Bella and Stella Come Home

Written by Anika Denise

Illustrated by Christopher Denise

Philomel, 2010

$16.99, ages 3-8, 40 pages

A little girl braves the unknown of her new home with the help of her pudgy elephant toy, who grows to life-size when no one else is looking.

In this adorably illustrated book by the creators of Pigs Love Potatoes, a timid girl with pigtails puts on a happy face for her toy so that he doesn't feel as scared as she is.

As Bella leaves her old house with her stuffed elephant, Stella, clutched in her arm, she tries to act strong but inside her head is swirling with worry.

Counting every step leading out of the house, Bella looks back at the porch with sad eyes and assures her toy that everything will be okay.

But it's hard to let go of a house that's a home and through a car window Bella watches her home shrink away until there's nothing left to see.

Elsie's Bird

By Jane Yolen

Illustrated by David Small

Philomel Books, 2010

$17.99, ages 4-8, 40 pages

Worried she'll lose herself in the silence of the prairie, Elsie hides away in her Nebraska house until a pet canary gives her the courage to reach out to the wild world around her.

In this stellar collaboration by Caldecott winners Yolen and Small, a motherless girl is uprooted from the only home she knows and learns to connect to a new way of life by opening her senses to the subtle sounds of the grasslands.

Elsie never wanted to leave her home in Boston. She loved the raucous sound of gulls, the clop of horse hooves and the trill of city song birds. With pigtails flying, she would jump rope and sing the birds' songs back to them.

But after Elsie's mama died, Papa couldn't shake his sadness. He longed to get away from Boston and any reminders of what used to be, so he tells Elsie, his only child, that they will head west to find happiness again.

Elsie, however, isn't anxious to leave and she's surprised by how far they have to travel by train. As one day of travel slips into another, Elsie worries about what awaits her and wonders if she should have stayed behind with her grandparents.

But having lost her mother, Elsie couldn't have parted from Papa. So she tries to focus on her canary, Timmy Tune, who sings to her from his birdcage, though even he can't distract her from the clack of train wheels, which seems to go on and on.

When they finally arrive in Nebraska, their sod home is 10 miles from any town and looks as lonely as Elsie feels. "Here there is only grass and sky and silence," she writes to Nana and Nonny. At night the only thing Elsie hears is her own crying.