Tag Archives: Butler Bookshelf

Butler Bookshelf

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Here at the Butler Center, our nonfiction collection features books about people who changed the world in their own ways. The women featured in these nonfiction titles made their mark whether it’s through their words, their artwork, or their dancing. This week’s feature pick is Remember Her Name!: Debbie Allen’s Rise to Fame written by Tami Charles and illustrated by Meredith Lucius. This picture book highlights the early life of world-renowned dancer, choreographer, and actress Debbie Allen. Charles lyrically tells the story of how Allen found acceptance taking dance classes in Mexico City and bringing her talent back to her old home in Houston, TX, where black girls weren’t allowed in prestigious dance schools because of racism and Jim Crow laws.

Remember Her Name!: Debbie Allen’s Rise to Fame
Tami Charles
Illustrated by: Meredith Lucius
Charlesbridge
Available now!

Beatrix and Her Friends: Celebrating the Life of Beatrix Potter
Anne Lambelet
Peachtree Publishing Co/Margaret Quinlin Books
Available now!

Footeprint: Eunice Newton Foote at the Dawn of Climate Science and Women’s Rights
Lindsay H Metcalf
Charlesbridge/Charlesbridge Teen
Available now!

Mary Oliver, Holding on to Wonder
Erin Frankel
Illustrated by Jasu Hu
Astra Books for Young Readers/Calkins Creek
Available now!

Marie’s Magic Eggs: How Marie Procai Kept the Ukrainian Art of Pysanky Alive
Sandra Neil Wallace
Illustrated by Evan Turk
Astra Books for Young Readers/Calkins Creek
Available now!

Butler Bookshelf

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Friendships can be hard to navigate during middle school. These middle-grade novels from our Butler Center Children’s Fiction collection represent challenges students face and how they face them. This week’s feature pick is Roohi and Nate are Not on the Same Page by Supriya Kelkar and Jarret Lerner. Studious Roohi and rebellious Nate couldn’t be any more different, and they don’t consider themselves friends when they join their school Lunch Bunch. As they spend more time together, and when they learn the school librarian’s job is on the line due to budget cuts, Roohi and Nate put their differences aside and work together to save what they hold dear.

Roohi and Nate are Not on the Same Page
Supriya Kelkar and Jarret Lerner
ABRAMS/Amulet Books
Available now!

Camp Big Top
Alexandra Diaz
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing/Beach Lane Books
Available now!

The Unlikely Aventuras of Ramón and El Cucuy Book 2: Don’t Eat the Birthday Boy!
Donna Barbara Higuera
Illustrated by Juliana Perdomo
ABRAMS/Amulet Books
Available now!

When Tomorrow Burns
Tae Keller
Random House Children’s Books/Random House Books for Young Readers
Available now!

The Catastrophic Friendship Fails of Lottie Brooks
Kate Kirby
Random House Children’s Books/Random House Books for Young Readers
Available now!

Butler Bookshelf

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For this week’s Butler Bookshelf, we’re looking at picture books featuring fathers. These stories showcase how to express love for parents, father figures in this case, in a multitude of ways and how they care for their children in many ways, too. Our feature pick is Baba Palooza by A.D. Ghani and illustrated by Nadia Alam. Whenever Aziah rides her Baba’s taxi, she feels like a movie star. Since Baba works long hours, Aziah and her father make every second count. When Baba has to miss Aziah’s dance recital due to work, Aziah wants to give her father a surprise he’ll never forget.

Check out more picture books featuring fathers (and grandfathers) below!

Baba Palooza
A.D. Ghani
Illustrated by Nadia Alam
ABRAMS/Abrams Books for Young Readers
Available now!

Ways Papi Says I Love You
Delia Ruiz
Illustrated by: Carlos Vélez Aguilera
Charlesbridge
Available now!

Grumpy Monkey Father’s Day Fuss
Suzanne Lang
Illustrated by: Max Lang
Random House Children’s Books/Random House Studio
Available now!

Sunrise Sail
Charles Trevino
Illustrated by: Maribel Lechuga
Charlesbridge
Available now!

One Two Daddy Loves You
Shelly Becker
Illustrated by: Dan Yaccarino
ABRAMS/Abrams Appleseed
Available now!

