July 2024

Penelope Rex and the Problem with Pets

Author: Ryan T. Higgins

Illustrator: Ryan T. Higgins

Summary: Penelope Rex was not ever really sure that she wanted a pet, but then Mittens moved into her home. Having a pet is a lot of work and has challenges, especially when that pet is a 600 pound saber-tooth tiger. Have fun reading the latest Penelope Rex book!

Recommended Ages: 3-8 years

Themes, Skills, & Concepts: Choosing a pet that fits the family takes research and is a group effort. Brainstorm the pets that would best fit your family and learn all about the pet you would choose! Take a fun field trip to your local pet store and see what a variety of pets you have to choose from!

Extension Activities: Follow along with our friends at Art for Kids Hub and draw a Pandacorn! How are you going to care for your pandacorn? What will you feed it? Name? Where does it sleep? What would your mom say? Click here!

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June 2024

Some Days are Yellow

Author: Suzanne Slade

Illustrator: Michelle Lee

Summary: Some days are easy and some days are hard. Some days are silly and some days are serious. There may be rainbows or there may be skinned knees, but the happy thought is that there is always tomorrow for a brand new start!

Recommended Ages: 3-8 years

Themes, Skills, & Concepts: Identifying our moods and emotions can be hard for young children. Helping them to identify a color to describe how they are feeling can be useful when they are having an emotion they don't know how to describe.

Extension Activities: Pair this book with Dr. Seuss's "My Many Colored Days" to extend the idea of emotion and color. Help your child identify things that might make them feel angry, sad, happy, scared, excited (or any emotion) and pair it with a color to help identify and name their emotions.

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May 2024

Dandy

Author: Ame Dyckman

Illustrator: Charles Santoso

Summary: Daddy and the neighbors love their beautiful, manicured lawns..NO WEEDS! Sweetie loves her friend Charlotte, who happens to be a dandelion living in the perfect lawn! How will they work out this problem?

Recommended Ages: 4-8 years

Themes, Skills, & Concepts: A sweet little story of love, friendship and making sacrifices for the people that mean the most to you. A great starting place to have the conversations with your kids about how they can compromise with friends or family over a conflict.

Extension Activities: Learn all about dandelions: their life cycle, uses and fun activities that you can do with them! Click here!

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April 2024

Wombats are Pretty Weird

Author: Abi Cushman

Illustrator: Abi Cushman

Summary: Learn all about the wombat in this funny and informative narrative! Wombat and his friend Snake tell you all the fun facts!

Recommended Ages: 4-8 years

Themes, Skills, & Concepts: There are so many interesting, funny and weird facts about this endangered little mammal! Unknown vocabulary can be learned with the glossary as well as facts about three different variety of wombats found in Australia.

Extension Activities: Meet Elle the Wombat! She is a rescue wombat living at the Australian Zoo. Click here!

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March 2024

Butterflies are Pretty Gross!

Author: Rosemary Mosco

Illustrator: Jacob Souva

Summary: This awesome non fiction book about butterflies is told by a butterfly! Everyone loves butterflies! They are so beautiful and graceful...but are they really? Be prepared to be grossed out and learn some great new butterfly facts!

Recommended Ages: 3-7 years

Themes, Skills, & Concepts: This book takes the reader through all the good, bad, and gross about butterflies. Told through fun illustrations and a variety of text features, the kids will never look at a beautiful butterfly in the same way!

Extension Activities: Learn to draw a butterfly with our friends from Art Hub for Kids. Have kids color and write some of the gross facts about butterflies they learned from the book! Click here!

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