Alice Cary

NonfictionFictionPhotographyGraphic Novels & ComicsFashion

Gift books: For the artistic soul plugged in to all creative outlets

Feature by Alice Cary

Creativity is often born under unexpected circumstances, as these books so beautifully demonstrate.

The Art of Love by Kate Bryan
Married British artists Idris Khan and Annie Morris have a framed sign in their London home that’s meant to be ironic: “An artist should avoid falling in love with another artist.” Of course, two highly talented artistic souls living and creating together can be a dream, a nightmare or a highly charged bit of both, as evidenced by the endlessly fascinating stories revealed in The Art of Love: The Romantic and Explosive Stories Behind Art’s Greatest Couples.

British art curator Kate Bryan—a lively, informed guide—profiles 34 artistic couples, ranging from 1880 to the present, including the likes of Françoise Gilot and Pablo Picasso, Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz, and Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. Asli Yazan’s illustrations of these artists add a wonderful touch of color, helping to bring their personalities to life.

Bryan writes that her goal was to “present as many different perspectives on artists in love as possible.” She focuses on how these relationships affected each creator’s art instead of chronicling the melodrama—yet she does dole out a variety of delicious tidbits, like the fact that even after Frida Kahlo divorced Diego Rivera, who was 21 years her senior, she “continued to mother the wayward beast, even running him baths with rubber ducks.” Oh my.

Skip by Molly Mendoza
Art and story meld beautifully in Skip, Molly Mendoza’s virtuoso graphic novel about fear and courage, friendship, change and creativity. In a dystopian world rife with the threat of attacking “tech-hounds,” a child named Bloom and his guardian, Bee, live on a lake’s island, subsisting on duck eggs and fish. After hearing a radio SOS, Bee announces that she must leave, asking Bloom to be brave until she comes back from her rescue mission—except she never returns.

While skipping stones one day, Bloom suddenly finds himself in a completely different world, where he meets a mysterious creature named Gloopy who’s having a hard time fulfilling his creative spirit and fitting into his community. Bloom and Gloopy join forces and “skip” into several different worlds, facing a myriad of dangerous creatures: a giant, lonely bird and a universe creator named Lily, who urges Gloopy to follow his creative desires. Mendoza describes her own artistic style as “chaotic yet rhythmic,” and her multicolored, imaginative creations make Skip a memorable, action-packed adventure, full of bold swirls of both color and emotion.

Body by Nathalie Herschdorfer
Curator and art historian Nathalie Herschdorfer has compiled a glorious celebration of the human form with more than 350 images from over 175 photographers in Body: The Photography Book. As she notes in the preface, contemporary photography reflects society’s changing standards of beauty and opens up “new pathways for bodily representations and perspectives beyond the traditional nude.” With artists like Sally Mann, Herb Ritts, Cindy Sherman and Liu Bolan, the sweepingly broad perspectives are fascinating, a mix of fantasy and reality.

You’ll see a 3D ultrasound of an 8-month-old yawning, the hunched figures of elderly people walking, sculpturelike nudes, baseball players in action, a crowd of happily dancing people at a Scottish Town Hall Christmas party and even the colorfully abstract, highly magnified view of the connections between human nerve cells. There are disturbing images as well—an anorexic young woman, a man’s face after a fight, scars left on a refugee’s back by the Taliban. Youth, love, joy, movement, health, disease, celebration—Body honors the many sizes, shapes and moments that make us all human.

Shoot for the Moon by Tim Walker
Shoot for the Moon takes its title from a Norman Vincent Peale quotation: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will land among the stars.” It’s an apt title, for renowned British fashion photographer Tim Walker spends his life among stars, creating famously surreal wonderlands within his images.

A follow-up to a previous volume, Story Teller, Shoot for the Moon focuses Walker’s lens on the darker side of his imagination, somewhere he’d “been previously too scared to visit.” In a brief introduction, he writes, “Like every child, I had a fear of the dark—but now I know that it is here, in the shadows, that the magic is hidden.”

And what magic there is! These images are at times fun, funky, bizarre, glamorous, spooky and over the top, featuring celebrities like Claire Foy, RuPaul, Bill Hader, Tommy Lee Jones, Tilda Swinton and Whoopi Goldberg, all like you’ve never seen them before. A number of comments are included from models like Kate Moss, who says: “Tim’s magic is that he makes fantasy believable. He makes otherworldly images that seem so accessible.” Fashion fans will quickly lose themselves in these wonder-filled pages.

