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.

The Most Perfect Spot by Diane Goode is a charming picture book.  It is the story of Jack, a little boy who wants to take his mother to the perfect place for a picnic.  So they head together to the park.  As they go through the park, each perfect place they find has something go terribly wrong with it.  Horses gallop through, rain starts, the carousel goes too fast, and much more.  Readers who are paying attention to the illustrations will notice that most of the trouble is caused by a little white dog who is following them around.  Though the perfect length for storytimes, this book is best enjoyed with a small group or single child because of the humor and detail of the illustrations.  A great Mother’s Day or mother unit story, share this one with your little picnic lover. 

Mermaid Dreams by Mark Sperring, illustrated by the Pope Twins.
Mermaid Dreams is the charming story of Meriam who does not like to get ready for bed.  Meriam’s wild hair flows across both the book’s cover and many of its pages as she brushes her teeth, gets her tangles combed out, and gets ready for bed.  But what does her mother find in her hair?  A shell, a fish, a starfish, and seaweed.  Meriam describes what she has done all day:  visited the beach, swum deep down underwater.  And finally gives her mother a pearl that she found.  Only at the very end is it revealed that Meriam is a mermaid.
This clever book will have children delighted at the end by the surprise.  Yes, grownups will have it figured out long before, but part of the charm of the story is the surprise itself.  The illustrations are fabulous, filled with water, waves, sand and creatures, they echo and reinforce the magic of mermaids. 
Share this with mermaid crazed girls, but don’t forget that boys enjoy a surprise too.  It is the perfect length for reading aloud and should be added to summer storytimes about beaches and swimming. 

Half of an Elephant by Gusti is a strange picture book but not without its own unique charm.  It is the story of what happened when all of a sudden the world cracks in two.  Poor elephant is left without his back half and sets out to find it.  On the way, he meets many other half animals and even tries to unite with some of them, but it doesn’t work out.  When the world suddenly joins back together again, elephant finds his back end, but their relationship has changed.
Strange enough for you?  Well, add in the industrial feel of the illustrations, created from collages of corrugated cardboard, wood, found items, and tools, and you have a very unique book.  The illustrations are a draw for kids, who will enjoy looking at the strange creatures made from wrenches, screws and bolts. 
Give this special book a chance.  It has a unique perspective and a fantastic visual edge. 
Published in September 2006.

Girl, Going on 17: Pants on Fire by Sue Limb.
If you have not read the first book in this series: Girl, 15, Charming but Insane, you really must!   Sue Limb is a British author who manages to capture the horror and joy of being a teenager with hysterical humor. 
Now that Jess is 17 years old and happily going out with her perfect Fred, what could go wrong?  Well, how about having a really awful row with Fred right before school starts, discovering that her favorite teacher has been replaced for the term with an utter hag, and finding herself in the tiniest bit of trouble wearing a short skirt and no underwear.  This is perfect British chick lit for teens.  I would compare it to Bridget Jones, but I find Limb’s writing deadly funny and right on the mark almost all the time.  I was glad to find that Limb had returned to a school setting for this third book in the series.  Though the second was funny, this one returns to the glory of the first book. 
Great fun fluff to recommend to any Anglophile teen and even those who aren’t.  This book is the perfect humorous counterpoint to all of the horror and angst found in most teen books. 

Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.
Once in awhile a teen books hits it completely out of the ballpark, capturing vividly and exactly what being a teen feels like.  This is one of those books.  Nick is a straight musician in a queercore band.  Norah is a very straight-laced daughter of a famous record producer.  When Nick finds himself unable to flee from his exgirlfriend, he asks Norah to be his five minute girlfriend and they start kissing.  But the connection is made and the five minutes turn into a whole night together.  The night is not perfect as their connection together is tested, ruined, lost and rediscovered. 
The book perfectly captures the angst, pride, hubris, and pain of being a teen and looking for the right person to form a connection with.  Though the book is set in the punk rock, clubbing world, all teens will see themselves in this pair.  All teens will hear themselves in their speech, recognize the ache between two people, and find themselves caught in the net of Nick and Norah.
Rarely does a book ring so true with dialogue so right on and sparkling.  Witty one moment and fumbling the next.  One caveat is that there is strong language and very heavy petting in this book.  If you are uncomfortable with that in a school library, don’t order this one.  If you are working in a public library, this is a must-have book that will have plenty of appreciative teen fans.  Here’s hoping that this duo continues to write books together, though they do well apart too.  But there is a certain chemistry to their joint writing that is thrilling to read.