Magical May Picks

This month young readers are sure to be enchanted by the bounty of Clover’s flyover. Bringing students the very best, Clover’s thrilled to introduce her “Magical May Picks.”

There’s no time like the present to gift yourself a good book and make reading a daily goal. The payoff comes with increased knowledge, hours of delightful entertainment, and the chance to meet enticing characters you might have a lot in common with.

Be cool—make reading a habit. Check out my picks at your community library or local bookshop.

Page On—enjoy!

The Community Literacy Foundation, in partnership with Neighborhood Reads, and with support from its sponsors, provides these books at no cost to 34 schools in Washington, Union, Pacific, St. Clair and surrounding communities and to the Washington Public Library. Learn more at CommunityLiteracyFoundation.org.

Youngest Read

Wispy and ethereal, “The Wildest Thing” is a beauty written and illustrated by Emily Winfield Martin, a lovely read that focuses on a girl with the “wild inside of her.”

Nature and animal lover “Eleanor loved wild things, every wing and wild sprout.” She took pleasure in the outdoors and relished nature’s inhabitants, those that flew, swam, crawled and hopped.

One night, with the full moon lighting up the sky, her mother calls her to come in for bed. “That night she dreamed of things, things with fur and fin.”

Her dream becomes a visual delight as Eleanor wakes and discovers the “wild has come in.” Eleanor’s bed and room come alive with bunnies by the dozens, hopping in through an open window. That isn’t the only place in the house with woodland creatures—her kitchen is overrun with scampering squirrels.

Eleanor’s wild adventure compounds ten-fold as she moves outdoors and sprouts the wings of a butterfly to take to the skies. In Eleanor’s fantasy, the child imitates many of her beloved animals’ movements and sounds until all of a sudden “… it was quiet in her head.”

“The Wildest Thing” celebrates the independent spirit of a girl with a vivid imagination that turns her ordinary world into a wild and beautiful place. That’s a mind to be celebrated!

Buy the book at Neighborhood Reads

Middle Read

Prospectors in the olden days would mine for gold, but in Clover’s middle pick folks dig “in the ground for Answers.” This fantastical premise kicks off “When You Find a Question,” a clever picture book that makes us stop and think by Allie Millington.

While the townspeople mostly unearthed Answers, sometimes a Question materialized instead. The Questions perplexed people and were ignored. Afterall, who wants a Question when an Answer is the be-all, end-all.

The usual trend of digging for Answers changes when a boy pulls a Question from the ground and is so struck by the wonder of the glowing orb that “he slipped the Question into his pocket.” There it remained as the boy mulled over what to do. Day and night he pondered and as he did “his Question grew and grew…”

The boy wondered if he should “let his Question out.” But he was afraid of what the outcome would be. Would others mock and laugh at him—then he took a “big, brave breath.”

The Answer to what happens creates big changes in the townspeople, and opens up new worlds for everyone. The changes are reflected in art by Anne Lambelet, her illustrations gradually getting lighter and brighter in color as the pages turn. This one’s solid gold!

Buy the book at Neighborhood Reads

Oldest Read

What could be more exciting than a quest? For 12-year-old Bernadette the Brave, the main character in the “A Potion, A Powder, a Little Bit of Magic,” nothing beats finding Lancelot, a runaway goat, a feat strewn with complications and a cast of silly what’s-its.

For belly laughs, dive into this zany read set in the medieval land of royalty by Philip Stead, who usually creates picture books but has pulled a middle-grade novel out of his brain as expertly as a magician pulls a rabbit out of a hat.

Rather than beginning at the beginning, Stead opts to have the author, one of the book’s characters, start his tale in the middle. This immediately launches readers into the action of the quest, with Bernadette going down the River of Uncertainty in a wooden boat that used to be a tree. Along the way, the pair will add another passenger, a magician with a terrible memory.

Before this adventure, Bernadette was a goatherd for 24 goats who served as the foundation for a castle the king had built after his original was decimated in a siege. When Lancelot, one of the goats goes missing, the castle’s balance is thrown off kilter, threatening the mighty fortress.

Bernadette must find this irritable goat—a life is at stake—the life of her dearest friend, a turtle being held captive in the castle dungeon.

It’s a laugh a minute with “A Potion, A Powder, a Little Bit of Magic,” a feel-good potion for all ages. If you’re looking for a picker-upper, let Bernadette be your guide in this A+ original tale.

Buy the book at Neighborhood Reads

Written by Chris Stuckenschneider.

Copyright 2026, Community Literacy Foundation.