Here are 74 books that Put A Wet Paper Towel on It fans have personally recommended if you like Put A Wet Paper Towel on It. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Owl Babies

Why am I passionate about this?

Lots of us rely occasionally on technology to help us entertain a young child, but the connection we form when looking at a book together cannot be beaten. I have found, both personally and professionally, that great books are born when a kind of magical mix-up is created in a child’s imagination between the words you read and the pictures they see. It feels so wonderful when this happens that they want to revisit the book again and again. I have written many books for young children over more than 20 years, and I am always striving to help cast that magical spell.

Fiona's book list on families and growing up–the funny bits, the comforting bits. . .and the scary bits

Fiona Munro Why Fiona loves this book

At some point, every child is in a situation, maybe just for a few seconds, where they are not totally sure that their parent is coming back. I can still remember the look on my kids’ faces on their first day at nursery school! That feeling is no different for the young owl siblings in this story, left alone in the dark woods when their mother flies off in search of food. 

I love the simplicity of this tale, and the language is beautiful. We often turned to it at bedtime in our house, and no matter how many times I read, “Soft and silent, she swooped through the trees to Sarah and Percy and Bill,” it never got old.

By Martin Waddell , Patrick Benson (illustrator) ,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Owl Babies as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A special 25th anniversary edition of a modern classic, Owl Babies reassures young children that Mummy will always come home.

"The perfect picture book" Guardian

A special 25th anniversary board book edition of a bestselling modern classic, Owl Babies is a comforting read for any toddler who has ever worried about mum leaving them alone, or any child starting pre-school for the very first time. Sarah, Percy and Bill the baby owls wake one night to find their mother gone. And as the darkness gathers and they perch patiently on their branch waiting for her return, oh how they worry!…


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Book cover of The High House

The High House by James Stoddard,

The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.

The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.

Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…

Book cover of Village School

Angela Hodgkins Author Of Strength-based Practice with Children and Families

From my list on why working with young children is awesome.

Why am I passionate about this?

My professional background is in working with children, my career began as an NNEB nursery nurse and I did many jobs (nanny, childminder, preschool, reception class, after school club, primary school, special school, and in learning support). I then trained as a teacher of adults and went on to be a college lecturer. I am now a senior university lecturer, but my heart has always been in the early years. I am passionate about highlighting the incredible work that is going on in the early years and in schools and have a strength-based, empowering, and optimistic view, which I try to instill in my students. Working with young children is a privilege and a joy.

Angela's book list on why working with young children is awesome

Angela Hodgkins Why Angela loves this book

Reading this book, and others in the series, is like a warm hug! It details a view of a small village school in the 1960s and it is just such a joy to read.

The stories about the school and the children are touching, funny and emotional. This book is a great example of social history and it just makes you want to work in a tiny village school and to be around children like these. It’s such a fulfilling read. Village Christmas is wonderful too, I read it in December every year.

By Miss Read ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Village School as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The very first Miss Read novel - set in 1950s England, perfect nostalgia for fans of CALL THE MIDWIFE or Gervase Phinn.

'An affectionate, humorous and gently charming chronicle ... sometimes funny, sometimes touching, always appealing' New York Times

Fairacre is a village of cottages, a church and the school - and at the heart of the school, its headmistress, Miss Read.

Through her discerning eye, we meet the villagers of Fairacre and see their trials and tribulations, from the irascible school cleaner Mrs Pringle, to the young schoolchildren with their scraped knees, hopeful faces and inevitable mischief.

Miss Read…


Book cover of Early Childhood and Neuroscience: Theory, Research and Implications for Practice

Angela Hodgkins Author Of Strength-based Practice with Children and Families

From my list on why working with young children is awesome.

Why am I passionate about this?

My professional background is in working with children, my career began as an NNEB nursery nurse and I did many jobs (nanny, childminder, preschool, reception class, after school club, primary school, special school, and in learning support). I then trained as a teacher of adults and went on to be a college lecturer. I am now a senior university lecturer, but my heart has always been in the early years. I am passionate about highlighting the incredible work that is going on in the early years and in schools and have a strength-based, empowering, and optimistic view, which I try to instill in my students. Working with young children is a privilege and a joy.

Angela's book list on why working with young children is awesome

Angela Hodgkins Why Angela loves this book

This book is changing the way we view children’s development. It explains brain development in a really easy-to-understand way and it gives a completely child-centred view.

