Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote, "Home is the nicest word there is." That’s exactly what Brownie, a stray dog, hopes for in Brownie’s Adventures: Island Tales of a Dog from Trinidad by Manuela Giger. Every day, she wanders the beaches and sidewalks of Trinidad, hungry not...

Telling the truth can be like opening a magical door. Sometimes it can be scary to try, but in the end, it makes you feel happy inside, loved, and trusted by people around you. C.M. Harris shows this attribute aptly in What If We Were...

Shaila Holmes: Fairy Detective by Lori Keating consists of five mysteries that take one clever detective and her sidekick on mini epic adventures. With help from her adorable hummingbird friend, Itsy, she searches for clues and closes every case. From helping search for a missing...

The Kinetix and the Glowing Orb of Gorthon by Austin Basis, Dave Maulbeck, and Josh Taub is an entertaining and original graphic novel. Four middle school students never dreamed that they would one day become superheroes who would end up saving the school. And ultimately,...

In The Crow’s Ring by Pannell & Sigfusson, Brandon Woodberry and his friends are drawn into a long-buried mystery. Brandon realizes that a ruby ring, once dropped on his rooftop by his pet crow, matches jewelry reported stolen from a wealthy Riverside homeowner during a...

Are you happy, sad, or angry? Do you know what those words mean? In Animals Feeling Like Us by R. M. Smith, young readers meet a parade of animals who show different emotions in a fun, friendly way. Whether it’s the HAPPY Hippo flashing a...

Izzie tries to be invisible every day during Reading Circle, and she succeeds until the day Miss Mira, the teacher, calls on her to read a passage. Izzie froze. Soon, the class was giggling, and Izzie pleaded that Miss Mira skip her on the grounds...

Mazel’s Mishpacha by Karen Gorback, PhD, introduces young readers to a lively schnoodle who literally stumbles into belonging. When the curly-coated pup wanders into a synagogue on Rosh Hashanah, he seeks shelter but discovers something much greater. The congregation welcomes him, and Mazel soon becomes...

The Power of Encouragement: Turning "I Can't" into "I Can" by Ruth Maille is a children's picture book featuring Orbit, a cheerful globe, who arrives via rocket at a kindergarten classroom to teach students about two interconnected superpowers: courage and encouragement. Five classmates, Natalie, Giuliana,...

Smiley had a lot to learn. He didn’t know why he was in a dog shelter. Had he done something wrong? In Olena Kagui’s What Smiley the Rescue Dog Didn’t Know, Smiley is quickly adopted into a loving family, so he doesn’t have to feel...