I Love You, Blankie! by Sheryl Haft and illustrated by Jane Massey (Little, Brown and Company, April 2015) is an adorable board book about a child imagining with a comfort blanket. I never used a comfort blanket myself, but my daughter loves to have a special blankie to snuggle (although she chooses from among a

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Fireflies: A Writer’s Notebook by Coleen Murtagh Paratore (Little Pickle Press, July 2014) is a delightful full-color journal for the aspiring writer. Filled with writing prompts and ideas, Fireflies is compared to a jar full of fireflies for you to watch for “sparks.” I loved this analogy. Although I am primarily a nonfiction writer (i.e., educational

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There Was an Old Sailor by Claire Saxby and Cassandra Allen (Kids Can Press, March 2014) is a delightful rendition of the “old lady who swallowed a fly” song, this time featuring a sailor on the sea. In this tale, the old man swallows a krill, a jellyfish, and more, leading up to a shark

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Moonday by Adam Rex (Disney Hyperion, 2013) answers the question, “what would happen if the moon decided to stay in my backyard?” The town cannot wake up, the tide comes in to the narrator’s backyard, and they cannot hide the bright light of the moon. I really enjoy Moonday because of the ridiculous and bizarre

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Falcon by Tim Jessell (Random House, 2012) brings to life a dream many share: what would it be like to fly. In Tim Jessell’s lavishly illustrated paintings, the reader sees a falcon soaring over the waves, the mountains, and then the tall buildings of a city. In his story, a young boy dreams that he

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How To by Julie Morstad (Simply Read Books, 2013) has a non-traditional structure. Each page has a phrase to finish the beginning “How to,” coupled with a creative illustration to show how do do that thing. For example, “how to go fast” has a child on piggy back, a child on a scooter, a child with

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Now that he’s reading a mile a minute, it’s time to hear from my six-year-old again! The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary. Ralph is a mouse. Keith is a boy. Ralph and Keith meet in a hotel. Keith gives Ralph a motorcycle. It is a toy motorcycle. If Ralph makes a sound, it moves! I

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Night Knight by Owen Davey (Templar Books, 2011) begins and ends with a boy with a colander as a hat, holding a play horse, but the rest of the illustrations show a different story: a knight coming to the end of his day. The illustrations are playful and fun as the “knight” bathes with the

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Time Out for Monsters by Jean Reidy and illustrated by Robert Neubecker (Disney Hyperion, 2012) is the story of a boy’s imagination. An unnamed boy is sent to his time-out chair, and he dreams of what would make his otherwise boring corner more exciting. On the top of his list is, of course, a monster, a

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