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These titles were submitted by Siouxland Libraries Children’s Division staff
for the Recommended for Kids feature in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.
- Sunday, June 21
Ages 4 to 7 - The Imaginary Garden by Andrew Larsen.
When Poppa moves to an apartment and no longer has a flower garden, Theo helps him create an imaginary garden to take its place.
Ages 7 to 9 - How Oliver Olson Changed the World by Claudia Mills.
Afraid he will always be an outsider like ex-planet Pluto, nine-year-old Oliver finally shows his extremely overprotective parents that he is capable of doing great things without their help while his class is studying the solar system.
- Sunday, June 14
Ages 6 to 8 - Good Dog, Aggie! By Lori Ries.
When Ben’s dog Aggie does not obey him, he takes her to obedience school, and then he realizes what motivates Aggie to mind while practicing at home one day.
Ages 10 to 13 - Anything but Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin.
Jason, a twelve-year-old autistic boy who wants to become a writer, relates what his life is like as he tries to make sense of his world.
- Sunday, June 7
Ages 2 to 5 - Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox.
Rhyming text compares babies born in different places and in different circumstances, but they all share the commonality of ten little fingers and ten little toes.
Ages 7 to 11 - Emmaline and the Bunny by Katherine Hannigan.
Everyone and everything in the town of Neatasapin is tidy, except Emmaline who likes to dig dirt and jump in puddles, and wants to adopt an untidy bunny.
- Sunday, May 31
Ages 5 to 9 - Spuds by Karen Hesse.
Maybelle, Jack, and Eddie want to help Ma by putting something extra on the table, so they set out in the dark to take potatoes from a nearby field, but when they arrive home and empty their potato sacks, they are surprised by what they see.
Ages 10 to 14 - Blue Mountain Trouble by Martin Mordecai.
Twins Pollyread and Jackson live with their parents high in the mountains of Jamaica, where their day-to-day life is changed by mysterious events involving the return of a local troublemaker and secrets from their family's past.
- Sunday, May 24
Ages 3 to 7 - The Cardboard Piano by Lynne Rae Perkins.
When Debbie tries to interest Tina in playing the piano by creating a cardboard keyboard, she finds that it does not appeal to Tina and learns that friends don’t need to share everything.
Ages 5 and up - The Composer is Dead by Lemony Snicket.
Instruments of the orchestra are introduced as a murder mystery unfolds. Includes a CD featuring the San Francisco Symphony.
- Sunday, May 17
Ages 5 to 10 – Doo-Wop Pop by Roni Schotter.
Thanks to their janitor who once was lead singer with the Icicles, students at an elementary school learn to sing, dance, and develop self-confidence when Doo-Wop Pop teaches them doo-wop every day after school.
Ages 10 to 14 - The Brooklyn Nine: a Novel in Nine Innings by Alan Gratz.
Follows the fortunes of a German immigrant family through nine generations, beginning in 1845, as they experience American life and play baseball.
- Sunday, May 10
Ages 3 and up - Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by Mo Willems.
Wilbur, a naked mole rat, decides he’d like to wear clothes, to the considerable consternation of his fellow naked mole rats.
Ages 7 to 10 - Trash Crisis on Earth by Alexander Stadler.
Eight-year-old Julian Rodriguez escapes from the crisis of the moment (being sent to his room for not taking out the trash) by imagining he's a space warrior.
- Sunday, May 3
Ages 3 to 8 - One Boy by Laura Vaccaro Seeger.
A boy creates ten paintings in this counting book that also explores the relationship of words within words.
Ages 9 to 13 - Young Samurai: The Way of the Warrior by Chris Bradford.
Orphaned by a ninja pirate attack off the coast of Japan in 1611, twelve-year-old Jack Fletcher is determined to prove himself when the legendary sword master who rescued him begins training him as a samurai warrior, despite the bullying of fellow students.
- Sunday, April 26
Ages 4 to 8 - Last Night by Hyewon Yum.
Sent to her room for refusing to eat her dinner, a little girl soon falls asleep and together with her bear friend begins a fantastic voyage deep into the forest where they dance and play all night.
Ages 9 to 12 - The Year the Swallows Came Early by Kathryn Fitzmaurice.
After her father is sent to jail, eleven-year-old Groovy Robinson must decide if she can forgive the failings of someone she loves.
- Sunday, April 19
Ages 4 to 8 - Hank Finds Inspiration by Craig Frazier.
Hank the snake and his human friend, Stanley, each go to the city in search of inspiration, but Hank's journey is a failure until he returns home.
Ages 8 to 12 - The Problem with the Puddles by Kate Feiffer.
The Puddle parents cannot seem to agree about anything, but when their dogs go missing the whole family embarks on an unlikely quest that eventually answers many unasked questions.
- Sunday, April 12
Ages 4 to 8 - Tillie Lays an Egg by Terry Golson.
Tillie’s penchant for adventure leads her around Little Pond Farm, where she looks for tasty worms and lays her eggs in various places, waiting for observant readers to find them.
Ages 9 to 13 - My Life in Pink & Green by Lisa Greenwald.
When the family's drugstore is failing, seventh-grader Lucy uses her problem solving talents to come up with solution that might resuscitate the business, along with helping the environment.
- Sunday, April 5
Ages 5 to 8 - The Lion's Share by Matthew McElligott.
Ant is honored to receive an invitation to lion's annual dinner party, but is shocked when the other guests behave rudely and then accuse her of thinking only of herself.
Ages 10 to 14 - The Lost Island of Tamarind by Nadia Aguiar.
Thirteen-year-old Maya, who has spent her life at sea with her marine biologist parents, yearns for a normal life, but a storm washes her parents overboard and life becomes anything but normal for Maya and her younger brother and baby sister, as they land at a mysterious, uncharted island filled with danger.
