Charlie Parker Played Be Bop by Chris Raschka

Charlie Parker Played Be Bop is the kind of book that, if you've ever wanted to do some scatting with Louis or Ella, brings you close to experiencing those tongue-twisting tones. Chris Raschka provides a wonderful lyrical and visual exploration of Charlie Parker and the jazz experience. You'll enjoy rat-a-tat-tatting along with your child as the two of you share in the sounds of some very cool jazz. A great introduction to jazz in a very untraditional storytelling format. 32 pages.

A Million Dots by Andrew Clements

A Million Dots offers a journey to really big numbers. It's easy to talk about 10 eggs or 100 pennies but when it comes to numbers in the thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, it's much harder to come up with concrete examples. The book gives great examples (it takes 578,504 shoelaces tied together to reach from Boston to New York which helps when you're halfway into the trip and a little voice from the back seat asks why we're not there yet for the umpteenth time) and helps provide some general sense of really big numbers. Not for early counters but great when kids are starting to explore their own place and sense of size and scope. Good also for grown-ups who have a hard time understanding, let alone explaining, the concept of a million. 48 pages.

Picture This... by Alison Jay

Picture This... is a delightfully clever book of intertwined illustrations. Deceptively simple with straightforward words defining each illustration, a closer look will find a treasure trove of images that tell their own story as the pages are turned. We continue to find stories within stories that make the retelling of this book a delight as we never know how the story will end. Alison Jay is a wonderful illustrator with many picture books to her credit. 30 pages.

My Favorite Things illustrated by Renee Graef

My Favorite Things is a visual representation of the classic song from Roger & Hammerstein's Sound of Music. Perhaps I'm feeling a bit sentimental today but this song has always been a favorite (I can remember belting it out as a child) and the images in this book (no specific reference to the Sound of Music) call to the childlike joy of the song. My daughter also knew and loved the song long before we had the book so it was great to reintroduce the song in a new format. This book is definitely mind candy but sometimes we all need that extra rush of sugar. 32 pages.

The Orange Book by Richard McGuire

The Orange Book is the creative adventure of fourteen oranges from tree to final destination. And, those destinations are quite imaginative and often funny. With just one sentence to describe the path of each orange, the reading goes almost as quickly as a count to fourteen. The retro illustrations bring a jazzy edge to the story as well. 32 pages.