Since he was a baby, Dan has always wanted to fly and finally he does with help from a special birthday gift from his grandfather. With notes for teachers. Suggested level: junior.

Li'l Dan, a slave on a Southern plantation, loves to play his drum. When a company of Union soldiers announce that the slaves have been set free, Dan has no place to go, so he follows the soldiers, who make him their mascot. But Confederate soldiers attack, and Dan discovers that he is the only one who can save his friends. The only children's book ever written and illustrated by legendary American artist Romare Bearden, Li'l Dan, the Drummer Boy was just recently discovered. Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. has written a personal introduction to the book, describing his own memories of the artist while Bearden created this memorable tale. On an accompanying CD, Dr. Maya Angelou, three-time Grammy Award winner for spoken word recordings, reads the text.

From Creation to the Islamic Antichrist and how you can be sure you're one of God's chosen.

“This immigration story is universal.” —School Library Journal, Starred Dan Yaccarino’s great-grandfather arrived at Ellis Island with a small shovel and his parents’ good advice: “Work hard, but remember to enjoy life, and never forget your family.” With simple text and warm, colorful illustrations, Yaccarino recounts how the little shovel was passed down through four generations of this Italian-American family—along with the good advice. It’s a story that will have kids asking their parents and grandparents: Where did we come from? How did our family make the journey all the way to America? “A shovel is just a shovel, but in Dan Yaccarino’s hands it becomes a way to dig deep into the past and honor all those who helped make us who we are.” —Eric Rohmann, winner of the Caldecott Medal for My Friend Rabbit “All the Way to America is a charmer. Yaccarino’s heartwarming story rings clearly with truth, good cheer, and love.” —Tomie dePaola, winner of a Caldecott Honor Award for Strega Nona

In Big Berry, the subject is one that every child can relate to, the gimmes—and why the hero Bink should be happy with what she has. HAPPYLAND introduces three friends—Bink, Clyde, and Glub-Glub—in a series of delightful adventures that illustrate issues including sharing, gratitude, and worry. There’s nothing more important for little kids entering preschool than to be emotionally ready—ready to separate from their parents, to mix and play with new children, to broaden their sense of the world. HAPPYLAND, from award-winning children’s author Dan Yaccarino, is the board book series that gives kids, and their parents, the language they need to take these emotional steps.

Teach your baby all about archaeologists with this new board book published in partnership with Smithsonian. Fossils. Shovels. Sieves. Brushes. These are all the important tools archaeologists use. In this new board book series published in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institute, young babies and toddlers will learn what an archaeologist does while enjoying playful art by Dan Taylor.

This is a collaboration beyond your wildest imagination! Jorma Taccone, from the hit comedy trio The Lonely Island, has paired up with New York Times–bestselling, Caldecott Medal–winning illustrator Dan Santat to create a picture book about time, space, and giant-robot-squids. BEWARE! This is a tale of great caution, terror, and destruction . . . of bath time, and bedtime, and the battle in between. This is the story of Little Fox and one VERY BIG imagination. Everyone from Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph and Seth Meyers to music legend Weird Al Yankovic and Tony award-winning playwright Tony Kushner loves Little Fox and the Wild Imagination. Can you imagine that?

The darkest, most twisted novel yet from the author of Timoleon Vieta Come Home. In a room above a bizarre German museum, and far from the prying eyes of strangers, lives in Old Man. Caretaker by day, by night he enjoys the sound of silence, broken only by the occasional crunch of a spider between his teeth. Little Hands Clapping brings the Old Man together with the respectable Doctor Ernst Frohlicher, his dog Hans and a cast of grotesque and hilarious townsfolk who find themselves involved in a crime so outrageous it will shock the world. From its sinister opening to its explosive denouement, Little Hands Clapping blends lavishly entertaining storytelling with Rhodes's macabre imagination, entrancing originality and magical touch.

Alfred, a pug, is made to feel inferior by a cat, a parrot, and the other neighborhood dogs, until a new dog moves in next door and helps Alfred to realize he is fine just the way he is.