As soon as Otter moves into his new lakehouse, his neighbors show up. Each neighbor greets him with “Hello, new neighbor! Welcome to the lake.” and offers him a thoughtful gift. Then bear comes and the others are worried. Bear is too big to fit through the door, but Otter doesn’t want to leave him out, so he gets the others to help. When they finally get Bear inside, the door and all the gifts are splintered. Teamwork helps make everything new and improved again. A great cumulative story about community and inclusion.

Christian loves paying soccer and he can hardly wait to join a team. When he shows up the field all of the other kids are bigger than him. Christian gets nervous and worries that he won’t be good enough. That night he is so withdrawn that his family notices and the next day they plan Super Soccer Day. Will this help him gain confidence in himself? Written by US Men’s National Soccer Team star Christian Pulisic, this is a heartwarming story about family support and believing in yourself.

A black girl and her braids go with sneakers and t-shirts, pigtails and jean skirts, anything! Based on the poem of the same name, this book celebrates a black girl and her braids. The main character celebrates her braids, the different ways she can wear her hair and why, and advocates for the freedom to wear her hair how she wants. This is a great example of cultural education and appreciation.

Unshers in nightgowns? Cornflakes for breakfast at a baseball game?

Jimmy’s family loved to go watch the Milwaukee Brewers with his family, but during World War II things changed. Pop went overseas to fight and Ma worked at night in the factory. Ma was too tired to go to the games. One day Jimmy met the Brewers owner and morning baseball games started.

During World War II, the Brewers owner, Bill Veeck started offering morning games so that night factory workers could attend the games. Cornflakes, doughnuts and coffee were offered at the games. Over the course of the season about six morning games were played by the Brewers.

Jimmy and his family were invented by the author, but the morning baseball games are a little known piece of baseball history. The author’s note at the end tells more about the morning games and Bill Veeck.

Frank E. Armadillo (the E stands for Expert, Explorer Extraordinaire) knows about a lot of stuff. Like flamingos. Or as he refers to them pretty, princess birds who are practicing to be ballerinas and are pink because they eat cotton candy. But when he is interrupted by a real flamingo, Frank begins to question if he really knows about flamingos and learns that real experts ask lots of questions.

An entertaining book with facts about flamingos which also teaches readers that they don’t need to have all the answers and it is good to ask questions to become an expert. This book could be used as a starting point for animal research.