Short Stories Part 4

This is the final post for my four part series on picture book recommendations.

~ Miss Rumphius – written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney
Alice wants to travel and retire by the sea one day, like her grandfather. He encourages this, but reminds her she must do something to make the world more beautiful. She grows up, travels, and makes friends everywhere. After she injures her back she lives by the sea and remembers what Grandfather said years ago about making the world more beautiful. At first she doesn't know what to do but then she gets an idea …. Other books written and/or illustrated by Barbara Cooney are:

~ Emily (written by Michael Bedard)

~ Chanticleer and the Fox

~ Eleanor

~ Island Boy

~ Ox-Cart Man (written by Donald Hall)

~ Roxaboxen (written by Alice McLerran)


~ The Gardener – Sarah Stewart, illustrated by David Small
Lydia Grace Finch has the opportunity to work in Uncle Jim's bakery in the city. She loves her job (even though she's a gardener, not a baker), but her uncle never smiles. Lydia Grace decides upon a plan to make him smile and gets her family and friends to help. Other books by Sarah Stewart are:

~ The Money Tree

~ The Journey


~ James Herriot's Treasury for Children – illustrated by Ruth Brown and Peter Barrett
A British vet tells stories about different animals he encountered in his practice. Includes Moses the Kitten, Bonny's Big Day, and Smudge, the Little Lost Lamb.


~ The Boy Who Held Back the Sea – written and illustrated by Thomas Locker
Jan is the town troublemaker. He gives false alarms and plays truant all the time. One day he takes off and has a day of naughty fun – until he finds a hole in the dike. He knows the hole will grow bigger and the town could flood. But nobody believes him and he must find a way to hold back the sea. Other books written and/or illustrated by Thomas Locker are:

~ Cloud Dance

~ Mountain Dance

~ Water Dance

~ Rip Van Winkle

~ Where the River Begins

~ The Mare on the Hill

~ Sky Tree


~ You Are Special – Max Lucado, illustrated by Sergio Martinez
The Wemmicks are small wooden people who go about rewarding pretty Wemmicks with stars and ugly Wemmicks with dots. Punchinello only gets dots and feels terrible about himself. Lucia, though, doesn't have dots or stars. She tells him to visit Eli, the woodcarver who made the Wemmicks, so Punchinello won't have to worry about his dots again. Other picture books by Max Lucado are:

~ You Are Mine

~ If Only I Had a Green Nose

~ Best Of All

~ Just the Way You Are (also titled The Children of the King)

~ The Oak Inside the Acorn

~ Because I Love You


~ The Mr. Putter and Tabby series – Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Arthur Howard
In the first book, Mr. Putter and Tabby Pour the Tea, Mr. Putter is a lonely old man who decides he needs some company. That way he has someone to tell stories to and share tea and English muffins with. A cat seems the best way to fix this problem, but that turns out to be harder than he thought. There are twenty-five books in the series. Other picture books by Cynthia Rylant are:

~ The Annie and Snowball series

~ The Henry and Mudge series

~ The Cobble Street Cousins series

~ The Relatives Came

~ The Old Woman Who Named Things

~ Thimbleberry Stories

~ When I Was Young In The Mountains