List

What was it like to be a kid traveling through Ellis Island?

Most people in the United States can trace their origins to somewhere else. This means that either they or their ancestors were immigrants. The most important gateway for immigrants during the early 20th century was Ellis Island. This immigration station on a tiny island in New York Harbor welcomed more than 12 million people to America! Many of them were kids!

Join Isabella and Alberto as they journey from Italy to the United States through Ellis Island. Share their struggles, fears, and hopes as they go through an experience shared with millions of Americans.

ABOUT THIS SERIES:

Step back in time to the most relevant historical moments with the best-selling series, "If You Were a Kid"! In an exciting blend of fiction and nonfiction, a fictionalized narrative teaches history through the eyes of kids, while informational text introduces readers to key factual information. With engaging text, illustrations, and photos on every page, "If You Were a Kid" will spark readers' curiosity and imagination, making learning about our past an accessible and unforgettable experience.

The best-selling author of the Baby Loves Science series levels up with this playful STEM picture book introducing kids (and grown-ups) to climate science.

Do you want to know a secret? Sometimes grown-ups need YOU to explain things to THEM. Like climate science!

In this tongue-in-cheek guide, an in-the-know narrator instructs kid readers in the fine art of explaining climate science to a grown-up. Both children and their adults learn:
 

• The difference between weather and climate.
• How climate scientists collect data.
• What causes climate change.
• What we can do to reverse course and repair the planet.

Fun and fact-filled, the How to Explain Science to a Grown-Up series will empower kid experts to explore complex scientific concepts with any grown-up who will listen.

For young readers, an inspiring story about a river, a successful Native-led movement for environmental justice, and the making of a scientist.

Growing up in the Yurok and Karuk Tribes, Brook Thompson learned to care for the fish that nurtured her and her family. She knew that along the Klamath River in Northern California, salmon and lampreys are a needed part of life. But she also saw how these fish were in danger. People had built dams along the Klamath River, making it very hard for salmon and lampreys to live. Tribal people and their friends organized to have four of the dams removed, and they won. In I Love Salmon and Lampreys, Thompson tells this inspiring tale, and she shares how it motivated her to become a scientist. Featuring adorable illustrations by Anastasia Khmelevska, as well as fun facts about salmon and lampreys, this is a stirring story about stewarding nature for the generations to come.

An interactive, illustrated guide perfect for any burgeoning plant lover!



Research shows plants can keep us (and our living spaces) happier and healthier. This illustrated guide breaks down everything from basic light and water needs to soil and temperature requirements for over fifty plants, and will help you find the right plant(s) for your personality, regardless of where you live or how much space you have. With an expansive glossary of plant terms, you'll be speaking like a horticulture pro in no time.

Each section includes:

• "How To" instructions for planting and caring for greenery
• Fun plant facts
• Troubleshooting tips
• Interactive quizzes
• Informative, handy charts
• DIY crafts and projects

Myths! Lies! Recycling scams? Discover the real story behind the first Earth Day celebration and some of the biggest US climate catastrophes--and their solutions! Don't miss the award-winning History Smashers series as they get to the truth on the biggest environmental fibs!

In April 1970, twenty million people grabbed their rakes, gloves, and recycling bins to celebrate the first Earth Day. Since that environmental kickoff, nature has never been in better shape. RIGHT?

WRONG! The real deal is a bit muddier than that. It’s true that the first Earth Day encouraged people around the globe to clean up their act when it came to the environment. But activists have been working for centuries to save the planet! Native people across the world developed sustainable farming practices, women in eighteenth-century India stood up to protect trees, and amateur scientist Eunice Foote discovered the science behind global warming all the way back in the 1850s!

Join the History Smashers team to bust history's biggest misconceptions and figure out what in the world really went down before (and after!) the first Earth Day—and how you can join the fight to protect the environment.

Ready to bust new myths? Check out more titles in the History Smashers series: The Mayflower • Plagues & Pandemics • The Titanic • The Underground Railroad • The Salem Witch Trials

This first picture book biography of Rubik’s Cube creator Erno Rubik reveals the obsession, imagination, and engineering process behind creating an iconic puzzle.

Celebrating 50 years of the most popular puzzle in history!

In the hills of Budapest, near the banks of the Danube River, lived a quiet boy named Ernő Rubik. He loved books, art, nature, and—most of all—puzzles. And he grew up to create the most popular puzzle in history. This picture book biography explores the experience and interests that inspired the inventor of the Rubik’s Cube.

From the time he was a child, Ernő was curious about the objects around him. What did they look like on the inside? What about geometric shapes? How many ways could he fit them together? Could he combine them so they somehow became something that was greater than its components?

Ernő grew up and became a professor of architecture and design. Still fascinated with how shapes worked together, he fashioned an object, a cube made up of smaller cubes that twisted and turned without breaking. This object eventually became known as the most popular puzzle in history, the Rubik’s Cube.

