Jazz Baby by Lisa Wheeler

This razzy, jazzy picture book will make you want to get up and dance. Daddy puts a record on and the tapping, and the snapping, and the clapping begin, with baby in the center of the action. The beat brings in the extended family and even the neighbors get in on the dancing. The illustrations are as energetic and joyful as the text. A great read aloud for pre-K-1 with lots of opportunities for audience participation.

Vulture View, by April Pulley Sayre

Illus. by Steve Jenkins.

Turkey vultures soar high in the air, sniff and seek food in a simple text accompanied by striking cut paper illustrations. Two pages of notes follow about the vulture family including a list of turkey vulture festivals across the country. This is a very dignified treatment of these scavengers accessible to new readers but also an important source of information for curriculum up through fifth grade ecosystems.

Grades K-5

First the Egg, by Laura Vaccaro Seeger.

A very simple and repetitive text and clever die cut pages introduces the life cycle of an egg, tadpole, seed, and caterpillar as they change into a chicken, frog, flower, and butterfly respectively and then the text also morphs into a tale about the creative process "First the word.. then the story."

Grades PreK-1