Kevin Henkes

Seven-year-old Billy Miller starts second grade with a bump on his head and a lot of worries, but by the end of the year he has developed good relationships with his teacher, his little sister, and his parents and learned many important lessons.

"Animals and children alike watch as the world transforms from the dark and dead of winter to a full and blooming spring"--

Lilly loves everything about school, especially her teacher, but when he asks her to wait a while before showing her new purse, she does something for which she is very sorry later.

Fascinated by the colors, shapes, sounds, and movements of the many different birds she sees through her window, a little girl is happy to discover that she and they have something in common.

An owl, puppy, bear, bunny, and pig wait for marvelous things to happen.

When her teacher announces that he is getting married, Lilly the mouse sets her heart on being the flower girl at his wedding.

As he hops along, a little rabbit wonders what it would be like to be green as grass, tall as fir trees, hard as rocks, and flutter like butterflies.

Illustrations and easy-to-read text introduce such basic concepts as adjectives, adverbs, daytime, and nighttime as they follow five elephants marching from dawn to dusk.

A young girl visiting her grandparents at the beach stays in a little house and walks along the shore gathering seashells, wondering about the creatures who used to live in each shell, about the hidden treasures of the sea--and about the world.