Named for two literary characters ("Alice" from Lewis Carroll and "Ozma" from L. Frank Baum), the author is the daughter of a Philadelphia-area elementary school librarian. Father and daughter embarked on a streak of reading-out-loud sessions every night before bed as Ozma was growing up--a "streak" that would continue for eight years straight.

Step one: Find a story. (A good one.) Step two: Find a reading buddy. (Someone nice.) Step three: Find a reading spot. (Couches are cozy.) Now: Begin. Kate Messner and Mark Siegel chronicle the process of becoming a reader: from pulling a book off the shelf and finding someone with whom to share a story, to reading aloud, predicting what will happen, and -- finally -- coming to The End. This picture book playfully and movingly illustrates the idea...

A look at the numbers that surround us, big and small, on earth and in outer space.

"This true story begins long ago in Spain, where a bride and groom are gifted a hand-painted haggadah. It is used at many Passover seders until the Spanish Inquisition when the family escapes. The haggadah survived for centuries in different countries. Scholars declared it a treasure. To protect it from the Nazis, a curator smuggled it out of a Sarajevo museum and hid it in a village mosque. On Passover of 1995, with bombs exploding overhead, the...

"Friendly animal characters teach kids the difference between fiction and nonfiction in a library setting. Catchy lyrics are supported by fun, contemporary illustrations"--Publisher's website.

"Libraries are much more than mere collections of volumes. The best are magical, fabled places whose fame has become part of the cultural wealth they are designed to preserve. Some still exist today; some are lost, like those of Herculaneum and Alexandria; some have been sold or dispersed; and some never existed, such as those libraries imagined by J.R.R Tolkien, Umberto Eco, and Jorge Luis Borges, among others. Ancient libraries, grand baroque libraries,...