Elementary

Mina loves the night. While everyone else is in a deep slumber, she gazes out the window, witness to the moon's silvery light. In the stillness, she can even hear her own heart beating. This is when Mina feels that anything is possible, that her imagination is set free.

With trips to New York, Paris, and London under their belts, it’s now time for Dodsworth and the duck to visit Rome! From throwing coins into the Trevi Fountain to winning a pizza-dough-throwing contest to looking up at the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Dodsworth and his misbehaving duck take a tour of their oldest city yet. With Tim Egan’s snappy words and playful illustrations, it will surely be a spaghetti-twirling sight to see. Ciao!

Shawn and Russell are crazy about dogs. Russell's read every dog book in the library, and Shawn's already bought a pooper scooper. What they want most is a mean dog - with teeth! - to protect them from being picked on. One day, they stumble upon rottweiler puppies for sale. But the boys don't have money. They don't have jobs. And they don't have any idea how to get jobs or money. Until...

Yippee! It is a winter wonderland! What better day for Mouse and Mole to go sledding, whirl around on ice skates, and build snowmen together?

But Mole does not want to go outside. Too cold! Too windy! He prefers to stay as snug as a bug in a rug inside his nice, warm bed.

Mouse is lonely. Ice skating and sledding just aren't as fun for one. Then she gets an idea…a Sno-Mole might do the trick! Mole won't be needing his hat or scarf or mittens…or will he?

Around The World Through Holidays: Cross Curricular Readers Theatre includes scripts for twelve plays adaptable for any of the reading or performance methods of Readers Theatre presentation. Each play introduces students to a specific world culture by looking at holidays celebrated in that culture. The structure of the book introduces holidays chronologically throughout a calendar year—one play per month. The focus is on literacy and social studies, so the book is not tied to the traditional nine-month school calendar.

Tomie can't believe that anything could be more exciting than moving to a new house. Then he finds out that a new baby is coming. Will it be a sister? That's what Tomie hopes. While he's waiting for her to arrive, there is plenty to keep him busy, including tap dancing lessons and tryouts for a play about Peter Rabbit. Once again, Tomie dePaola takes us back to his childhood and shares the funny personal memories that make us all wish we could grow up at 26 Fairmount Avenue too.

Tomie is overjoyed because his baby sister, Maureen, is finally strong enough to come home from the hospital. Over the next months, he is in a dance recital and he gets to go to the World's Fair. Soon, the school year is at an end. Summer is full of fun things to do, like going to the beach and celebrating the Fourth of July-but Tomie can't wait for school to start again. He hopes he'll get Miss Kiniry, the first-grade teacher he likes the best. In first grade he will finally-finally-learn to read. And maybe even get a library card of his own!

The year 1940 is a very big year for Tomie-it's the start of first grade, and it's his first birthday in the new house at 26 Fairmount Avenue. It's also the first year that Tomie gets to go trick-or-treating with his older brother, Buddy. Then the holidays arrive, and Tomie has a part in the Christmas play. This Christmas is going to be great! But disaster strikes when Tomie gets the chicken pox. Will he be cured in time for the Christmas pageant? Join Tomie dePaola once again as he takes us back to his childhood and allows us to share the holiday season with his family and friends.

Tomie has his own diary - it's his best Christmas present ever! All through the year exciting things happen and Tomie writes about them in his diary - sledding down the steep hill on his new Junior Flexible Flyer, being a pirate in the dance recital, and starting second grade with real art lessons at last! Then one Sunday morning Tomie's family hears news on the radio that changes everything. Master storyteller Tomie dePaola takes us back to 1941 and lets us experience what life was like growing up in the dePaola household.