Kerry Aradhya’s accessible text takes us behind the scenes of the creative process and into the mind and imagination of a remarkable inventor. Kara Kramer’s cheerful, multi-media illustrations encourage readers to think about inspiration, reflection, and the joy of puzzles—and solutions.

A CBC-NSTA Best STEM Book of the Year
Named to the Texas Topaz Nonfiction Reading List
Named to the Texas Bluebonnet Award List

Follow a blue whale’s enormous body to the bottom of the ocean, where it sets the stage for a bustling new ecosystem to flourish.

All living things must one day die, and Earth’s largest creature, the majestic blue whale, is no exception. But in nature, death is never a true ending. When this whale closes her eyes for the last time in her 90-year life, a process known as whale fall is just beginning. Her body will float to the surface, then slowly sink through the deep; from inflated behemoth to clean-picked skeleton, it will offer food and shelter at each stage to a vast diversity of organisms, over the course of a century and beyond. 

Caldecott Medalist Jason Chin’s astonishing artwork enriches and amplifies engaging, well-researched text by Bill Nye the Science Guy writer Lynn Brunelle. Young lovers of the macabre will relish each page of Life After Whale. Meanwhile, those grappling with the hard subject of death will take solace in this honest look at the circle of life, which closes on a young whale enjoying the same waves as her ancestor. Additional back pages offer further info and reading recommendations on whales, whale falls, and ecosystems.

An Orbis Pictus Honor Book
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
One of Evanston Public Library's 101 Great Books for Kids
A Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year

A vibrant historical picture book about Tokyo's bicycle food deliverers, or demae, who balanced towering trays of steaming hot noodles on their shoulders while navigating crowded city streets.

A CALDECOTT HONOR BOOK • A Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book • A BOOKPAGE, KIRKUS REVIEWS, AND HORN BOOK BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

When the deliverymen set off in the morning, the children wait for the flicker of pedal and wheel. It's the demae-- delivery men-- setting off to deliver steaming trays of noodles to hungry customers all over the city. They are acrobats: whizzing past other bicycles, soaring around curves, avoiding the black smoke of motorcycles. When the children see them, they want to be them. And so they practice with bowls of wobbling water stacked on trays. The day passes, and, finally, exhausted, the demae return home, to their families, and, yes, to steaming bowls of noodles.

This beautifully crafted, visually exciting story by a powerhouse author and illustrator team is sure to be adored by food lovers, young and old.

Jojo needs to pee. Urgently! But to get to the toilet, he'll have to meet the ogre in the hallway. Pascal Lemaître’s brave Jojo and adorable ogre will help kids giggle away nighttime fears.

It's late at night, and Jojo knows two things: First, he has to pee, urgently. Second, an ogre lives in the hallway, and he'll have to see him on the way to pee. Not an easy situation to solve. Sword in hand, Jojo creeps along the walls of the dark hallway. Finally he reaches the door, where he discovers that the ogre is inside and on the potty! Jojo tells the ogre to scram, but the sad and sweet-faced ogre is too upset! He has a stomach ache and yes, he’s also afraid of the dark! The mayhem escalates from there as more creatures appear, piling into the bathroom to hide from their many nighttime fears. Clever and funny with stellar art by Pascal Lemaître, this is a story that will delight children who love monsters and spooky stories as it defangs their fears of the dark.

A New York Times bestselling author's entertaining take on a quintessential outdoor experience--and why sometimes the best memories are a result of the unexpected--with laugh-out-loud illustrations.

A family's excited to go camping! But they don't know what they're doing, and it does NOT go well. Then they see Campingland, a perfect indoor camping theme park! Perfect temperature. Perfect "fishing." Perfect "animals." But...PERFECTLY BORING!

Will they give outdoor camping another try? Be a little more prepared? A lot more relaxed? And NOT hug any skunks this time?

"Join the author of Moto and Me and My Leopard Diary as she spends two wild and action-packed weeks observing and photographing a mob of meerkats. Suzi's diary opens with her arrival on the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, where she and her zoologist assistant, Becky, are welcomed by Motto, a local meerkat habituator, and Villa, a naturalist guide. Over the next action-packed two weeks, Suzi and the team observe a small but mightily busy meerkat mob. Her daily accounts describe the early life of the five meerkat pups being raised by the mob's matriarch and two adult males. The pups grow from tiny creatures who wobble as they walk and are wholly dependent on their adult caretakers, to adolescents who practice killing scorpions for their dinner and have nearly perfected the famous tripod stance meerkats use when on lookout for danger. Along the way, the mob survives a heavy rainfall that floods the plains where they live, as well as manage to avoid becoming the dinner of a hungry eagle hunting them from overhead. They even escape being trampled by a galloping herd of zebras - which Suzi and Becky alsojust escape thanks to Motto and Villa's quick thinking. In addition to her observations about the mob, Suzi's narration seamlessly weaves in information about life in the heart of the Kalahari Desert - from the other wild animals that are native to the area (including a brown hyena mother and cub, an eagle, jackals, a porcupine, and lions) to an afternoon spent with some of the indigenous Ju/'hoasi people who have thrived there for tens of thousands of years. Endmatter includes a Q&A with both Motto and Villa, who play such essential roles in this adventure. Jam-packed with amazing and often adorable photos"--

