Children

West Virginia authors Harshman and Ryan have written a delightful children’s book full of harvest time rhymes with lessons on colors and drawings based on their own organic garden. Children will love these richly illustrated images of the garden, from a snail’s eye view of the beets and eggplants to a bird’s eye view of the scarecrow. Red Are The Apples is a celebration of nature’s bounty, for children with gardens and without!

Melodious sounds that children might hear as day turns into night in various places around the world are presented in this lyrical go-to-sleep book. Softly hued, gentle paintings depict a young child, thinking of children just like him in far-away places listening to the reassuring sounds that surround them before they drift off to dreamland.

This beautifully illustrated children’s book is a wonderful learning tool for children to learn the alphabet and West Virginia history at the same time. With wonderful West Virginia themes such as V is for Vandalia and K is for Kanawha combined with historic facts and fun rhymes this book is perfect for children of all ages.

By car, pickup, minivan and motorcycle, members of a family go up, down and around the hills of West Virginia, heading for a family reunion at Grandma and Grandpa’s country home! This wonderful celebration of nature and family ends with a hayride and a hoedown. It’s all about country, music and family. Sing and read along with John Denver’s famous Take Me Home Country Roads music CD that comes with the hardcover edition of this beautifully illustrated children’s book.

Paul and Lloyd Stark, owners of the Stark Bro's Nursery in Missouri, were looking for the perfect apple. It would be sweet and juicy. It would bring them fame and fortune, and would be crowned Queen of the Apple World! Box after box arrived from farmers who were sure they had grown the perfect apple, but none of the apples was quite right. Meanwhile, many miles away in the hills of West Virginia, Anderson Mullins was inspecting his new farm. It had been a hot summer and everything was dry as dust.

The story of abolitionist John Brown comes alive for young readers in this wonderfully illustrated graphic novel. See John as a young man outraged by the injustices leveled at the slaves and his first stand against slavery in Kansas then on to Harper’s Ferry where he planned on seizing guns from a military installation to give to the slaves to use in the uprising he hoped would end slavery.

Beautifully illustrated by Al Milgrom, Bill Anderson, Charles Barnett III.

This selection is a wonderful masterpiece for children, and for the young at heart. Some people who grow up in Appalachia never leave. Those who do nearly always come back, and chances are they won't be able to tell you why. If you have never been to Appalachia, this book will give you a sense of the place and the people who live there. And if you are fortunate enough to know Appalachia well, you need no explanation — none at all. Winner of the Parents' Choice Award by the Parents' Choice Foundation! A Boston Globe-horn Book Nonfiction Award Winner! A Booklist Editors’ Choice!

For ages 8 to 12. Kino lives on a farm on the side of a mountain in Japan. His friend, Jiya, lives in a fishing village below. Everyone, including Kino and Jiya, has heard of the big wave. No one suspects it will wipe out the whole village and Jiya’s family, too. As Jiya struggles to overcome his sorrow, he understands it is in the presence of danger that one learns to be brave, and to appreciate how wonderful life can be.