Picture Book

A Bottle of Happiness

There was once a big mountain with two villages on either side. The people on one side were rich and worked only to get richer. The people on the other side of the mountain were poor but had a wealth of stories and laughter. One day, a poor young boy decides to seek a new story and this leads him to the rich people’s marketplace.

Sean Awesome: The Dog Next Door

Ms. Yellow and Mr. Wide is a wife and husband duo who created the Sean Awesome Series one cut-paper scene at a time. They live in the beautiful city of Vancouver and try very hard to be an awesome Mommy and Daddy to their real life son Sean. Inspired by her teaching experience and their own son, Ms. Yellow and Mr. Wide created Sean Awesome to share the joy and love of becoming a family. Ms. Yellow studied Literature and Education. She worked as an editor at WWD magazine. Later she spent many years working closely with children and parents as an Early Childhood Educator.

A Serious Thought

One night, a little boy goes to bed, but instead of sleeping, he starts thinking all kinds of thoughts. Dangerous thoughts. Admirable thoughts. Questionable thoughts. Beautiful thoughts … until a very serious thought occurs to him. If Earth is just a tiny marble floating in space, and he is but one child among many living on this marble, what does his existence matter in the grand scheme of things? Deceptively simple black-and-white drawings poignantly illustrate the boy’s journey as he considers this serious thought. This thought-provoking story by Estonian artist Jonas Taul will resonate with anyone who has ever been kept awake at night by life’s big questions.

A Stopwatch From Grampa

Loretta Garbutt uses subtlety and sensitivity to explore the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) in this moving picture book story of loss. It features a gender-neutral main character (no first name or pronouns are given) making the story universally relatable. This is a perfect choice for fostering discussions with children about their emotions, particularly the feeling of loss. It also offers a poignant representation of an intergenerational relationship between a grandfather and grandchild. Carmen Mok’s expressive and thoughtful illustrations employ a limited color palette to convey the character’s emotional trajectory. There are curriculum applications here in social-emotional development as well as character education lessons in caring and resilience.

The Snowman

When his snowman comes to life, a little boy invites him into his home and in return is taken on a flight high above the countryside, in a classic wordless story with a new cover.

Stars and Poppy Seeds

As the daughter of well-known mathematicians, Flora loves to count more than anything in the world. She counts all the things around her—the animals, grains of sand on the beach, and letters in her dad’s newspaper. When Dora looks at the Milky Way, she begins to wonder how to count the mesmerizing number of stars. Is it even possible? Is the night sky so full of stars that even all the numbers she knows would not be enough to count them? Dora soon learns that she needs to deal with such a complicated task by starting with the simplest of steps, and who knows, maybe one day she will achieve her dream.

Birdie’s Beauty Parlor

Birdie and Grandma are having a girls’ day! But Grandma’s all worn out now. Birdie has a solution: a makeover! It’ll give Grandma a chance to relax. Birdie insists that Grandma lie down because this beauty parlor has a lot of moving parts―chinny-chin-chin hair removal, long stretches of blush, slashes of lipstick, and eyeshadow. Earrings, scarves, the works! Birdie knows best: she owns this beauty parlor!

The Fabled Life Of Aesop: The Extraordinary Journey and Collected Tales Of The World’s Greatest Storyteller

The Tortoise and the Hare. The Boy Who Cried Wolf. The Fox and the Crow. Each of Aesop’s stories has a lesson to tell, but Aesop’s life story is perhaps the most inspiring tale of them all. Gracefully revealing the genesis of his tales, this story of Aesop shows how fables not only liberated him from captivity but spread wisdom over a millennium. This is the only children’s book biography about him. Includes thirteen illustrated fables: The Lion and the Mouse, The Goose and the Golden Egg, The Fox and the Crow, Town Mouse and Country Mouse, The Ant and the Grasshopper, The Dog and the Wolf, The Lion and the Statue, The Tortoise and the Hare, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The North Wind and the Sun, The Fox and the Grapes, The Dog and the Wolf, The Lion and the Boar.