Creativity is often born in unexpected circumstances, as these books so beautifully demonstrate.
NonfictionSocial SciencePhotographyGraphic Memoirs

Gift books: For resisters & persisters

Feature by Alice Cary

Four books celebrate our friends who fight for justice, the right to love, the power to tell their own stories and the possibility of a better future. They’re also the perfect gift for a budding ally who wishes to learn more.

Activist by KK Ottesen
One can’t help but feel inspired by the over 40 interviews and black-and-white portraits compiled in Activist: Portraits of Courage, written and photographed by KK Ottesen, a Washington Post contributor and author of a similarly styled book, Great Americans. Ottesen’s powerful photographs immediately draw readers in, adding to the intimacy of these highly readable first-person interviews, all introduced by a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.: “A time comes when silence is betrayal.”

In content, layout and style, this is an engrossing, inviting volume, one that spotlights a wide range of figures, from age 21 to 94. There are well-known personalities like John Lewis, Ralph Nader, Angela Davis, Billie Jean King, Bernie Sanders and Marian Wright Edelman. Then there are relative newcomers to the scene, such as Jayna Zweiman, co-founder of the 2016 Pussycat Project; Linda Sarsour, the Palestinian American co-chair of the 2017 Women's March; and transgender actor Nicole Maines, the anonymous plaintiff in a Maine Supreme Judicial Court regarding gender identity and bathroom use in schools. Maines speaks of knowing from an early age, “I didn’t feel the need to hide who I was. Nobody else had to, so why should I?”

Seeing Gender by Iris Gottlieb
After reading last year’s Seeing Science and now Seeing Gender: An Illustrated Guide to Identity and Expression, I’ve become an incurable Iris Gottlieb fan. No matter what the topic, this graphic artist has a singular knack for presenting an imaginative array of art and text in an informative, exciting way.

Early on, this new book features a helpful spread of 24 gender terms, including agender, cisgender, gender dysphoria and intersex. “All of us are shapeshifters,” Gottlieb explains. In straightforward, vibrantly illustrated prose that is neither politicized nor reactionary, Gottlieb further explores these terms, while also discussing such varied topics as gender etiquette, gender biology, sex verification in sports, Frida Kahlo, Laverne Cox, Prince, gender violence, Stonewall, #MeToo and much, much more. Gottleib also includes her own story, noting that “she” is her pronoun of choice for the time being, that she identifies as a boy (“for now”), is asexual, has struggled with anorexia and in 2018 had both breasts removed, a surgical transformation she bravely describes with a series of “after” photos.

No matter your age or inclination, Seeing Gender presents an extraordinarily helpful discussion in a way that’s both personal and powerful. As Gottlieb concludes, “The process of learning about gender is never finished.”

Drawing Power edited by Diane Noomin
Many books have been born from the #MeToo movement, but perhaps none so comprehensively resonant as Drawing Power: Women’s Stories of Sexual Violence, Harassment, and Survival. In vastly divergent styles, 63 female cartoonists—of different races, ages, nationalities and sexual orientations—tell their immensely varied, poignant stories here, demonstrating the power of their medium.

Emil Ferris (My Favorite Thing Is Monsters) describes how she found her way back to cartoons decades after being sexually brutalized by a relative while watching a Mr. Magoo special on TV. As a result, her beloved cartoons felt suddenly poisoned, and for years she turned instead to fine art and illustrating. Finally, while working on the aforementioned graphic novel, Ferris noticed that she “found herself using a cartoonier style when I needed to talk about difficult things . . . especially those revelatory moments when a character confronts abuse, fear and shame.”

As Drawing Power so strikingly proves, cartoons do indeed provide the perfect forum for sharing these intensely intimate, painful stories. And editor Diane Noomin offers an important distinction, noting, “The artists in this collection present themselves not as victims but rather as truth tellers, shining light on the dirty secrets of abusers.”

How to Cure a Ghost by Fariha Róisín
As an Australian Canadian based in Brooklyn, Fariha Róisín knows all too well how tricky it is trying to navigate the world as a queer Muslim femme. “i was born to this sticky mess, this stark confusion.” she writes in How to Cure a Ghost, her powerful biographical collection of 50 poems, beautifully complemented by abstract illustrations from Monica Ramos.

