This is a squirrel . . . “Hey, I may be a squirrel, but my name is Taco! And I don't eat nuts and tree bark—blech—I prefer tacos!” The natural predator of squirrels is . . . “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Who is writing this book? I do not like where this is going.” This hilarious send-up of a children's nature primer teaches kids that the most important story is the one you write yourself.

Shirlee Squirrel needs a safe nest for her babies, far from the clutches of a menacing black cat! When she moves into a birdhouse designed to house wood ducks, she and her babies create "home sweet home" in a North Dakota backyard. Raising her children under the watchful eye of the nice man and womanâRudy and Willieâwhose yard they inhabit, Shirlee teaches young Sammy and Sally everything gray tree squirrels need to know. Retold by award-winning Arizona journalist Jana Bommersbach, Shirlee's true story speaks the universal language of love. Additionally, the book's accompanying curriculum and activity guides make it perfect for both home and classroom use, providing an entertaining, enriching learning experience. Winner of the Children's Picture Book Softcover Non-Fiction category at the 2013 USA Best Book Awards. Honorable Mentions at the 2013 Beach, New York, Animals Animals and Great Midwest Book Festivals!

Two lovable, but unlikely, friends try to get the job done. Sloth and Squirrel have different ways of doing things — and different speeds of doing them. So, when fast-as-lightning Squirrel gets himself and slow-as-molasses Sloth hired as pickle packers to earn money for a new bike, things don’t go according to plan. They’re so bad, in fact, that the friends are shown the door, along with the 677 1/2 jars of pickles they packed incorrectly! Now their bicycle dream is shot. Or so they think — until the resourceful pair come up with an ingenious plan! Whoever said fast and slow don’t go together didn’t know Sloth and Squirrel!

Looking at and listening to picture and story books is a ubiquitous activity, frequently enjoyed by many young children and their parents. Well before children can read for themselves they are able to learn from books. Looking at and listening to books increases children’s general knowledge, understanding about the world and promotes language acquisition. This collection of papers demonstrates the breadth of information pre-reading children learn from books and increases our understanding of the social and cognitive mechanisms that support this learning. Our hope is that this Research Topic/eBook will be useful for researchers as well as educational practitioners and parents who are interested in optimizing children’s learning.