Ladybug Longlist: Books About Books

All the Books by Hayley Rocco

"Charming and adorable ode to readers, books and libraries." -- nominator

The Dictionary Story by Oliver Jeffers & Sam Winston

"This is a clever book about a dictionary wanting to tell a story. I think it would be a great way to remind students of what a dictionary was/is used for while adding humor." -- nominator

This post is one of a series of 15 "bite-sized" pieces into which we have divided the 2025 Ladybug Picture Book Award Long List to help NH librarians consider all the potential nominees. Please review the full list (or wait until we have covered all the titles) before you cast your vote as you can only vote once.

Ladybug Longlist: Art

The Artivist by Nikkolas Smith

"This book calls readers to action and lets them know that their actions can make a change and that there are different ways to take action.  The illustrations are beautiful." -- nominator

Programmed to Paint by Mauricio Abril

"An interesting twist on the dilemma of trying to be perfect- great perspective and humor!" -- nominator

This post is one of a series of 15 "bite-sized" pieces into which we have divided the 2025 Ladybug Picture Book Award Long List to help NH librarians consider all the potential nominees. Please review the full list (or wait until we have covered all the titles) before you cast your vote as you can only vote once.

Ladybug Longlist: Animals

G.O.A.T. Greatest of All Time by Jol Temple & Kate Temple

"A humorous take on acronyms that will be very familiar with kids!" -- nominator

The Man Who Didn't Like Animals by Deborah Underwood

"This is a sweet book about how Old MacDonald came to be.  It is a predictable story with a sequence that students all ages will be able to follow." -- nominator

The Midnight Panther (A Poonam Mistry Fable) by Poonam Mistry

"A beautifully illustrated book! The fable is timeless- a panther not believing they are as worthy as other wildcats. Simply written so the illustrations take center stage. Gorgeous!" -- nominator

More Dung!: A Beetle Tale by Frank Weber

"This is a fantastic read aloud, very funny, but has a heartfelt message at the end (don't be greedy).  Very similar to Jon Klassan and Peter Brown books.  They also have some nonfiction facts at the end." -- nominator

Parrotfish Has a Superpower by Jill Esbaum

"It’s a nonfiction title that makes a great read aloud, would be engaging to all grade levels that vote on this award. It’s a good length and can be used as a springboard to research for students." -- nominator 

Seals Are Jerks! by Jared Chapman

"This book addresses a child's perspective of right and wrong, as well as attributing human ethics to the natural world. Very humorous and relatable." -- nominator 

Spider in the Well by Jess Hannigan

"This book has bold, engaging illustrations and a questionable moral compass. Will prompt discussions about right vs wrong and what it means to be a "good guy" or a "bad guy." -- nominator

This post is one of a series of 15 "bite-sized" pieces into which we have divided the 2025 Ladybug Picture Book Award Long List to help NH librarians consider all the potential nominees. Please review the full list (or wait until we have covered all the titles) before you cast your vote as you can only vote once.

Book of the Week (1/20/2025)

Healing a Village: A Practical Guide to Building Recovery Ready Communities by Mark Lefebvre (Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2025)

This book is about hope. Over 107,000 fellow Americans died in 2023 from drug overdoses and another 178,000 died from excessive alcohol use. Lethal illicit drugs such as fentanyl, methamphetamine, and xylazine are showing up on our streets and poisoning our fellow citizens, including those who may not even intend to use these toxic synthetic drugs.

