New Releases by Maribeth Boelts

A vibrant, loving tribute to the good that dogs do—especially everyday heroes like Coco, who comfort humans experiencing hardship, trauma, and loss. Coco is a dog who can cuddle. He’s not like Luna, who lives with cheetahs at the zoo, or super sniffer Lucky or Jax the lifeguard dog. From cattle dogs to four-footed movie stars, there is no end to canine achievement. But Coco, in his special vest, is no less exceptional: he can bring comfort to a person with a fearful, lonely, or hurting heart. His cuddling makes others feel stronger and less alone. From a beloved picture book author and a gifted illustrator, this irresistible tribute to the therapeutic genius of dogs brims with warmth and humor. With art that captures the energy of accomplished canines at work and at play (often at the same time), this joyful roundup of talented pooches—punctuated every couple of pages by a cuddle with Coco—will send you straight to the couch for a snuggle with someone special.

“Boelts lays out Ruben’s ethical dilemma and emotional turmoil without preaching, and his struggle toward the moral choice . . . is both dramatic and genuine.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) Ruben feels like he is the only kid without a bike. His friend Sergio reminds him that his birthday is coming, but Ruben knows his family can’t afford that. So when Ruben sees a dollar bill fall out of someone’s purse, he picks it up and puts it in his pocket. But when he gets home, he discovers it’s not one dollar or even five or ten — it’s a hundred-dollar bill, more than enough for a new bike just like Sergio’s! Finders keepers, right? Presenting a relatable story with subtlety and heart, the creative team behind Those Shoes pairs up again for a story about how hard it can be to do the right thing.

Beetle gives Stick Bug an attention-grabbing coat for his birthday—but is that what Stick Bug really wants? A delightful story about friends learning to understand each other. It’s almost Stick Bug’s birthday, and his fashionable friend Beetle can’t wait to give him his present—a purple puffy coat! The coat draws a lot of attention and makes Stick Bug really stick out in the crowd. Beetle thinks that’s terrific! He brings Stick Bug all over town, happily boasting and bragging (while Stick Bug waits behind a tree, in a pile of leaves, or under a bench). Oh, dear—maybe Stick Bug isn’t as wild about the purple puffy coat as Beetle is! What can the two friends do? Charming illustrations bring to life both characters’ endearing struggles in this warm and humorous story about learning to pay attention to what makes your friend happy rather than what makes you happy.

"Unexpected emotional depth. . . . A thought-provoking read-aloud." — Publishers Weekly (starred review) Nothing makes Sierra happy like soccer. Her shoes have flames as she spins the ball down the spread-out sea of grass. But nothing makes her sad like soccer, too, because the restaurant where her auntie works is busy on game days and she can’t take time off to watch Sierra play. With honesty and subtlety, author Maribeth Boelts and illustrator Lauren Castillo portray an endearing character in a moving, uplifting story that touches on the divides children navigate every day — and remind us that everyone needs someone to cheer them on from the sidelines.

You''ve heard of the Gingerbread boy, but what about his pup? This fun Step 3 early reader puts a great spin on the classic fairytale. Evalina desperately wants a dog, so she bakes one out of gingerbread and he springs to life! But the gingerbread pup gets into mischief all over town and Evalina must find a way to catch him if she can! This is the latest enchanting fractured fairy tale from the author of early readers Pupunzel, Dogerella, and, The Fairy Dogmother. Step 3 Readers feature engaging characters in easy-to-follow plots about popular topics. For children who are ready to read on their own.

The author of Those Shoes and an award-winning illustrator team up for the story of a girl who tries to overcome her fear of bees to see how amazing they are. Kaia is the brave type. Like hottest-hot-pepper brave. But there is one thing that scares her: BEES! And right now, thousands of bees live on her roof because Kaia’s dad is a beekeeper. Her dad says that the world needs bees and that’s why they are beekeepers. But only he goes on the roof, not Kaia — unless she can find a way to be the brave girl she always says she is. Against a sunny city setting, author Maribeth Boelts and illustrator Angela Dominguez depict Kaia’s small courageous steps — and her tiny insect neighbors — with great empathy and charm. Buzzing with storytime potential, Kaia and the Bees is an honest and relatable tale about bravery and compassion, as well as the importance of bees to our world.

The author of Those Shoes and an award-winning illustrator team up for the story of a girl who tries to overcome her fear of bees to see how amazing they are. Kaia es de los valientes. Valiente como el más picante de los chiles picantes. Pero solo hay una cosa que la asusta: ¡las abejas! Y en este momento miles de abejas viven en su azotea porque el papá de Kaia es un apicultor. Su papá dice que el mundo necesita abejas y por eso ellos son apicultores. Pero solo él va a la azotea donde están las abejas. Kaia no. ¿Podrá ella encontrar la forma de ser la niña valiente que siempre dice que es? De la autora Maribeth Boelts y la ilustradora Angela Dominguez nos llega esta historia sincera y cercana sobre la valentía, la compasión y la importancia de las abejas para nuestro mundo. Kaia is the brave type. Like hottest-hot-pepper brave. But there is one thing that scares her: BEES! And right now, thousands of bees live on her roof because Kaia’s dad is a beekeeper. Her dad says that the world needs bees and that’s why they are beekeepers. But only he goes on the roof, not Kaia — unless she can find a way to be the brave girl she always says she is. Against a sunny city setting, author Maribeth Boelts and illustrator Angela Dominguez depict Kaia’s small courageous steps — and her tiny insect neighbors — with great empathy and charm. Buzzing with storytime potential, Kaia and the Bees is an honest and relatable tale about bravery and compassion, as well as the importance of bees to our world.

