Books published by publisher Tilbury House Publishers

**** 2020 Mathical Book Honor BookTwo is not a lot of pennies, but it is a lot of smelly skunks. Ten is not a lot of popcorn pieces, but it is a lot of chomping dinosaurs. One thousand is not a lot of grains of sand, but it is a lot of hot air balloons!While Joey’s mom explains the context of numbers in vivid ways, Joey’s imagination transforms their ordinary car ride into a magical odyssey through a land of make-believe. Is Two a Lot? is a wonderfully charming and authentic exchange between mother and child. Annie Watson’s story makes numbers tangible, and Rebecca Evans’s illustrations bring them to life. full color

*GREEN EARTH BOOK AWARD* *MOONBEAM GOLD AWARD(NON-FICTION)* *MARYLAND BLUE CRAB AWARD* *SOCIETY OF SCHOOL LIBRARIANS INTERNATIONAL HONOR AWARD*On a cool December morning near San Francisco, a distress call was radioed to shore by a local fisherman. He had discovered a humpback whale tangled in hundreds of yards of crab-trap lines, struggling to stay at the surface to breathe. A team of volunteers answered the call, and four divers risked their lives to rescue the enormous animal.What followed was a rare and remarkable demonstration of animal behavior. This celebrated story, beautifully depicted in Jennifer O’Connell’s mesmerizing paintings, will make you wonder about animal emotions and the unique connections we can have with animals―even whales.Fountas & Pinnell Level M

The Acadia Files: Summer Investigations presents five summer stories, each one followed by Acadia’s science notebook pages with her simple explanations and lively, whimsical drawings of natural phenomena. The Acadia Files is a fun introduction to the wonders of science, using real-world scenarios to make scientific inquiry relatable and understandable. Parents and educators can use The Acadia Files to let kids discover for themselves what it’s like to be curious about the world and to satisfy that curiosity with scientific thinking. Acadia Files for autumn, winter, and spring will follow on future lists. The Acadia Files: Summer Investigations offers an engaging new way to apply the scientific method to real-world scenarios.Great for teaching STEAMAcadia Greene wants answers. Who keeps stealing her blueberries just as they ripen on the bushes? Why is her hair curly? Why does the sun wake her up so early in the summer? Why does the tide submerge her sandcastles? How do rocks become sand? Acadia doesn’t set out to do science, but she has these important questions and her scientist parents refuse to simply feed her the answers. “Conduct an experiment,” they tell her. “Use the scientific method.” So Acadia gathers evidence, makes hypotheses, designs experiments, uses the results to test her hypotheses, and draws conclusions. Acadia does science.

Massachusetts Must Read Title: 17th Annual Mass Book Awards*CBC/NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book**CCBC Choices Selection*This warm, engaging story, which unfolds entirely through the conversation of two adopted sisters, was inspired by the author's own daughters, whom she overheard talking about how adoption made them "real sisters" even though they have different birth parents and do not look alike."I liked how they took care of one another in their pretend-play scenario about climbing a mountain," Lambert says, "and I loved how they also took care of one another's feelings as they talked about adoption. REAL SISTERS PRETEND captures these interactions perfectly and movingly.Told with simple words and playful illustrations, this book touches on the topics of adoption, two moms, and multiracial family life.Modern families can look very different from the nuclear families of yesteryear, but as Lambert says in the book's introduction, "No matter how a family comes to be, the most important thing is for everyone to feel loved, safe, and cared for." REAL SISTERS PRETEND is a great vehicle for sharing that love and reassurance. Fountas & Pinnell Level L Color throughout

Michael Garland (Daddy Played the Blues) displays his impressive illustration range with the stylized, country-quilt, digital collage illustrations of A Season of Flowers. Snowdrops and crocuses yield to tulips and hyacinths, then dogwood blossoms, iris, lupine, daisies, morning glories, daylilies, geraniums, peonies, sunflowers, roses, and chrysanthemums as spring passes to summer, then autumn. At last the garden slumbers into winter under a blanket of snow, preparing next year’s procession of blooms. Like actors crossing a stage, flowers narrate the passing seasons in the first person, each one briefly proclaiming its unique and vital role in the natural world. Backmatter descriptions complete this child’s introduction to a garden year, in which the passage of time is vividly realized. Fountas & Pinnell Level L Color throughout