Healing a Village details a plan to build recovery capacity within a community to remove barriers and improve access to service for individuals and families seeking help from addiction. The author provides real-life examples of successful community coalitions that have delivered positive outcomes for their communities—from prevention, to harm reduction, to treatment, to recovery support. Lefebvre, the author, shares from his own experiences, “When I exited our local hospital following a 4-day detox, there were no treatment and recovery resources within my community. I was forced to travel to the west coast for treatment. That is no longer the case in my community today.” A case study of the Greater Portsmouth (NH) Recovery Coalition provides a deep dive on each of the elements of a Recovery Ready Community. The author uses personal struggles and successes in building recovery coalitions to validate the book’s thesis of hope. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Mark Lefebvre is the founder and statewide director for the Maine Recovery Friendly Workplace (RFW) program, where his focus is on building statewide capacity to recruit, train and support Maine businesses as Recovery Friendly Workplaces. In his prior role as the Pinetree Director of Community Engagement, Mark was responsible for the development of Recovery Ready Communities in the Seacoast of NH and southern ME.

Before joining the Pinetree Institute, Mark served as program director for the NH Works for Recovery program at Southern NH Services. He oversaw outreach and delivery of employment and training services to individuals and families affected by the New Hampshire opioid crisis and helped launch New Hampshire’s Recovery Friendly Workplace program. Previously, he had served on NH Governor Sununu’s Commission as a member of both the Prevention and Recovery Task Forces.

Mark Lefebvre is a person in long-term recovery from addiction and is the author of the book A Place in Time: Youth, Community & Baseball, a consultant, a radio DJ, and a podcast producer. Mark and his wife Vivian are co-founders of Safe Harbor Recovery Center in Portsmouth, NH, and live on the Seacoast of New Hampshire with their yellow lab mix rescue dog, Layla.

Ladybug Longlist: Adventure

Barnaby Unboxed! by Terry Fan, Eric Fan & Devin Fan

"Beautiful story and illustrations that provide a perfect message to all!" -- nominator

The Book That Almost Rhymed by Omar Abed

"This is an (almost) rhyming story told by a brother and sister. She finished his rhymes, but not as he expects. This leads them on a wild, funny adventure!" -- nominator

The Knight Snacker by Valeria Wicker

"I chose this book because it’s appealing and relatable to the age range of children that select the Ladybug Award. It’s a fun read aloud that will be enjoyed by kindergarten all the way to grade 3." -- nominator

The Spaceman by Randy Cecil

"My students like exploring the illustrations -- and the slobbery dog!" -- nominator

This post is one of a series of 15 "bite-sized" pieces into which we have divided the 2025 Ladybug Picture Book Award Long List to help NH librarians consider all the potential nominees. Please review the full list (or wait until we have covered all the titles) before you cast your vote as you can only vote once.

Ladybug Picture Book Award 2025 Longlist

Since mid-December we have collected potential nominations from NH librarians for the 2025 Ladybug Picture Book Award and are now ready to gather votes from NH's librarians on which of the 73 titles suggested belong on the final list of nominees for this year's award. If you work in a public or school library in NH you are invited to vote on the nominees.

Before you vote you will want to review the long list of suggested titles and decide on your selections. You can vote for up to 5 titles from the long list. There will be a second round of voting when this round closes. The top vote-getters from this survey will be put up to another vote by the NH library community to select the very best choices for our list.

Starting Monday, 1/20/25 and the next 14 weekdays after, we will be posting groups of the long list nominees for your consideration. These are sets of books grouped by theme to help you consider all the books in more manageable batches. The topics are, in many cases, only one aspect of what the book is "about" and many books could have gone into multiple topics, but we wanted to provide "bite-sized pieces" of the rather long long list and these themes let us group the titles so that no post has too many books in it.

PLEASE NOTE that you can only vote once from your device (phone, computer, whatever you use to browse the web) so don't go to the survey to see your choices, do that from the long list, as you will not be able to go back again to vote.

Once you have reviewed the options and made your choices you will cast your vote online. 

You may vote between now and Sunday, February 23, 2025. 

We expect to announce the second round of nominee voting here on the blog in early March.

Dublin Longlist 2025

The Dublin Literary Award 2025 Longlist featuring 71 books nominated by 83 libraries (including NHSL) from 34 countries around the world has been announced. 

The shortlist will be announced on March 25, 2025 and the winning book on May 22, 2025.