Children's Picture Books

Around the World is a selection of vibrantly illustrated and engaging books for beginner readers. Each title gives beginning readers their first exposure to an assortment of information from different cultures and countries.
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Describes in verse a family with a brown-skinned mother, white-skinned father, two children, and their various relatives.

Wishing he had something to be clever at like each of the other children in his class, Ling Sung unexpectedly and happily discovers the others admire his prowess with chopsticks.

Marisol McDonald, a biracial, nonconformist, soccer-playing pirate-princess with brown skin and red hair, celebrates her uniqueness. [Sequels]

A little girl describes what a day is like in her parents' Chinese store in Guatemala City.

A Korean American girl's third grade class helps her newly arrived grandmother feel more comfortable with her new life in the United States.

A girl explains how her parents are different in color, tastes in art and food, and pet preferences, and how she herself is different too but just right.

A rainy-day errand introduces Carrie to many different kinds of bread, including chapatis, challah, and papusaa. Includes recipes.

While riding on a bus with her grandmother, a little girl imagines that they are carried up into the sky and fly over the sights of New York City.

Despite the differences between people around the world, there are similarities that join us together, such as pain, joy, and love.

An American sailor courts a Japanese girl and each tries, in secret, to learn the other's way of eating.

A newborn baby and the exciting confusion of Pet Day at school combine to make a very special day for Billy and Belle.

Reveals in verse that despite outward differences children everywhere are essentially the same and all are lovable.

A little girl finds a stuffed dog in the park and decides to take it home.

Harry sits on the porch with Mr. George Baker, an African American who is one hundred years old but can still dance and play the drums, waiting for the school bus that will take them both to the class where they are learning to read.

There is a rug in his fathers shop that Mustafa loves. (It has a hole in it, so you can put it over your head and still see out.) No one else wants the rug, though lots of tourists visit the shop. His father always welcomes them"Bienvenue"and offers them tea"O cha wa ikaga desu ka?" Mustafas father would like him to know some words in other languages too, and he tells Mustafa that he may have the rug if he agrees to learn. But after the first lesson, Mustafa is so bored he runs out of the shop (with the carpet on his head). Ending up at the market, he finds a very different way of learning foreign languages....and of getting tourists to visit his fathers shop.

Seven-year-old Lena and her mother observe the variations in the color of their friends' skin, viewed in terms of foods and things found in nature.

Pen pals Elliott and Kailash discover that even though they live in different countries--America and India--they both love to climb trees, own pets, and ride school buses.

Emphasizes that many different languages are spoken in different parts of the world, giving examples from French and German to Arabic and Spanish.

A little girl thinks her mother's garden is the ugliest in the neighborhood until she discovers that flowers might look and smell pretty but Chinese vegetable soup smells best of all. Includes a recipe.

A Chinese American girl comes to realize how hard her grandmother works to fulfill her dreams when they spend a day together at the grandmother's job cracking crabs.

True friendship can cross any divide. Abe and Willie live across the alley from each other. Willie is black and Abe is Jewish, and during the day, they don't talk. But at night they open their windows and are best friends. Willie shows Abe how to throw a real big-league slider, and Abe gives Willie his violin to try out. Then one night, Abe's grandfather catches them--will Abe and Willie have the courage to cross the alley and reveal their friendship during the day?

A Mexican-American first-grader experiences the difficulties and pleasures of being different when she wears a tulip costume with all the colors of the rainbow for the school May Day parade.

This look at all kinds of families from all over the world helps young children begin to think about families they belong to, as it gives them a glimpse into the rich variety of world cultures.

There's more than meets the eye as Sandra Pinkney's hip and jazzy rhythmic verses describe colors we see every day. Myles Pinkney's dynamic photos of multicultural children very gently lead readers to examine the feelings and emotions that are conjured up by the different colors.

A long-lasting friendship develops between Larnel, a young African-American, and Mrs. Katz, a lonely Jewish widow, when Larnel presents Mrs. Katz with a scrawny kitten without a tail.

When Wei Fong loses his first tooth while going to his family's naturalization ceremony many soon-to-be Americans join in the search.

Molly and Ben are best friends and share everything until they have a fight.

Two lonely characters, one black and one white, meet on the street and become friends.

Disliking her name as written in English, Korean-born Yoon, or "shining wisdom," refers to herself as "cat," "bird," and "cupcake," as a way to feel more comfortable in her new school and new country. [and sequels]

Margaret, who speaks only English, and Margarita, who speaks only Spanish, meet in the park and have fun playing together even though they have different languages.

Explores the many different shades of human skin, and points out that skin is just a covering that does not reveal what someone is like inside.

Alpha and Betty have a potluck dinner and all their friends, from Acton to Zelda, bring appropriate alphabetical food, from asparagus soup to zucchini casserole.

Two young sisters raised in America learn about the beauty and art of wearing a sari from their wise Indian grandmother.

Presents the things that all children over the world have in common, including their need for food, clothes, people to love them, and the opportunity to play.

A young Chinese girl and her grandfather enjoy a typical morning riding on grandpa's bicycle to do errands and meet friends in the park.

Three babies are caught up in the air and given loving attention by a father, grandmother, and mother.

For International Day at school, Pablo wants to bring something that reflects the cultures of both his parents.

Momo eagerly waits for a rainy day so she can use the red boots and umbrella she received on her third birthday.