120,000 copies sold! Who Belongs Here? tells the story of a boy who, having been forced to flee his war-torn country, struggles to be accepted by his new classmates in the U.S. Some kids think he should go back where he belongs, but what if everyone whose family came from another place was forced to return to his or her homeland? Who would be left? A new introduction traces the waves of immigration that have built America and celebrates the Muslim and Latino immigrants who are today contributing to America’s future. The book’s new cover shows a group of kids―sons and daughters of newly arrived immigrants--taking their oath of citizenship. This story is more timely now than ever.Long an anchor text for school units on immigration and tolerance, Who Belongs Here? is now renewed in look and content. Teaching compassion for recent immigrants while sharing the important contributions made by immigrants of the past, this story is more relevant now than ever.In this probing, plain-spoken book, based on a true story, Margy Burns Knight and Anne Sibley O'Brien, author and illustrator of the acclaimed "Talking Walls," invite young readers to explore the human implications of intolerance. Anecdotes relating the experiences of other refugees and their contributions to American culture play counterpoint to Nary's tale, all enlivened by O'Brien's full-color pastels. A compendium at the end of the book offers more detailed information about Pol, Pot, Ellis Island, and other topics in this text.Who Belongs Here? will lead to discussions aboutThe effects of war on children and familiesRefugees and relocation processes in the U.S.Cambodian cultureU.S. History and attitudes towards immigrationBullying and intoleranceConflict-resolution skillsLexile Level 1040Fountas and Pinnell Level W Color throughout

Masterpiece Robot pays tribute to the power of a child’s vivid imagination, which can transform a suburban autumn backyard into a futuristic battleground and Laura’s lively siblings into unwitting but enthusiastic participants in a fight for a planet’s survival. We begin in Laura’s bedroom where she is struggling to find her way into the story she wants to write, and we end there with Laura putting the finishing touches on her triumphant tale. When Laura―a.k.a. Masterpiece Robot―heads into the backyard with her little sister Molly―a.k.a. Sidekick―her active imagination places them instead on patrol around the perimeter of a dystopian city, guarding against super villains. Then older sister Amber―a.k.a. Valerie Knick-Knack―throws handfuls of fallen leaves at them, unknowingly initiating a battle for the ages. The transitions back and forth from suburbia to dystopia in this story within a story are deftly rendered with contrasting palettes. The rollicking interactions of the sibling heroes and villains make Masterpiece Robot pure fun to read.Lexile Level 900Fountas and Pinnell Level V Color throughout

* MOONBEAM GOLD AWARD ** GROWING GOOD KIDS AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE, AMERICAN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY AND NATIONAL MASTER JUNIOR GARDENER PROGRAM *Milk doesn't just appear in your refrigerator, nor do apples grow in the bowl on the kitchen counter.Before We Eat has been adopted by the USDA’s Agriculture in the Classroom program.Before we eat, many people work very hard—planting grain, catching fish, tending farm animals, and filling crates of vegetables. With vibrant illustrations by Caldecott Medalist Mary Azarian, this book reminds us what must happen before food gets to our tables to nourish our bodies and spirits.This expanded edition of Before We Eat includes back-of-book features about school gardens and the national farm-to-school movement.Fountas & Pinnell Level L

