Showing posts with label library collections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label library collections. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 13, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Nature


 If I remember correctly, this section started with Seasons and Weather and maybe Space? The first two are an easy choice of course. I wanted to separate the space books that are about planets from the space books that focused on rockets etc. but there's definitely some crossover. The section I've played around with the most is the "Earth" section. Originally, there wasn't a subheading for this section and I just put general environmental books here. At one point I had all the plants, gardening, and tree books here. I also had a lot of requests for and donations of books about fishing, camping, and hiking. 

I ended up making an "Earth" section and putting all the habitat books there (the gardening and food plants went to Community/Farm). I also moved the general ocean books from animals to this section. The last section I added was the "Fun" section - the line between nonfiction and fiction is especially blurry here.

The most popular section here is Seasons, although each section goes out, well, seasonally. Except for snow books, weather and space circulate about equally.

Monday, October 12, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Go - Trains


 This section has existed from the very beginning. Although trains are no longer as extremely popular as they were back in the heyday of Thomas the Tank Engine, they're still a popular collection. I do put items in here that emphasize the vehicle, rather than just anything riding in a train.

625 - Train nonfiction

  • Big book of trains, DK publishing
  • Listen up! Train song by Victoria Allenby
  • Big Boy 4014 and the Steam Team by Marsha Arnold
  • I drive a freight train by Sarah Bridges
  • On the train by Carron Brown (Shine-a-Light)
  • My big train book by Roger Priddy
  • Mighty steam engine by Yvonne Ng

Train fiction

  • Thomas the tank engine: The complete collection by W. Awdry
  • Cats in conductor hats by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen
  • Mr. Complain takes the train by Wade Bradford and S. Britt
  • Train driver by Phoenix Bright
  • Two little trains by Margaret Wise Brown
  • Hey! get off our train by John Burningham
  • Choo Choo by Virginia Lee Burton
  • Night train, night train by Robert Burleigh
  • Train by Elisha Cooper
  • All aboard the Moonlight Train by Krystin Crow
  • Rain train by Elena De Roo
  • Snakes on a train by Kathryn Dennis
  • How to train a train by Jason Eaton
  • Littlest train by Chris Gall
  • Dinosaur train by John Gurney
  • All aboard the Alaska Train by Brooke Hartman, Illustrated by John Joseph
  • Follow the track all the way back by Timothy Knapman
  • Sleep train by Jonathan London
  • All aboard the dinotrain by Deb Lund
  • Trains run! by George Ella Lyon
  • I'm fast by Kate McMullan
  • Trainbots by Paul Miranda
  • Smokey by Bill Peet
  • Little engine that could by Watty Piper (original)
  • Let's build a little train by Julie Richardson
  • Steam train, dream train by Sherri Duskey Rinker
  • Night train : a journey from dusk to dawn by Annie Cronin
  • Trains don't sleep by Andria Rosenbaum
  • Choo-choo school by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
  • Big Choo by Stephen Shaskan
  • The Christmas tree who loved trains by Annie Silvestro
  • The Goodnight Train by June Sobel

Monday, October 5, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Go - Space


 This section includes both nonfiction (629) and fiction about space vehicles. I also included astronauts in this collection. I tried to separate this from books about planets, which are in nature. 

629 - Nonfiction titles

Fiction about space

  • Bunnies in a rocket by Philip Ardagh
  • Rocket ship, solo trip by Chiara Colombi
  • Flying by Donald Crews
  • Astronaut training by Aneta Cruz
  • Dinosaur rocket! by Penny Dale
  • Snakes in space by Kathryn Dennis
  • Sadie Sprocket builds a rocket by Sue Fliess, illustrated by Annabel Tempest
  • Astronaut sisters by Julie Fortenberry
  • Little Plane learns to write by Stephen Savage
  • Astro Girl by Ken Wilson-Max

Saturday, October 3, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Go - Machines


 This includes all the nonfiction books about machines and is organized roughly by Dewey. It's mostly series nonfiction. A few more fictional titles have crept in, but I ignore them because my staff will probably revolt if I relabel anything else any time soon.

624 - Working machines and construction workers

629 - Cars, motorcycles, etc.

