Grade: 1

Before school, Horace finds a small toy truck on the playground and keeps it. When he plays with the truck during snack time, a classmate, Walter, yells that the truck is his. Horace lies to his teacher. That night he also lies to his mother. After a troubled night, Horace is too “sick” to go to school. He receives get-well letters from his classmates — even one from Walter. Walter offers Horace an opportunity to return the truck with no hard feelings. This important topic, not often found in picture books, is handled sensitively. This book naturally opens discussion about how it feels to make a bad choice and why one bad choice can lead to others. More importantly, it deals with forgiveness and positive ways to handle a mistake.

Here’s a creature who definitely moves to the beat of her own drummer. Every night, the Baby BeeBee Bird lets loose a cacophony of raucous noise that drives the other zoo animals batty! Finally, the zoo residents get together and teach the loud youngster that nighttime is really best for sleeping.

One wet, rainy day while mother is out, a boy and a girl sit dejectedly in their chairs, watching the rain beat against the window. They’re bored. Suddenly, in bursts a large cat in a tall striped hat, ready to play - and not just ordinary games, oh no! This cat likes to create mischief and mayhem, and to aid him, he brings Thing One and Thing Two. These two small fuzzy blue imps race around the house, wreaking havoc. Who’s going to clean up this mess? This most famous of all the Beginner Books has been beloved by readers young and old since 1957.

How many pennies in a nickel? What combination of coins equals a dollar? Catchy rhymes and photographs of real money teach children about coin denominations, grouping, and counting. Coins are shown in sets with written equations so students can readily see equivalents. Adding real coins while working through this book will add real meaning to the value of money.

Marjorie is an insecure cow who wishes she had some special talent. She can’t ride a bicycle or do handstands like the other cows. Then one morning (thanks to a bunch of scheming chickens and a paintbrush), Marjorie is astonished to discover something extraordinary: shes laid an egg!

Children who are teased at school, who are shy about speaking in front of the class, or who simply see themselves as not fitting in are bound to find relief in this tale about a cow who oinks and a pig who moos. This book teaches a great lesson about accepting differences.

In Antarctica, the coldest spot on the planet, male Emperor penguins perform one of the most difficult tasks in the natural world. For two months, in the middle of winter, they take care of the eggs laid by females who are out at sea hunting for food. This book explains this phenomenon with simple, fact-filled text and beautiful blue-tinged illustrations. It is a wonderful study in natural history as well as an eye-opening lesson for students about male and female parenting roles in nature.

This Cherokee creation tale tells the story of a quarrel between the first man and woman. When the woman walks away from her husband’s harsh words, he follows, but is not able to catch up. The Sun sees how sorry the man is and tries to help by causing various berries to grow in her path. Only the sweetness of strawberries, however, has the power to stop her and allow her husband a chance to ask for forgiveness. This is how strawberries came to be, and now whenever Cherokee people eat strawberries they are reminded to be kind to one another.