In a sensual, evocative style reminiscent of Rupi Kaur’s Milk and Honey, Róisín acknowledges, “i am tied to this skin, although I may not always understand it.” She chronicles her father’s challenges as an immigrant and her mother’s struggles as a Muslim woman with mental illness. Róisín remembers being 7 and briefly taking a “white name”—Felicity Hanson—to try to gain acceptance from a neighbor. She describes watching 9/11 unfold on television from her home in Sydney, Australia, saying that as a Muslim, “this world was not built for us.” Her virginity was stolen by a man who got her pregnant, telling her “it’s not a big deal.”

Despite everything, Róisín writes of hope, boldly declaring, “i am better now. i gave birth to myself, a new beginning, a robust cycle. i rewrote the scriptures of my mother’s pasts, and her mother’s pasts. i am in the throes of survival, i am lived. i am living. it’s astonishing.”

Four books celebrate our friends who fight for justice, the right to love, the power to tell their own stories and the possibility of a better future.
NonfictionChildren's & YAYA FictionYAMiddle GradeGraphic Novels & Comics

They had to be brave

Feature by Alice Cary

Stories about World War II continue to resonate with young readers. These four titles offer distinct formats—a young adult novel, a work of nonfiction, a graphic novel, and a middle grade novel—but all capture the horror, the humanity and the hope of this moment in history.

A Holocaust heroine
Sharon Cameron’s young adult novel The Light in Hidden Places is based on the true story of Holocaust heroine Stefania Podgórska, a 16-year-old Catholic girl in Poland who not only took care of her younger sister but also hid 13 Jewish people in the attic of her tiny apartment.

In order to tell Stefania’s story, Cameron (The Dark Unwinding, The Knowing) did extensive research, which included interviewing several of the attic’s survivors, gaining access to Stefania’s unpublished memoir and traveling with Stefania’s son to Poland. There, they visited the places in which this incredible tale unfolded. Cameron saw for herself the minuscule, cramped space where 13 people cowered for more than two years with no electricity, water or toilet, and which Stefania and her sister could only access via a ladder to bring them food and water and carry out their waste in buckets. 

What’s more, an SS officer lived in an adjacent apartment for months, and by the end of the war, two German nurses had moved into Stefania’s apartment. The nurses often brought their SS boyfriends home for the night, making Stefania feel like she was not only secretly and illegally hiding Jewish people but also “running a Nazi boarding house.”

Cameron’s wide-ranging research and deft storytelling abilities combine to create an astoundingly authentic first-person narration. Her exquisite prose conveys in riveting detail exactly what it was like for Stefania to live through the horrors she witnessed, as well as the difficult decisions that had to be made by both survivors and those who did not, ultimately, survive.

Though it at times reads like a memoir, The Light in Hidden Places is a tense and gripping novel, full of urgency, in which death seems to wait around every corner. Although it’s still early in the year, it seems destined for my list of the best books of 2020.

The Kindertransport kids
When 6-year-old Frieda Korobkin’s parents told her that she and her siblings were going on a “great adventure,” she had no idea they would leave their parents behind in Vienna, Austria, to go to England as part of a Kindertransport, an evacuation effort for Jewish children, in December 1938. As they walked to the train station, two thugs attacked Frieda’s father and cut off his beard. When they finally reached the station, Frieda was so frightened that her father had to force her, kicking and screaming, onto the train; the angry, bewildered girl refused to wave goodbye. “As a result,” she remembers, “I am haunted forever by the image of my father standing desolate and bleeding on that station platform, watching helplessly as the train carrying his four children vanished before his eyes.”

This is just one of the many personal stories included in Deborah Hopkinson’s outstanding work of nonfiction, We Had to Be Brave: Escaping the Nazis on the Kindertransport. This relief effort saved 10,000 children, mainly from Germany and Austria. In engrossing, lively prose, Hopkinson, who contributes regularly to BookPage, has compiled many of their stories, personally contacting many of these now-elderly survivors. “Before they were refugees,” she writes, “before they were victims, before they were survivors, they were ordinary children and teens. They were like you.”

Hopkinson zeroes in on these personal stories while also skillfully setting the historical stage every step of the way. “Look, listen, remember” sidebars throughout the book will guide curious readers to related online video and audio links. Hopkinson also includes a wealth of photographs and helpful follow-up information, including brief accounts of the later years of the many survivors she profiles.

