While many texts explore ways to plan and implement story times in both school and public libraries, until now no work has brought together extensive book talks and follow-up activities specifically designed to develop productive and critical thinking skills in preschool and primary grade children. This innovative study offers age-appropriate book suggestions with related questions and activities tailored to a variety of thinking skills, including verbal/linguistic thinking, divergent/creative thinking, analytical/mathematical thinking, visual/spatial thinking, and many others. The program presented in this volume was successfully developed and implemented in the preschool/kindergarten laboratory school of Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri, with 90 percent of the participating children selected for gifted programs in both public and private schools. Ideal for children's librarians, school librarians, teachers of early childhood gifted programs, parents, and homeschoolers, this study provides the tools for making any story hour a ""brain power story hour.