From the creators of the luminous “Good Night Engines” comes an energetic good-morning book filled with short, rhyming text that fairly bounces off the page, lots of onomatopoeia, and bright, vibrant close-ups of all kinds of vehicles and aircraft. School buses, garbage trucks, street sweepers, helicopters and more crank up their noisy motors as a little boy climbs out of bed and starts his day. No little engine lover should be without a copy of this winsome book, as dynamic and peppy as its companion was soothing and sleepy. Launch date: July 16, 2007.
This book written by Marilyn Singer and illustrated by Carll Cneut tells about a sleeping baby’s stroller journey through loud city streets. In the end, what will wake baby up? Launch date: October 15, 2007.
In this 32-page book written and illustrated by Jessica Meserve, Small and Big are sisters. But Big can jump higher and run faster. Small is always stuck in Big’s shadow. One day Small gets mad and does something very mean, and though she’s out of Big’s shadow, she feels smaller than ever. Until she discovers there are some things she can do that Big can’t. And that helping someone else — especially an older sister — can make even the smallest person feel very big. Launch date: May 12, 2007.
When a boy finds a camera washed up on the shore, he develops the pictures and discovers an amazing underwater world, as well as children from other parts of the world who have seen it, too. “Flotsam is a wordless book. Author and illustrator David Wiesner conveys the story with gorgeous, incredibly detailed paintings and leaves his reader to do the rest, so that reading the book becomes a very interactive experience,” publicist Jenny Groves of Clarion Books told TDmonthly. The book received the 2007 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award. Launch date: September 4, 2006.
A 2005 Newbery Honor Book, Russell Freedman’s work is a heart-wrenching story about Marian Anderson, one of the great singers of the 20th century. Denied the privilege of singing at Washington’s great Constitution Hall, Ms. Anderson became a civil rights figure by giving a revolutionary performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The book, also honored with the 2005 Sibert Medal, offers an inspiring glimpse into her life. - Andrew Robinton