Despite their seemingly bleak circumstances, the survivors’ stories include a multitude of hopeful and redemptive moments. As Hopkinson notes in her introduction: “We may not be able to change the entire world. But what we do matters. We can be brave and raise our voices to make sure others are not silenced, hurt, or bullied.”

We Had to Be Brave is a powerful book that will haunt readers—and should.

Photos of hope amid despair
Bearing witness. That’s what Catherine Colin does in the fascinating graphic novel Catherine’s War, a coming-of-age story written by Julia Billet and inspired by her mother’s life. Like Catherine, Billet’s mother was one of the Jewish children who attended the progressive Sèvres Children’s Home outside Paris and was moved from place to place all over France to avoid capture by the Nazis.

Catherine’s real name is Rachel Cohen. In order to stay alive, she must take on a Catholic identity and leave her family and friends behind. Her Rolleiflex camera becomes both her passion and lifeline, allowing her to chronicle the bright moments as well as the turmoil and danger she encounters as she hides in a monastery school, a rural family farmhouse, a chateau orphanage and a house in the woods that belongs to a fighter in the French Resistance. “I love seeing the world through the viewfinder,” she says. “One click stops time.”

And what a time it is. Claire Fauvel’s lively illustrations help readers keep track of these many locales and of the people Rachel encounters, as well as her multitude of experiences (eating pork soup for the first time, photographing three young girls who are later taken by the German police, falling in love). The easy, sketch-like quality of Fauvel’s panels lends immediacy to the narrative and humanity to the characters. Her illustrations seem particularly suited to moments of tension, especially in scenes where adults must punish the children for small errors that could prove costly, including accidentally responding to their real names or making the sign of the cross with the wrong hand.

Haunted by the losses she has suffered, Catherine stops taking photos for a while, but eventually finds her way back to her camera, able to once again see “beauty everywhere, hidden in each reflection.” She eventually witnesses the liberation of Paris and travels the world to continue her artistic journey. Catherine’s War packs a big story within its pages and serves as a tribute to the healing power of art and and to the promise of hope, even in the midst of death and danger.

Young heroes of France
Maggie Paxson’s 2019 nonfiction book for adults, The Plateau, garnered acclaim for telling the story of the Vivarais-Lignon plateau in southern France. It’s an area that has welcomed refugees for centuries; during World War II, the villagers of Le Chambon successfully hid Jews and foreigners throughout their town. Now, Newbery Honor winner Margi Preus (Heart of a Samurai) focuses on the heroic actions of numerous young people in Le Chambon in Village of Scoundrels, a middle grade novel.

Preus bases her characters on a variety of real-life heroes to tell a bold, exciting story with precision and passion, full of action at every turn. Red-headed Philippe sleeps all day and transports people and vital items on his sled at night. Jean-Paul sets up shop forging documents, putting his life in danger, as he also tries to attend medical school, even though, as a Jewish person, he isn’t allowed to do so. Celeste carries messages for the Resistance and overcomes her paralyzing fears. “It’s as if we’re fighting our own little war, all by ourselves,” she observes. Each of their narratives depicts people, young and old, who must make excruciating moral choices and muster extreme courage in the face of grave danger. Celeste so wisely concludes, “They had no choice but to be brave. They had no choice but to take action.”

Middle-grade readers will be both transfixed and inspired by the many acts of courage chronicled in Village of Scoundrels.

Stories about World War II continue to resonate with young readers. These four titles offer distinct formats—a young adult novel, a work of nonfiction, a graphic novel, and a middle grade novel—but all capture the horror, the humanity and the hope of this moment in…

NonfictionMemoir

Memories of motherhood

Feature by Alice Cary

Who is your mother, and what does she remember? The answers can be a treasure chest or a Pandora’s box, and these three books explore them in very different ways.

What We Carry

After Maya Shanbhag Lang became a parent, her mom told a perplexing story about a woman trying to decide whether to save herself or her child from a deep, dangerous river, because she couldn’t do both. The tale reflected Lang’s own family’s past in ways she could never have imagined, and she slowly, artfully reveals the layers of this mystery in her engaging memoir, What We Carry. 

