by Lara Neel, Trade Marketing Manager

Here’s a roundup of some delightful titles that we don’t want you to miss!

Get Started With STEM: Let’s Investigate Plastic Pollution

ISBN: 978-1-78856-124-2
Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 3
Plastic pollution is one of the most damaging environmental issues we face today. And no one is more passionate about solving this problem and protecting our world than kids! This new title in the Get Started With STEM series gives young science enthusiasts all the information they need to investigate and do their part to help solve this problem now and for the future. Packed with facts, discussion topics, imaginative ideas for activities, experiments, and investigations, this book will have students eager to use their science skills and knowledge to tackle plastic pollution head on.

The Busy Monsters: Monster Max’s BIG Breakfast

Hardcover: 978-1-78856-048-1
Paperback: 978-1-78856-068-9
Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2
Monster Max is feeling very, very hungry. He eats one tractor, two trees, and three pizzas. Later, he gobbles down six socks and seven sausages. When Max starts to burp, his best friend Molly suspects things are about to get yucky! Meet Molly, Max, Megan, and Mo—The Busy Monsters. This new series of fun stories from Ruby Tuesday Books has been carefully crafted to help young children learn to read. To build reading confidence, each book combines repetitive, predictable text with high-frequency and familiar sight words. Illustrated with bold, quirky, collage-style artwork, this title helps young readers practice counting and number words as they enjoy the fun monster story.

Wildlife Watchers: Harvest Mouse

Hardcover: 978-1-78856-058-0
Paperback: 978-1-78856-072-6
Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2
In this title, join a tiny harvest mouse as she munches on blackberries, crunches on grasshoppers, weaves a nest from grass in a wheat field, and raises her family. The book combines repetitive text with high-frequency and familiar sight words. Unfamiliar vocabulary is supported by detailed photographic images with labels, close photo/text matches, and a picture glossary.

Shadow

Hardcover: 978-1-911373-83-4
Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2
In our old house, Ma told me there was nothing to be scared of. No monsters hiding behind doors, or in wardrobes, or under beds. She said there were no dark places at all. But in the new house, under my new bed, that’s where I found Shadow.

Oscar Seeks a Friend

Hardcover: 978-1-911373-79-7
Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2
What if you could turn the world the other way around and take a peek at what’s on the other side? Perhaps you’ll find something you never expected. Such as friendship. The sad little skeleton on the cover of this book might not look very promising, but when Oscar meets a lonely little girl, it’s the start of an adventure for both of them. Together they make an unusual journey to two very different worlds, each beautiful and necessary. And it all begins when the little girl’s tooth falls out . . .

You’re Strong With Me

Hardcover: 978-1-911373-75-9
Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2
The rain clouds are long gone and the dry season scorches the land. Everything is new for the baby giraffe. As she bounds ahead and lags behind, her mother patiently explains the ways of the grasslands. And until she grows a little taller, older, and wiser, her mother reminds her: “You’re strong with me.” From the makers of You’re Safe With Me and the Kirkus Best Picture Book of the Year You’re Snug With Me.

Monkey on the Run

Hardcover: 978-1-77657-250-2
Interest Level: Preschool – Kindergarten
Papa Monkey and Little Monkey are on their way. But the street is very busy and they are moving so slowly! Little Monkey loses patience and jumps onto the fire engine. Up the ladder from there and he joins a TV crew! Then the garbage truck, an aquarium bus, a food cart for rabbits packed with carroty treats, Arctic animals traveling by snow globe, a jewel thief’s getaway car…
There is so much going on in the street, it’s become a playground!
Each vehicle in this wordless picture book contains a world of detail, activity and humor to share with curious toddlers.

A New York Times Best Illustrated Book 2019
Leo Timmers’ Monkey on the Run was selected as a New York Times / New York Public Library Best Illustrated Book 2019. Timmers is the author of many popular picture books including Gus’s Garage—described by the New York Times as a “buoyant rhyming tale” —and his new release about a king, a dragon and three confused knights is coming in Fall 2020.

