Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters by Lesly M. M. Blume.
This book is a charmer of a story.  It is the story of lonely, 11-year-old Cornelia, who finds it hard to make friends, hides behind her large vocabulary, and has an impossible relationship with her famous pianist mother.  As Cornelia grows lonelier and lonelier, she meets her new next-door neighbor who happens to be Virginia Somerset, one of the four famous Somerset sisters who traveled the world together.  In Virginia Cornelia finds a kindred spirit who listens to her, understands her and tells incredible stories.  Cornelia begins spending lots of time in Virginia’s apartment where each room has been redone to reflect a country she traveled to and with each visit, Cornelia hears a wonderful story or two.  By the end of the book, Cornelia has found herself changed and her mother as well. 
I often don’t like framed stories, because they are a little too neatly done and the stories mesh too well.  In this book though, the stories Virginia tells are wonderfully fresh and fun.  Readers will feel their own spirits rise along with Cornelia’s.  Cornelia is a shy, lonely child whom readers will also respond to.  She makes a great foil through which to see the gusto and verve that the Somerset sisters had in their lives. 
This would be a good readaloud for classes interested in women’s history or history in general.  Recommend it to any reader who enjoys history or girls having adventures.

Dimity Duck by Jane Yolen is a great toddler book.  Dimity is a fluffy yellow duckling who wakes up, spends her day in the pond with her frog friend, Frumity, and then in the evening heads back home.  The text has a wonderful rhythm and movement to it, yet still manages to be quiet and gentle.  This is one of those elusive titles that will keep small children interested but will not make them hyper or put their adults to sleep. 
One thought is that if you used this title in a storytime, you could do big motions with it.  Children could waddle, toddle and whoosh their wings along with Dimity.  They could wave their feet along with Frumity.  It could be a good way to get their own wiggles out. 
Share this one with a crowd of toddlers or preschoolers.  It fits well into duck story times or even frog ones.  Recommend it to the daycare teachers you know as well.  They will love it too.

Charlie Cook’s Favorite Book by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler is a picture book for book lovers.  It is not just a story within a story, but every two pages it is another story inside another story inside another story.  Charlie Cook is reading his favorite book, Shiver Me Timbers: The Story of an Old Sea Dog.  The pirate chief in the story opens a treasure chest and finds a book, Fairy Tales from a Forgotten Island.  In that story Goldilocks is reading Sir Percy and the Dragon, and then Sir Percy has a book.  It goes on and on like that until it finally comes full circle when a headless ghost is reading a book about Charlie Cook. 
The book is silly, fun and a great way to demonstrate that lots of different people read in all kinds of settings.  It is also a nice way to introduce nested stories to children, though this book takes that to the extreme.  I don’t know that it is the best book for storytimes, but it would work with a smaller group of children in Kindergarten and first grade.  It could also serve as inspiration to have older children write their own stories within a story.

Good Knight, Sleep Tight by David Melling is a picture book that will have children and their grownups happily poring over the illustrations and finding new silly details.  When a new princess is born in the palace and her favorite pillow is destroyed by the royal cat, a knight is sent out to restuff the pillow with something soft and fluffy enough to please the princess.  The knight bravely gets bear fur, wolf hair, and finally feathers to stuff the pillow.  Each new stuffing is tried out by his trusty horse.  When the knight returns with the pillow, the princess still isn’t happy, but her older brother has the solution. 
This book is very silly and children will have a super time with it.  Make sure that on your second reading you follow what the knight’s shield is doing on each page.  And then you can also spend a long time at the Feather Trees with all of the birds and the horse who is scared of heights.  This is a lot of fun.  Add it to the not so huge list of great read alouds that feature knights. 

Wait for Me by An Na is an incredible read.  From the author of the Printz award winning A Step from Heaven, I believe that this surpasses that.  It is the story of Mina, a teen who works in her family’s drycleaning shop.  Mina lives with her sister who is partially deaf, her domineering mother, and her gentle father.  She struggles with all of the expectations and obligations that are forced upon her by her mother.  Mina’s mother wants her to go to Harvard, but Mina is very aware that her grades are not good enough.  But she could never bear to tell her mother that.  So Mina has begun forging her grades and stealing money from the till.  She feels trapped now not only by her mother but by her own lies.  Until she meets a man who may just show her a way out. 
The tension in this book is palpable.  The language and writing are masterful at capturing the mood and revealing just enough of Mina’s story at a time to create a book that just can’t be put down.  Readers of all types will relate to Mina, because all teens have found themselves caught to a certain degree in this type of situation where expectations and lies meet.  This is a great one for teen book discussion groups because there are no easy answers to the dilemma Mina finds herself in.  It is too late for the easy solutions.  Recommend this to high school teachers looking for a great discussion book and teen readers of many types.