Meet Amelia Bedelia, the unflappable maid who does everything literally. With her purse on her arm and hat firmly on her head, Amelia Bedelia follows instructions to a T: Change the towels? Nothing a pair of scissors can't do! Dust the furniture? That's when the perfumed dusting powder really comes in handy. Dress the chicken for dinner -- well, do you want a boy chicken or a girl chicken? Amelia Bedelia's well-meaning gaffs cause readers to chuckle but her employer to fume -- it's a good thing she's such a good cook!

Her images are wonderful. The kildeer "walked the rows, brown heads nodding over their striped bibs like satisfied farmers counting the harvest." The swan has "a marbelized stillness." She calls the great blue heron "a painted hunter....the brushstroked eye, the slash of bill, the pencil-line of legs." Always she extends our vision causing us to look at the next visitor to the bird feeder with wonder.

This early reader is full of fun facts about emperor penguins — their life cycle, habitat, predators and even what they like to do for fun. With easy-to-understand explanations and plenty of illustrations, Emperor Penguins is a great choice for young animal lovers.

Stanley Lambchop is a nice, average boy. He leads a nice, ordinary life. Then one day a bulletin board falls on him, and suddenly Stanley is flat. This turns out to be very interesting. Stanley gets rolled up, mailed, and flown like a kite. He even gets to stop crime. He's flat, but he's a hero!

Arizona is born and bred in the back hollows of the Blue Ridge Mountains and she never leaves it except for the brief time when she goes away to learn to be a teacher. She had wanted to travel far and do great things, but family circumstances dictate otherwise. Miss Arizona grows up to teach in the same one-room schoolhouse she attended as a child. She's a reader and she's visited many far away places in her reading. For a long time she hopes that someday she'll get to visit those wondrous places but never does. However, she often tells children that someday they may go where she has never been.

Stellaluna, a little brown bat, is accidentally dropped by her mother. The helpless baby falls smack into a nest of fledglings and is immediately accepted as one of the family. Stellaluna tries to fit in but keeps acting unbirdlike, hanging upside down and wanting to fly at night. By chance Stellaluna is reunited with her mother and finally learns to be a proper bat.

Ralphie Jordan can't sleep. Something is making spooky noises in his room at night. It's a perfect case for Jigsaw Jones, who pieces together all the ghostly clues.

A man walks into a lush rain forest and starts chopping down a huge kapok tree. Lulled by the heat, he sits down and soon falls asleep. The forest dwellers approach, each whispering in his ear a reason to keep the tree standing. Suddenly, the man wakes up, and for the first time notices the beauty all around him. Will he still chop down the tree? The beauty of Cherry's art helps to convey an important message in this environmental tale.

The Story of the Pilgrims, a picture book, begins with the plight of a group of people who were being persecuted for their religious beliefs. Though the risks were many, the Pilgrims decided to leave England. Ross takes readers on the harsh journey to the New World and explains the suffering during the Pilgrims' first winter.

The Magic Tree House whisks Jack and Annie away to the decks of that ill-fated ship, the Titanic. There they must help two children find their way to a lifeboat -- while they are in danger of becoming victims of that tragic night themselves.

Amber Brown has survived third grade -- even though her best friend, Justin, moved away. Now she's heading to London with her Aunt Pam -- and then to Paris. Before she gets there, Amber finds out she has chicken pox. Amber Brown is a kid with problems. Now that she can't go to Paris, how will she convince her dad to move back in with her mom?