Books in Booklist Editor's Choice. Books for Youth series

Caldecott Medalist Paul O. Zelinsky illustrates Kelly Bingham's outrageously funny, critically acclaimed, and boundary-breaking story about a moose, a zebra, and the alphabet! Zebra wants to put on a show as simple as ABC, but Zebra's friend Moose has other (unexpected and hilarious) ideas!Zebra thinks the alphabet should be simple. A is for Apple. B is for Ball. Easy! But his friend Moose is too excited to wait his turn, and when M isn't for Moose (Mouse gets the honor), the rest of the letters better run for cover. Exuberant and zany storytelling brings to life two friends and one laugh-out-loud comedy of errors that's about friendship, sharing, and compromise. The incomparable Paul O. Zelinsky's artwork is bursting at the seams—literally—with child appeal. Breaking the borders of the page, and creating the art both digitally and traditionally, Zelinsky turns convention on its head. The result is a picture book that is innovative, hilarious, and begging to be read over and over again.Named a Notable Book for Children by the American Library AssociationSupports the Common Core State Standards

Handpicked by Amazon kids’ books editor, Seira Wilson, for Prime Book Box – a children’s subscription that inspires a love of reading.Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz brings her sorcery to a Victorian gothic thriller — an enthralling, darkly comic tale that would do Dickens proud.The master puppeteer, Gaspare Grisini, is so expert at manipulating his stringed puppets that they appear alive. Clara Wintermute, the only child of a wealthy doctor, is spellbound by Grisini’s act and invites him to entertain at her birthday party. Seeing his chance to make a fortune, Grisini accepts and makes a splendidly gaudy entrance with caravan, puppets, and his two orphaned assistants. Lizzie Rose and Parsefall are dazzled by the Wintermute home. Clara seems to have everything they lack — adoring parents, warmth, and plenty to eat. In fact, Clara’s life is shadowed by grief, guilt, and secrets. When Clara vanishes that night, suspicion of kidnapping falls upon the puppeteer and, by association, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall. As they seek to puzzle out Clara’s whereabouts, Lizzie and Parse uncover Grisini’s criminal past and wake up to his evil intentions. Fleeing London, they find themselves caught in a trap set by Grisini’s ancient rival, a witch with a deadly inheritance to shed before it’s too late. Newbery Medal winner Laura Amy Schlitz’s Victorian gothic is a rich banquet of dark comedy, scorching magic, and the brilliant and bewitching storytelling that is her trademark.

A stirring history of the Civil Rights movement in America by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of CARRY ME HOME.In this history of the modern Civil Rights movement, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Diane McWhorter focuses on the monumental events that occurred between 1954 (the year of Brown versus the Board of Education) and 1968 (the year that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assasinated). Beginning with an overview of the movement since the end of the Civil War, McWhorter also discusses such events as the 1956 MTGS bus boycott, the 1961 Freedom Rides, and the 1963 demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama, among others.The author uses interviews she conducted personally with

Following a snow-filled winter, a young boy and his dog decide that they've had enough of all that brown and resolve to plant a garden. They dig, they plant, they play, they wait . . . and wait . . . until at last, the brown becomes a more hopeful shade of brown, a sign that spring may finally be on its way.Julie Fogliano's tender story of anticipation is brought to life by the distinctive illustrations Erin E. Stead, recipient of the 2011 Caldecott Medal. This title has Common Core connections. And Then It's Spring is one of The Washington Post's Best Kids Books of 2012.One of Kirkus Reviews' Best Children's Books of 2012

In a stirring chronicle, Doreen Rappaport brings to light the courage of countless Jews who organized to sabotage the Nazis and help other Jews during the Holocaust.Under the noses of the military, Georges Loinger smuggles thousands of children out of occupied France into Switzerland. In Belgium, three resisters ambush a train, allowing scores of Jews to flee from the cattle cars. In Poland, four brothers lead more than 1,200 ghetto refugees into the forest to build a guerilla force and self-sufficient village. And twelve-year-old Motele Shlayan entertains German officers with his violin moments before setting off a bomb. Through twenty-one meticulously researched accounts — some chronicled in book form for the first time — Doreen Rappaport illuminates the defiance of tens of thousands of Jews across eleven Nazi-occupied countries during World War II. In answer to the genocidal madness that was Hitler’s Holocaust, the only response they could abide was resistance, and their greatest weapons were courage, ingenuity, the will to survive, and the resolve to save others or to die trying.Back matter includes a pronunciation guide, a list of important dates, source notes, a bibliography, a bibliography by chapter, and an index.

Keeping the African heritage aliveAs she teaches her granddaughter to sew a traditional sweetgrass basket, a grandmother weaves a story, going back generations to her old-timey grandfather's village in faraway Africa. There, as a boy, he learned to make baskets so tightly woven they could hold the rain. Even after being stolen away to a slave ship bound for America, he remembers what he learned and passes these memories on to his children - as they do theirs, so that. . . when your fingers talk just right that circle will go out and out again -past slavery and freedom, old ways and new,and your basket will hold the past . . .This powerful picture book, with its rhythmic text and evocative paintings, spirals through time, becoming a triumphant song - a rich story of a craft, a culture, and a people.

From the Children's Laureate of England, a stunning novel of the First World War, a boy who is on its front lines, and a childhood remembered."They've gone now, and I'm alone at last. I have the whole night ahead of me, and I won't waste a single moment of it . . . I want tonight to be long, as long as my life . . ." For young Private Peaceful, looking back over his childhood while he is on night watch in the battlefields of the First World War, his memories are full of family life deep in the countryside: his mother, Charlie, Big Joe, and Molly -- the love of his life. Too young to be enlisted, Thomas has followed his brother to war and now, every moment he spends thinking about his life, means another moment closer to danger.

With soothing language and enchanting illustrations, this gentle picture book leads children from the warm nest of their bed to the ever-expanding embrace of the world around them.Snuggled in bed,You’re all safe and warm,Like a bird in a nest in a tree.A child tucked in bed, a doe curled in the grass, a boat anchored in the harbor — everything has a nest. Even the ocean needs the earth to be its nest, while beyond, the universe holds the stars. In this tender poem, Reeve Lindbergh and Jill McElmurry use an ever-widening focus to show children the vast world beyond their beds, and all the love and comfort to be found there.

In the second century A.D., there was only one unstoppable power in the world--the Roman Army. The Roman Empire was one of the largest empires on history. Charged with controlling and protecting the empire's territory and subjects, the Roman army was a massive, disciplined, and fearsome fighting force. From the rise of the Roman Empire until its decline and fall, its vast holdings were conquered, absorbed, and ultimately defended by legions of professional paid soldiers. At the height of their power, no tribe, no nation could stand in their way. This is their story.

IT ALL STARTS with a vision of a building so high it will catch the clouds. . . .From that first vision, through the planning, digging, welding, fitting, and decorating, Skyscraper shows how a very tall building is constructed in a very narrow space. Author Susan Goodman and photographer Michael Doolittle spent several years documenting the building of a New York City skyscraper. They have distilled hundreds of photographs and hours of interviews and research into this lively and accessible book for construction fans of all ages.