Books like King of the Playground
By Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
For the kid who freezes up at the thought of one particular kid on the playground, this book says: bring your worries home and talk them through with someone who'll listen. Grounded, reassuring, a little funny in how outlandish Sammy's threats get.
A young mouse and her doll Eleanor are cornered by a trio of bullies on the road, until Hazel's mother arrives in a surprising, fierce rescue.
A boy named Dat starts school in a new country where every word sounds like gibberish, until a classmate finds another way to reach him besides talking.
A young girl leaves her grandmother's house in Mexico to join her parents and brother in New York, facing a new language, unfair accusations, and the slow work of calling a new place home.
A poodle growing up among three talented bulldog brothers isn't sure what makes her special — until Gaston's sister Ooh-La-La goes missing in the park and Antoinette feels a pull to find her.
A gentle pony too plain for the beautiful horses inside the walled city ends up the only one who can save its children when the bridge breaks in half.
A girl in a red cloak walks alone through the woods to visit her ailing grandmother, unaware that a wicked wolf is following close behind with plans of his own.
A dressmaker's daughter sets out alone through a fierce snowstorm to deliver a duchess's ball gown, battling howling wind and deep drifts to complete her mother's errand.
A young penguin named Pip-Pip longs to swim in the sea with his friends, but fear of the water holds him back until he finds the courage to take the plunge.
A young girl is separated from her mother at the last moment and must sail to America alone, only to discover the address for her family in New York has smudged into illegible ink.
A picture-book biography traces Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s path from a childhood in the segregated South to becoming a minister and civil rights leader, told through his own powerful words.
A timid squirrel afraid of thunder, hawks, and dark forest paths must carry soup through Buckthorn Forest to her sick Granny Oak, facing creatures who want to help — and some who want the soup.
A young boy rides the bus across town with his grandmother every Sunday, grumbling about the rain and the wait, until she helps him see the beauty and music hiding in their ordinary route.
