The Night Gardener by the Fan Brothers (Booktalk)

[Begin by showing page 2 in which William is drawing an owl on the ground.] William is lonely. He lives in an orphanage. Notice the drab colors in this drawing.

A mysterious man passes him, carrying tools. 

Look what appears the next morning [show owl topiary page].

William stares at it all day, and he goes to bed filled with a sense of excitement. [Show picture of house with cats.] More and more start to appear: what do you notice is happening?

The Night Gardener by the Fan Brothers. Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers: 2016. [48] p. Booktalk to grades K-2.

This Is My Dollhouse by Giselle Potter Booktalk

This little girl made her very own dollhouse! [Show picture]. Her parents did not buy it for her. She used a basic cardboard box, and look what she did with it! Look carefully: do you see the wallpaper in this picture? How do you think she did that? Right, with magic markers. And she made the most incredible tiny furniture, too [show pages]. I see a television which she made from a tiny box. I see a rug which she made from part of a real rug. I see a plate of noodles made from tiny little bits of yarn. Wow, she is imaginative.

She loves playing with her dollhouse family, too. She dresses them, feeds them, and lets them ride in a little elevator to the rooftop pool! I love that rooftop pool: can you see what it's made of? A little bowl of water.

But her best friend Sophie has a store-bought dollhouse [show page]. What do you think of it? Yeah, it does look a bit boring. And there's more. Sophie does not want to invent or create stuff for her dollhouse. She just wants things which were bought in a store. The two girls have a playdate coming up. Find out what happens in This Is My Dollhouse by Giselle Potter.

This is My Dollhouse by Giselle Potter. 2016: Schwartz & Wade. [40 p.] Booktalk to K-3rd.

Glory O'Brien's History of the Future by A.S. King (Booktalk)

Glory O'Brien, age 17, has not been having a glorious life so far. Her mother killed herself years ago; her dad has eaten his grief and went from an original 120 pounds to 240. He won't get rid of the oven that his wife used to kill herself with, either. He won't go into his wife's photography darkroom or even discuss her. Glory doesn't have many friends, and she often actively dislikes her "best" friend, Ellie. Glory is happy to be graduating from high school in a few days: she wants to get away from all that is trivial and tedious. Why bother having anyone sign her yearbook? There's no point.

The only thing Glory likes is taking photographs; that was about all her mom liked, too, it seems. So when Ellie - often the holder of illogical and harebrained ideas - suggests that the two girls drink the remains of a dead bat, Glory decides to comply. What's the harm? Ellie had joked that the dead bat was God. Ellie is just plain weird.

Here's the good news: neither girl gets sick from drinking dead bat remains. But there's bad news, and it's literally "the future": the future that you and I will inhabit, if we live long enough. Both girls start seeing visions of it, and it's no place that women would want to live in.

Glory O'Brien's History of the Future by A.S. King. 307 p. 2014. Little, Brown. Booktalk to upper high school: contains mature themes.

Book talk: What's Your Favorite Animal? by Eric Carle and Friends

Eric Carle's Fiffi

Think of your favorite authors: they all have favorite animals, just as you do. Remember The Very Hungry Caterpillar author, Eric Carle? He had a cat named Fiffi who loved string beans. Eric could play fetch with her, throwing the string beans! At one point, Fiffi picked up a string bean, walked into a closet, put the string bean in his shoe, and fell asleep, curled around the shoe!

His eye reminds me of the Pigeon's eye!

Remember how funny Mo Willems' Pigeon books are? Mo Willems is just as funny. [Read his favorite animal out loud.] Where is that animal in this picture? [Wait for responses.] Right: it's in the stomach of the snake!

[Show Leopard by Lucy Cousins but cover up her name.] One of the authors loves leopards. Does this illustration style look familiar to you? [Wait.] This author loves red, yellow, and outlining in black. Right: it's the author of the Maisy books -- Lucy Cousins.

Have you read This is Not My Hat or I Want My Hat Back? Jon Klassen has a great, sly sense of humor. I'm not going to tell you his favorite animal, but try to guess it before you read this book. There is a great list of author biographies in the back: you get to see what the authors looked like as children and learn more about them.

What's Your Favorite Animal? by Eric Carle, Nick Bruel, Susan Jeffers, Steven Kellog, Jon Klassen, Tom Lichtenheld, Peter McCarthy, Chris Raschka, Peter Sis, Lane Smith, Erin Stead, Rosemary Wells, Mo Willems. Unpaged. 2014: Henry Holt and Company. Booktalk to K-2.