Lailah solves her problem with help from the school librarian and her teacher and in doing so learns that she can make new friends who respect her beliefs. This gentle, moving story from first-time author Reem Faruqi comes to life in Lea Lyon's vibrant illustrations. Lyon uses decorative arabesque borders on intermittent spreads to contrast the ordered patterns of Islamic observances with the unbounded rhythms of American school days.

Fountas & Pinnell Level N

That night, Kanzi wraps herself in the beautiful Arabic quilt her teita (grandma) in Cairo gave her and writes a poem in Arabic about the quilt. Next day her teacher sees the poem and gets the entire class excited about creating a quilt (a paper collage) of student names in Arabic. In the end, Kanzi's most treasured reminder of her old home provides a pathway for acceptance in her new one.

This authentic story with beautiful illustrations includes a glossary of Arabic words and a presentation of Arabic letters with their phonetic English equivalents.

From butterfly wings inspiring the development of mobile device displays to the shape of a kingfisher bird's body improving the design of Japan's bullet train, nature has been inspiring humans to build better and smarter for generations. Innovation based on observations of nature, plants, and animals is called biomimicry.

This introduction to fascinating topic of biomimicry is filled with stunning photographs and amazing facts to encourage engagement and spark curiosity in early readers.

Upon learning that the books with kids who look like her have been banned by her school district, Kanzi descends into fear and helplessness. But her classmates support her, and together--with their teacher's help--they hatch a plan to hold a bake sale and use the proceeds to buy diverse books to donate to libraries. The event is a big success; the entire school participates, and the local TV station covers it in the evening news. Prodded by her classmates to read the poem she has written, Kanzi starts softly but finds her voice. You have banned important books, but you can't ban my words, she reads. Books are for everyone. The crowd chants, No banned books! No banned books! and the next week, the ban is reversed.

Aya Khalil appends a note about how The Arabic Quilt was briefly banned from the York, Pennsylvania school system, and the backmatter also includes a recipe for baklawa, the Egyptian pastry that Kanzi prepares for the bake sale.

When scientist Heather Lynch came across a satellite image of the Antarctic Peninsula's remote Danger Islands streaked with pink, she knew exactly what she was looking at. . . .

Poop--guano, to be more specific--and a lot of it. The culprit, she suspected, was a previously unnoticed colony of penguins. A big one. And their favorite food appeared to be pink krill. For a closer look, Heather built a team for an expedition to the Danger Islands, an area notorious for its unpredictable sea ice. Their mission was to count the penguins, determine how long ago the colony was established, and make a case for protecting their habitat from overfishing and other threats. Penguins are particularly important to study because, as indicator species, they can alert scientists to issues affecting the larger ecosystem. Join Heather and her team on a fascinating exploration of these remote islands as they discover a supercolony home to one of the world's largest populations of Adélie penguins. Features team photos from the expedition!

Before we eat, many people work very hard--planting grain, catching fish, tending farm animals, and filling crates of vegetables. With vibrant illustrations by Caldecott Medalist Mary Azarian, this book reminds us what must happen before food gets to our tables to nourish our bodies and spirits.

This expanded edition of Before We Eat includes back-of-book features about school gardens and the national farm-to-school movement.

Fountas & Pinnell Level L

Join the farmer's cat on his fascinating nighttime journey through fields, farms, forests, and even the city to see what only he can see after the sunsets.

Legendary artist Dahlov Ipcar mesmerizingly alternates between dark night scenes and vivid color to deliver a beautifully illustrated children's classic. Each scene is shown first as a human would see it at night in blacks and whites, and then as a cat sees it in with vivid color and fine detail.

This commemorative edition features new back matter about Dahlov's children's books from her biographer, poet and art critic Carl Little.

A school playground can be a solitary place for a kid without playmates; in one survey, 80 percent of 8- to 10-year-old respondents described being lonely at some point during a school day.

Patty Brozo's cast of kids brings a playground to raucous life, and Mike Deas's illustrations invest their games with imaginary planes to fly, dragons to tame, and elephants to ride. And these kids match their imaginations with empathy, identifying and swooping up the lonely among them.

Buddy benches are appearing in schoolyards around the country. Introduced from Germany in 2014, the concept is simple: When a child sits on the bench, it's a signal to other kids to ask him or her to play.