Butler Bookshelf

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Interaction is crucial for a child’s development, and board books can be a gateway for very young readers to fall in love with reading. Whether it’s lifting flaps, touching-and-feeling, or asking what a subject, like a color, word, animal, or shape, is, interactive board books can positively stimulate a baby’s or toddler’s brain and make reading a path to discovery. These kind of board books can also function as toys and must be treated with tender loving care (or at least try to do so). This week’s feature pick is Little Softies: Animals: A Touch-and-Feel First Words Book by Wendy Kendall. Readers can feel the soft and colorful felt pages while learning what each animal is called.

Little Softies: Animals: A Touch-and-Feel First Words Book
Wendy Kendall
ABRAMS/Abrams Appleseed
Available now!

¡Mira, Mira! Colors
Lourdes Heuer
Illustrated by Juliana Perdomo
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing/Little Simon
Available now!

The Questioneers: What’s that Color?
Andrea Beaty
Illustrated by David Roberts
ABRAMS/Abrams Appleseed
Available now!

A Breathe-Along Book: Breathe a Rainbow: With 8 Calming Textures to Trace with Your Finger
Julie Koon
ABRAMS/Abrams Appleseed
Available now!

A Lift-the-Flap Book: Hide-and-Seek Mommy
Marta Altés
ABRAMS/Abrams Appleseed
Available now!

Butler Bookshelf

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Last week we perused mystery in our children’s fiction collection. This week’s picks from our teen fiction collection has mystery with a little pinch of thriller. These horrific YA picks have everything: dark academia, confronting terrible pasts, high stakes, gothic settings, and not to mention murder. With trust being scarce and thrillers from every angle, these characters must navigate treacherous terrain to survive long enough to solve the mystery. This featured pick of the week is That Which Feeds Us by Keala Kendall, a Hawaiian Gothic horror novel. In a search to find Ohia, a missing sister, Lehua’s dream vacation at the Kopa’a Island Resort turns into a nightmare when the boat leaves her behind, but it turns out that Ohia’s disappearance isn’t the island’s only mystery to solve. Despite hearing warnings to leave the island, Lehua needs to unearth the island’s bloody history and face the horrors lurking beneath the sugarcane surface to find her sister.

Check out more YA horror mystery below!

That Which Feeds Us
Keala Kendall
Random House Children’s Books/Random House Books for Young Readers
Available now!

Last to Leave
Teresa Richards
Charlesbridge/Charlesbridge Teen
Available now!

A House of Vipers
Emma Jackson
Random House Children’s Books/Delacorte Press
Available now!

Paradise Coast
Suzanne Young
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Available now!

Heiress of Nowhere
Stacey Lee
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing/Sarah Barley Books
Available now!

Butler Bookshelf

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Part of our nonfiction collection highlights extraordinary people that made their mark on the world. This week we at the Butler Center are highlighting the books that spotlight extraordinary black people who created an impact that made the world a better place, in celebration of Juneteenth. Our feature pick is A Doctor at Heart: The Story of Groundbreaking Scientist and Teacher Vivien Thomas by Joan Schoettler and illustrated by Steffi Walthall. In spite of poverty and racial injustice, scientist and professor Vivien Thomas revolutionized the field of heart surgery and paved the way for other aspiring medical professionals to follow.

A Doctor at Heart: The Story of Groundbreaking Scientist and Teacher Vivien Thomas
Joan Schoettler
Steffi Walthall
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing/Beach Lane Books
Available now!

Outspoken: Paul Robeson Ahead of His Time: A One-Man Show
Carole Boston Weatherford
Eric Velasquez
Candlewick Press
Available now!

Fighting with Love: The Legacy of John Lewis
Lesa Cline-Ransome
James E. Ransome
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing/Beach Lane Books/A Paula Wiseman Book
Available now!

Black Lives Great Minds of Science
Tonya Bolden
David Wilkerson
ABRAMS/Abrams Fanfare
Available on September 9, 2026!

Little People, BIG DREAMS: Oprah Winfrey
Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara
Sera Latterell
The Quarto Group/Frances Lincoln Children’s Books
Available now!

Butler Bookshelf

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Pride month is here again, and what better way to celebrate than to peruse some LGBTQ-related literature! This week on Butler’s Bookshelf we’re featuring LGBTQ YA novels from our Teen Fiction collection! Our featured pick is Sweet Clarity by Rhiannon Richardson. When Clarity Jones returns home from summer camp, she vows to hide her sexuality from a world that might not accept her to please her parents and not lose any more friends, but when her relationship with Hannah Fitzpatrick, who Clarity had her first kiss with at the summer camp, is threatened, Clarity must come to terms with who she’s pretending to be vs. who she really is deep inside.

