Reading Circle Program
New Books for Missouri Students 2014
Missouri Building Block
Count the Monkeys, by Mac Barnett. Hyperion, ©2013. The reader is invited to count the animals that have frightened the monkeys off the pages.
I Dare You Not to Yawn, by Helene Boudreau. Candlewick Press, ©2013. A comical cautionary tale for bedtime-resistant youngsters which challenges them to avoid yawning, from a dozing dog and a cuddly blanket to endearing baby orangutans who stretch out long arms for a nighttime hug. Yawning
Little Nelly’s Big Book, by Pippa Goodhart. Bloomsbury, ©2012. When Nelly reads a description of mice in a book, she is convinced that she is a mouse. After all, she is gray, has big ears, and a thin tail. But then she meets some other mice, and her confusion only grows. Why are they smaller than she is? And why can’t she do the same things the other mice do?
Moo! by David LaRochelle, Walker & Co, ©2013. When Cow gets her hooves on the farmer’s car, she takes it for a wild ride through the country.
Mustache Baby, by Bridget Heos, Houghton Mifflin, ©2013. A picture book about baby Billy, who is born with a mustache, and his parents, who must figure out if it’s a Good-Guy mustache, or a Bad-Guy mustache.
Open Very Carefully: A Book With Bite, by Nick Bromley, Candlewick Press, ©2013. What would you do if you were settling down for a quiet bedtime story and you realized that a crocodile had fallen into your storybook and was — not to put too fine a point on it — wreaking havoc? Would you slam that book shut and cram it back onto the bookshelf? Or would you be brave enough to peek?
Ribbit!, by Rodrigo Folgueira, Random House, ©2013. When a pig visits a frog pond, sits on a rock, and says only “Ribbit!” news spreads fast—but only the wise old beetle has an explanation.
That Is Not a Good Idea!, by Mo Willems, HarperCollins, ©2013. Comic misadventures ensue when a hungry fox invites a plump goose to dinner.
This Little Piggy, by Tim Harrington, HarperCollins, ©2013. Expands on the traditional counting rhyme, revealing exciting things the second set of toes does which inspire the first set to try more “fun stuff” too.
Watermelon Seed, by Greg Pizzoli, Hyperion, ©2013. After swallowing a watermelon seed, a crocodile imagines a scary outcome.