Books for children - May 6

"Thank You, Mr. Falker" written and illustrated by Patricia Polacco, Philomel, 40 pages

Read aloud: age 6 and older.

Read yourself: age 8 and older.

Based on Patricia Polacco's childhood, this story shares the pain of having a learning disability and the joy of overcoming it.

At first, Trisha loves school, but when she realizes she has difficulty reading, she begins to feel dumb. Letters and numbers look like wiggling shapes, and her classmates make fun of her. Trisha not only feels stupid, but her self-image rapidly deteriorates. It isn't until fifth grade that help arrives. With gentle guidance and perseverance, her teacher works with Trisha and helps her overcome her problem.

Library: Mystic & Noank Library, 40 Library St., Mystic

Library Director: Lois Hiller

Choices this week: "The Rattlebang Picnic" by Margaret Mahy; "The Relatives Came" by Cynthia Rylant; "Granny Torrelli Makes Soup" by Sharon Creech

"Dear America, The Diary of Hattie Campbell: Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie, The Oregon Trail, 1847" by Kristiana Gregory, Scholastic, 2012, 194 pages, $12.99 hardcover

Read aloud: age 8 and older.

Read yourself: age 10 and older.

Thirteen-year-old Hattie Campbell and her family have suffered the painful loss of Hattie's four sisters who died from swamp fever. Now, there are only three children - Hattie and her two younger brothers. When Pa says they are going to move from their home in Missouri to Oregon, Ma is not at all happy. Pa says it will be a fresh start.

The 2,000-mile trip will take a long time and require a lot of courage and perseverance, and Hattie records the events of their journey in her diary.

"STAY: The True Story of Ten Dogs" by Michaela Muntean, photos by K.C. Bailey and Stephen Kazmierski, Scholastic, 2012, 40 pages, $16.99

Read aloud: age 4 and older.

Read yourself: age 8, 9 and older.

Luciano Anastasini is a famous circus performer. The circus is the life he loves, but things change when Luciano falls 50 feet from the high wire and breaks so many bones the doctors tell him he will eventually heal but his days as an acrobat are over.

Luciano does odd jobs in the circus, and soon an idea for a circus act begins to take shape that will involve dogs. Luciano feels he has been given a second chance, and rather than find the dogs for his act through breeders, he decides to give a second chance to dogs that no one wants any more.

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