Little Fox in the Forest by Stephanie Graegin

Little Fox in the Forest by Stephanie Graegin (2017)

This is a wordless story, so it won’t work for many storytimes, but those with smaller more intimate storytimes and who do programs with wordless books should be aware of this one. A brown-skinned girl takes her beloved fox stuffy to the park, where it is stolen by a real fox. The girl and her friend travel into the animal village to search for the toy. They eventually track it down to the fox’s house and the little fox’s mother makes it return the toy. The girl, seeing how sad the fox is, decides to let the little fox keep her beloved toy, and in return the fox gives her a unicorn toy to keep. With lots of emotion, and a large trim size with clear illustrations AND lots of detail, this is a wordless book that could work in a small storytime, or in a visual literacy bookclub.

Themes/topics: stuffed animals, sharing, foxes, wordless, show and tell

What Do You Love About You

What Do You Love About You by Karen Lechelt (2016)

This is a sweet and simple story that will fit right into a storytime about love, providing a welcome opportunity to build self-esteem by thinking and talking about the things we love about ourselves. The young girl with a dark pageboy and medium brown skin asks various animals (shown as toys at the end) what they love about themselves, and they answer with things that make them happy. Many celebrate their relationship with the girl.

Themes/topics: love, self-esteem, stuffed animals

Sample text from two pages:

What do you love about you? [octopus]/

I love my tentacles because I am a hugging machine

Twenty Yawns

Twenty Yawns by Jane Smiley and Lauren Castillo (2016)

After a long day at the beach, everyone is sleepy. After mom falls asleep reading to her, Lucy finds herself wide awake in a sleeping house. She tiptoes around in the mysterious moonlight to retrieve her lovey, Molasses. Of course, she can’t leave the other toys behind, so tucks them all into the moonlit bed with her before they all—YAWN!—fall asleep. Castillo’s gorgeous large, clear illustrations paired with Smiley’s evocative prose make this a great fit for storytime.

Themes/topics: bedtime, beach, stuffed animals, being awake

Sample text:

The moon shone through the window, a silver veil that fell across the floor. Everything looked mysterious, even Lucy’s own hands on the bedspread. Suddenly, Lucy was wide awake.

She looked around. Everyone in the pictures seemed to be watching her—Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Elizabeth, Mom, and Dad. Even Fred, in the book that Mom had dropped on the floor.

Lucy slipped out of bed and padded to the door. Her dad was snoring in the living room. The house was verrrrrry quiet. Lucy needed Molasses, her bear.