In Symphony City, a young girl, lost in a big city, makes her way home by following the rich and vibrant music of the streets. Bursting with bright colors and narrated in lively, staccato phrases, Amy Martin's debut children's book is at once a sweeping page-turner and a book that makes you want to stop and pore over every page. Symphony City is an exciting adventure story for children and parents who love music, art, and big imagination. As a special bonus, the dust-jacket unfolds into a giant two-sided poster, suitable for extended gazing.

Symphony City

Children's Books

Martin, Amy

Arts, Music & Photography

McSweeney's McMullens

A speckled horse wonders why he was made a horse. Can the sassy sheep, who claims to be a good tennis player, help him find understanding? And wait a minute: How can that sheep even play tennis if she doesn't have hands? Perhaps the bright light holds answers. Or the talking apple. Or the singing grass. We Need a Horse, the first children's book from author Sheila Heti and painter Clare Rojas, asks big questions with a gentle hand. We Need a Horse is a timeless book for quiet moods, and makes especially good reading for anyone who likes to ask "Why?" As a double bonus, the book's jacket is reversible, and also unfurls into a large square poster that invites the reader to fall into Rojas's quietly majestic artwork.

We Need a Horse

Heti, Sheila

Animals

In 1986, two artists—one Russian, one American—joined forces, against the odds, to tell a brand new kind of picture story. In Here Comes the Cat!, a single mouse runs around shouting "HERE COMES THE CAT!" again and again—in both English and Russian—until everybody he knows is worried sick. Just when the tension can't get any tenser, the cat arrives… with a giant wheel of cheese! A big party breaks out and everyone—the reader included—laughs a huge laugh of relief. Funny, whip-smart, and illustrated in mesmerizing detail, Here Comes the Cat! is a parable about fear, more relevant than ever, that follows in the great tradition of Chicken Little. McSweeney's proudly presents this deluxe new edition, complete with a fold-out dust-jacket, on the 25th anniversary of the book's conception.

Here Comes the Cat!

Asch, Frank

Three premium-quality hardcover blank books in a slipcase. Each book is 32 pages, 7" square, and ready to be turned into a picture book. Just add crayons, markers, and ideas.

The Author-Illustrator Starter Kit

Back in print for the first time since the 1970s, these illustrated stories by one of the twentieth century’s great playwrights make ideal bedtime reading for young children. The silly” stories, as Ionesco called them, are accompanied by nearly 100 full-color illustrations, painstakingly restored by the artist for this brand new edition.

Stories 1,2,3,4

Ionesco, Eugène

Literature & Fiction

Two young children tour their noisy house with fresh eyes, discovering along the way that all is not as it seems. Featuring heat-sensitive, color-changing ink on every page, this book contains dozens of delightful surprises. Among them: a giant dog slumbering in a piano, a wishing puddle full of dimes, a raccoon that is actually a robot, and a camera that is secretly made of cheese.

Keep Our Secrets

CRANE, Jordan

Activities, Crafts & Games

In Matt Furie’s glorious debut, a nocturnal frog and rat awake at midnight, share a salad of lettuce and bugs, and strike out on an epic dirtbike adventure toward the sunrise. As the friends make their way from forest to bat cave to ghost town to ocean to shore and beyond, new friends are discovered, a huge crab is narrowly avoided, and a world is revealed. Packed with colorful characters and surprising details on every hand-drawn page, The Night Riders is the ideal book for anyone who has ever wanted to surf to the mountains on the back of a dolphin.

The Night Riders

At recess one day, sisters Elsie and Theo spy a nut wiggling on the ground. Out pops Bennythe world’s smallest and most gentlemanly walrus. After the girls learn that Benny misses his home in the sea, they send him sailing in a milk-carton boat, along with a trusty band of adventure-seeking slugs. Together, Benny’s Brigade (as they call themselves) begin their voyage to a truck-sized island paradise, avoiding the salt water as much as they can. Slugs don’t like salt.

Benny's Brigade

BRADFORD, Arthur

Alfred Crabtree has lost his false teeth. But don’t worry, he’ll find them if he can just get his things organized! Alfred's world is cluttered with surprising objects. Some are very uncommon, and some are probably not where they ought to be. There are a lot of pencils and small yapping dogs. There’s a squeeze bottle of mustard, a plunger, a rubber band or two, a few very fancy hats, and a group portrait of sea monsters. There’s an old cassette tape, a swizzle stick, a bicycle pump, and an armadillo shell. Join Alfred on a romp through his far too many possessions and you’ll end up learning more about him than he knows about himself. And maybe he’ll find his teeth in all that stuff!

Crabtree

Humor

Step aside, Mother — it's Kristen's turn to pick the recipe and make the dinner! There's just one teensy problem: Kristen's imagination is far more developed than her cooking skills. With ingredients ranging from 400 hot dogs and 20 bags of marshmallows to a sweatshirt and a water pistol, Recipe is the laugh-out-loud chronicle of just about everything that can go wrong in a kitchen. The recipe may not end up as delicious, or even as edible, as Kristen hopes, but that's okay: the journey is often more fun than the destination. And there's a hungry raccoon in the backyard who'll eat just about anything.

Recipe

Petrella, Angela

Petrella, Michaelanne

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