  • Individual Titles
    • I drive a snowplow by Sarah Bridges
    • Trucks (and other things with wheels) by Bryony Davies
    • Clever Cogz: The book of cars and trucks by Neil Clark
    • Drive by Nathan Clement
    • Spectacular science of vehicles by Rob Coulson
    • Colossal by Stephane Frattini
    • History of cars by Elliot Krusynski
    • Formula Fast by Matt Ralphs
    • Big book of vehicles by Randall Ronne
  • Series with multiple titles
    • Lerner - What machines do
    • Creative - Amazing racing cars
    • Lerner - Rev it up!
    • Capstone - Pebble
    • Lerner - Lightning bolt books, How it works
    • Lerner - Bumba books, We love...
    • Creative - Seedlings

Sunday, August 30, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods - GO

 I've rearranged the sub-sections of this neighborhood a bit, going back and forth between fiction vs. nonfiction, or arranging by different types of machines. I've had this organization for a while and will probably stick with it. Pretty much anything in this section circulates, although there are definitely popular authors or series (even if those go out of print very rapidly, like Sciesczka's Truck Town).

The general GO section, without subheadings, includes all of the stories and informational stories about vehicles. A few that could technically go in a separate section are included here to stay together by author and farm machines, including tractors, are in the Community/Farm books.

Published 2025-2026
Series and Authors (3 or more titles)
Other titles I have previously reviewed

Sunday, August 23, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Fun - STEM


This was one of the original collection when I created the neighborhoods and I had a lot of arguments with other staff about including math in the FUN section. Which just goes to show that adults absolutely pass their attitudes on to kids! I overhauled this section in my last update and created additional Dewey numbers. This section is one that has a lot of fiction in the Dewey numbers - as I explain to the kids, the numbers are a classification system, not fiction vs. nonfiction.

This selection doesn't include nonfiction series or some older titles. The biography section isn't heavily used, but I do pull a lot for school requests.

500 - General Science

507 - Experiments

513 - Math

514 - Mapping and Patterns

620 - Engineering

921 - Biographies

Fiction (selections)



Saturday, August 8, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Fun - Sports


 This section is one of the originals, but how I organized the books in it has changed quite a bit. I've played around a lot with the cutters of the nonfiction section but finally settled on, generally, cuttering them by sport with an additional cutter if there are more than 4 titles. I also include contemporary sports figures under 921 and historical sports figures in the US history section. (I don't have any picture book biographies of historical sports figures who are NOT from the US, and I'll cross that bridge when and if I come to it!). I'm pretty liberal in interpreting "sports" and have included some general dance titles in this section as well.

 I have a lot of nonfiction series on sports here, including titles from Creative, ABDO (those are old - I don't purchase from them anymore), Lerner, and Capstone. Overall, it's kind of a weird section, because there really isn't much interest in sports from preschoolers so this section is mostly aimed at elementary school kids.

Biographies

  • Courage in her cleats: the story of soccer star Abby Wambach
  • The girl who figured it out: the inspiring true story of wheelchair athlete Minda Dentler
  • Tacko Fall: to new heights
  • Not yet: the story of an unstoppable ice skater by Zahra Lari
  • Flying high: the story of gymnastics champion Simone Biles
  • I am Simone Biles
  • Fearless heart: the legacy of an Olympic figure skater : an illustrated biography of Surya Bonaly
  • Heroic heart: an illustrated biography of Joe Delaney
  • Decoy saves Opening Day by Shohei Ohtani
  • Basketball dreams by Chris Paul
  • Simone Biles by Ebony Wilkins
  • Sisters: Venus and Serena Williams

Previously reviewed nonfiction titles

Previously reviewed fiction titles



Saturday, August 1, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Fun - Play


 I originally had called this section "interactive" books and included most of the I Spy type books here as well. However, most of my patrons had no idea what "interactive" meant and it was too long, so I changed it to books meant to play with. I do have a genre sticker for I Spy books which I use in and out of this section.

Recommended/Favorite Interactive Books for Storytime

I Spy/Seek-and-Find Books

Books to sing
  • Baby Shark
  • Monster Boogie by Laurie Berkner
  • Frog trouble by Sandra Boynton
  • Jane Cabrera
    • Row row row your boat
    • Here we go round the mulberry bush
    • The itsy bitsy spider
  • 5 little ducks by Denise Fleming
  • Cat goes fiddle-i-fee by Paul Galdone
  • Miss Mary Mack and The eensy weensy spider by Mary Ann Hoberman
  • The animal song by Jonty Howley
  • I'm still here in the bathtub by Alan Katz
  • Babies on the bus by Karen Katz
  • Wheels on the bus at Halloween by Sarah Kieley
  • Sing by Joe Raposo
  • All god's critters by Bill Staines
  • Peanut butter and jelly by Nadine Westcott

Other titles I have reviewed


Saturday, July 18, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Fun - Dance


 At one point I had a section in Fun for "Arts" that this was integrated into, and I also toyed with putting it in sports. Eventually, I moved it back to its own section. It should really be labeled "ballet" because that's the primary subject of most of the books.

