Picture Puffin

Dinosaurs have taken over the Earth! They're stomping and stamping all over the place. Young readers will love finding out why in this classic environmental tale from best-selling author/illustrator Michael Foreman. A fable for our time, and as relevant today as it was when it was first published in 1972.

It is 1971, and Zachary Busner is a maverick psychiatrist who has just begun working at a mental hospital in suburban north London. As he tours the hospital's wards, Busner notes that some of the patients are exhibiting a very peculiar type of physical tic: rapid, precise movements that they repeat over and over. These patients do not react to outside stimuli and are trapped inside an internal world. The patient that most draws Busner's interest is a certain Audrey Dearth, an elderly woman born in the slums of West London in 1890, who is completely withdrawn and catatonically tics with her hands, turning handles and spinning wheels in the air. Busner's investigations into the condition of Audrey and the other patients alternate with sections told from Audrey's point of view, a stream of memories of a bustling bygone Edwardian London where horse-drawn carts roamed the streets. In internal monologue, Audrey recounts her childhood, her work as a clerk in an umbrella shop, her time as a factory munitionette during World War I, and the very different fates of her two brothers. Busner's attempts to break through to Audrey and the other patients lead to unexpected results, and, in Audrey's case, discoveries about her family's role in her illness that are shocking and tragic.

Winner of the 1963 Caldecott Medal, Keats' story of a young boy experiencing the year's first snowfall has delighted millions of readers. Peter, The Snowy Day's protagonist, wakes up to the season’s first snowfall. In his bright red snowsuit, he goes outside and makes footprints and trails through the snow. Peter is too young to join a snowball fight with older kids, so he makes a snowman and snow angels and slides down a hill. He returns home with a snowball stashed in his pocket. Before he goes to bed, Peter is sad to discover the snowball has melted. The next day, he wakes up to tons more falling snow. With a friend, he ventures outside again.

Narrates the short history of monster trucks--ordinary pickup trucks on four enormous tires--describing some of the outstanding examples of these unusual vehicles, which can be used to crush cars, race, jump cars, and engage in mud bog competition.

Relates the consequences of a stonecutter's foolish longing for power.

A young boy finds in the wind a playmate of many moods: one that can sail boats, fly kites, blow dirt, and turn umbrellas inside out.

Sophie does not enjoy energetic, assertive Wendell's weekend visit until the very end, when she learns to assert herself and finds out Wendell can be fun to play with after all.

Benjy was a brown dog with long ears and a short tail. He loved everybody in his family -- Mother, Father, Linda, and Jimmy -- and they all loved him. He was a happy dog until he heard the words, "Tomorrow Aunt Sarah is coming for a visit, and she's bringing Tilly." Tilly was Aunt Sarah's parrot. When Tilly was there, Benjy's family always fussed over her and never paid any attention to him.That made Benjy jealous. - p. .

The Happy Lion is extremely unhappy because he is lonesome, so when a circus comes around and he sees the Beautiful Lioness, he brings her back to the zoo with him.

Climbing up a mountain, Meg the witch and Mog the cat run into thick fog and bump into something very strange.

Retells a Congolese tale in which an ugly and unloved twin discovers a magic tree that gives him everything he wants.

When everyone was fast asleep, the Fog Maiden sent a cat to carry two sleeping children off for a fantastical evening highlighted by a palace ball.

A quiet fishing party is interrupted when something unexpected bites on the line.

An illustrated alphabet rhyme that includes the animals from alligator to zebra.

Since it was first published in 1964, Whistle for Willie has delighted millions of young readers with its nearly wordless text and its striking collage artwork depicting the story of Peter, who longs to whistle for his dog. The New York Times wrote: "Mr. Keats' illustrations boldly, colorfully capture the child, his city world, and the shimmering heat of a summer's day." - Publisher.

Because of her hateful pride, the king gives his daughter in marriage to the first beggar that comes to the door.

An autobiographical picture book that gently introduces young readers to the concept of grief. Tommy, a young child who regularly visits his grandmother and great-grandmother one day finds that his great-grandmother is no longer there. He must then learn to say good-bye.

