Always Available on Hoopla: Take a Closer Look

Sometimes a slower pace in life—or even a slower hour—can allow us to look closer at the world around us. Enjoy marveling at nature and its amazing details in these books for preschoolers that examine the ordinary and the extraordinary.

Flower Garden

Helped by her father, a young girl prepares a flower garden as a birthday surprise for her mother. You can also check out this title as eBook on Hoopla.



Round

If you look closely, you will find that the world is bursting, swelling, budding, and ripening with round things awaiting discovery–like eggs about to hatch, sunflowers stretching toward the sun, or planets slowly spinning together for billions of years. Whimsical and imaginative, this poetic ode to all that is round and full of wonder by the Newbery Honor-winning author and poet Joyce Sidman, with illustrations by the two-time New York Best Illustrated Book award recipient Taeeun Yoo, inspires curiosity and wonder for this (round) little earth we call home. You can also check out this title as eBook on Hoopla.


Sidewalk Flowers

A little girl collects wildflowers while on a walk with her distracted father. Each flower becomes a gift, and whether the gift is noticed or ignored, both giver and recipient are transformed by their encounter. This wordless picture book, conceived by award-winning poet JonArno Lawson and beautifully brought to life by illustrator Sydney Smith, is an ode to the importance of small things, small people and small gestures. You can also check out this title as eBook on Hoopla.


So Many Feet

High feet, slow feet, fast feet, snow feet! So Many Feet introduces young children to the great diversity in the natural world, using feet as an accessible point of entry. The playful, rhyming main text offers some information, but is mostly fun to read aloud. The secondary text offers more facts about each animal and what makes its feet so unique. The book ends by asking children whether their feet can do all the things animals’ feet can do. You can also check out this title as eBook on Hoopla.


A Stone Sat Still

Told in rhyming verse, a stone is considered from a variety of environmental and emotional perspectives, as it sits where it is, surrounded by grass, dirt, and water, an unchanging certainty in the world. You can also check out this title as eBook on Hoopla.


These Rocks Count!

Mr. Tate’s class is about to learn there’s more to rocks than being dirty lumps on the ground. On this field trip they’re visiting the rocky ridge mountains to learn about rocks. At first the children think rocks will be boring, but they soon learn that rocks are all around us in ways we might not expect–such as glass and toothpaste! You can also check out this title as eBook on Hoopla or as eBook on Overdrive/Libby.


This Tree Counts!

If you listen carefully to the lone tree behind Oak Lane School, it has a story to tell, about… one owl, two spiders, three squirrels, four robins, five caterpillars, six ants, seven crickets, eight flies, nine ladybugs, and ten earthworms, all living safe and free in their tree home. You can also check out this title as eBook on Hoopla or as eBook on Overdrive/Libby.


Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt

Up in the garden, the world is full of green–leaves and sprouts, growing vegetables, ripening fruit. But down in the dirt there is a busy world of earthworms digging, snakes hunting, skunks burrowing, and all the other animals that make a garden their home. In this exuberant book, discover the wonder and activity that lie hidden between the stalks, under the shade of leaves … and down in the dirt. You can also check out this title as eBook on Hoopla.