- Sunday, March 29
Ages 2 to 7 - Drive by Nathan Clement.
In brief text with illustrations, a boy describes his father's work as a truck driver.
Ages 9 to 12 - 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass.
After celebrating their first nine same-day birthdays together, Amanda and Leo prepare to celebrate their eleventh birthday separately when peculiar things begin to happen and the day of their birthday repeats itself over and over again.
- Sunday, March 22
Ages 4 to 8 - Lucy and the Bully by Claire Alexander.
When a mean classmate in preschool wrecks Lucy's artwork, she discovers that they can be friends once he stops being jealous of her.
Ages 9 to 13 - Boys are Dogs by Leslie Margolis.
Sixth-grader Annabelle, who is coping with a new town, a new school, and a new puppy, decides to apply some of the same techniques she uses in training her puppy to tame the unruly boys that are making her middle-school life miserable.
- Sunday, March 15
Ages 5 to 9 - Bees, Snails, & Peacock Tails by Betsy Franco; illustrated by Steve Jenkins.
Geometric patterns and shapes in nature are explored through poetry and illustrations.
Ages 12 to 14 – Triskellion by Will Peterson.
When fourteen-year-old twins Adam and Rachel visit their grandmother in an unwelcoming and ancient English village, they realize that there is something unnatural about it and are swept up in an archaeological mystery.
- Sunday, March 8
Ages 4 to 7 - Kids Like Us by Carole Lexa Schaefer.
On a gray drizzly day, school children imagine themselves as many different things, from firefighters to dinosaurs to kings and queens.
Ages 8 to 12 - Madame Pamplemousse and Her Incredible Edibles by Rupert Kingfisher.
Forced to work in her unpleasant uncle's horrible restaurant, a Parisian girl finds comfort and companionship in a shop nearby that sells otherworldly foods prepared by a mysterious cook and her cat.
- Sunday, March 1
Ages 3 to 6 - Little Panda by Renata Liwska.
A grandfather tells his grandson an unlikely story about a panda and how it escapes from the tiger that wants to eat it.
Ages 5 to 9 - Twelve Terrible Things by Marty Kelley.
Grownups who wax nostalgic about their youth are given a visual tour through twelve terrible experiences of childhood, including bedtime monsters and scary aunties.
- Sunday, February 22
Ages 5 to 8 - The Pet Dragon by Christoph Niemann.
When Lin's beloved pet dragon disappears, she searches for him far and wide until a witch helps her to reach the dragon's new home. Introduces a different Chinese character on each step of Lin's adventure.
Ages 9 to 13 - The Last Invisible Boy by Evan Kuhlman.
In the wake of his father's sudden death, twelve-year-old Finn feels he is becoming invisible as his hair and skin become whiter by the day, and so he writes and illustrates a book to try to understand what is happening and to hold on to himself and his father.
- Sunday, February 15
Ages 5 to 8 - Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek: a Tall, Thin Tale by Deborah Hopkinson.
In Knob Creek, Kentucky, in 1816, seven-year-old Abe Lincoln falls into a creek and is rescued by his best friend, Austin Gollaher.
Ages 10 and up - Lincoln Shot: a President's Life Remembered by Barry Denenberg.
A unique biography of Abraham Lincoln, presented in the format of a commemorative newspaper published a year after his assassination.
- Sunday, February 8
Ages 2 to 5 - Roadwork by Sally Sutton.
Construction workers and machines build a road, from planning to moving dirt to driving on the completed project.
Ages 5 to 8 - The Dog who Belonged to No One by Amy Hest.
Lia, who is the daughter of bakers, and a stray dog, who belongs to no one, lead lonely lives in the same town until they meet one very stormy day.
- Sunday, February 1
Ages 3 to 6 - Market Day by Carol Foskett Cordsen.
The Benson family is so busy preparing for their day at a farmers' market that they not only forget to feed the cow, they leave the farmyard gate open and the hungry cow follows them, making a mess of the market.
Ages 6 to 10 - Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein.
Wabi Sabi, a cat living in the city of Kyoto, learns about the Japanese concept of beauty through simplicity as she asks various animals she meets about the meaning of her name.
- Sunday, January 25
Ages 3 to 6 - Friday my Radio Flyer Flew by Zachary Pullen.
A father and son find an old Radio Flyer wagon when cleaning out the attic and, through the course of a week, turn it back into a wonderful toy.
Ages 9 to 13 - My One Hundred Adventures by Polly Horvath.
Twelve-year-old Jane lives in a run-down house on the beach with her mother, two brothers, and sister, and has an eventful summer, accompanying her pastor on Bible deliveries, meeting her mother's boyfriends, and being coerced into babysitting for a family of ill-mannered children.
- Sunday, January 11
Ages 6 to 10 - Toy Dance Party by Emily Jenkins.
Adventures of three best friends, who happen to be toys, as they encounter a fearsome (possible) shark, enjoy a dance party, and deal with rejection by The Girl, who is growing up.
Ages 9 to 13 - Into the Volcano: a Graphic Novel by Don Wood.
While their parents are away doing research, brothers Duffy and Sumo Pugg go with their cousin, Mister Come-and-Go, to Kokalaha Island, where they meet Aunt Lulu and become trapped in an erupting volcano.
- Sunday, January 4
Ages 5 to 8 - Tyrannosaurus Drip by Julia Donaldson.
A duckbilled dinosaur, accidentally raised by fierce tyrannosauruses who would eat duckbills if only they could reach them, tries to be like his "family" but finally gives up, runs away, and finds a real home with others of his kind.
Ages 8 and up – Knucklehead: Tall Tales & Mostly True Stories about Growing Up Scieszka by Jon Scieszka.
Jon Scieszka relates tales of his childhood as only he can.
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