This picture book is a simplistically beautiful tale about a boy who journeys to find a new home on a boat with a teacup that is filled with dirt. The gorgeous illustrations effectively reflect the various colors, light, and perspectives of the environments. Every page includes lovely views of the sky, water, ocean, and the various creatures that inhabit them. The book is a wonderful story about a voyage full of personal growth, perseverance, hope, and the promise of a friendship. Readers of all ages and backgrounds will find this story resonating. ema
Title: Teacup
Author: Rebecca Young
Illustrator: Matt Ottley
Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Random House
Copyright: 2016
Original Language: English
Original Publisher: Scholastic Australia
Original Copyright: 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2777-4
Hardcover pages: 40
Age range: 4-8
Genre: Fiction Picture Book
Authors’ ethnicity: Australian
Authors’ residence: Australia
Illustrator’s ethnicity: Australian
Illustrator’s residence: New South Wales, Australia
Awards: 2016 Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature, and the 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Award
Subjects: Journeys, Oceans, Sailing, Trees


14-year-old, Faith, is trying to find her place in Victorian England. Her father, a natural scientist, is falling from power when his work is uncovered as a fabrication. The whole Sunderly family moves to the island of Vane to avoid disgrace. When Faith’s father is found dead in an apparent suicide, Faith refuses to believe the local narrative and starts a personal investigation into the death. She acts as a natural scientist to find clues including a strange tree that grows on lies that she whispers to it in the dead of the night. This gothic mystery will keep readers engrossed as they follow Faith’s journey to uncover the truth. amo
In this rhyming picture book readers will learn about animals and their babies. Each page is a new verse about a different animal mother and her young. The illustrations are black and white rubbings with accents of color on each page. They highlight the natural forms and shapes of the animals that we see in our world. Young readers will love learning about the connection that these baby animals have to their mothers. amo
Young Jack travels through the forest one night to find the perfect tree. The perfect tree to chop down. As Jack journeys through the woods he finds many trees, but finding the perfect tree is difficult. Suddenly, there is a breakthrough. A kind woodpecker promises Jack that he will take him to the perfect tree. Many animals show Jack the perfect tree and he starts to see that the perfect tree shouldn’t be cut down but instead lived in, climbed on, and loved. The whimsical cut-paper collages show the natural beauty of nature and help the reader understand that any tree can be the perfect tree. amo
Another outstanding information picture book written and illustrated by Owen Davey. Readers will love the crisp, realistic colors that portray their favorite sharks, such as the great white and hammerhead, as well as unusual sharks like the sand devil shark. With an informational table of contents and an index, it is easy to navigate to learn anything about sharks from their place in mythology to shark social life. Each page is perfectly balanced with educational facts intermixed with lively sharks that look as if they are swimming in and out of the pages. This well researched book will immerse all readers in fascinating facts about the most well-known predator of the seas. amo

Akuluk, a young girl living in the Northwest Territories of Canada, travels to Nunavut to visit her grandparents. She travels through the tundra of the Arctic and learns about her grandparents’ traditions. In this peaceful book, she grows to understand the customs and rules of egg collecting in the Arctic and grows closer to her family heritage. Beautifully illustrated pages show the natural landscape and intricate egg shells encouraging readers to look closely at the painting as they follow the story. amo
In this information picture book, readers are taken inside the earth and deep underwater. With two main topics, the book is split in the middle so readers can pick which area they’d like to explore first. In the colorful, digitally created images, thousands of interesting facts are unveiled as each page brings the reader further under water or under earth. You’ll want to spend hours looking through each detail from facts about the deepest caves to information about the first submarines. amo
In this brightly colored, mixed-media picture book, readers will discover new facts about unique frogs from around the globe. All frogs start as tadpoles, but they grow into a large variety of shapes, sizes, and colors that are shown in the book. Readers learn about frog habitat and adaptations the frogs have in order to survive. This non-fiction book will inspire readers to learn about the frogs in the pages such as goliath frogs, striped rocket frogs, poison arrow frogs, and the frogs mentioned in the back along with the index. amo