Reading this book will help you to understand children and their behaviour and it will ultimately make you a better practitioner. It is a ‘must’ for anyone working with children.

By Mine Conkbayir ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Early Childhood and Neuroscience as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Highly Commended: Nursery World Awards 2017 Professional Book of the Year Early Childhood and Neuroscience is a practical guide to understanding the complex and challenging subject of neuroscience and its use (and misapplication) in early childhood policy and practice. The author begins by introducing the definition and history of neuroscience. The reader is then led through structured chapters discussing questions such as: Why should practitioners know about neuroscience? How can neuroscience help practitioners better provide for babies and children? and Is it relevant? Topics covered include the nature vs. nurture debate through the lens of neuroscience, epigenetics, the first 1001…


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Book cover of The Guardian of the Palace

The Guardian of the Palace by Steven J. Morris,

The Guardian of the Palace is the first novel in a modern fantasy series set in a New York City where magic is real—but hidden, suppressed, and dangerous when exposed.

When an ancient magic begins to leak into the world, a small group of unlikely allies is forced to act…

Book cover of Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That's Transforming Education

Angela Hodgkins Author Of Strength-based Practice with Children and Families

From my list on why working with young children is awesome.

Why am I passionate about this?

My professional background is in working with children, my career began as an NNEB nursery nurse and I did many jobs (nanny, childminder, preschool, reception class, after school club, primary school, special school, and in learning support). I then trained as a teacher of adults and went on to be a college lecturer. I am now a senior university lecturer, but my heart has always been in the early years. I am passionate about highlighting the incredible work that is going on in the early years and in schools and have a strength-based, empowering, and optimistic view, which I try to instill in my students. Working with young children is a privilege and a joy.

Angela's book list on why working with young children is awesome

Angela Hodgkins Why Angela loves this book

Ken Robinson is one of the most inspirational people I have ever come across. His TED talks and books about teaching and schools are ground-breaking. He sees children as individuals with their own talents and interests, and he calls us to account to change schools so that they encourage all children to flourish.

His examples are quite wonderful; one story he tells is of a young girl mis-diagnosed with ADHD whose love of movement is nurtured and who becomes a famous ballerina. Wonderful stirring stories of amazing people, reading his books makes me want to change the world for children.

By Ken Robinson , Lou Aronica ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Creative Schools as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the international bestselling author of The Element

Ken Robinson is one of the world's most influential voices in education. In this inspiring, empowering book, he sets out a new vision for how education can be transformed to enable all young people to flourish. Filled with practical examples and groundbreaking research, it will inspire the change our children urgently need.

'Compelling ... an elegant, powerfully written manifesto for change' Tristram Hunt, Guardian

'Inspires and brings a new sense of possibility to the goal of transforming education . . . This is a global game-changer' Brene Brown, author of Daring Greatly…


Book cover of The Water Is Wide: A Memoir

Mark Warren Author Of Song of the Horseman

From my list on Native Americans with friends in the white world.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a teacher of Native American skills in the mountains of north Georgia. Each day when I leave my house to enter the forest, I am keenly aware that I am stepping on land that once “belonged” to the Cherokee. Everything around me in the forest was intimately known and used by the original people, and these same items have become the critical tools in my own life. I know the Cherokee history, and I know the white man’s history. I believe the clash of these two cultures deserves to be told in full.

Mark's book list on Native Americans with friends in the white world

Mark Warren Why Mark loves this book

I have never read a better book about a white man trying to be accepted by another culture. Though this story involves African Americans instead of Native Americans, it remains a masterpiece of dissecting the white Anglo-American’s best intentions to help a minority culture learn to assimilate into the white world.

You will eat up these pages and finish the book far too soon. Conroy was a master of a compelling story.

By Pat Conroy ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Water Is Wide as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Each Fodor's Travel Guide is researched and written by resident writers and experts.


Book cover of Troublemakers: Lessons in Freedom from Young Children at School

Decoteau J. Irby and Ann M. Ishimaru Author Of Doing the Work of Equity Leadership for Justice and Systems Change

From my list on understanding why DEI in schools is under attack.

Why am I passionate about this?

The children and young people who call the U.S. home are increasingly diverse on almost every imaginable identifier. Over the past decade, educators have grown more committed to meeting the distinct needs and potential of every child. This list of books provides insights into why people are so virulently opposed to Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI).

As educational equity researchers and professors, we believe that understanding the recent attacks on DEI is important because it gives readers insights into the longer tradition of opposition to civil rights, equality, and justice for all people. If we can understand the past, we can be prepared to not repeat it.

