Thank You, School by Louise Borden (author) and Paige Keiser (illustrator) (Holiday House). “THANK YOU to our classroom teachers…who call us All-Stars. Our morning zip zips by like a train on its way. Listen. Can you hear it? Pencils sharpening, computers clicking, pages turning, voices reading, seeds growing, maps showing, books closing…the hum of our thinking. So many people — from bus drivers to janitors to cafeteria workers — make school possible, and in this simple story, young students celebrate all of them!

The Little Red Hen Learns How to Ask for Help by Jasmine Sears (author) and Amelia Mangham (illustrator) (Electryon Press). Yet again, the beleaguered chicken does all the work and bakes her own bread. Must it be this way? “That night, the Little Red Hen thought about how her day could have gone better. Why did everyone say no? She realized she should have asked for help differently.” Sometimes, just saying “please” — and asking the right friend for a hand with the right job — can turn a situation completely around!

Fourteen Ways of Looking at Jellyfish by Carole Boston Weatherford (author) and Bagram Ibatoulline (illustrator) (Candlewick). The sixth way of looking at the gossamer menaces: “With sheer wonder. How can a creature exist without a brain, heart, blood, or bones? Because they are a bundle of nerves.” That’s just one of the dozen-plus entries in this surprisingly mesmerizing, lushly illustrated volume that will change the way you think about the ocean’s most unusual inhabitant!