Sydney Smith

It can be a little scary to be small in a big city, but it helps to know you're not alone. When you're small in the city, people don't see you, and loud sounds can scare you, and knowing what to do is sometimes hard. But this little kid knows what it's like, and knows the neighborhood. And a little friendly advice can go a long way. Alleys can be good shortcuts, but some are too dark. Or, there are lots of good hiding places in the city, like under...

"Tucked in bed at a new apartment, a boy and his mother trade favorite memories. Some are idyllic, like a picnic with Dad, but others are more surprising: a fall from a bike into soft piled hay, the smell of an old oil lamp when a rainstorm blew the power out. Now it's just the two of them, and the house where all those memories happened is far away. But maybe someday, this will be a favorite memory, too: happy and sad, an end and a beginning intertwined....

Overview: In this wordless picture book, a little girl collects wildflowers while her distracted father pays her little attention. Each flower becomes a gift, and whether the gift is noticed or ignored, both giver and recipient are transformed by their encounter. "Written" by award-winning poet JonArno Lawson and brought to life by illustrator Sydney Smith, Sidewalk Flowers is an ode to the importance of small things, small people, and small gestures....

"The Fitzgerald-Trouts are four barely related siblings living together in a small car on a lush tropical island, but when they begin to outgrow their small vehicle, they must band together to find a new home"--

"A young boy wakes up to the sound of the sea, visits his grandfather's grave after lunch and comes home to a simple family dinner, but all the while his mind strays to his father digging for coal deep down under the sea."--

A fictionalized account of Grant Wood's life describes how he renounced the belief that true artists must be professionally trained, and celebrated his rural upbringing with paintings of farmland, farmers, and his cow, Tillie.

"The Fitzgerald-Trouts must find a new place to live, while they try to protect their island from a nefarious plot masterminded by their terrible father, Johnny Trout"--