Grade: 3

Rhythm, rhyme, and humor add zest to this tale of a young naturalist who sets out in search of frogs. As he explores the bay, he never finds a single frog, but delights in other animals. Alert readers will not only spy the heron, turtle, dragonfly, and other creatures the boy describes, but also the playful frogs that elude him.

A crocodile with an attitude, whose greatest joy is overeating, is taken from Egypt to Paris as a souvenir for Napoleon. Marcellino’s paintings fill each page with colorful images. Read it aloud!

A blend of poetic text and hand-tinted photographs transform common stones into prized possessions. Rocks are for skipping, splashing, climbing, and wishing. Some rocks even work well as tools for drawing on sidewalks. This quiet gem invites young readers to ponder over the possibilities.

While I Have a Dream features many artists illustrating one person’s words, this book celebrates the poetry of several black authors accompanied by the extraordinary illustrations of one talented artist, Javako Steptoe.

Twenty-one insects take center stage in this collection of poems and paintings. After reading a few poems aloud, turn children loose to pore over the detailed pictures and read more poems on their own. Each poem celebrates the distinctive features of its subject, from the lengthy limbs of “O Daddy/Daddy O” Long Legs to the “pure evil” of a boll weevil.

From anemones to zooplankton, Rose’s simple, rhyming text introduces readers to an alphabet of sea creatures that cling, sting, prance, prey, dive, and thrive across these beautifully illustrated pages. Jenkins’s amazing paper collages fill each page with marine animals and plants. A glossary tells readers more about the sea life they discover throughout the book.

Don’t be fooled by this book’s comic-book style. Within the bubbles, asides, and jokes, readers will find fascinating information about how the Wright brothers braved winds, rain, and crashes while building and testing the first successful flying machine.

In this rollicking volume of verse, more than 100 poems are packed with Prelutsky’s zany humor.

Prelutsky is a stretcher of language, a champion of wit, and an expander of children’s imaginations. James Stevenson’s hilarious black-and-white drawings only add to the fun.