The Black Book of colors by Menena Cottin

This book is a remarkable picture book in which the author ask us to imagine being blind. The illustrations of this book appear on the right-hand pages and consist of black-on-black embossed graphics. The raised texture of leaves,feathers and raindrops usher us into a world without color. On the left-hand pages spare lines of text are printed in flat white type against a solid black background beneath a Braille translation. Readers who turn to the last page can teach themselves the Braille alphabet, then go back and read the text by touch.

Rotten School "The Heinie Prize" by R. L. Stine

Belzer is a loser with a capital L. He does everything for Bernie Bridges--washes his dirty underwear, finishes his homework, even walks his smelly dog! Bernie has it good! But now Belzer's parents are taking him out of Rotten School. Bernie has to make Belzer stay! ( How else will he get his breakfast in bed every morning?) Bernie has only one choice--he has to help Belzer win the Heinie Prize for Most Outstanding Student. But can Bernie really make Belzer worthy of a Heinie?

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

2009 Newbery Medal Winner

Hear this tragic tale: a sleeping family, a talented murderer, and an adventurous toddler-----orphaned, but not assassinated. Small and alone, by accident and luck he escapes the scene of the crime and climbs a grassy hill to safety. At the top of the hill the boy finds a fence, and on the other side, a dark , quiet place...... The Graveyard is a sacred place and well tended by its various attendants. It is quiet and homey, and there are worse places by far where a boy might grow up. Here and there lurk dangers unexpected and perils uncharted by the living.

The House in the Night by Susan Swanson,illustrated by Beth Krommes

The House in the Night is the 2009 Caldecott Medal winner.

Inspired by a cumulative poem found in The Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book, Swanson's words are short simple. "Here is the key to the house / In the house burns a light / In that light rests a bed."

Richly detailed black-and-white scratchboard illustrations expand this timeless bedtime verse, offering reassurance to young children that there is always light in the darkness. Iluminated touches of golden watercolor evoke the warmth and the comfort of home and family, as well as the joys of exploring the wider world.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J. K. Rowling

The Tales of Beedle the Bard first came to our attention in the book known as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This book is a collection of stories written for wizards and witches. In many respects Beedle's stories resemble our fairy tales. In muggle fairy tales , magic tends to lie at the root of the heroine's and hero's troubles. In The Tales of Beedle the Bard, on the other hand , we meet heroines and heroes who can perform magic themselves, and yet find it just as hard to solve their problems as we do.

Reading these tales gives new insight into the world of Harry Potter.

Red Sled by Pat Thomas

This beautiful story is about a boy and his father who are feeling sad. They pull on hats and coats and climb a snow covered hill, pulling their red sled. They zoom down the hill under a starlit sky. With their spirits high once again, they go home for a mug of hot chocolate.

The Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome

Meet the Swallows and the Amazons, the D’s and the Coot Club. Whether they are camping or sailing, climbing mountains or escaping pirates, charting unknown waters or taking risks to protect wildlife, dealing with unexpected crises or learning new codes, they are sure to be resourceful, adventurous, and imaginative.

Swallows and Amazons begins the series with the four Walker children, sailors of the Swallow, meeting the Amazon pirates (Nancy and Peggy Blackett) and their fearsome Uncle Jim (AKA Captain Flint), fighting for the rights to camp on Wildcat Island, and recovering a stolen treasure.

In Swallowdale, an accident forces the Walker explorers to camp on shore—and what a perfect place they find for playing hide-and-seek with their piratical friends!

Peter Duck takes the Swallows, Amazons, and Captain Flint on a real seafaring voyage (or is it a tale of their own invention?), pursuing pirate treasure, and pursued by very real pirates bent on taking the treasure for themselves—at all costs!

In Winter Holiday, the D’s (Dick and Dorothea Callum) are introduced. The holiday is extended when Captain Nancy comes down with the mumps. But who will plan the adventures with their fearless leader in quarantine?

The D’s meet the Coot Club in the book of that name, and they learn to sail while helping their new friends defend the local waterfowl from horrible summer people called the Hullabaloos.

Pigeon Post finds all the young adventurers (except the Coot Club) camping out in the hills and searching for gold in abandoned mines.

Through a chain of accidental circumstances, the Walker children find themselves sailing across the North Sea alone in a borrowed yacht in We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea.

In Secret Water, the adventurers meet new friends and tidal adventures while they learn the science of mapping uncharted waters.

In The Big Six, the D’s return to their Coot Club friends, and help them to solve the mystery of who is trying to get them all in trouble with the law.

Another adventure which, like Peter Duck, takes the fictional aspects of the story to a higher level, is Missee Lee, in which the Swallows, Amazons, and Captain Flint take a trip around the world and get mixed up with some Chinese pirates.

In The Picts and the Martyrs, the D’s become "Picts," hiding out from the Blacketts’ formidable Great-Aunt, who is making "Martyrs" of them. Can the children accomplish all their summer plans without giving away their secret?

Finally, the Swallows, Amazons, and D’s are all reunited in Great Northern? in which they seek to identify and protect a rare pair of birds in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.