Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Aidan and Meg Falconer are their parents' only hope. The Falconers are facing life in prison -- unless Aidan and Meg can follow a trail of clues to prove their innocence. The problem? Right now they're trapped in a juvenile detention center. Until they escape one night -- and find themselves on the run, both from the authorities and from a sinister attacker t who has his own reason to stop them. The Falconers... (more)

Robert Langdon: Book 1

Angels & Demons

by Dan Brown

An ancient secret brotherhood. A devastating new weapon of destruction. An unthinkable target. World-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. What he discovers is unimaginable: a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church by a centuries-old underground organization -- the Illuminati.... (more)

Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale

Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale

by Carmen Agra Deedy

Carmen Agra Deedy delivers a deliciously inventive Cuban version of the beloved Martina folktale, complete with a dash of cafÃ© cubano. Martina the beautiful cockroach doesn t know coffee beans about love and marriage. That s where her Cuban family comes in. While some of the Cucarachas offer her gifts to make her more attractive, only Abuela, her grandmother, gives her something really useful: un consejo... (more)

Astronaut Handbook

by Meghan McCarthy

DO YOU HAVE what it takes to be an astronaut? Meghan McCarthy blasts readers off to astronaut school in her new, young, nonfiction picture book. Take a ride on the “Vomit Comet” and learn how it feels to be weightless. Have your measurements taken—100 to be exact—for your very own space suit. Meghan McCarthy has created the perfect book to share with children who want to be astronauts when they grow up.

The Apple-Pip Princess

by Jane Ray

Can the littlest princess and her tiny apple pip really bring hope and happiness back to her beloved kingdom? Sometimes it's the smallest things that make the biggest difference...This spellbinding tale with its green message from the award-winning and internationally respected Jane Ray is richly illustrated with exquisite detail. A future classic to treasure forever.

The Pencil

by Allan Ahlberg

The creators of THE RUNAWAY DINNER and PREVIOUSLY team up to imagine the comical world that comes to life when a lonely pencil starts to draw. "One day that little pencil made a move, shivered slightly, quivered somewhat . . . and began to draw." Welcome back Banjo, the boy from THE RUNAWAY DINNER! Once a pencil draws him, there's no telling what will come next — a dog, a cat, a chase (of course), and a... (more)

Sandy's Circus: A Story About Alexander Calder

Sandy's Circus: A Story About Alexander Calder

by Tanya Lee Stone

As a boy, Alexander “Sandy” Calder was always fiddling with odds and ends, making objects for friends. When he got older and became an artist, his fiddling led him to create wire sculptures. One day, Sandy made a lion. Next came a lion cage. Before he knew it, he had an entire circus and was traveling between Paris and New York performing a brand-new kind of art for amazed audiences. This is the story of Sandy’s... (more)

Bats at the Library

by Brian Lies

Houghton Mifflin Company Another inky evening’s here— The air is cool and calm and clear. Can it be true? Oh, can it be? Yes!—Bat Night at the library! Join the free-for-all fun at the public library with these book-loving bats! Shape shadows on walls, frolic in the water fountain, and roam the book-filled halls until it’s time for everyone, young and old, to settle down into the enchantment of story time. Brian... (more)

Henry & the Buccaneer Bunnies (Unabridged)

Henry & the Buccaneer Bunnies (Unabridged)

by Carolyn Crimi

Aboard a ship called the Salty Carrot sails a wild, rowdy band of Buccaneer Bunnies. Their leader, Barnacle Black Ear, is the baddest bunny brute of all time, but his son refuses to perform his proper pirating duties. Henry would rather read books than shout "Shiver me timbers!" or make prisoners walk the plank - even if it means he has to swab the decks as punishment. But when a crashing, bashing, thrashing... (more)

Eating Enchiladas (Simply Sarah)

by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Sleepovers are especially fun at a Mexican family's house.

Metal Man

by Aaron Reynolds

Sparks literally fly as Devon makes the leap from observer to creator. With the help of the Metal Man, can Devon weld a sculpture of his own, or will the scrap metal amount to a pile of junk as his Mom suspects? The unique voice and gritty illustrations capture the urban atmosphere and the heat of the welder's torch.

The Elephant Quilt: Stitch by Stitch to California!

