We all have “Treasured Things” we adore. For bitty bees, it could be a snuggly, stuffed animal, and for older kids a music box with a twirling ballerina or a well-worn catcher’s mitt.The characters in this month’s Picks have cherished items as well — a coat that’s reworked time and again, books on top of books, and a beloved harmonica. Sure you will treasure Newsbee’s new March Picks. Page on! Enjoy.* * * * * * * * * * *It came from across the ocean, made its way on a boat that sailed past the Statue of Liberty, keeping a young man from the old country warm. Many years later, the man’s grandchild recalls the garment in “My Grandfather’s Coat,” by Jim Aylesworth.When the man steps off the boat, the coat is practically the only thing he owns. Soon he becomes a tailor, and when he met the girl of his dreams, “he snipped and clipped, and he stitched and sewed” converting it into a stylish wedding coat.He continues to wear the coat until a baby is born, and it’s “all worn out . . . and he snipped and he clipped, and he stitched and he sewed.” He converts the coat into a jacket, wears that out, then makes a vest, then a tie, the fabric growing smaller as his family increases in size, the young man eventually wrinkled and stooped with age.Regardless, the coat keeps right on giving in this heartwarming tale with detailed, historical illustrations by Barbara McClintock.* * * * * * * * * * *Books can be lifelong companions. “The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore,” by William Joyce, is all about the treasures that books provide.Morris had a lot of books, and was writing his own too, when a storm blew in, and his books blew out, words scattered like leaves. His eyes downcast, Morris looked to the heavens and saw a woman flying by, pulled along by a “squadron of books.”She sends him a special book that leads him to a building where volumes and volumes of stories “nested…each book whispering an invitation to adventure.” Morris is over the moon with delight, and his “life among the books began.”Morris reads to his heart’s content, caring for and sharing books for the remainder of his days, reminding his books that “Everyone’s story matters.” Eventually Morris’ story comes to an end, but his tale lives on in the hands of a young reader. Watch the Academy Award winning video and see Morris in action at www.youtube.com/watch?v=VljJIQuPDSE.* * * * * * * * * * *Hope ebbs and flows for the characters in Pam Muñoz Ryan’s brilliant novel “Echo,” sure to captivate all. The book begins in the 1800s with Otto playing hide and seek in the forest. He takes a break to read “The Thirteen Harmonicas of Otto Messenger,” which he bought from a gypsy, who insists he also take a harmonica she offers.Soon Otto is immersed in the tale of the three daughters of a king, taken into the forest to escape death. In the woods the girls succumb to a witch’s spell. Imagine Otto’s surprise when he lays the book aside and meets the girls he’s just been reading about.They entreat Otto to turn back to the book so they will know their future, but the pages are blank. The girls desperately want to break the witch’s spell but to do so they must breathe into a woodwind instrument, which will eventually save someone’s life. When Otto produces a harmonica, the quest to end the spell begins.The treasured instrument finds its way into the hands of three children, Frederick, Mike and Ivy, comprising three stories bookended by the initial fairy tale.The harmonica binds the children’s stories together as they make connections through music in a novel destined to become a classic."My Grandfather's Coat""The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore""Echo"