Looking for a picture book for gift-giving? Consider Counting Creatures. This more-than-a-picture book is an explosion of tactile wonders and visual delights. Presented as a counting book featuring various animal species and their young, it begins with one baby bat and sequentially progresses to ten piglets before leapfrogging to multitudes of caterpillars, tadpoles, and spiders.
This interactive volume invites young readers to predict what will be underneath the next flap. How many babies? What word is used to describe them?
​Many terms are familiar, but the young of some species are not well-known. A baby arctic hare is known as a leveret while baby turkeys are called poults.

Rhyming couplets and the repetitive line of text "Who has more babies than that? " make this an excellent book for sharing and reading aloud.

​Counting Creatures by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Sharon King-Chai has a wow factor to the max.
The generous size (approximately 8x10.5 inches) features a die cut cover with foil accents. Cut outs continue throughout the book, giving readers a hint as to the animals to be revealed. ​Art is stunning. Deep rich colors, gorgeously textured shapes, ingeniously designed flaps and tiny details sprinkled throughout the pages will send readers back the beginning to discover the answer to one final question.

All workbooks follow a similar pattern: A concept is introduced with Let's Learn About which consists of basic information and a few interesting activities to practice the concept. Then the real fun begins with Let's Tinker, Let's Make, and Let's Engineer projects related to the concept.  All activities require a collection of materials and simple tools, such as glue, markers, scissors, boxes, etc. Each consumable book includes stickers and a magnetic merit badge. These hands on, minds on projects are FUN. From the clever quirky minds at Odd Dot.

Calling All Minds is an intriguing mix of inventor mini-biographies, images of registered inventions from the U.S. Patent office with step-by step project instructions.  Grandin frames these elements within a running narrative describing her personal journey of discovery.  She introduces readers to her thinking process, her experiments with various concepts, and schematic drawings of her creations. 
The book is organized into five general sections: "Things Made of Paper," "Levers and Pulleys," "Things Made of Wood," "Things That Fly", and "Optical Illusions." Each section includes a cornucopia of material that is loosely connected. Like the discovery process, they do not flow in a strict linear fashion, instead inviting moments of serendipity along the way.

National Geographic takes on a new publishing venture with Explorer Academy, a fiction series combining action-adventure with science, technology and world exploration. Twelve-year-old Cruz Coronado is a member of Explorer Academy, an international team of young people training to become the world's future scientists.

Trueit has created stories with action, intrigue, and suspense galore. At one point in my reading I replied to a request from an individual near me, saying “I can’t come right now. Cruz is trapped underwater and can’t breathe.” 

Comics, a charming cat, and crafts. What more could you ask for?

Crafty Cat and the Crafty Camp Crisis is a story of expectations, making friends, and dealing with bullies is appropriate for younger readers. Back pages include directions for making each of the six monster crafts described in the text. 

KidLitTV stories, crafts & activities

Celebrated actors read children's books.

Create with Jarrett  J. Krosoczka

​Plan your day with this suggested daily schedule from NESCA (Neuropsychology & Education Services for Children & Adolescents. Accessed via Lorena Germán 

Following up on her hit picture book 7 Ate 9: The Untold Story Tara Lazar brings readers another clever take on our alphabet system, specifically capitalized letters.

The super sleuth begins to search for clues, hoping to enlist the assistance of punctuation marks. They are busy. Hyphens dashes around, apostrophe gathers personal possessions, while ampersand minds her p's and q's. Lazar is a master of the well-placed pun.
Eventually Private I returns to waitress little b at Café Uno. Together they locate the missing letters and rescue them from a theater marque. "I'd always wanted to see my name in lights."
Tranquility is restored. Or is it? The final page suggests that there will be more mysteries for Private I.

The Upper Case trailer

Alphabuild magnetic blocks

Bake alphabet cookies

I maintain the Book Shop for our community’s Ronald McDonald House. The facility offers children and their families a welcoming residence when a child requires ongoing medical treatment at local hospitals and treatment centers. The purpose of the Book Shop is to provide books of interest to children and teens during their stay.

As I monitored book usage patterns, one thing became clear: the current collection was not meeting children’s interests. It was time to rethink the Book Shop. What would appeal to young residents?
Here are some things I discovered: Youngsters undergoing therapy want materials that will quickly engage them. While there are differences according to age and interest, I found books with the highest use fell in these general categories: board books, picture books featuring popular characters from T.V. and movies, nonfiction animal books with large color photographs, books celebrating holidays, teen romance, picture books with an engaging cover, and easy-to-read bilingual books.

