Best Children's Books on Country Life

Pioneer life is sometimes hard for the family, but it is also exciting as they celebrate Christmas with homemade toys and treats, do the spring planting, bring in the harvest, and make their first trip into town. Any boy or girl who has fantasized about running off to live in the woods will find ample information in these pages to manage a Wisconsin snowstorm, a panther attack, or a wild sled ride with a pig as an uninvited guest. Every chapter divulges fascinatingly intricate, yet easy-to-read, details about pioneer life in the Midwest in the late 1800s, from bear-meat curing to maple-tree sapping to homemade bullet making.

Farmer Boy is Laura Ingalls Wilder’s beloved story of how her husband, Almanzo, grew up as a farmer boy far from the little house where Laura lived. While Laura Ingalls grows up in a little house on the western prairie, Almanzo Wilder is living on a big farm in New York State. Garth Williams's classic illustrations for the Little House books caused Laura to remark that she "and her folks live again in these pictures."

★ An NPR Best Book of the Year. ★ A Booklist Best Book of the Year. ★ An Entertainment Weekly Best Middle Grade Book of the Year. ★ A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year. ★ A Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year. ★ A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. ★ A Wall Street Journal Best Children's Book of the Year. ★ An ALA Notable Children's Book. Betty quickly reveals herself to be cruel and manipulative, and while her bullying seems isolated at first, things quickly escalate, and reclusive World War I veteran Toby becomes a target of her attacks. “The honesty of Wolf Hollow will just about shred your heart, but Annabelle’s courage and compassion will restore it to you, fuller than before. —Linda Sue Park, Newbery Medalist and New York Times bestselling author. VERDICT Highly recommended for purchase; a truly moving debut.—Sara White, Seminole County Public Library, Casselberry, FL “This exquisite debut confronts injustice and doesn’t flinch.” – People Magazine. “Not all books with literary aspirations told from a child's point of view are created equal. They are merely doing justice to Wolk's beautiful story .”—NPR, “Best Books of 2016”. “ Drawing comparisons to To Kill a Mockingbird , Wolk’s lovely novel features a quiet young girl named Annabelle who is stirred to action by a cruel new student Betty when Betty starts bullying a strange (but, as Annabelle knows, kind) World War I veteran named Toby.”— Entertainment Weekly , “Best Middle Grade Books of 2016”. “ Wrenching and true …With a precociously perceptive girl as a main character; a damaged, misunderstood recluse; and themes of prejudice and bigotry, comparisons to Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ will abound. ★ “ Echoing the tone and themes found in To Kill a Mockingbird …Annabelle's astute observations of the Philadelphia woods and the people who populate Wolf Hollow will resonate with many readers as they present a profound view of a complex era tinged by prejudice and fear.”— Publishers Weekly , starred review. ★ “The spare but hauntingly beautiful language paints every early morning walk to school, household chore, emotion, and rational and irrational thought in exquisite detail … Perfectly pitchedto be used in classrooms in conjunction with To Kill aMockingbird .”— Booklist , starred review. The storytelling here is dignified and the tone is memoir-ish, because Annabelle is remembering the story in the past…The portrait of Betty, an unredeemed sociopath, pulls no punches , and Toby is a nuanced and poignant character, an unlikely hero.”— The Horn Book , starred review. ★ “The narrative is powerful, complex , and lifelike…Thematically, this book raises some of the same issues as To Kill a Mockingbird , but with social status rather than racism as the basis for injustice…VERDICT: Highly recommended for purchase; a truly moving debut.”— School Library Journal , starred review. ★ “Lauren Wolk's nuanced and nerve-wracking middle-grade debut takes a close, dark look at how dangerous it is to make assumptions of guilt or innocence based on appearances—and how telling the truth and standing up against injustice are essential, even if the wrongs are not always righted…Wolk has a clean and poetic way with words and her story is finely crafted, haunting and unlikely to be forgotten .”— Shelf Awareness , starred review. “Annabelle is an earnest, independent and caring character, well supported by a vividly drawn cast—the kind, the cruel and the gossips in between… Coming-of-age novels specialize in moral dilemmas but rarely as well .”— San Francisco Chronicle. “ Superb … beautifully written …A compelling story [that] will have readers—young and old alike— thinking about it a long time after the final page has been turned.”— Examiner “Wolk’s elegantly told tale is voiced in the past tense by narrator Annabelle, living in rural Pennsylvania in 1943, and opens with the sentence, ‘The year I turned twelve, I learned how to lie.’ Wolk explores the many paths those words open onto with a story that charts a course through bigotry, prejudice, kindness and coming of age with a struggle between right and wrong. “An emotionally intense YA debut from author and poet Lauren Wolk that will get kids thinking about compassion, justice, the importance of speaking out, and how to judge someone's character …The novel reinforces the idea that to be happy with yourself you have to fight for what's right and do what you can to help whenever you can.”— Common Sense Media. For an elementary school student, it’s a lesson in bullying, sticking by your family, and friendship… Wolk’s lyrical language compliments the Pennsylvania town circa 1945 navigating audiences through life after two world wars.”— Albany Times-Union “Lauren Wolk’s Wolf Hollow is nominally a book for young people, but its prose is so exquisite , its story so reminiscent of other great works of historical fiction, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ in particular, that I can recommend it primarily and for adults... ‘Wolf Hollow’ is not a comfortable book; the story is sometimes brutal.

