Great illustrations of barnyard animals by the late Simms Taback. Printed on sturdy stock, this is a good lapbook for hamming it up and playing around with animal sounds. A good knowing and naming book to share with toddlers, who will love the "magical" motion of the hologram duck on the cover and making animal sounds.

Age: Infants, Toddlers. Award Year: 2013. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

A new form of technology gives readers an innovative new way of seeing. With accompanying text for each of the eight featured creatures, this is first and foremost an eyecatching book with motion! Sure you can see a gorilla chew on film, but the gorilla inside this book seems to come alove as you lift the flaps and set the little video in motion. There is an opening that sets the scene of a safari in Kenya. Each of the animals come alive as the sections are turned. Wait till you seethe cheetah dashing, the lion racing, the rhino charging, the elephant flap its big ears and others. All ages.

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2013. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

For the growing season this set of three handsome picture books may well inspire a new crop of young gardeners. These are all reissued in a smaller paperback format that retains the artful look of the originals. Eating the Alphabet is an alphabet book of fruits and veggies. Growing Vegetable Soup is a treasure of artful veggies with a recipe for making soup. Planting a Rainbow is a color concept book with more than 20 different kinds of flowers. The gift package comes with a poster to hang in the kitchen or a child's room.

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2013. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

As always, Maisy's pop-up action is simply splendid as the illustrations trace the steps in making a garden. Pull the tab and see Maisy dig the ground and discover the worm below! Pull the next tab and Maisy plants the seeds in a row. Pull again and Maisy is watering the plants. Turn and pull to see the seedlings pop up! Pull up and help Maisy tug the weeds out of the garden. At last, there is a crop to pick and finally on the last page some beautiful sunflowers that open. Young science for the youngest lapsitter. 2 1/2 & up

For follow up fun, try planting some seeds indoors that can be moved outside when the ground gets warm. Or try making an avacado pit or seeds from an orange sprout on the windowsill.

Age: Toddlers, Preschool. Award Year: 2013. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

A young science book that recalls a night of catching, observing and then freeing fireflies. Told in verse, this little story will be familiar to kids who have enjoyed the magic of capturing the blinking lights of firefly night. 3 & up.

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2013.

Big bold illustrations of familiar farm animals are featured in the playful book with cutout holes that allow a partial view of the animal hidden on the next page. The text offers a clue to help the little listener guess who will show up when the page is turned. Based on the original game and always popular game of I Spy With My Little Eye, this is a fun way to introduce toddlers to knowing and naming, color concepts and animal sounds. It includes letter names. For young toddlers we suggest skipping the letter names—use the sound the letter make as a hint or skip the letters altogether for young listeners. That's something they can grow into.

Age: Toddlers, Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2013. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Based on a folktale from Uganda, Give Up, Gecko! is a gem of a read-aloud with lots of repetition. Children will soon be chanting along with the reader, cheering each of the thirsty animals seeking water. Told with wit and perfect pacing, the story and playful illustrations speak to big ideas about sticking to a task and that being small is not a measure of what one can do. In MacDonald's telling, one can almost hear the village storyteller pouring this tale out to young and old alike as they gather by the fire. 4-8

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2013. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

What happens when you steal? This little lesson in morality is told with humor and some suspense. Though message books are out of style, this one speaks directly to the notion of the wages of sin.
The artist's underwater greens and scenes look amazingly like Homage to Leo Lioni's Big Fish Little Fish. 4 & up.

Age: Preschool. Award Year: 2012. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

When Justin lost a hat his Grandmother made for him, his mother insists that he needs to take better care of his things. Justin takes this to heart and discovers a Lost and Found box in Mr. Rumowsky’s office. Each trip into the giant box has its own fears that are overcome. Justin brings forth treasures for others, but not his own missing hat. Still, when Gram comes visiting Justin has a hat that appears to be the missing one. 7 & up.

Age: Early School Years. Award Year: 2012. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Everyone in the family will enjoy dipping into this compendium of interesting facts about the tallest, deepest, most, least and other such trivia. As always the colorful pages of this annual are crammed full of stats and facts that will inform and entertain. 8 & up.

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years, Tweens. Award Year: 2012. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.