Check out more YA LGBTQ Romance below!

Sweet Clarity
Rhiannon Richardson
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Available now!

Charmed and Dangerous
Shelly Page
Random House Children’s Books/Joy Revolution
Available now!

Marisol Acts the Part
Elle Gonzalez Rose
Random House Children’s Books/Joy Revolution
Available now!

Love Makes Mochi
Stefany Valentine
Random House Children’s Books/Joy Revolution
Available now!

I Can’t Even Think Straight
Dean Atta
HarperCollins Publishers/Quill Tree Books
Available now!

Butler Bookshelf

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Our picture book collection feature colorful illustrations and even some copies written in other languages. This week on Butler’s Bookshelf, all these picture books have a creature that live however they want: cats. Here in the Butler Center, we love cats so much we want to be them! However, since we can’t, spotlighting (and reading) picture books about them will suit us just fine. Our feature pick is I Really Want to Be a Cat, written and illustrated by Helen Hancocks. This entertaining picture book presents a case to why cats are awesome, and after reading it, perhaps you would really want to be a cat, too!

Check out more books that feature cats below:

I Really Want to Be a Cat
Helen Hancocks
Sourcebooks Kids/Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Available now!

Nani and the Lion
Alicia D. Williams
Illustrated by Anna Cunha
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing/Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Available now!

Tate’s Wild Rescue
Jenny Turnbull
Illustrated by Izzy Burton
Random House Children’s Books/Crown Books for Young Readers
Available now!

Luigi the Spider who Wanted to Be a Kitten
Michelle Knudsen
Illustrated by Kevin Hawkes
Candlewick Press
Available now!

No Cats in the Library
Lauren Emmons
Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing Division/Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
Available now!

Butler Bookshelf

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Happy Tuesday! Today is all about the silly, so from hand puppet shark attacks, farm animal shenanigans, to pepperoni prehistoric creatures, there’s a little bit of goofiness for everyone here; giggle-enducing storytime guaranteed. Our feature pick this week is Loops, written and illustrated by Jashar Awan. Tying shoes can be a big deal! But with a little help & encouragement from one very determined friend, you too can learn to bunny-ear and loop and pull like a pro.

Check out some more silly picture books below!

Loops
Jashar Awan
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing / Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Available now!

No, I’m a… Shark!
Mike Henson
Illustrated by Ana Gomez
The Quarto Group / Happy Yak
Available now!

Sorry, Sammy
Scott Rothman
Illustrated by Tom Tinn-Disbury
The Quarto Group / Happy Yak
Available now!

Pizzasaurus
Tammi Sauer
Illustrated by Kyle Beckett
Random House Children’s Books / Doubleday Books for Young Readers
Available now!

The Case of Old MacDonald and His Farm
Mark Teague
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing / Beach Lane Books
Available now!

Butler Bookshelf

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Whether you’re planning on celebrating Easter this Sunday or just really love those chocolate candied eggs, the spring season is in full bloom (pun intended)… and hopefully sunny skies are to follow! This week’s Butler Bookshelf is full of spring-themed & seasonal reads to get you ready for April’s showers and May’s flowers. From nature-themed non-fiction reads to picture books of landscaping lawns and baby animals galore, there’s a little bit of everything for everyone here. Our feature pick is Goldfinches, a poem by the late, great Mary Oliver, illustrated by Melissa Sweet. The finches dazzle in color as they lay their eggs and weave their baskets, with a sweet and tender song. “Have you heard them singing in the wind, above the final fields? / Have you ever been so happy in your life?”

Check out some more springtime reads below:

How to Hatch: A Gosling’s Guide to Breaking Free
Sara Holly Ackerman
Illustrated by Galia Bernstein
Random House Children’s Books / Alfred A. Knopf
Available now!

Lawn-Mowing Day!
Breanna Carzoo
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing / Little Simon
Available now!

Goldfinches
Mary Oliver
Illustrated by Melissa Sweet
Random House Children’s Books / Viking Books for Young Readers
Available now!

Our Green Planet
Leisa Stewart-Sharpe
Illustrated by Kim Smith
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing / Beach Lane Books
Available now!

Welcome, Spring!
Apryl Stott
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing / Beach Lane Books
Available now!