I decided to try a test run with Tiny World: Pins! and document my experience. After opening the kit and examining all the items, I read through the directions and assembled the additional items needed to complete the project.
The step-by step instructions are easy to follow. Detailed illustrations are helpful. I was pleased with the finished product. It's a fun project!

There are enough supplies to make three pins. Zoo provides three pin designs within instructions. Other suggestions are in the back of the booklet. I'm considering the crab motif for my next pin. But maybe I'll get creative and try my own design.

Simon Abbott's subject-specific trivia books are jam-packed with fascinating factoids.  

100 Questions and About Oceans covers a wide range of ocean-related data including basic underwater geography and ecology, ecosystems, marine animal records, well-known marine biologists, historical shipwrecks, and protecting aquatic life. 

​Information is presented as a series of questions with corresponding answers, formatted in brief easy-to-read statements.

Bright colors fill the pages. Animalia have expressive faces with googly eyes and winsome smiles. Some scientific terms and animal species names appear in bold face type with the pronunciation in parenthesis.  

Text is replete with puns that will delight young readers and probably elicit groans from adults. 

This kid-friendly series is sure to be a hit with those who enjoy interesting and sometimes obscure informational tidbits.

Calling All Minds is an intriguing mix of inventor mini-biographies, images of registered inventions from the U.S. Patent office, and step-by step project instructions for youngsters.  Grandin frames all these elements within a running narrative describing her personal journey of discovery.  She introduces readers to her thinking process, her experiments with various concepts, and schematic drawings of her creations. 

The book is organized into five general sections: "Things Made of Paper," "Levers and Pulleys," "Things Made of Wood," "Things That Fly", and "Optical Illusions." Each section includes a cornucopia of material that is loosely connected. Like the discovery process, they do not flow in a strict linear fashion, instead inviting moments of serendipity along the way.

A treasure trove for the curious, creatives, tinkerers, inventors, makers and problem-solvers.  It will find a place in libraries, classrooms, after school programs, summer camps, scout troops, homeschool curriculum, professional development collections, as well as personal and family bookshelves. 

First Second has done it again. This publisher has its finger on the pulse of young readers' interests, moving beyond the genre traditionally found in comics and exploring fresh concepts to offer in graphic format.  Recent examples: The Science Comics series features a wide array of fascinating nonfiction in panel form. Also consider the brilliant journal/comic book hybrid CiCi's Journal: The Adventures of A Writer-in-Training.
​Now this leaders in children's comics turns its attention to the Maker Movement with a series of graphic novels for young readers featuring Crafty Cat, the fearless alter ego for somewhat timid Birdie.  Crafty Cat and the Crafty Camp Crisis finds Crafty Cat preparing for Monster Craft Camp.  She has the right tools, plenty of skills and the "crafty feelings" needed to create a winning project.   Best friend Evan, requisite "mean girl" Anya, and a school janitor who serves as craft instructor attend this camp. Each chapter is devoted the escapades surrounding the creation of a monster-related craft. ​Bonus: Birdie's imaginary friend Cloudy. Love this!

I followed the directions for making mini monsters. This is a fun and easy-to-do project. These would be great as place cards. They would also make terrific cards to top a gift. Think fun reminders for table tops too!

I first met Roxie Munro in 2014 when she presented her forthcoming book Market Maze to a group of librarians. In her introductory remarks she used a term that was unfamiliar to me: gamification. The word intrigued me. I hastily scribbled it down on in my notes, determined to learn more about the concept: "the application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts." *
​The genius of Munro's work lies in her ability to create a story, add a game element, and then take the book one step farther, creating layers of visual complexity within a picture book format. 

Munro wants to paint what she loves: her neighborhood. So she moves beyond the walls of the National Gallery and sets this book in her own community. ​With the accomplished strokes of the artist's brush, she brings this masterpiece into her own environment. That's where the gamification commences. Her neighborhood becomes a repository for these masterpiece images. Readers will enjoy locating the art reproductions, referring back to the pages on which each is introduced and then, observing the clever placement of each classic showpiece within the neighborhood. For example, Cassatt's sketch of mother and child is located at the Day Care Center, The Degas sculpture of a ballerina is found in front of the Dance Studio. 
A map key with corresponding images and descriptions of the art is located on the back pages.
It's art. It's educational. It invites discovery and exploration. It encourages creation. It's gamification. It's brilliant!​