Primary (ages 6-9)

Material appropriate for primary age groups

Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match / Marisol McDreonald No Combina

Marisol McDonald, a biracial, nonconformist, soccer-playing pirate-princess with brown skin and red hair, celebrates her uniqueness.

Grandfather Counts

When Helen’s grandfather, Gong Gong, comes from China to live with her family, he’s shocked to find that none of his grandchildren speak Chinese. How will he communicate with them? At first he keeps to himself. Then one day he joins Helen to watch the trains. He starts counting the train cars in Chinese, and she repeats the words. Then Helen says the numbers in English. They continue to teach each other, and Helen even learns her Chinese name, which means “flower.” In this luminously illustrated intergenerational story, the devotion between a young girl and her grandfather helps them overcome barriers of age and language.

A Circle Of Cats

One a quiet day, when the wind was still, the creek could be heard all the way up to where the old beech stood.  Under its branches, cats would come to dream and be dreamed.  Black cats and calicos, white cats and marmalade ones, too.  But they hadn’t yet gathered the day the orphan girl fell asleep among its roots, nestling in the weeds and long grass like the gangly, tousle-haired girl she was.  Her names was Lillian.

Lillian is an orphan who lives with her aunt on a homested miles from anyone, surrounded by uncharted forest.  She wanders the woods, chasing after squirrels and rabbits and climbing trees like a possum.  Free-spirited and independent, Lillian is kindard soul to the many wild cats who gather around the ancient beech tree.  One day, while she is under the beech, Lillian is bitten by a poisonous snake.  The cats refuse to let her die, and use their magic to turn her into one of their own.  How she becomes a girl again is a lyrical, original folklore that begs to be read aloud.  Set in the hill country outside of the author’s fictional city of Newford, A Circle of Cats is the much anticipated first picture book by longtime friends Charles de Lint and Charles Vess, whose art is as magical as the story.

Such A Prince

An opinionated, love-starved princess. Her status-conscious parents. Two muscular, but rude, hunks. Their kind, thoughtful brother. Three not-so-perfect peaches. An impossible challenge. And a whole lot of rabbits! Told from the point of view of a very untraditional fairy, this hilarious version of “The Three Peaches” shines a new light on the traditional tale and features a unique narrative voice and madcap illustrations. As in all good fairy tales, the vain, rude characters get their comeuppance, the fairy works her magic, and the princess gets her prince. So he’s a little on the skinny side–he has a big heart. (The heart is a muscle too, you know.) Everything else is fair game in this side-splitting take on the classic formula.

Out on the Ice in the Middle of the Bay

Out on the Ice in the Middle of the Bay is the poetic tale of a human toddler meeting a polar bear cub, peacefully alone, out on the ice. There follows a gripping confrontation between human father and animal mother, with their mutual distrust and anxiety for their young.

What Time Is It, Mr. Wolf?

This delightfully illustrated book introduces children to the concept of time through the mishaps and misdaventures of Mr. Wolf. The Story traces the escapades of the bumbling Mr. Wolf as he pursues Mouse and Squirrel through their daily activities. A large clock accompanies each activity, representing the passage of time. Bob Beeson’s vivid pen and marker illustrations captivate the eye and capture the imagination with ever-changing details. With its wonderfully entertaining story and pictures, What Time Is It, Mr. Wolf? is the perfect book for children just beginning to learn about clocks and telling time.

The Mummer’s Song

Don’t seem like Christmas if the mummers are not here, Granny would say as she knit in her chair. But on a cold, clear Newfoundland night shortly after Christmas, several outlandishly costumed mummers do appear and Granny’s house suddenly erupts in a burst of joking and tomfollery, raucous singing and exuberant dancing. Granny and her two young charges are instantly caught up in the merriment,  When the evening’s festivities come to a close, the mummers are bid a fond farewell until next year.

Popular singer Bud Davidage wrote “The Mummer’s Song” as a tribute to a centuries-old custom in danger of disappearing.  Since its publication in 1973, it has fostered a revival of mummering, as noted author and Newfoundland son Kevin Major points out in his afterword.  The sparkling illustrations in this picture book adaptation are by the well-known Canadian artist Ian Wallace.

The Wolf Of Gubbio

At night we lay in bed and listened to the howl of the wolf on the hill. In sleep, we saw his shadow slink along the moonlit wall as the great beast circled the town. No one in Gubbio is safe from the monstrous wolf that stalks them. The townsfolk, armed with pitchforks, travel in groups and never venture out at night. One day a band of strangers comes to town led by the Poverello, the poor one. People say he understands the language of bird and beast. Even so, when he offers to go into the forest and face the wolf, everyone is certain he will never return. What happens between the wolf and the Poverello as they stand face to face, is a matter of trust and understanding. But for the people of Gubbio, and one boy in particular, it is nothing short of a miracle. Based on one of the legends of St. Francis of Assisi, the story may contain some truth. During repairs to a chapel in Gubbio dedicated to the saint, a large wolf’s skull was found underneath the flagstones. The Afterword recounts this amazing fact and provides historical details on the life of St. Francis of Assisi.

Good Families Don’t

Good Families Don’t is Munsch’s funniest book yet, about a risqué subject that is guaranteed to have children–and adults–rolling in the aisles.When Carmen tries to tell her parents that there is a big fart lying on her bed, they don’t believe her.  “Good families like ours,” they tell her, “do not have farts.”  But when they go upstairs to see, the fart attacks them–as it does the similarly disbelieving police when they arrive.  Carmen is left to deal with the situation on her own, which she does with the help of a rose.