Northampton Summer Reading 2024: Tales of Metamorphosis for Ages 0-5

With the help from his loving and observant family, a little boy gets a birthday present that gives him the confidence to be himself and let his hair down.

"A boy discovers he has much to learn while observing plants with his older sister -- a story about cultivating patience and letting knowledge grow. As a boy walks around the neighborhood with his older, green-thumbed sister, she tells him all about the plants they see -- magnolias that smell like lemon cake, quince trees that will bloom the most beautiful red, daffodils that are the flower of Mother's Day, and even dandelions, whose greens can be...

"A deaf girl stands up for herself and takes off her shoes while dancing at her Carnival performance so she can feel the music through her bare feet."--

"In this bilingual book, an Anishinaabe child explores the story of a precious mnoomin seed and the circle of life mnoomin sustains. Written in Anishinaabemowin and English, the story opens at harvest time. A child holds a mnoomin seed and imagines all the life that made a single seed possible--Mayfly, Pike, Muskrat, Eagle and Moose, all had a part to play in bringing the seed into being. What will happen if the seed sprouts? Underwater leaves will...

After becoming a rabbit, Haneru Sato gathers stars at an observatory, sails the sea in a watermelon, tastes the emotions captured in different colors of ice, and more.

"The bond between two trees, Apple and Magnolia, takes center stage in this picture book that explores the power of unlikely friendships and that includes an author's note that further explores how trees communicate"--

Praised for acting like a big girl when she is small, as a young girl grows, "big" becomes a word of criticism, until the girl realizes that she is fine just the way she is. "Once there was a girl. She had a big heart and very big dreams. And it was good. Until it wasn't. The first picture book written and illustrated by award-winning and bestselling creator Vashti Harrison traces a child's journey to self-love and shows the power of words to both...

A series of two-frame narratives explore before-and-after scenarios, such as pale skin to sunburned skin, and uncooked pasta to a plate of spaghetti and meatballs.