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Children enjoy stories, fables, and tales about animals. This Showcase highlights stories of classic, as well as soon-to-be classic, animal characters in picture books, nonfiction, and novels for all ages.
The May-June Showcase will be Fiction On The Edge.
These books are available at your local bookstore. Check the ABA's directory of member bookstores for a bookseller near you. You may also purchase these books at BookSense.com.
Note: Showcase titles are selected by the books' publishers, who provide cover art, interior art, and descriptive information.
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ABC Safari
written and illustrated by Karen Lee. Ages 4-8.
(Sylvan Dell Publishing)
Join the ABC Safari looking for animals in the sky, mountains, forests, deserts and oceans—all over the globe in all kinds of habitats.
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The Big, Blue Lump
written and illustrated by Yetti Frenkel. Ages 2-6.
(Snow Tree Books)
Children's Choices selection: Bandy is a peaceful little bug who can inflate himself to gigantic proportions, demonstrating that being small does not mean being helpless.
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A Chick Called Saturday
by Joyce Dunbar, illustrated by Brita Granstrom. Ages 3 and up.
(Eerdmans Books for Young Readers)
Saturday doesn't want to stay in line. He wants to know all about the other farmyard animals. Most of all, he wants to do all the things the other creatures can do—swim like the ducks, honk like the geese, fly like the black birds—things that his mother tells him he can never do. And then Saturday sees a wonderful sight—and, at last, discovers something that a little chick can do!
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The Cricket Winter
by Felice Holman, illustrated by Robyn Thomas. Ages 8-12.
(Eerdmans Books for Young Readers)
A cricket is living a solitary life beneath the floorboards in Simms' room. His bride-to-be has left him after a fight, and in his loneliness he turns for companionship to the other creatures who live underground. Soon he finds himself deeply involved in their struggle for survival.
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A Dog's Life
Autobiography of a Stray
by Ann M. Martin. Ages 9-12.
(Scholastic Press)
The tale of what it means for a dog to be a stray, told with Ann Martin's signature grace and insight.
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The Elephant's Ball
illustrated by Pauline Baynes. Ages 5 and up.
(Eerdmans Books for Young Readers)
After learning that the creatures of the air have had a grand celebration, Elephant, not to be outdone, decides to throw an even more glorious ball for the animals of the land.
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Happy Birthday to Whooo?
by Doris Fisher, illustrated by Lisa Downey. Ages 4-8.
(Sylvan Dell Publishing)
These clever baby announcement riddles will have children giggling as they use the written and illustrated clues to guess what animal baby was just born.
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Libby and the Cat
written and illustrated by Yetti Frenkel. Ages 2-6.
(Snow Tree Books)
KIND Honor Book: This story introduces the concept of empathy to young children. Libby teases her cat until she has a change of heart.
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Lucy Goose Goes to Texas
by Holly Bea, illustrated by Joe Boddy. Ages 3-10.
(H J Kramer/Starseed Press)
Delightful, rhyming text coupled with brilliantly colorful and playful illustrations make Lucy Goose Goes to Texas a fun way to teach children the enduring value of teamwork.
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Owen & Mzee
The Language of Friendship
by Craig and Isablella Hatkoff and Dr. Paula Kahumbu, illustrated with photographs by Peter Greste. Ages 4-8.
(Scholastic Press)
An inspiring reminder that love often grows in the most unexpected places.
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Piper
written and illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark. Ages 5 and up.
(Eerdmans Books for Young Readers)
It will take a hard heart indeed to resist this story of a sweet-natured hound who finally finds the owner he deserves." —Publishers Weekly
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Questionable Creatures
A Bestiary
written and illustrated by Pauline Baynes. All Ages.
(Eerdmans Books for Young Readers)
Bestiaries are the most gloriously entertaining books to have come from the Middle Ages. Written and illuminated by monks, they describe every creature thought to exist in the medieval world and include all manner of fish, fowl, and mythological beast, however far-fetched.
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The Rainforest Grew All Around
by Susan K. Mitchell, illustrated by Connie McLennan. Ages 4-8.
(Sylvan Dell Publishing)
Children learn about the wide variety of creatures lurking in the lush Amazon rainforest in this adaptation of "The Green Grass Grew All Around."
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Saving the Buffalo
by Albert Marrin. Ages 9-12.
(Scholastic Nonfiction)
Saving the Buffalo explores the astonishing fate of these huge animals.
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Trudy and the Captain's Cat
written and illustrated by Yetti Frenkel. Ages 4 and up.
(Snow Tree Books)
The adventure of a pampered housecat who is conned out of her hard-earned fish by a cunning, seafaring cat.
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Turtle Summer: A Journal for my Daughter
by Mary Alice Monroe, illustrated by Barbara Bergwerf. Ages 5-9.
(Sylvan Dell Publishing)
A companion book to Mary Alice Monroe's Swimming Lessons, this photo journal explains the nesting cycle of sea turtles and natural life along the southeastern coast.
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