Decoteau and Ann's book list on understanding why DEI in schools is under attack

Decoteau J. Irby and Ann M. Ishimaru Why Decoteau and Ann loves this book

A teacher in Idaho recently made national headlines when she resisted her district’s order to take down a sign in her classroom that read, “Everyone belongs here.” In designating the sign a political statement that did not belong in the classroom, the district turned media and political debates into real-life implications for children and teachers in classrooms across the country.

Carla Shalaby’s book, Troublemakers, never shies away from the tensions of race, gender, class, and identity as she invites us to see schooling through the eyes of young children who have already been designated “troublemakers” for their behavior.

Through engaging portraits of four children, the book helps readers see how the unquestioned structures and interactions with teachers and schools constrain the creativity, agency, and humanity of young children.

In doing so, she illuminates how deeply the everyday interactions with even our youngest students matter and offers hope for realizing education…

By Carla Shalaby ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Troublemakers: Lessons in Freedom from Young Children at School as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Despite decades of research on classroom management and school discipline, so-called bad behaviour nevertheless persists in every kind of classroom in every kind of school. Even as the harsh disciplining of adolescent behaviour has been called out as part of the school-to-prison pipeline, the diverse 'problem children' in Troublemakers - Zora, Lucas, Sean, and Marcus - reveal how a child's path to excessive punishment and exclusion in fact begins at a much younger age.


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Book cover of Oaky With a Hint of Murder

Oaky With a Hint of Murder by Dawn Brotherton,

Aury and Scott travel to the Finger Lakes in New York’s wine country to get to the bottom of the mysterious happenings at the Songscape Winery. Disturbed furniture and curious noises are one thing, but when a customer winds up dead, it’s time to dig into the details and see…

Book cover of The Peregrine

Brett Bourbon Author Of Everyday Poetics: Logic, Love, and Ethics

From my list on the ethics and art of getting lost and being found.

Why am I passionate about this?

Poems irritated me as a child. They seemed parodies of counting, chants of rhythm, and repetition. I included them in my moratorium against reading fiction. On the other hand, I respected the alphabet, a kind of poem of pure form. It was orderly for no good reason and didn't mean anything. So I concluded that poems were meaningless forms that had their uses, but were not serious. I changed my mind, but it took a while—studying math and science, theology, and then philosophy and literature. I'm now a professor who studies and teaches modern literature and philosophy. I got my Ph.D. from Harvard, became a professor at Stanford, and teach at the University of Dallas.

Brett's book list on the ethics and art of getting lost and being found

Brett Bourbon Why Brett loves this book

A photograph gives me the form of the bird, but it remains up to me to see the bird as a bird. And that can be difficult. What do we see when we see a bird? 

The Peregrine, J. A. Baker’s masterpiece of descriptive prose, provides an answer, an answer that is as much about how we see as it is about what we see when we see birds. Sometimes we pull ourselves into the sight of others and the world emerges as more than its light. We see by being seen.

Baker achieves this kind of seeing both in his efforts to see a pair of peregrines and in his description of this achievement. 

By J.A. Baker ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Peregrine as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

David Attenborough reads J. A. Baker's extraordinary classic of British nature writing.

The nation's greatest voice, David Attenborough, reads J. A. Baker's extraordinary classic of British nature writing, The Peregrine.

J. A. Baker's classic of British nature writing was first published in 1967. Greeted with acclaim, it went on to win the Duff Cooper Prize, the pre-eminent literary prize of the time. Luminaries such as Ted Hughes, Barry Lopez and Andrew Motion have cited it as one of the most important books in twentieth-century nature writing.

Despite the association of peregrines with the wild, outer reaches of the British Isles,…


Book cover of Why Peacocks?: An Unlikely Search for Meaning in the World's Most Magnificent Bird

Elizabeth Gehrman Author Of Rare Birds: The Extraordinary Tale of the Bermuda Petrel and the Man Who Brought It Back from Extinction

From my list on birds and life.

Why am I passionate about this?

I never had a particular interest in birds until I heard about David Wingate and the cahow; I’m just a reporter who was smitten by a compelling story. I often write about science and the environment, as well as travel and other topics, for publications including the Boston Globe, Archaeology, and Harvard Medicine, and while working on Rare Birds I got hooked on these extraordinary creatures and the iconoclastic obsessives who have become their stewards in the Anthropocene era. You don’t have to care about birds to love their stories — but in the end, you will.