Millions of Cats is a wonderful tale of vanity versus humility, written and illustrated by the singular Wanda Gag. An old man and his wife decide to get a cat, so the old man goes out in search of the prettiest cat of all. When he is forced to choose from "hundreds, thousands, millions and billions and trillions" of cats, he (naturally) brings them all home. When the wife points out their inability to support the legion of felines, it is left to the cats to decide who among them is the prettiest. Anyone who has ever owned more than a single cat can tell you what happens next. Gag's simple, appealing black ink drawings are perfect for the story, somehow capturing at least the idea of millions of cats in a single page. Repeated lines and the sing-song title refrain make this a read-aloud natural.(Ages 4 to 8) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. "This Newbery Honor winner is distinguished by innovative design and a strong storyteller's cadence." (School Library Journal's "One Hundred Books that Shaped the Century")

Relates what happens at Mary Bloom's when her friend's mouse has babies.

Mr. Gumpy's human and animal friends squash into his old car and go for a drive -- until it starts to rain.

An old cart horse and his master rescue the Lord Mayor when his coach breaks down and, in reward, they are invited to the Mayor's banquet.

A hound rescues a schoolgirl from the Seine, becomes a beloved school pet, is chased away by the trustees, and returns with a surprise.

When Harry brings his toy dinosaurs to Mr. Oakley's farm, they all decide they want a duckling, and even though Mr. Oakley says they only have room at their house for chickens, they wish very hard and ask Santa to deliver a duckling.

This is an inspired children's book about a boy's passage through tempestuous aspects of life. Max, a naughty little boy, sent to bed without his supper, sails to the land of the wild things, where he becomes their king.

Despite the many animals in the forest, three hunters see only a ship, a house, and a pincushion and find nothing to shoot.

A collection of easy-to-read riddles in verse about everyday objects.

In trying to determine which of his six sons to reward for saving his life, Anansi the Spider is responsible for placing the moon in the sky

Meg and Mog go to the zoo, where Mog is captured and caged until Meg thinks of a spell to free him.

When a wave washes over a dog and covers him with seaweed, he is mistaken for a sea monster.

It's a big day for a little girl when she discovers her first loose tooth and makes a trip to the grocery store on the mainland.

A collection of humorous riddles, cartoon strips, and poems featuring the Bogies, Little Mo and her Magic Pencil, Bully Bertha, and others.

First published in 1941, the book tells the story of a pair of mallard ducks who decide to raise their family on an island in the lagoon in Boston Public Garden, a park in the center of Boston, Massachusetts.

Harry the dog finds a graceful way to dispose of his new sweater with roses on it.

Meg sends Owl to school for the first time and afterwards he asks all his new friends to tea.

Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot. He was halfway down and more when the straps on his sacking bag broke loose. Out bounced the journey cake. It bumped and it bumped; it rolled over and over. Down the road it went, and how it hollered! "Journey cake, ho! Journey cake, hi! Catch me and eat me as I roll by!" Away and away rolled the journey cake. Away and away ran Johnny.

A New York City boy's preconceived ideas of life in the West make him very apprehensive about the family's move there.

Sailor Jack goes to work for pirates in order to raise enough money to adopt twenty orphans.

The wagon ride from town is so hazardous that Farmer Palmer, a pig, and Ebenezer, an ass, barely make it home again.

A goose named Willoughby visits London, meets a friendly actor-playwright named Shakespeare, and helps make literary history.

An almost-six-year-old with a mass of floppy red hair tries to postpone the inevitable trip to Mr. Barberoli's barber shop.

A small boy goes through the television screen for a party with the puppets from his favorite program and is asked to stay.

Norman, the doorman of a mouse hole in an art museum, uses his own art talent and finds a way to see the art treasures in the galleries upstairs

A small boy imagines what it would be like to have his own rainbow to play with.

A toy bear goes off to a cave to live as a real bear should, only to find he needs something more to be truly happy.

Meg the witch plants a vegetable garden with the help of her friends.