Nancy's Picks

This wide-ranging collection of bedtime poems is an inspired baby gift that will find a treasured place on children’s nightstands everywhere.

From the hoot of an owl to the horns of the city, from children giggling in the bath to the hushed notes of a lullaby, here is an exquisite anthology that captures the universal poetry of bedtime.

A picture-book treat for the youngest dog lovers. Dog loves books SO much he opens his very own bookstore. At first he’s short of customers. But that’s all right, because when Dog is surrounded by books, he is never short of friends—or fun. And when customers begin arriving, he knows just which books to recommend. Louise Yates’s expressive little white dog—and his many expressive doggie customers—extend an irresistible invitation to the very youngest to try reading. It’s fun!

Check out this rollicking, humorous, and heartwarming twist on the classic "first pet" story about a young bear and her favorite pet boy! When Lucy, a young bear, discovers a boy in the woods, she's absolutely delighted. She brings him home and begs her mom to let her keep him, even though her mom warns, "Children make terrible pets." But mom relents, and Lucy gets to name her new pet Squeakers. Through a series of hilarious and surprising scenes, readers can join Lucy and Squeakers on their day of fun and decide for themselves whether or not children really do make terrible pets.

When Flora and her pesky little brother, Crispin, are whisked away by a swirling and swooping wind, she gets the opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to give her brother away. With tempting offers from a dragonfly, the man in the moon, and even the wind itself, she will find it difficult to choose. But Flora would do anything to get rid of Crispin, wouldn’t she? Jeanne Birdsall’s utterly charming picture book debut takes flight in Matt Phelan’s twisting, twirling watercolors, brimming with wit and whimsy.

Cooper (Beach) creates a joyful tribute to family farms in this luminous and lyrical picture book. The text is stately, quiet, and poetic (“Morning chores would be better if they didn't happen every morning”), and the book slowly takes readers through a year of planting, good and bad weather, and ordinary details about farm life. At the same time, Cooper includes enough specific portraits and names to make the book seem like a felicitous cross between fiction and nonfiction. Like a puzzlemaker, Cooper begins with a sequence of cumulative phrases and sketchbook-style paintings: “Take a farmer, another farmer, a boy, a girl. Add a house, two barns, four silos.... Then cattle, chickens, countless cats, a dog. Put them all together and you get...” A page turn reveals “...a farm,” broad and serene, stretched across the palest of skies. Delicately shaded watercolors, outlined in black, are a mix of spot art, clustered images, and spectacular spreads that portray the farm and its inhabitants from diverse points of view. The graceful text and serenely stunning illustrations create a portrait both reverent and realistic.