods, and he imagines the book coming to life around him. The city scape gives way to these enormous trees, the tallest living things on the planet, which have been around since the time of dinosaurs. The fantastic illustrations complement the incredibly informative and interesting text (including a fascinating passage about the proper way to climb a redwood, which includes launching a rope to climb into the canopy with a bow and arrow!), and there’s an afterword from the author about the value of conserving the redwood forests. Perhaps it will even inspire you to make a trip to California to see these amazing trees up close!
The Little House
Submitted by Allana from Leonardtown!
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. Beautifully illustrated in its simplicity. The Little House sits on a hill surrounded by trees and flowers and all of nature’s splendor in the countryside. Through the seasons you see the little house in the varying light and settings. The little house is content but becomes lonely as the family spend less time there. Gradually, the surroundings change, as technology takes hold. Buildings go up, trams or trains start coming and going, pretty soon it’s the hustle and bustle of a large town or small city. The little house seems to shrink and decline more and more, and becomes really lonely and sad as the owners have forsaken their former home. Finally the little house is “rescued” by a descendant of the family and carried back to the countryside. Even though it’s a different hill in a new location, the little house looks brighter and happier, and once again enjoys the loving care of a family in the beautiful countryside.