If you're forced to marry an enemy prince, being the crown princess is useless.

Thanks to her soon-to-be stepsister’s clique of friends, including Eloise’s gorgeous, arrogant boyfriend, Finn, India feels like the one thing she hoped never to be seen as again: trash. And as India grows closer to Finn and befriends Eloise, threatening the facades that hold them together, what’s left are truths that are brutal, beautiful and big enough to change them forever…. -Katie McGarry, award-winning author of Say You'll Remember Me Samantha Young is a young writer from Stirlingshire, Scotland, who is now a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author.

And don't miss Runny Babbit Returns , the new book from Shel Silverstein! In Shel Silverstein's popular tale of few words and simple line drawings, a tree starts out as a leafy playground, shade provider, and apple bearer for a rambunctious little boy. At this point in the story, the double-page spread shows a pathetic solitary stump, poignantly cut down to the heart the boy once carved into the tree as a child that said "M.E. When there's nothing left of her, the boy returns again as an old man, needing a quiet place to sit and rest. (All ages) --Karin Snelson “If you’re looking for a children’s book that teaches generosity or unselfishness, most people will point you right to The Giving Tree , Shel Silverstein’s lovely story of a tree that will do anything for the boy it loves—and for good reason.

"Dust piles up like snow across the prairie. A terrible accident has transformed Billie Jo's life, scarring her inside and out. In this compelling, immediate journal, Billie Jo reveals the grim domestic realities of living during the years of constant dust storms: That hopes--like the crops--blow away in the night like skittering tumbleweeds. Perhaps swallowing all that grit is what gives Billie Jo--our strong, endearing, rough-cut heroine--the stoic courage to face the death of her mother after a hideous accident that also leaves her piano-playing hands in pain and permanently scarred.

This Newbery Medal winner that has a fantastic puzzle at its heart has been called “smart and mesmerizing,” ( The New York Times ), “superb” ( The Wall Street Journal ), and “incandescent” ( The Washington Post ). Amazon Best of the Month, July 2009: Shortly after sixth-grader Miranda and her best friend Sal part ways, for some inexplicable reason her once familiar world turns upside down. Rebecca Stead's poignant novel, When You Reach Me , captures the interior monologue and observations of kids who are starting to recognize and negotiate the complexities of friendship and family, class and identity. Set in New York City in 1979, the story takes its cue from beloved Manhattan tales for middle graders like E.L. Konigsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler , Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy , and Norma Klein's Mom the Wolfman and Me . Like those earlier novels, When You Reach Me will stir the imaginations of young readers curious about day-to-day life in a big city. Here’s what Rebecca had to say about growing up in New York City, meeting Madeleine L’Engle, and how writing a novel is a lot like solving a puzzle. What I love about L’Engle’s book now is how it deals with so much fragile inner-human stuff at the same time that it takes on life’s big questions. It started out as a small detail in Miranda’s story, a sort of talisman, and one I thought I would eventually jettison, because you can’t just toss A Wrinkle in Time in there casually. So I went back to A Wrinkle in Time and read it again and again, trying to see it as different characters in my own story might (sounds crazy, but it’s possible!). Amazon.com: I love the way you incorporate hints of science fiction into the ordinary events of Miranda’s life. When I started writing my first novel, First Light , a lot of the raw material was also fragmented, and I had to sort of develop them into traditional chapters, which was what worked best for that story. But When You Reach Me is a little like a puzzle, and I loved the challenge of smoothing these small pieces until the whole thing fit together just right. Amazon.com: At the very beginning of the novel, we learn that Miranda’s mom is going to be a contestant on the 1970’s TV game show The $20,000 Pyramid . Rebecca Stead: They have a pretty nice system, which starts with their neighbor, Louisa, who scribbles down each day’s Pyramid clues at her nursing job because she’s the only one with access to a television at lunchtime. Amazon.com: Why do Miranda and her friends Annemarie and Colin like working in Jimmy’s sandwich shop during lunch hour? Rebecca Stead: I’m now raising two kids of my own in New York City, and I think a lot about the differences between today’s "preteen experience" and the one I had. Grade 5-8–Sixth-grader Miranda lives in 1978 New York City with her mother, and her life compass is Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time . Miranda spends considerable time observing a raving vagrant who her mother calls the laughing man and trying to find the connection between the notes and her everyday life. Discerning readers will realize the ties between Miranda's mystery and L'Engle's plot, but will enjoy hints of fantasy and descriptions of middle school dynamics.

They also express the love of a girl named Fern, who saved Wilbur's life when he was born the runt of his litter. White's Newbery Honor Book is a tender novel of friendship, love, life, and death that will continue to be enjoyed by generations to come. The handsome volume sports a clothbound cover framing original jacket art; inside, Rosemary Wells adds country color to Garth Williams's original b&w illustrations. An afterword by Peter F. Neumeyer illuminates White's life and work, including photographs of the author on his farm in Maine as well as pages from the seminal manuscript.

Hands-On Family: Kitchen Science Lab for Kids offers 52 fun science activities for families to do together. Soon she found herself sharing her love of science with her three kids as they grew, journaling their science adventures on her KitchenPantryScientist website. Her desire to spread her enthusiasm for science to others soon led to a regular segment on her local NBC affiliate, an opportunity to serve as an Earth Ambassador for NASA, and the creation of an iPhone app, with the goal of making it simple for parents to do science with kids of all ages, and for kids to experiment safely on their own.