Welcome back Lyle, everyone's favorite crocodile. In this counting book, Lyle has taken up dog walking and on each turn of the page he has another dog that joins the day's walk. There's not a lot of story here, but the counting is simple enough for beginners and ends on a happy note. Illustrated by Bernard Waber's daughter, Paulis, for whom the first Lyle book was dedicated many years ago.

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2010. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

A cast of little green peas build, climb, camp, and race through all the letters in the alphabet. There are lots of small details to pour over in this action packed alphabet. The big bold letters are shown in caps on the pages, but the words that match the letters are written in lower case. What the peas do is told in rhyme, such as: "We're gardeners, gigglers, givers and takers. We're hikers, inventors, and investigators." The language is more appropriate for older preschoolers and early grade children. In fact, they might be inspired (with a little nudge) to make their own versions of this book, activating a batch of peas with the letters of the alphabet or maybe they will switch to carrots or some very active cherry tomatoes.

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2010. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Want to stretch both vocabulary and perhaps an understanding of the many ways to share love? Subtitled, Sweet Little Lessons on Love, this defines such words as selflessness, considerate, supportive, tenderness, and others. It's a kind of dictionary for such terms, and each is defined with a few sentences that connect to baking cookies. What a delicious way to learn about the sweeter things in life and giving kids the words to express more than the rudimentary terms of endearment. The Dyers' illustrations mix a world of children and animals having tea-parties, mice baking cookies, goats and pigs going to bake sales, and both animals and children dressed in clothing. It's an old-fashioned kind of world that has the look of childhood in the 1930's with milk in glass bottles, big hair ribbon bows, and gathering eggs in a basket. 6 & up.

Age: Early School Years. Award Year: 2010. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Did you ever think of the many kinds of quiet? This charming little concept book is mossy green and the little creatures that tip toe though are illustrated in muted tones that match the gentle text. There are some amusing kinds of quiet, as in "thinking of a good reason you were drawing on the wall" or "making a wish quiet." A good book for getting children to dream up their own examples of quiet? This just may inspire some original books of quiet or how about noisy?  5-7

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2010. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Learning the months of the year takes time. This charming book about a puppy’s first year is a good way to introduce or reinforce the names and order of the months. It is also a book that reflects the seasons as they are lived in the northern part of the country where snow is familiar. Ashley Wolff’s playful illustrations have a quiet charm. 

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

An original look at the alphabet. Each animal pictured from A to Z is composed with a variety of a particular letter in lowercase and upper and in bold and light for shading. The featured creature fills the page and other small examples of items that start with the same letter are found in blocks at the bottom or side of the page. While some of the hard to fill letters, such as U, Y and X are a bit of a stretch, this is a book for older preschoolers and early school years kids who will enjoy the esoteric choices on these few pages. They might even like making other alphabet collections inspired by this beastie collection. A great way to get kids to practice writing the same letters in a playful way.

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

An amusing concept book that contrasts things that dogs do and don't do. Using photographs and the digital magic of Photoshop, they created some truly LOL images.  The only text here is "Dogs do" or "Dogs don't" so for beginning readers the text is all in the photos. An entertaining choice for kids who like to think they can read long before they really can. It’s also a fun way to conceptualize how the same word can mean very different things in context…a very big concept. 4-7

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Age: Preschool,Early School Years. Award Year: 2001.

Age: Preschool,Early School Years. Award Year: 2001.

Age: Preschool,Early School Years. Award Year: 2001.