Fast Five Fiction: Picture Book Month

It's Friday and time for Fast Five Fiction! Each week I share five fiction books: new books, notable books, books around a common theme. November is Picture Book Month, an international literacy initiative that celebrates print picture books. Picture books aren't just for younger kids, I often take them home for my tweens and teen to read and have been known to laugh out loud at the desk while looking through our new arrivals. 

Click the title to be directed to the book in our catalog. Book descriptions are from Goodreads.

Shine-A-Light series by Carron Brown

The popular shine a light series has a title for everyone! Each page has a prompt to consider and then your child can shine a flashlight behind the page to reveal a hidden image. Turn the page to read more about the image that was revealed. 

How do you read a flashlight book?

1. Grab a flashlight
2. Grab your favorite flashlight books
3. Gather your family
4. Turn off the lights or go outside at night
5. Find a comfy place to sit together
6. Snuggle up in a blanket
   
7. Read each page with your kids
   
8. Let your kids find the hidden illustrations holding a flashlight behind the page
   
9. Once done, turn off the flashlight and look at the stars with your kids
   
10. Make memories with your kids

The Book No One Wants to Read by Beth Bacon

A lonely book makes a deal with its reader: "You keep turning my pages, and I'll make it FUN!”

If you think reading is boring, then you can pretend to read this book! All you have to do is sit here and turn the pages. Everyone will think you’re reading. Are you ready? Let’s get started…

Too Crowded by Lena Podesta

Gil the Goldfish lives in a fishbowl with 138 pebbles—he counts them every day—and a castle. It feels TOO CROWDED! When Gil leaves his bowl in search of open spaces, he finds a world full of many interesting…and loud … and possibly dangerous creatures.

It turns out that life outside the bowl might not be right for a fish. Thank goodness for Turtle, a citizen of the not-so-great outdoors who comes to Gil’s rescue! Will Gil make peace with his home sweet home, and maybe even find room for a friend in the process?

The Day the Kids Took Over by Sam Apple

The kids have some excellent ideas: turning the Grand Canyon into a ball pit, replacing all the sidewalks with trampolines.

But running the world is a tough job. After the kids build a massive house of candy and then immediately eat all of their own furniture, they begin to have second thoughts.

Will the kids give the adults one more chance to run the world?

Mr. Walker Steps Out by Lisa Graff

Mr. Walker works hard. Every day, he stands in the window of his boxy little house on the corner of Broadway and Main, letting people know when it's safe to cross the street. Usually that is enough. But after a while, watching the world go by without him makes him feel small and unimportant. So he decides to jump down from his box and experience for himself all the wonderful things he’s seen from his post. With each new adventure, he feels bigger and more important. But after enjoying all the wonderful things that the city has to offer, he starts to wonder how his little corner is getting on without him. Then something happens . . . something big. And Mr. Walker wonders if it might be time to go home, to where he's needed most.

Happy Friday and happy reading!