From zooplankton to phytoplankton, these small-scale superheroes are the foundation of the ocean's food chain, keep our climate in check, generate up to fifty percent of the oxygen produced on the planet each year--and much more. Stunning microscopic photos and primary source research provide a seldom seen look at these dynamic drifters. "Science interpreter," Mary Cerullo, dives into the wet world of plankton, and takes a deep look at the good and the bad, the tiny and even tinier. Readers will discover even the smallest actors can make a big difference. Glossary and informative sidebars included.

"You won't be able to stop turning pages . . . it is so stinking good!" --Colby Sharp, author of The Creativity Project: An Awesometastic Story Collection

From National Book Award finalist Katherine Marsh: Percy Jackson meets Wednesday Addams in this fantastical adventure about Ava, who attends a boarding school for the descendants of Greek monsters and uncovers a terrible secret that could change the world forever.

Ava Baldwin has always tried to keep her anger in check, just like her mom taught her. But when know-it-all classmate Owen King tries to speak over her yet again, Ava explodes . . . and Owen freezes, becoming totally unresponsive.

Although Owen recovers, Ava's parents whisk her off to her mother's alma mater, the Accademia del Forte, a mysterious international boarding school in Venice. There, Ava and her brother, Jax, discover that the Olympian gods founded the Accademia to teach the descendants of mythological monsters how to control their emotions and their powers and become functioning, well-adjusted members of society.

But not everything at the Accademia is as it seems. After her friend Fia is almost expelled for challenging a teacher, Ava realizes the school is hiding a dangerous secret. To uncover the truth, Ava and her new friends embark on an adventure that could change the way they view history, mythology--and themselves--forever...or end their lives.

Praise for Medusa

• "I'm in love with this book. Like the best Pixar movies, Katherine Marsh's Medusa is full of layers." --Jennifer La Garde, The Adventures of Library Girl!
• "Here is a novel that casts young people as agents of that change, while acknowledging the risks they face when adults, or a pack of patriarchal gods, lie in wait to silence those who speak truth to power. In this feminist retelling, girls take the lead while boys support and trust them." --The New York Times
• "Sound the sirens! Katherine Marsh has gifted us with the Greek mythology series we didn't know we were missing!" --Melissa LaSalle, The Book Mommy and What to Read to Your Kids
• "A unique and distinctly feminist fantasy series launch set in a contemporary world." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)
• "A fast-paced adventure offering a fresh, feminist take on popular themes." --Kirkus Reviews
• "A story flipping traditional mythology and the voices telling them on their head starring a resourceful, brave Gorgon. Suggested where mythology stories are popular." --School Library Journal
• One of Kirkus's most anticipated books of 2024!

The Operation Sisterhood series continues as the four sisters decide to put on a community musical! The creative sister Sunday is the director and writer, but she has lost her spark. Can she find her shine again before everyone calls it quits?

"This ode to Black girlhood and the communities that serve them offers humor, tenderness, and charm." –Renée Watson, New York Times bestselling author

Sisters Sunday, Bo, Lee, and Lil are four sisters from a patchwork family. Bonded by their love of music, these sisters formed a musical babysitting band business Operation Sisterhood that just planned the best garden wedding party their Harlem community has seen. 

Imaginative Sunday impulsively announces her next big community project—staging an original musical—everybody’s counting on her, especially her sisters, Bo and the Twins, Lil and Lee. Then, disaster: Sunday has lost her creative mojo just when she most want to impress her new neighbor, TV star Talitha Thomas. Soon there will be more drama offstage than on!

Can Bo and the Twins use what they learn about New York City communities past and present and their band babysitting business to help Sunday find her shine and her love of storytelling again? It’s Operation Sisterhood to the rescue!

Award-winning author Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich delivers a heartwarming sequel to Operation Sisterhood. Includes a New York City map to follow along on the sisters' journey!

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST

An illuminating novel about the importance of reclaiming the past, based on the author’s family history

Summer and her family always spend relaxed summers in Alberta, Canada, on the reservation where her mom’s family lives. But this year is turning out to be an eye-opening one. First, Summer has begun to have vivid dreams in which she's running away from one of the many real-life residential schools that tore Native children from their families and tried to erase their Native identities. Not long after that, she learns that unmarked children’s graves have been discovered at the school her grandpa attended as a child. Now more folks are speaking up about their harrowing experiences at these places, including her grandfather. Summer cherishes her heritage and is heartbroken about all her grandfather was forced to give up and miss out on. When the town holds a rally, she’s proud to take part to acknowledge the painful past and speak of her hopes for the future, and anxious to find someone who can fill her in on the source of her unsettling dreams.

