Books like Madlenka
By Peter Sís
For the kid bursting to announce every loose tooth, lost sock, and small triumph to anyone who'll listen, Madlenka's lap around the block feels like home. Buoyant, curious, and full of wonder — a walk around the block that keeps opening up.
A foreign exchange student named Eric moves in with a suburban family, asking curious questions his hosts can't always answer, until his farewell leaves behind an unforgettable surprise.
A girl named Emily writes to her teacher, Mr. Blueberry, insisting a blue whale is living in her pond, and the two trade letters all summer as he tries to set her straight.
On a long subway ride, a boy studies strangers' faces and imagines their whole lives — until one guess turns out to be more complicated, and more familiar, than he expected.
Four families in four different centuries — from 1710 England to present-day San Diego — each make the same blackberry fool dessert, showing how daily life and technology transform across generations.
A grandfather leads a lively chase through town to track down a bee tree after his granddaughter Mary Ellen grows bored with her reading, gathering half the town along the way.
A precocious girl wakes early every Monday, drags her chair down the hallway past her sleepy family, and waits outside for the one honking arrival she's been looking forward to all week.
A little girl climbs seven flights of stairs to her apartment, imagining wilder and stranger lives behind every neighbor's door than the one she actually lives behind.
A young boy at Mission San Juan Capistrano listens to the bell ringer's tale of swallows returning each spring from South America, then plants his own garden hoping the birds will choose it.
A girl's walking house trips down a mountainside, scattering her found family of creatures across the hills, and now she must gather everyone and track down her runaway home.
A little girl moves to a new town and finds a park named for butterflies — except none live there, so she rallies neighbors to help bring them home.
A little star loves the giant Mooncake she bakes with her mama in the sky, and though she's told to wait, she can't resist sneaking nibble after nibble.
