Go Play Outside!

Bikes and Biking

	Best, Cari. Sally Jean, the Bicycle Queen When Sally Jean outgrows her beloved bicycle, Flash, she experiments with various ideas for acquiring a new, bigger one. P BEST
	Crews, Donald. Bicycle race. A counting book for the youngest; who will win the race? P CREWS
	Prince, April Jones. What do wheels do all day? Paper cutouts and rhyming text take readers into the world of the wheel. P PRINCE

Birds and Birding

	Ehlert, Lois. Feathers for lunch. An escaped housecat encounters twelve birds in the back yard but fails to catch any of them and has to eat feathers for lunch. P EHLERT
	Franco, Betsy. Bird songs. Throughout the day and into the night various birds sing their songs, beginning with the woodpecker who taps a pole ten times and counting down to the hummingbird who calls once. P FRANCO
	Rockwell, Anne F. Two blue jays. Miss Dana's class observes two blue jays as they make their nest, have babies, and teach them to fly. Includes information on blue jays. P ROCKWELL
	Ryder, Joanne. Wild birds. The birds that glide through the sky, hop through the grass, and sing on the fence gradually come to feed from a child's hand. P RYDER

Bugs

	Fleming, Denise. In the tall, tall grass. Rhymed text (crunch, munch, caterpillars lunch) presents a toddler's view of creatures found in the grass from lunchtime till nightfall, such as bees, ants, and moles. P FLEMING
	Huggins-Cooper, Lynn. Alien invaders / Invasores extraterrestres. Bugs in the garden? Or are they really alien invaders? A small child compares the physical resemblance of small garden creatures to what they know of space invaders. P HUGGINS-COOPER
	Pallotta, Jerry. The icky bug colors. Like his other icky bug books (on the alphabet, numbers, shapes and counting), Pallotta uses insects to teach a concept. P PALLOTTA
	Singer, Marilyn. Fireflies at midnight. During one summer's day creatures large and small tell their tales in verse, each at one time of day, morning, afternoon, dusk, midnight, nighttime, dawn. P SINGER

Leaves, Nuts, Stones & Seeds

	Dengler, Marianna. The worry stone. When a small, serious boy joins Amanda on the park bench, she remembers that once she was small and serious too, but she had Grandfather--and his wonderful stories. P DENGLER
	Ehlert, Lois. Nuts to you! A rascally squirrel has an indoor adventure in a city apartment. P EHLERT
	Ehlert, Lois. Red leaf, yellow leaf. A child describes the growth of a maple tree from seed to sapling. P EHLERT
	Gerber, Carole. Leaf jumpers. Illustrations and rhyming text describe different leaves and the trees from which they fall. P GERBER
	Gerritsen, Paula. Nuts. When autumn arrives, Mouse makes the journey to the nut tree,dressed in her coat with the extra-big pockets. P GERRITSEN
	Krauss, Ruth. The carrot seed. Everyone tells a small boy that the carrot seed he has planted will never grow, but his patience is rewarded. P KRAUSS
	Levenson, George. Pumpkin circle : the story of a garden. Rhyming text and photographs follow a pumpkin patch as it grows and changes, from seeds to plants to pumpkins ready to harvest, to jack-o-lanterns and then to seeds again. P LEVENSON
	Robbins, Ken. Seeds From cherry pits to exploding pods, to sticktight seeds that cling to your shoes, acclaimed photographer and author Ken Robbins illuminates how wondrous nature springs up throughout the year. P ROBBINS

Sidewalk Fun

	Fleischman, Paul. Sidewalk circus. A young girl watches as the activities across the street from her bus stop become a circus. P FLEISCHMAN
	Grant, Karima. Sofie and the city. When Sofie moves from Senegal to New York City, she has a hard time until she makes a friend chalking sidewalk pictures. P GRANT
	Hutchins, H. J. The sidewalk rescue. Sidewalk silliness happens when Morgan's little sister jumps into a chalk picture. P HUTCHINS

String & Rope

	Martin, Bill. Knots on a counting rope. In this story, the counting rope is a metaphor for the passage of time and for a boy's emerging confidence in facing his blindness. P MARTIN
	Schaefer, Carole Lexa. The squiggle. As she walks to the park with her school class, a young girl finds a piece of string which her imagination turns into a dragon's tail, an acrobat, fireworks, a storm cloud, and more. P SCHAEFER
	Wood, Audrey. Twenty-four robbers. This jumprope rhyme tells the story of twenty-four robbers. When they visit a woman's cottage she gives them what they ask for, but they keep coming back for more until they are ready to give something to her. P WOOD

Wind & Rain

	Bridges, Margaret Park. I love the rain. Instead of grumbling about the rain, two little girls enjoy how it makes shiny black streets, forms fun puddles, and sounds like tap dancers on the roof of their bus. P BRIDGES
	Cobb, Vicki. I face the wind. Introduces the characteristics and actions of the wind through simple hands-on activities. P COBB
	Hutchins, Pat. The wind blew. A rhymed tale describing the antics of a capricious wind. P HUTCHINS
	Jagtenberg, Yvonne. Jack's kite. While waiting for his father to join the family on a weekend camping trip, Jack tries to fly his kite and finally succeeds with the help of some new friends. P JAGTENBERG
	MacLachlan, Patricia. Painting the wind. Several artists paint different things, with different kinds of paint, and at different times of the day, on the same island that they visit each summer. P MACLACHLAN
	McKissack, Pat. Mirandy and Brother Wind. To win first prize in the Junior Cakewalk, Mirandy tries to capture the wind for her partner. P MCKISSACK
	Ray, Mary Lyn. Red rubber boot day. A child describes all the things there are to do on a rainy day. P RAY

Worldwide Outside Fun

	Ada, Alma Flor. I love Saturdays y domingos. A young girl enjoys the similarities and the differences between her English-speaking and Spanish-speaking grandparents. P ADA
	Leaf, Munro. Wee Gillis. In this classic illustrated by Robert Lawson, Wee Gillis can not decide whether he wants to be a Highlander and stalk stags, like his father, or a Lowlander like his mother, and raise long-haired cows. P LEAF
	Mollel, Tololwa M. Big boy. In Tanzania, little Oli is supposed to take a nap, but goes outside to play instead. P MOLLEL
	Schaefer, Carole Lexa. Someone says. A day at a Chinese preschool has leaping frogs, dancing ponies, flapping wings, eating like tigers, and all the things that children can dream. P SCHAEFER
	Winnick, Karen B. The night of the fireflies. In Japan, Toshio takes his sister, Miko, through the woods to the river, where they join other children in capturing fireflies and placing them in lanterns. P WINNICK

Last updated November 22nd, 2011