Like all of Timmers’ picture books, Monkey on the Run asks the reader to look—then look again, and again. He uses collisions, movement, problem-solving, color and humor in his plots. He wrote on the Gecko Press blog about how Monkey on the Run developed as a story, even demanding new technique.

“I often say my books may have cars in them but they are not about cars. Bang is about bumping into each other and therefore meeting each other. Gus’s Garage is about using your imagination to solve problems (and feeling out of place). Cars are just “vehicles” to convey these ideas. Journeys—with or without cars—are a perfect way to play with these concepts. When you go on a journey, when you move, anything can happen.”

Read Leo Timmers on collisions, imagination, paint spatters and stretching an idea till it reaches breaking point.

Jump

Board Book: 978-1-77657-231-1
Interest Level: Preschool – Grade 1
A frog jumps. Boing! A kitten jumps. Boi-ing! A dog jumps. Boi-oi-oi-oi-oing!…“And I jump too—BOING!”
This joyful book gets children joining in the fun of each animal’s jump—sharing the sounds and actions.

Song of the River

Hardcover: 978-1-77657-253-3
Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2
In this resonant story, Cam the mountain boy follows the river from its trickling source in the mountain snow all the way to the coast. The river leads him through forest, farms, and towns to the salty wind of the sea. Dramatic landscape illustrations evoke a North American landscape and are packed with detail to explore the world of the river.

Two for Me One for You

Hardcover: 978-1-77657-239-7
Interest Level: Preschool – Grade 2
Bear finds three tasty mushrooms on her way home through the woods. Her friend Weasel cooks them up in the frying pan. But the friends have a problem: how to share three between two?
Bear and Weasel each come up with one argument after another for why they should have more: I found them! I cooked them. I’m bigger. I’m still growing…. Until the fox comes around the corner and snatches a mushroom.
That solved the problem. They eat the two mushrooms and it’s time for dessert. Here comes Weasel with the scrumptious wild strawberries, three of them to share…

Encyclopedia of Grannies

Hardcover: 978-1-77657-243-4
Interest Level: Preschool – Grade 2
Why do grannies always tell us to speak up? Why do they have creases on their faces? Are grannies flexible? How do you cheer up a sad granny? How old are grannies, actually?
Eric Veillé explains it all in this offbeat book for the extended family to chuckle over—no matter what kind of grandma you have, are, or would like to be. From the author of My Pictures after the Storm, which received three starred reviews and which School Library Journal proclaimed “may be the funniest book of the year.”

Otto Goes North

Hardcover: 978-1-77657-241-0
Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2
Far up in the north is a blueberry-blue house with a grass roof, where Lisa and Nils live. One day a tourist arrives: Otto has cycled for months, maybe years, to visit his friends.
Otto wants to do a spectacular painting of the northern lights to remember his visit, but he is from a hot country and it is very cold here. He can’t paint for shivering so hard. His friends decide to knit him a sweater.
Otto Goes North is a cozy story about friendship across borders and knitting—follow the animals as they collect fur, spin and dye yarn, find a pattern, and knit a sweater.

Cornelia and the Jungle Machine

Hardcover: 978-1-77657-259-5
Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2Cornelia and her parents move in to a new house. Bored, she is sent to play “outside.” She discovers a hidden treehouse and a boy her own age.
“Do you really live here all alone?” she asks.
“No I live here with my inventions. Come and take a look . . .”
Inside Cornelia is introduced to a magical machine. A jungle machine!
Nora Brech’s gothic illustrations are packed with imaginative details and perspectives. Through an extreme wide-angle lens, she draws the reader in to a powerfully detailed, filmic world.

Zanzibar

Hardcover: 978-1-77657-255-7
Interest Level: Grade 1 – Grade 3
Achille LeBlab, special correspondent, knocks at Zanzibar’s door. He wants to write an article about an exceptional character. Is Zanzibar exceptional?
The lizard seems to doubt it. “Aside from your poetic name, I’m afraid you’re a very ordinary crow.”
That night Zanzibar decides: “I haven’t done anything remarkable yet, but it’s never too late!” He comes up with an idea for an incredible feat. First he must find a camel…