Kids Can Press Hachette

Chester is more than a picture book. It is a story told, and retold, by dueling author-illustrators. Mélanie Watt starts out with the story of a mouse in a house. Then Mélanie's cat, Chester, sends the mouse packing and proceeds to cover the pages with rewrites from his red marker, and the gloves are off.Mélanie and her mouse won't take Chester's antics lying down. And Chester is obviously a creative powerhouse with confidence to spare. Where will this war of the picture-book makers lead? Is it a one-way ticket to Chesterville, or will Mélanie get her mouse production off the ground?

Chester's finally ready to write his own masterpiece --- he just needs to get Mélanie Watt out of the way! A wry take on the creative process and how good stories are constructed.When Chester (the cat) announces he's taking over for Mélanie Watt on this book due to some technical difficulties*, Mélanie begs to differ. She tells him that no one will want to publish his messy book. And she demands that he return her supplies so she can get to work. Chester insists he can create the best, most original story anyone has ever read in their entire nine lives. Only, his attempts don't quite work. Even with Mélanie's prodding, Chester struggles to find his own story to tell. Hmm ... will the real author and illustrator have the last laugh after all?*Mélanie's art supplies and computer mouse have mysteriously gone missing.Here's another hilarious Chester picture book from award-winning and bestselling author-illustrator Mélanie Watt. The story is told through the dialogue between Watt, who communicates on sticky notes, and Chester, whose comments are tucked around his creations, which sprawl across the spreads and include loads of tape, staples, and torn-out notebook paper. Chester himself, as drawn by Watt, and his trusty red marker dominate the action, and the pure silly fun makes this a popular read-aloud. Bits of humor can be found all over the pages --- including running commentary from an actual mouse --- encouraging visual literacy. With its wry take on the creative process and how good stories are constructed, this is also a perfect companion to lessons on the parts of story, including genre, setting, plot and characters. 

The 2nd Edition of the best-selling book which has sold over 400 000 copies in 17 languages - updated with new content and insights about the world's people.First published to wide acclaim in 2002, this eye-opening book has since become a classic, promoting “world-mindedness” by imagining the world's population - all 6.8 billion of us - as a village of just 100 people. Now, If the World Were a Village has been newly revised with updated statistics, several new activities and completely new material on food security, energy and health. By exploring the lives of the 100 villagers, children will discover that life in other nations is often very different from their own.If the World Were a Village is part of CitizenKid: A collection of books that inform children about the world and inspire them to be better global citizens.

For his birthday celebration, Nick has challenged his friends --- Yulee, Sally, Pedro and Martin --- to spend the day without using any single-use plastic. This means they use their own cloth bags for shopping, they say no thanks to plastic straws and, instead of balloons, they decorate with kites and streamers made of natural materials. The children discover that not using plastic is not that hard. They also learn about what plastic is made of, how much of it surrounds us and how it's polluting our oceans and affecting the food chain. Most importantly, the five friends learn ways to use less --- including just saying NO! The book concludes with fun ideas for readers to do a No-Plastic Challenge of their own!This friendly introduction to a timely and urgent topic is part of Scot Ritchie's popular Exploring Our Community series. It will raise awareness of just how much plastic we use every day, and why that matters. Rather than focusing on the negative, however, the book takes a positive, proactive approach to the subject, empowering children with ideas for what they can do about it. As with all the books in the series, this one features friendly, appealing illustrations and the same diverse cast of characters. It has strong curriculum ties in science, including environmental awareness, sustainability and stewardship. It also offers terrific character education lessons in responsibility, citizenship and initiative.