New Children's Books

Image for "America The Beautiful"

America The Beautiful

Wonderfully spare, deceptively simple verses pair with richly evocative paintings to celebrate the iconic imagery of America. Each spread shows a stirring tableau, from the view of the Statue of Liberty at Ellis Island, to the great plains, to a spacecraft at Cape Canaveral blasting off. 

With illustrations paired to each line of the well-known song, and that celebrate America's history, landscape, and people in powerful, stirring and reflective illustration. Non-fiction spreads at the end of the book will explain this history and significance of the song, and why we sing it today as well as more information on some of the places shown in the artwork.

 O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

Coming Soon - Kids

Image for "The Weedy Garden"

The Weedy Garden

This debut picture book from acclaimed and New York Times bestselling author Margaret Renkl--with collage illustrations by her brother, fine artist Billy Renkl--invites readers to observe and wonder about the various inhabitants in the vibrant ecosystem of a wildlife-friendly backyard garden. Features backmatter.

If you were hungry squirrel in the weedy garden, where would you find an acorn If you were a cottontail rabbit, where would you hide your bunnies And if you were a child, sitting still and listening, what would the weedy garden say to you

Margaret Renkl, a beloved regular contributor to The New York Times and two-time recipient of the Southern Book Prize, writes beautifully about our changing natural world. In her debut picture book, she asks questions that draw young readers deeper and deeper into the garden, inviting observation and conversation along the way. Each page turn introduces a new plant or animal friend, buzzing and dancing with quiet wonder. The fine artist Billy Renkl, Margaret Renkl's brother and frequent collaborator, brings the weedy garden to life through his signature mixed-media collages. Includes backmatter with more information about the residents of the garden, eco-friendly gardening tips, and instructions on how to make your own collage art project at home or in school.

With evergreen themes of patience and respect for the natural world, The Weedy Garden will appeal to readers of Plant the Tiny Seed, On Meadowview Street, and Peter Brown's The Curious Garden.

Image for "The Big Book of Pi"

The Big Book of Pi

★ "An astonishing, delightful, and illuminating celebration of mathe-magics." - Kirkus (STARRED review)

★ "This fun, informative, and highly visual title is a unique addition that belongs on the "M" shelf in all STEM collections." - Booklist (STARRED review)

A Junior Library Guild Selection

A mathe-magician explores what makes Pi so intriguing, so unknowable and so very important to our lives.

For millennia, humans have been obsessed with the number Pi. We needed it for architecture, geometry and astronomy, and so it was sought by the ancient Egyptians, the Mayans and the ancient Chinese. But no one has ever found it--and no one ever will because Pi is infinite and irrational. Its decimals contain the birthdates of all the children who have ever lived, every piece of music, the complete works of Shakespeare. Pi never ends and can't be learned, but humans keep on trying. Today, we know trillions of decimals of Pi, even if the first fifteen are more than enough to send a rocket to Mars!

Telling the story of Archimedes the Greek to Srinivasa Ramanujan the Indian (who saw in his dreams a formula for calculating Pi still used by computers today), via Arabs and mathematics enthusiasts from all over the world and all eras, The Big Book of Pi is an extraordinary adventure (almost) to infinity.

Written by a mathe-magician with a Pi-passion, in these pages you'll meet a man who memorized ten thousand digits--and get a chance to try yourself. You'll read about a Pi paradox and a Pi magic trick and laugh at more Pi jokes than you ever thought you'd hear. We can't ever know Pi, but there sure is a lot to learn!

Image for "The Mysterious Magic of Lighthouse Lane"

The Mysterious Magic of Lighthouse Lane

A young empath spending the summer with her grandfather stumbles upon a bit of magic in this middle grade novel about letting in the light—perfect for fans of Barbara Dee and Jamie Sumner.

Sixth grader Lucy thinks people are seriously overrated. People come with feelings, and Lucy can’t escape them because of her so-called “gift” of empathy. She can feel the tension when her parents fight and can’t escape the truth of what went wrong in her relationship with her former best friend. So when Lucy’s parents suggest spending her summer vacation with her reclusive grandfather at his isolated cabin on Prince Edward Island, she jumps at the chance to get away from people, feelings—all of it.

Lucy arrives at her grandfather’s with a small suitcase and the only thing she really needs: her camera. From behind the lens, she can watch the world without having to feel any of it. While exploring her new home, Lucy finds her grandmother’s old camera and a darkroom that hasn’t been used since Nana passed away five years ago. Lucy starts taking pictures of the people in her grandfather’s town and developing photos the old-fashioned way.

The finished photos reveal everything about the subjects—their deepest fears and hidden desires. Along with a quirky neighbor and her reluctant grandfather, Lucy sets out to get to the bottom of the photographic magic. But can she uncover the truth of her grandmother’s legacy and figure out what to do with the magical photos before summer ends?

Online Resources

Educate Station

Educate Station

Educate Station provides easy-to-use, comprehensive learning plans with a robust range of extension activities across a wide range of subject areas for Pre-K through fifth grade.

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Tumble Book Library

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Tumble Book Library is a curated database of children's e-books, available by subscription to Elementary Schools and Public Libraries around the world.

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Scholastic Teachables

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Scholastic Teachables is your one stop shop for all things education featuring printables, lessons, mini-books, and more!

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