Synopses & Reviews
Fine Life for a Country Mouse covers the concepts Appreciating Differences and Family.
Based on Aesops beloved fable, City Mouse, Country Mouse, this book is a must have for classroom and at-home reading. Shy Tillie Mouse has invited her city-slicker cousin, Oliver, to visit her home in the country. But Oliver is bored by the country. So, Tillie decides to visit Oliver in the city. Everything is so luxurious. Until . . . theres a cat! Stomping feet! A vacuum cleaner! The woes of city life are too much for Tillies nerves, and she returns home, happy and content to be back in her simple cottage in the country.
Synopsis
In print for more than 60 years, this classic abridged story of "the cutest, silliest tugboat you ever saw" continues to delight children around the world. Full-color illustrations.
Synopsis
Little Toot is a tugboat who does not want to tug. Instead, he wants to make figure eights in the harbor and bother all the other tugboats. But when he ends up all alone on the open water as a storm is rolling in, its up to him to save a stuck ocean liner. This classic story is sure to delight a whole new generation of readers!
Synopsis
Hard Hat Zone covers the concepts Community Workers and Helpers and Problem Solving.
Construction sites are some of the most interesting places, especially for young boys. Join the workers as they use dump trucks, cranes, concrete mixers, backhoes, and payloaders to build a new skyscraper! Full of photographs, Hard Hat Zone is an exciting and informative read for children interested in how things are built.
Synopsis
The Story About Ping covers the concepts Family and Problem Solving.
This classic childrens book was first published in 1933 and is still as delightful and relevant as ever. Pings owner takes him and his siblings to the river for dinner. When its time to go, Ping is the last duck in the water and, as such, will receive a spanking. To avoid punishment, he hidesonly to be captured the next morning by a young boy for his familys dinner. Finally Ping is set free, and when he sees his masters boat, the last thing he fears is a spankinghes just thankful to be home!
Synopsis
Pins and Needles Share a Dream covers the concepts Friendship and Problem Solving.
Quill-less Pins is too embarrassed to leave his house to play with Needles. Needles finally convinces Pins to tell him what happened--and just hearing Pins's dream makes Needles so scared his quills fall out, too! This sweet 8x8 is a perfect bedtime story about friendship and caring for one another, even in the most embarrassing times.
Synopsis
Exposing children to a diverse range of literary and informational texts, the Core Concepts program helps develop important literacy and cognitive skills necessary to meet many of the Common Core State Standards.
Did you know that every year hundreds of thousands of monarch butterflies migrate 2,500 miles to Mexico for the winter? It takes four generations of butterflies to make the trip, and only the fourth generation lives longer than three weeks. Follow a beautiful butterfly as she makes her journey down to Mexico!
Fly, Butterfly covers the concepts Animals and Seasons.
Synopsis
Ella's best friend is her elephant. They do everything together--watch the moon rise, read books, and even go to the movies. But one day, Ella begins to look at her elephant differently. He can't fit through the doorway or in the bathtub or at the dinner table. It takes a bit of time apart for Ella to realize that elephants do make fine friends!
Synopsis
Hummingbirds are some of the most beautiful, tiniest birds in nature. They are the only creatures that can fly forward, backward, sidewayseven upside down! Their hearts beat anywhere from 500 to 1200 times every minute; their wings flap as many as 52 times per second; and they breathe up to 600 times per minute. This fact-and-photo-filled nonfiction 8x8 will leave readers astounded by the smallest bird in America!
Synopsis
Foreman Frankie is paving a new highway. To do so, Foreman Frankie and his crew need to mix concrete, pour a layer of asphalt, and make sure the road is very smooth. Sing along to the tune of Yankee Doodle Went to Town” and see how quickly Foreman Frankie and his crew can pave the highway!
About the Author
Hardie Gramatky was born in Dallas, TX, in 1907 but moved to California as a small boy after his father died of tuberculosis. He attended Stanford University (earning the tuition by working as a logger and a bank teller) and Chouinard Art Institute before becoming one of Disney’s early animators in 1929. In the 1920s and 30s, he helped start the California Watercolor movement. In 1936, after a 6-year Disney contract expired, he left the company (earning $150 a week, a huge sum in the Depression) to move to New York City with his wife, artist Dorothea Cooke, to become illustrators. It was there, in his studio on Pearl Street, that Gramatky saw a Moran tugboat out his window that obviously didn’t want to work and kept making figure 8s on the East River. So in 1939 after painting many watercolors of the busy harbor, Gramatky wondered what would happen if a “tug didn’t want to tug” and wrote the story. The book got immediate attention and has been a favorite picture book ever since, and Gramatky’s fine art watercolors and giclée prints continue to be prized. He died of cancer of the ileum in Westport, Connecticut, on April 29, 1979.