The Elephant Quilt: Stitch by Stitch to California!

by Susan Lowell

“We’re going to see the Elephant!” That’s what people say when they head West on a journey promising to be “something powerful strange. Like a real live elephant, but even bigger – stranger – wilder – scarier!” Lily Rose is raring to go. Along the way she’ll help stitch her family’s adventures into a grand and glorious quilt. Inspired by a quilt sewn by young Mary Margaret Hezlep in 1859 during her journey West,... (more)

Elephant's Story

by Harriet Blackford

The newest elephant in the herd is adorably small and wrinkly, with floppy ears and a most extraordinary nose. Though she’s a baby, it isn’t long before she’s charging around her mother, flapping those big ears to frighten the birds, learning to control her trunk, playing with other calves…and charming children everywhere. This is non-fiction at its freshest—filled with valuable information presented through a... (more)

Duck & Company: Level 2 (Holiday House Reader)

Duck & Company: Level 2 (Holiday House Reader)

by Kathy Caple

Duck and Rat love running the Duck & Company bookshop. Whether it's a feather-popping mystery for Mother Hen or a really funny joke book for Badger, Duck and Rat have lots of suggestions. But some customers are harder to serve, such as a big, scary cat. Children will laugh at Duck and Rat's ups and downs in this warm-hearted easy reader. A Holiday House Reader Level 2.

Acting Out

by Avi, Susan Cooper, Sharon Creech, Patricia MacLachlan, Katherine Paterson, Richard Peck

Six masterful children's authors have become master playwrights in this collection of one-act plays that might just make you want to ACT OUT! In The Raven , Sharon Creech spoofs a publishing office while Susan Cooper shows the environment fighting back against overdevelopment in The Dollop . Patricia MacLachlan puts a twist on detention in The Bad Room and Katherine Paterson gives us a new twist on a classic... (more)

Old Bear

by Kevin Henkes

Snug and warm, curled and furry, Old Bear sleeps. Red, orange, and brown leaves fly through the air, and it is snowing hard. Old Bear doesn't notice. Old Bear is dreaming about being a cub again. He is dreaming about the beauty of the world. He is dreaming of everything he loves about the forest that is his home. Turn the page and you will see!

How Many Ways Can You Catch a Fly?

by Steve Jenkins, Robin Page

Flies are fast! They can hover, walk upside down, and use their lightning-quick reflexes to escape predators. But rainbow trout, slender lorises, and assassin bugs can catch them. Chimney swifts can, too. How do such diverse creatures manage to capture the same prey? Similar in structure to What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?, this eye-popping picture book introduces readers to a menagerie of animals that... (more)

How Football Explains America

by Sal Paolantonio

Here at last is the first book to fully explain how and why the game of football became America's most powerful and financially successful entertainment phenomenon--and how this country's pioneers of sports, games, industry, and politics helped transform a sleepy game inherited from Europe into one that would explain what America wanted to become and who we are as a people. In How Football Explains America,... (more)

Are You Ready to Play Outside?

by Mo Willems

Winning unanimous rave reviews, Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggie series continues to charm readers. Featuring two lovable and funny characters, an optimistic (and sometimes reckless) pig and a cautious, pessimistic elephant, these books make reading irresistible to the beginning readers. Children who sat on their parents' laps to have Pigeon read to them will eagerly take the plunge with these books to start... (more)

Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed

by Mo Willems

Wilbur is different from the other Naked Mole Rats in his Colony, because he wears clothes (and he likes it!). But what will happen when Grandpah, the oldest, wisest, and most naked Naked Mole Rat ever discovers Wilbur's secret? Funnyman and three-time Caldecott Honoree Mo Willems exposes the naked truth about being yourself and wearing it well.

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: fall 2008

by Gordon Korman

by Dan Brown

by Carmen Agra Deedy

by Meghan McCarthy

by Jane Ray

by Allan Ahlberg

by Tanya Lee Stone

by Brian Lies

by Carolyn Crimi

by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

by Aaron Reynolds

by Susan Lowell

by Harriet Blackford

by Kathy Caple

by Avi, Susan Cooper, Sharon Creech, Patricia MacLachlan, Katherine Paterson, Richard Peck

by Kevin Henkes

by Steve Jenkins, Robin Page

by Sal Paolantonio

by Mo Willems

by Mo Willems