ཏོག་དབྱིབས་གཉན་རིམས་ཀྱི་རྐྱེན་པས་སློབ་གྲྭ་གུང་སེང་དང། ཐེམ་སྤང་བཀའ་རྒྱའི་གནས་སྟངས་འོག གུས་བསྟན་འཛིན་རང་གྲོལ་གྱིས་པཱ་ལགས་ཀྱི་ལམ་སྟོན་བཞིན་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱི་དགའ་མོས་ཅན་གྱི་དབྱིན་སྒྲུང་ཁག་བོད་ཡིག་ནང་བསྒྱུར་ཏེ་ནང་དོན་དང་འཚམ་པའི་རི་མོ་ཡང་རང་ངོས་ནས་བྲིས་ཏེ་ཕྱོགས་སྒྲིག་བྱས་པར་སྔ་ཕྱི་བར་གསུམ་དུ་ཞུས་དག་དང་། བསྔགས་བརྗོད། ལམ་སྟོན་གནང་མཁན་ཚང་མར་སྙིང་དབུས་ནས་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ་ཞུ་བ་དང་། གུས་པའི་སྒྲུང་དེབ་འདི་དག་རང་མཉམ་བྱིས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དགའ་མོས་ཡོང་བར་སྨོན།།

Beetle gives Stick Bug an attention-grabbing coat for his birthday-but is that what Stick Bug really wants?

Finders keepers, right? When Ruben picks up someone’s lost money, he finds out how hard it can be to do the right thing. Ruben feels like he is the only kid without a bike. His friend Sergio reminds him that his birthday is coming, but Ruben knows that the kinds of birthday gifts he and Sergio receive are not the same. After all, when Ruben’s mom sends him to Sonny’s corner store for groceries, sometimes she doesn’t have enough money for everything on the list. So when Ruben sees a dollar bill fall out of someone’s purse, he picks it up and puts it in his pocket. But when he gets home, he discovers it’s not one dollar or even five or ten—it’s a hundred-dollar bill, more than enough for a new bike just like Sergio’s! But what about the crossed-off groceries? And what about the woman who lost her money? Presenting a relatable story told with subtlety and heart, the creative team behind Those Shoes pairs up again for a satisfying picture book.

"Sueno con esos zapatos. Altos, negros. Dos franjas blancas. Todo lo que Jeremy quiere es un par de esos zapatos, como los que llevan puestos los otros chicos de su escuela. Pero su abuela le explica que ellos no estan para hablar de quiero, sino de necesito, y lo que Jeremy necesita son unas botas nuevas para el invierno"--

Cinderella had a fairy godmother. Did you know that dogs have a fairy dogmother? From the author of Pupunzel and Dogerella comes another enchanting fractured fairy tale for beginning readers! When a homeless little dog is adopted by Fairy Godmother, the scruffy pup gets to observe and learn magic firsthand! Before long, Ivy the dog is casting spells—with comical results. Something is missing . . . fairy dust! Once Fairy Godmother sprinkles fairy dust on her kindhearted dog, Ivy is able to help other dogs in need. Step 3 Readers feature engaging characters in easy-to-follow plots about popular topics, for children who are ready to read on their own.

“Castillo’s quiet ink-and-watercolor spreads make it clear that Sierra’s situation is different from that of the other girls. . . . A thought-provoking read-aloud.” — Publishers Weekly Nada hace tan feliz a sierra como el fútbol. Sobre todo, cuando sus zapatillas con llamas hacen que el balón ruede por el inmenso mar de grama limpia. Pero, al mismo tiempo, nada la pone tan triste como el fútbol porque su tía no puede sacar tiempo libre del trabajo para ir a los partidos. Sierra quisiera que alguien que la conozca pudiese ir a gritar su nombre cuando ella juega, y no solo gritar el número de su uniforme. Una historia tierna de cómo una niña encuentra la mejor forma de unir las dos cosas que la hacen más feliz — el fútbol y su familia. Nothing makes Sierra happy like soccer. But nothing makes her sad like soccer, either, because the restaurant where her auntie works is busy on game days, so she can’t watch Sierra play. With honesty and subtlety, author Maribeth Boelts and illustrator Lauren Castillo portray an endearing character in a moving, uplifting story that touches on the divides children navigate every day—and reminds us that everyone needs someone to cheer them on from the sidelines. Now available in a Spanish edition!

Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty got their fractured-fairy-tale due in Dogerella and Sleeping Bootsie. Which princess is next to be puppy-fied? Rapunzel, of course! In this Step 3 send-up, a cocker spaniel named Pupunzel grows long golden fur when a witch takes her from her family and locks her in a tall tower. Will Pupunzel’s mama and brothers and sisters ever be able to rescue her from the tower? Or does Pupunzel have some tricks up her fur? Step 3 Readers feature engaging characters in easy-to-follow plots about popular topics. For children who are ready to read on their own.

Single title not for individual sale. Sold as part of larger package only.

Single title not for individual sale. Sold as part of larger package only.

Single title not for individual sale. Sold as part of larger package only.

Single title not for individual sale. Sold as part of larger package only.

Single title not for individual sale.

Single title not for individual sale. Sold as part of larger package only.

Single title not for individual sale. Sold as part of larger package only.

Single title not for individual sale. Sold as part of larger package only.

Single title not for individual sale. Sold as part of larger package only.

Traditional Chinese edition of Those Shoes, a 2007 Blue Ribbon Award book. In Traditional Chinese. Annotation copyright Tsai Fong Books, Inc. Distributed by Tsai Fong Books, Inc.