From author Ame Dyckman and illustrator Jenn Harney comes a hilarious faux-cautionary tale featuring dad jokes and tantrum-throwing dinosaurs!



In this outrageous "safety guide," a child in a museum asks their parents how the dinosaurs all became extinct. Well, their father has some theories. Gallimimus? Ran with scissors. Ankylosaurus? Tipped in their chair. Spinosaurus? Swam after eating. Tyrannosaurus rex? Didn't change their underwear. By the end of the story, the child vows to never do any of these "dangerous" things again. Those dinosaurs should have been more careful!



This off-the-wall picture book written by New York Times bestselling author Ame Dyckman with uproarious illustrations by Jenn Harney will have kids laughing out loud as they see dinosaurs getting into some all-too-familiar hijinks.

A family's woodland hike takes them through many twists and turns--but it's so much better to get lost (and found!) when they're together.



On a day that's perfect for being outside in nature,Smudge and his family head for a hike in the mountains. But Willa's fussing, Mom's stressing, Grandpa's telling the same old stories all over again, and Smudge will absolutely NOT be good, thank you very much.



When nature's beauty doesn't bring them together right away, could wandering from the path be just what they need?



Faith Pray's gentle and stunning watercolors stir up a forest full of emotions in this subtle exploration of feeling distant from the ones you love and finding your way back to each other again.

For young bird-watchers and enthusiasts of the natural world comes a beautiful, eye-opening picture book about the familiar but ever-surprising crow.

Crows may not have flashy feathers, beautiful songs, or fancy flying skills, but if a crow looks at you with its small, round eye, you can be sure that it's thinking, as these birds have very big brains. Did you know that crows will use a stick to poke into a crevice to tease out tasty bugs? Or that they like to play like kids by tumbling down a snowy roof? Or that they remember where they hide their food--but sometimes only pretend to bury a treat to fool other birds? Original and accessible, with Chris Butterworth's welcoming text and gorgeous, expressive artwork from Olivia Lomenech Gill, Clever Crow is sure to generate newfound respect for these unassuming creatures that young readers come across every day.

"In moving, lyrical prose, the book celebrates the beauty and sounds of each name alongside their culture of origin. The author builds a strong case that everyone should embrace their names and honor and learn those with which they may not be familiar." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Together, [Joanna Ho and Khoa Le] create an affirming, uplifting work focused on how correct pronunciation honors and respects" --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A moving title that honors its readers and encourages them to feel confident in their cultural identities." --School Library Journal

"A celebratory story that embraces identities and the beautiful origins behind one's name." --ALA Booklist

"In this powerful picture book, Ho's poetic prose and Le's expressive folk-art illustrations explore the beauty of embracing all identities and cultures" --Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

New York Times bestselling author Joanna Ho, of Eyes That Kiss in the Corners, creates a meaningful and diverse picture book about how names define us.

Names reveal generational ties and histories, weaving an intricate tale of the past. Names--and correctly saying them--are important. Each one carries the hopes, dreams, and traditions of those who came before us.

Six children connect with the reader and proudly celebrate their names and backgrounds: Hé Xiao-Guang, Ofa Kivaha Tupoumalohi, Bijan Hosseini, Nizhoni Yazzie, Xóchitl Luna, and Akosua Acheampong. These captivating kids of Chinese, Tongan, Persian, Navajo, Mexican, and Ghanaian descent also honor their ancestors and cultural histories.

Joanna Ho's lyrical story, with gorgeous illustrations by Khoa Le, explains how saying a person's name is the only way we can truly know another.

An Amazon Best Books of the Month pick for October!

A Common Sense Selection for Books pick with the "Families" designation!

An NCTE 2024 Notable Poetry Books and Verse Novel!

A CSMCL Best Book of 2023!

A heartwarming picture book about how one little girl's unique beauty has been growing for generations in her family tree.

Anyiaka is in awe of her gorgeous Gullah Geechee family—she wants to be beautiful like her older sister, Sorie, a great listener like her mom, and a talented artist like her grandma. But on today's visit to her grandparents’ house, Anyiaka sticks out from the rest of the family like a sore thumb. She can't seem to do anything right, and a trip to Grandma's art studio confirms just how different she is from the rest of the family.

But Grandma’s artwork—a special set of nesting dolls—also shows that what’s on the outside doesn’t always tell the whole story. While they may be distinct, together, her family’s beauty and inner strength have deep roots that have been growing within each of them for generations.