Elizabeth's book list on birds and life

Elizabeth Gehrman Why Elizabeth loves this book

GQ writer Flynn and his wife and two kids are minding their own business on their surburban Durham “faux farm” when a friend calls to ask if they want to add a peacock to the two chickens that wander their yard. They end up with three of the kaleidoscopic birds, and Flynn’s chronicle of the family’s first year with Carl, Ethel, and Mr. Pickle takes readers on an implausibly relatable journey from the bird’s place in history, culture, and myth through its evolutionary biology and breeding habits to its endangered status in the wild, offering sardonically hilarious and harrowingly poignant life lessons along the way.

By Sean Flynn ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Why Peacocks? as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An acclaimed journalist seeks to understand the mysterious allure of peacocks-and in the process discovers unexpected and valuable life lessons.

When Sean Flynn's neighbor in North Carolina texted "Any chance you guys want a peacock? No kidding!" he stared bewilderedly at his phone. He had never considered whether he wanted a peacock. But as an award-winning magazine writer, this kind of mystery intrigued him. So he, his wife, and their two young sons became the owners of not one but three charming yet fickle birds: Carl, Ethel, and Mr. Pickle.

In Why Peacocks?, Flynn chronicles his hilarious and heartwarming first…


Book cover of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat And Other Clinical Tales

Pepper Stetler Author Of A Measure of Intelligence: One Mother's Reckoning with the IQ Test

From my list on exploring what it means to be smart.

Why am I passionate about this?

I never really thought much about how limited and exclusionary our society’s ideas about intelligence are until my daughter, who has Down syndrome, was required to take her first IQ test before she started kindergarten. That experience led me to research the history of the IQ test and how it has shaped our culture’s ideas about intelligence in pernicious ways. I am a college professor who is working to change the educational and employment opportunities available to people with intellectual disabilities. I hope you enjoy the books on this list. May they lead you to reconsider what you think it means to be smart. 

Pepper's book list on exploring what it means to be smart

Pepper Stetler Why Pepper loves this book

I love Sack’s empathy toward his patients and his commitment to telling a different and highly unique narrative about the human experience. His classic collection of essays is not about intelligence, but each patient he writes about knows and understands the world differently than what is considered normal.

Sacks makes room for the challenges and brilliance of all ways of being in the world.

By Oliver Sacks ,

Why should I read it?

14 authors picked The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat And Other Clinical Tales as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Celebrating Fifty Years of Picador Books

If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self - himself - he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it.

In this extraordinary book, Dr. Oliver Sacks recounts the stories of patients struggling to adapt to often bizarre worlds of neurological disorder. Here are people who can no longer recognize everyday objects or those they love; who are stricken with violent tics or shout involuntary obscenities, and yet are gifted with…


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Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

Book cover of Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale

Graeme Brooker Author Of 50/50 Words for Reuse: A Minifesto

From my list on interior architecture and reuse of buildings.

Why am I passionate about this?

Graeme Brooker is a Professor and Head of Interior Design at the Royal College of Art London. He has written and published fifteen books on the histories and theories of inside spaces, many of which focus on the reuse of existing artefacts, buildings, and cities. Apart from teaching and writing, when he isn’t cycling, he is often staring intently at the sea in Brighton, where he currently lives.

Graeme's book list on interior architecture and reuse of buildings

Graeme Brooker Why Graeme loves this book

This is a revelatory, timely book that details the afterlives of the numerous discarded and recycled objects from around the world. It gave me great insights into where stuff goes once we decide that these are things that we no longer need or want and who are the people and the places who find value in what we leave behind. 

By Adam Minter ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Secondhand as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the author of Junkyard Planet, "an anthem to decluttering, recycling, making better quality goods and living a simpler life with less stuff." -Associated Press

Downsizing. Decluttering. Discarding. Sooner or later, all of us are faced with things we no longer need or want. But when we drop our old clothes and other items off at a local donation center, where do they go? Sometimes across the country-or even halfway across the world-to people and places who find value in what we leave behind.

In Secondhand, journalist Adam Minter takes us on an unexpected adventure into the often-hidden, multibillion-dollar industry…


Book cover of Owl Babies
Book cover of Village School
Book cover of Early Childhood and Neuroscience: Theory, Research and Implications for Practice

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Interested in African Americans, animals, and Anthrozoology?

African Americans 836 books
Animals 244 books
Anthrozoology 118 books