Join this “mysterious FACTopia tour…” to encounter top secrets, unsolved mysteries, dark caves, deep ocean dwellers, hidden history, and more. Lots more! Photographs and comical illustrations combine for an intriguing, fact-based jaunt through time and places.
Secret FACTopia! Follow the Trail of 400 Hidden Facts
Become a keen nature observer: an observologist! Cartoon-like illustrations and open text resemble a journal, inviting readers to look closely at the small things around them.
The Observologist
Handsome graphics accompany crisp text in this thorough exploration of insects, their sizes, and fascinating facts about them. The suggestions on what to do to protect insects are doable. Additional resources and an author’s note are included.
Insectorama: The Marvelous World of Insects
Imagination and science combine in gloriously detailed illustrations and descriptive poems for a unique look at what various creatures call home. Additional information about the animals and other resources conclude this memorable book.
Home
Many animals are extinct — but not only is there a great deal that can be done to stop continued extinction, new creatures continue to be discovered. Handsome, detailed illustrations combine with brief narrations just right for dipping in and out. Done in collaboration with the Smithsonian, the book includes additional information and resources.
Extinctopedia
Travel across the U.S. and meet some kids where they live. This carefully crafted and well-researched introduction introduces individuals who live in different places but share a great deal in common. A companion volume to the author’s This is How We Do It: One Day in the Lives of Seven Kids from Around the World (opens in a new window).
All About U.S.: A Look at the Lives of 50 Real Kids from Across the United States
Humans could learn a great deal from ants and in fact share many things with humans. They live in families, have different jobs, and do better when they work together. Humorous (bug-eyed) ants and lighthearted text introduce these fascinating critters.
The Wonderful Wisdom of Ants
From congas to triangle, travel the world through many musical instruments, including voice. The author and illustrator intentionally developed this book to help discovery through sight through lighthearted line illustrations and sound via QR codes that showcase each specific sound with a final musical composition by the author.
Sounds Good!: Discover 50 Instruments
From an abandoned empty lot that Nevaeh called haunted, Mr. Tony and the kids from PS175 transform it into a lush garden that produces food to share. Childlike illustrations complement the gradual transformation. An author’s note includes information about Harlem Grown, the community nonprofit, as well as steps to start a garden.
Saturdays at Harlem Grown: How One Big Idea Transformed a Neighborhood
Aspiring pilots and airplane enthusiasts will enjoy the brief, clearly illustrated introduction to the many types and uses of planes. Similarly, sturdy pages are used in the companion volume, Helena Harštová’s Submarines (opens in a new window) for children interested in sea explorations (from the All Aboard! series).
Planes
History and food combine in an attractive, illustrated, and family friendly cookbook. Additional activities are suggested including a playlist of music to which to dance! Additional information and resources about Juneteenth are included.
The Juneteenth Cookbook: Recipes and Activities for Kids and Families to Celebrate
The lasting friendship between Indigenous people and people in Ireland started in the mid-19th century, continued through the pandemic, and endures to this day. This little-known piece of history is told through straightforward language and images that evoke the periods, places, and peoples. Backmatter includes timeline, resources, as well as author and illustrator notes.
Kindred Spirits: Shilombish Ittibachvffa
Boxes of books are loaded from a handcart to a truck and onto a shipping container where a four-week journey starts. The format highlights the length of the container ships that travel from there to here finally getting books into a bookshop. A range of ideas are simply presented coupled with a more detailed description of the travel creating a book that can be read on two levels cleverly augmented by simple but effective illustrations.
Every Here Has a There: Moving Cargo by Container Ship
Although two-thirds of the world is covered by oceans, a mere five percent of them have been explored. Readers are invited into the history of diving through engaging, realistic illustrations and informative narration, from ancient times to the present. An author’s note and additional backmatter conclude this attractive book.
Dive! The Story of Breathing Underwater
A big brown bear announces it is the only bear in the book, until a polar bear — and then other bears — join them. Together, they discover (along with the reader) how different types of bears are similar and different. Fact and humor combine in this humorous informational picture book with additional resources included.
Bears Are Best!
A prickly hotel? Plants and animals thrive because of the cactus and its spring flowers, seeds, et al! The simple text describing this environment and the lives it supports provides an intriguing introduction to the desert ecosystem.
Welcome to the Cactus Hotel
Young children are invited to a powwow in this 1-to-10 counting board book — beginning with one car traveling to the powwow to 10 tribal citizens enjoying the celebration. The indigenous author and illustrator team that wrote Powwow Day (for slightly older readers) now introduce younger readers to the powwow tradition.
On Powwow Day
Words in English and Spanish label bold shapes depicting people, common animals, and familiar objects on sturdy pages. Interesting juxtapositions add to the appeal on bright spreads.
Miro / Look
Is that sound the bus? No, it’s the garbage truck! Other sounds bring more vehicles to the neighborhood. The school bus finally arrives bringing the child’s sister home!
Is That the Bus?
From polar bears to owls, animals introduce shapes in one book (Hello Hello Shapes (opens in a new window)) while an axolotl to a zebra present color in another book (Hello Hello Colors (opens in a new window)). All animals — many endangered — are identified at the end of each sturdy book.
Hello Hello Shapes
Unique and quite handsome fish in this small, sturdy edition present a range of emotions accompanied by sophisticated descriptive word — sure to encourage conversation with young children.
Happy
Rhythmic language and irresistible photographs depict young children and animals each consuming colorful, healthy foods. Additional fruits and veggies are identified on end pages.
Bunny Loves Beans
Have you ever considered how long a tree lives? Or where chocolate comes from? Comical illustrations add jauntiness to this playful but informative book sure to intrigue young readers.
What Things Come From Nature?
With Spring comes “new life and new beginnings … Nature is hard at work …” Children and their adults can celebrate the season with a wide range of easy-to-follow activities from pressing flowers to finding edible flowers, from growing strawberries to making strawberry fruit leathers. (Part of the Little Homesteader series)