Highlighted Nonfiction Dance Titles

  • Welcome to ballet school by Ashley Bouder
  • Ballet Dancer by Phoenix Bright
  • My first ballet book by Kate Castle

Highlighted Fiction Dance Titles

  • B is for Ballet by John Robert Allman
  • Ballerina gets ready by Allegra Kent
  • Miss Lina's ballerinas (and sequels) by Grace Maccarone
  • Ella Bella Ballerina (series) by James Mayhew
    • Most are out of print and/or difficult to find
  • Tallulah series by Marilyn Singer

Other titles I have reviewed

Sunday, July 12, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Fun - Create


 I've played around with this section a lot, but in the last update I focused on including books on art and storytelling here. Books focused on recipes and cooking have the Dewey of 641, although they are not all nonfiction, and there are also some simple craft books under 745. I have an older subsection of books about writing and storytelling that is designated with a subheading of STORY. I'm not willing to relabel them, but I'm not really adding to this section.

Books about cooking

How-to Crafting picture books

Storytelling and Writing

Picture books on creativity

Other titles in this section I have reviewed

Friday, June 26, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Fun - Concepts


I've fiddled around with concept books a lot over the past, um, many years. At one point, long before I created picture book neighborhoods, I had a collection of concept books. After that, I distributed them throughout the collection with genre stickers. In my most recent update of the neighborhood collection, I created a separate section for them, which is specifically for those titles that are alphabet books, counting books, and a few on shapes and colors. I also created an updated concept sticker which I still use occasionally throughout the collection. Concept books are rather out of style now, so this is a small collection.

Storytime Picks

Titles I have reviewed

Wednesday, June 24, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Fun - Bedtime stories


 I abbreviated this to "Bed". It's a pretty simple category, the only exception being that I have put some books that focus on bedtime routines or help with sleeping in the early childhood experiences or parenting collections.

Must-Haves, Classics, and Personal Favorites

Sleeping issues

Other titles I have previously reviewed



Saturday, June 20, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Fun


 This has always been a "general" section. I didn't want to get trapped into putting every book with an animal in the animals, for example, and while I do put a few books with non-human characters or humorous plots into the sections on social-emotional learning and similar topics, I don't really think that's the main purpose of those titles. So I knew I would need a fallback section from the start. Generally speaking, most of the books are funny, although some just don't really fit anywhere else.

The main update to this section was that when I got rid of the holiday sections a couple years ago most of the books went here. I only put those titles into culture that talked specifically about the traditions of the holiday, not "funny Santa books". I think they have gotten better circulation here and with holiday stickers they're fairly easy to find. I don't really review holiday books and I feel that pretty much anything will circulate for the mainstream holidays, so I don't have any listed here.

Incidentally, you may notice that there's an overwhelming number of male authors in those with multiple titles. I do not believe this is because male authors are funnier...

A selection of new titles (added to this collection in 2026)

  • Donuts: The hole story by David Miles (teacher request)
  • I am not happy! by Caroline Perry
  • Wally Mammoth: The sled race & Hide-and-seek by Corey Tabor
  • I love you alotl, I love you so much by Su Youn Lee (Valentine's)
  • Little bunny's to-do list by Helen Zax (Easter)
  • There's something odd about the babysitter by Elayne Crain
  • 100 goats and granny! by Atinuke
  • Fire truck vs. dragon by Chris Barton (replacement)
  • Bunny in disguise by Cynthia Platt (Easter)
  • Bear, a man, and a donut van by Daniel Bernstrom
  • The bear ate your sandwich by Julia Sarcone-Roach (replacement)
  • Dangerous alphabet book by DK Ryland
  • Cyril and Pat by Emily Gravett (replacement)
  • Little Elliot, big city by Mike Curato (teacher request)
  • Big rhinoceros, little rhinoceros by Jerrold Connors
  • Don't eat Eustace by Lian Cho
  • I yam a donkey by Cece Bell (teacher request)
  • No more gnomes by Beth Mills
  • My tiger by Joy Cowley
  • Mousestache moosestache by Rowboat Watkins
  • Go bananas! by A. B. Peele (staff request for storytime)
  • Broccoli is trying to kill me by Katie Evans
  • How not to make a jelly sandwich Ross Burach

Authors with 4+ titles

Titles with multiple copies (usually a marker of popularity)
Recommended/Must Have titles
 - I have not checked that these are still in print -
Personal Favorites
Additional titles I have reviewed