We asked more than 200 teachers,children's authors,and children's literature experts to name the best picture books ever.We made a list based on their advice.Here are some of the books in the list.

    If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff,illustrated by Felicia Bond

    Who it's for: Grades PreK-2

    What it's about: Oh,that hungry mouse.Once you give him the cookie,he will ask for a glass of milk,and then a straw（吸管）and then...The action is unstoppable!In the end,the mouse and the boy that gives him the cookie (and perhaps the reader) are extremely exhausted!With terrific pictures and a wonderful lead character,this book shouldn't be missed by little kids.

The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson,illustrated by E.B.Lewis

    Who it's for: Grades 1-4

    What it's about: This is a story about a fence（篱笆）that divides a white neighborhood from a black one and two little girls whose need for play and friendship allow them to cross it.It has a very deep theme.

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen,illustrated by John Schoenherr

    Who it's for: Grades 1-5

    What it's about: A classic example of child's expanding a simple walk into a glorious adventure.As a girl and her father hike through the moonlit night,the creatures they come across become exciting companions（同伴）for their owl hunt.

    The Snowman by Raymond Briggs

    The only wordless story on our list.

    Who it's for: Grades PreK-2

    What it's about:A great book to lead a child into reading.A fanciful story of a boy who makes and then befriends a snowman who both enters his world and takes him out for fun.

    Kieron Graham has known from a young age that he was adopted. While he loves his adoptive family, he has always wondered about his birth mother and brother. When his adoptive mom gave him a DNA test tool, they both hoped it might lead to his birth family. But neither guessed it would work so quickly, or that when it did, Graham would learn he and his long-lost brother may have crossed paths every day.

    It took just one week from the time Graham, a college student at Georgia's Kennesaw State University, received his DNA results on Ancestry.com for him to connect with his brother. Graham's DNA results showed that his closest match was a man named Vincent Ghant, and it turned out Ghant lived just a few minutes away.

Graham reached out and learned that the two were in fact long-lost brothers. Their mother, Shawn Ghant, made the difficult decision to place Kieron in adoptive care when he was just a baby. And she has worried and wondered about her youngest son ever since. Graham has since been reunited with his mother and both of his brothers on his mother's side.

    “It's all surreal(离奇的), too many emotions to describe exactly what I'm feeling about the entire situation, but it's a good situation,” Graham tells MNN.

    As fate would have it, Kieron and Vincent are both students at Kennesaw State. They even have the same major: political science. So it's a safe bet the two crossed paths many times over the past three years. And now, thanks to some DNA sleuthing(筛查), the two will cross paths many more times in the years to come.

    “We're getting together on Christmas with everyone, birth mother included,” Graham says. “That's sure to be a very indelible Christmas indeed, which will always be treasured by us.”

    The world is too big to take in all at once. To make sense and beauty of it, you have to look at a small part at a time.

    In using a camera, you choose a small part through he view finder. You move the camera, "framing" pictures until you see one that pleases you. Then-click! If you make a good choice, your picture will please others, as well as yourself.

    "Wherever you are," says photographer Ernst Haas, "you are surrounded by pictures. The trick is to recognize them." His photograph of a twist of barbed wire shows what he means.

    Mr. Haas tells us of ways to practice seeing. Make a simple frame of black cardboard. Take it out of the doors and look through it at everyday things, large or small, far away or near.

    At first you may see nothing to interest you. But soon pictures seem to leap (跳) at you through the frame. Oil floating on water makes a picture in rainbow colors. Three people on the steps of an old house form a picture that seems to tell a story.

    Did you notice such things before you used the frame? Perhaps not. But, with practice, you soon do not need its help. You see things as artists do. Everywhere, shapes and colors catch your eye. Your mind takes "snapshots (快照)" of their patterns. Then, if you wish, you can share what you see by taking a photograph or by making a drawing or a painting.

    Sometimes it's fun to "see small". Did you ever notice the design of the seeds in sliced bananas? Have you looked deep inside a lily? Or seen the starburst in the center of a wet ice cube?

    Do you see colors as they really are? When you paint tree trunks, you would make them brown or black. But tree trunks are really gray, purple, yellow-green—almost any color except brown or black!

    Do you notice detail? Doing so can be in many ways. Remembering what you see is often useful, too. Practice can help you.

    A trick for helping you to remember detail is the double take. Look—don't look—then look again.

    Alan Naiman was known for being very careful about how he spent his money. But even those closest to him had no knowledge of the fortune he quietly gathered and the last act he had planned.

    Naiman died of cancer at age 63 last January. The man from the American state of Washington gave most of his money to groups that help the poor, sick, disabled and abandoned children.

    He gave them $11 million. The large amount of his fortune shocked the groups that received his gifts and even his best friends. That is because Naiman had been known to repair his own shoes with duct tape. He had sought deals to buy food from grocery stores at closing time and taken friends out to lunch at low cost restaurants.

    Naiman died unmarried and childless. He loved children but also was intensely private. He saved, invested and worked extra jobs to gather money. He rarely spent the money on himself after seeing how unfair life could be for children who suffer most.

    Naiman was a former banker who worked for the past 20 years at the state Department of Social and Health Services. He earned $67,234 a year and also took on side jobs. Sometimes, he worked as many as three at a time. He saved and invested enough to make several millions of dollars. He also received millions more from his parents after they died.

    He left $2.5 million to the Pediatric Interim Care Center in Washington. The center is a private organization that cares for babies born to mothers who abused drugs and children with drug dependency. The center used the money to pay off its mortgage (按揭) and buy a new vehicle to transport the children.

    Naiman gave $900, 000 to the Treehouse, where children without parents can choose toys and necessities for free. Treehouse is using Naiman's money to expand its college and career support services Statewide.

    One day after school, Bill walked past the shop on the street corner as usual. He stopped to look at the front row of shoes, and he felt sorry for himself.

    He really wanted to have a new pair for his birthday. He sadly walked away and

    thought of how to tell his mother. He knew she would give him anything if she could. But he also knew she had little money. He decided not to go home at once, because he looked worried and he didn't want his mother to worry about him. So he went to the park and sat on the grass. Then he saw a girl in a wheelchair. He found that the girl moved the wheels with her hands. Bill looked at her carefully and was surprised to see that the girl had no feet.

    He looked down at his own feet. "It was much better to be without shoes than without feet," he thought. It was not right for him to feel so sorry and sad. He went away and smiled, thinking he was luckier in life.

Sonya took Rupert, a rescue dog, back home three years ago, and soon found it liked attacking strangers and other animals, which she believed was caused by pain.

It took Sonya a year to develop a normal relationship with Rupert, during which she learned it was afraid of being left alone and also couldn't walk properly. Finally, she decided to take it to see a vet (兽医). After examining Rupert, the vet said its leg was broken, and it needed an immediate operation.

But when it had to go in for an operation on its leg, there was a problem—the vet Mike couldn't get near the dog. Mike and Sonya were left scratching their heads until one of them came up with an idea. Sonya said Rupert slept on a mouse suit so she suggested that Mike put it on.

At first, the dog barked wildly when Mike tried to operate on it in usual clothes. To make his patient feel at ease, Mike decided to dress up in the mouse clothes to see if it would be less worried. Amazingly, it worked. It stopped barking and immediately became good friends with Mike when he put on the suit. As a result, he was able to perform an operation on the leg safely and the result was quite satisfying.

After the successful operation, Mike hugged the dog around the neck, which isn't usually well-received by pets. Mike tried to be as respectful of its needs as possible and made time to give some attention. What Mike had done created a special experience or event in the dog's life.