Best Reads of T3 2024-2025

I have been cranking through RICBA nominees and Mock-Caldecott-buzz picture books. Here are my favorites from the past three months. All images and summaries from Goodreads. 

Picture Books

When a turtle in a bear suit claims he is a “for-real” bear, he must prove himself to another turtle who just so happens to be a for-real bear expert. Hilarity ensues as Bearsuit Turtle proves he can climb trees, hibernate, and do other for-real bear stuff . . . like riding bikes, eating ice cream, and smashing pumpkins.

But when Bear-Expert Turtle reveals a secret, Bearsuit Turtle has to admit a truth of his own. Whether or not these two turtles are for-real bears or experts, they just might become for-real friends.

After an awful day at school (including a tragic but plausibly deniable mishap with a pudding cup), Izzy wants to be left alone. But it's Friday, and that means making tortillas with Lito. As the mistakes pile up, they come tumbling out of Izzy—and Lito surprises her by saying everyone makes mistakes, and if she makes a tortilla out of her mistakes, he will EAT it. Suddenly, the whole family is confessing and getting mistakes off their chests with a feast of mistacos!

Llewellyn the bunny and his friends dream of many things. Some of their dreams are small, like learning to ice skate, visiting a friend, or acting in the school play. And some of their dreams are big, like going to the moon, or becoming a ballet dancer or a wildlife photographer. Their dreams feel so precious that the bunnies place them in jars for safekeeping.

But when a storm comes and destroys their collection of jars, Llewellyn and his friends wonder: what's the point of dreaming if everything could be lost?

The only thing better than playing make believe is playing make believe with your favorite grown-up! Especially when that grown-up’s imagination is as big as yours, and you both get to make all kinds of funny sounds. 

What does it feel like to lose someone you love? For one little boy, it’s like he has a hole in his life. It’s in the bottom bunk, where his little brother, Matty, used to sleep, and it’s on his brother’s chair at dinner. It follows him everywhere until the day he decides to really explore it.

Inside the hole he confronts his grief—the sadness, the anger, and the truth of how much he misses Matty. His friend is waiting when he climbs out, and when she asks, “Do you want to tell me about your brother?” he’s surprised to find that talking about Matty is a comfort.

Every Monday, Mabel wakes up early and peeks out her window to make sure she didn’t miss the one thing she’s been looking forward to the whole week. She drags her chair down the hallway, past her big sister and Mom and Dad, out the door, and waits. 

What is Mabel waiting for every Monday? According to Mabel, it’s the best thing in the world. But no one else in her family seems to understand…until they see what’s honking down the street!

Chapter Books

Down at the bottom of the tall buildings of NYC, Magnolia Wu sits inside her parents’ laundromat. Magnolia has pinned every lost sock from the laundromat onto a bulletin board, in hopes that customers will return to retrieve them. But no one seems to have noticed. In fact, barely anyone has noticed Magnolia at all.

What she doesn’t know is that this is about to be her most exciting summer yet. When Iris, a new friend from California arrives, they set off across the city to solve the mystery of each missing sock, asking questions in subways and delis and plant stores and pizzerias, meeting people and uncovering the unimaginable. (RICBA 2026 nominee)

Sage's thirteenth birthday was supposed to be about movies and treats, staying up late with her best friend and watching the sunrise together. Instead, it was the day her best friend died. Without the person she had to hold her secrets and dream with, Sage is lost. In a counseling group with other girls who have lost someone close to them, she learns that not all losses are the same, and healing isn't predictable. 

Emma McKenna can’t wait for third grade at the brand-new Curiosity Academy. She’ll have a cool teacher who wears high-tops and science earrings. She’ll meet interesting classmates from all over Peppermint Falls. Best of all, she’ll get a fresh start after last year’s talent-show disaster left her with that awful nickname. It’s going to be the best year ever!

Then Lucy walks into Mrs. Z’s room.

Lucy, Emma’s best-friend-turned-enemy.

Lucy, who gave Emma that nickname and spread it all over school!

Emma’s fresh start is doomed . . . unless she can make friends before Lucy ruins everything. (RICBA 2026 nominee)

Nonfiction

Discover why the world’s first Black Grandmaster Maurice Ashley thinks that chess is one of the best skills in life. Follow him on a journey from Jamaica to New York to the world stage where he has taught thousands of young people the life philosophies of the game. Part biography, part skills, and fully oozing with passion. (RICBA 2026 nominee)

Based on a true story, the author humorously recounts the time his grandfather got stranded with a friend on Surtsey, a brand new volcanic island in Iceland. The adventurers face epic challenges like molten lava, melted eyeglasses and scant supplies before finally getting rescued. Graphic novel-like layouts and spirited text invite readers to search for the one thing that's not actually true in this thrilling yet light-hearted tale of adventure. Endnotes include information about volcanoes, Icelandic culture and Norse mythology. (RICBA 2026 nominee)

Not a Box! (continued) with K

One of the most important roles I have as a library teacher is cultivating my students' imaginations. In K, we read Geisel-honor Not a Box by Antoinette Portis; the main character creates all kinds of play scenarios with a simple cardboard box. 

Then the kids drew their ideas for our own continuation of the book, which is now on the shelf with some additional pages from 1st graders who came in after K and found the templates still on the tables. Here are some sample pages:

GC Class of 2018

I was thrilled during the graduate walkthrough to see so many students who I met in kindergarten during my first year of teaching in Cranston! 

Here is how I remember them ... diddley doot diddley doot ... going back in time: 

Grade 5

Coding with Cups

Grade 4

Dewey Detectives

Book Look

Grade 2

Creating Tables

Mock Caldecott Voting

Book Sorting

Card Sorting

Grade 1

Field Day

K

Chameleons

Grade 2 Dewey Detectives

The Dewey Decimal system is a way of sorting nonfiction books. I don't expect my students to memorize specific numbers; that's what the online catalog is for. I do, however, want them to understand how certain topics go together. At least according to how Mr. Dewey thought they did. 

Second graders each got a search term and a number from a "hundreds." They had to work with kids who had the same number to figure out how their subjects could be classified under one major label. 

Can you solve the puzzles? 

• 500s: planets, electricity, magnets, elements, weather, rocks, dinosaurs, bugs, ecosystems, plants, animals
  
  
• 700s: music, jokes, origami, drawing, magic tricks, football, chess, yoga, knitting, dance 
  
  
• 900s: maps, ancient civilizations, countries, states, wars, explorers, The Titanic disaster, flags, American colonies

K Book Matching

A big part of information literacy is being able to recognize patterns and to categorize facts, sources, etc. We start work on these skills in kindergarten, and it is leading up to them being able to choose books from the shelves on their own, versus from the selection I put out. 

This week, students each got an Everyone or Early Reader book and had to find another student whose book was in the same category in some way.