2019 Moonbeam Silver MedalMany thousands of years ago, when a sheet of ice up to a mile thick began to let go of the land, the Atlantic Ocean flooded great valleys that had been scooped out by glaciers, and the salty waves of an inland sea lapped the green hills of Vermont. Into this arm of the sea swam Charlotte. Her milky, smooth, muscled body sliced slowly through the water like scissors through silk. Like a chirping canary, her voice echoed across dark waters showing the way to her pod as belugas have done for millions of years.In 1849, a crew building a railroad through Charlotte, Vermont, dug up strange and beautiful bones in a farmer’s field. A local naturalist asked Louis Agassiz to help identify them, and the famous scientist concluded that the bones belonged to a beluga whale. But how could a whale’s skeleton have been buried so far from the ocean? The answer―that Lake Champlain had once been an arm of the sea―encouraged radical new thinking about geological time scales and animal evolution. Charlotte’s Bones is a haunting, science-based reconstruction of how Charlotte died 11,000 years ago in a tidal marsh, how the marsh became a field, how Charlotte found a second life as the Vermont state fossil, and what messages her bones whisper to us now about the fragility of life and our changing Earth.Some reader reviews:I am a paleoanthropologist at Dartmouth College-- I study the human evolution and both retrieve & study early human fossils in Africa. We've connected very briefly on twitter when I tweeted out my love of Jeff Howe's book about Charlotte and Nick Pyerson's recent whale book. I just purchased and read Charlotte's Bones to my kids this morning. It is beyond beautiful. I tell my college students all the time that every fossil is precious; that every fossil has a story to tell and deserves to have its story told. Your book captures not just the science, but the true meaning of fossils and how they reveal a deep connectedness between living things, past and present. It is a gift of a book-- thank you. Jerry DeSilva I read Charlotte’s Bones yesterday. My sister Ellen showed it to me. It is beautifully written and illustrated to such an extent it is difficult to read without becoming very emotional. The combination of such pure prose and captivating illustration makes the reader ‘own’ Charlotte’s experience and therefore the reader cares. This is key to us humans, particularly the young ones, actually investing emotionally and practically in the fate of our precious wildlife. I think this fabulous book should be compulsory reading for children and if it makes them sad so much the better. It will help plant seeds of thought and compassion which can blossom in to a passion for respecting and conserving our precious species so under threat from the actions of us humans. Congratulations to you and Erin. Keep going and produce more on this theme please! Kind Regards, Vicky Yeates Color throughout

*Notable Books For Children - Smithsonian**Skipping Stones Book Award for Exceptional Multicultural and Nature/Ecology Books**Wordcraft Circle Writer of the Year (Prose - Children's Literature)**Wordcraft Circle Mentor of the Year*Although Jeannie loves her lakeside neighborhood, her feelings are hurt by her schoolmates who live in fancier homes and call her a Lake Rat.When she confides her troubles to her grandfather, he tells her about his own childhood experiences with teasing. As the story unfolds, the grandfather shares a traditional Seneca story that helps Jeannie to find strength in her Native identity and a new appreciation for the different roles that animals play in nature. This is a quiet book that celebrates family and place and the teachings of Native people. Muskrat Will Be Swimming is based on a real incident in Cheryl Savageau's life.Muskrat Will Be Swimming will help inspire classroom conversations about:Teasing and bullyingStorytelling traditions and customs in Native and non-Native familiesThe Seneca creation story and creation stories in generalTraditions of the Sky Woman in Native storiesContemporary Native American families and building connections to tribal identityNative identity and mixed-blood ancestrySignificance of dreams in Native cultureThe role of animals as teachers in Abenaki cultureAnimals of the forestThe Abenaki view towards the natural environmentThe value of experiences in the natural world for children's growthF&P Text Level R

Named one of the Top 10 Native American Books for Elementary Schools by American Indians in Children's LiteratureLittle Zoo Sap and his family are moving from their summer home on the coast to their winter home in the deep woods. Unnoticed, the youngster tumbles off the end of the sled.Alone, cold, and frightened, Zoo Sap cries, and his cries attract the forest animals. Beginning with beaver and ending with the great bald eagle, the animals rush to protect the baby and shelter him from the cold until his father returns for him. New, expanded 10th-anniversary edition of this classic that has sold more than 30,000 copies. · New features include an author’s note explaining the seasonal movement of the Passamaquoddy people; a pronunciation guide to the Passamaquoddy names of the animals in the story; and a QR code that will let readers link to the audio recording of Allen Sockabasin telling the story in the Passamaquoddy language.A beguiling bedtime story and a profound expression of reverence for the natural world.Lexile Level 620Fountas and Pinnell Text Level L Color throughout