Lang’s mother, a psychiatrist from India, was always her rock—a contrast to Lang’s cruel, verbally abusive father, whom her mother eventually divorced. Dr. Shanbhag was also a spitfire of a woman, like when she stood watch over Lang as a child in the dentist’s chair, chiding the dentist every time he used his gloved hand to readjust the light, thus breaking the sterile field. Unafraid of what the dentist thought of her, she forced him to put on a fresh pair of gloves over and over again. Lang’s mother was “not sentimental or effusive, had never read to me as a child or baked me cookies, but she would travel great distances for me and carry astonishing weights. When I most needed her, she was there.”

And then, suddenly she wasn’t. As Lang discovers that her mother has Alzheimer’s disease, she brings Shanbhag home to live with her and her family. During this time, her mother’s dementia and close proximity give the author a unique opportunity to learn surprising truths about their family’s past. As Lang explains, “I want to get to know her while I still can. I want to separate the myth from reality, to reconcile the mom I always imagined with the more complicated person I’m just starting to know.” Lang is an immediately affable and honest narrator who offers an intriguing blend of revelatory personal history and touching insight about her mother’s illness.

Braver Than You Think

Dementia is also at the forefront of Maggie Downs’ memoir, Braver Than You Think: Around the World on the Trip of My (Mother’s) Lifetime, but in a very different way. While Lang delves into her past, Downs plunges into the future as her mom begins a sharp, final decline.

Whenever a new issue of National Geographic arrived in the mailbox of their Ohio home, Downs and her mother would huddle over the exotic photographs of faraway places, marveling at the many wonders and vowing to someday see some of these sites together. However, when her mother’s early onset Alzheimer’s robbed them of this opportunity, journalist Downs quit her job and started back-packing solo around the world, visiting 17 countries in the course of a year.

Traveling on a frugal budget and roughing it, Downs encounters not only astounding vistas (such as the stately temples and rock formations in Hampi, India) but also outright danger (as when she arrives in Cairo in the middle of the Arab Spring uprising)—and more than her fair share of dis-comfort (for example, being attacked by a monkey while volunteering at a Bolivian primate sanctuary). Her entertaining account of this year seamlessly blends exciting travelogue tales with musings about her mother, punctuated by concerns about whether Alzheimer’s disease will eventually manifest in her own body. “Part of the reason I embarked on this trip,” she explains, “was to complete my mom’s goals, but this is also a battle against the disease itself, cramming myself full of my own memories, hoarding them and holding them tight, before anything is taken.” By the end of Braver Than You Think, readers may be ready to embrace Downs’ insatiable approach to life, “chasing adventure for the sake of living deliberately and passionately.”

Mothers Before

When novelist Edan Lepucki started an Instagram account in 2017 called “Mothers Before,” she never imagined how popular it would become. Now continuing the phenomenon in book form, she’s gathered more than 60 essays addressing the question, “Who was my mother before she was a mother?” Each contributor to Mothers Before: Stories and Portraits of Our Mothers as We Never Saw Them was asked to submit a photo of their mother before she became a parent, along with a micro-essay about the image and their mother’s life.

With contributors such as Jennifer Egan, Alison Roman, Lisa See, Jia Tolentino and Laura Lippman, the results make for delightful browsing—ranging from sassy quips, like Tiffany Nguyen observing a picture of her mom in Vietnam in 1970 (“Here is my mom rocking it in a minidress”), to somber historical reminders, like writer Camille T. Dungy’s powerful comments about her mother’s childhood in Lynchburg, Virginia: “The members of the Court Street Baptist Church started a library fund to help my black mother’s black father buy the books he needed to preach the sermons his black parishioners needed to hear every Sunday in that deeply segregated, often hateful town.” As Lepucki says so well, Mothers Before is “about seeking clarity, and interrogating history, and trying to understand the myriad ways a woman might navigate a life.” Don’t miss this unique mini-museum of women’s history.

Our relationships with our mothers can be beautiful, difficult and complicated. Three books honor mothers as the complex humans they are.
NonfictionTrue CrimeMemoir

True crime memoirs: Foreboding in the first person

Feature by Alice Cary

Some ghosts from the past never stop haunting us, as shown by these two sharply crafted memoirs in which true crime meets family trauma.

Betsy Bonner explores her sister’s unsettling life and death with laser-sharp prose in The Book of Atlantis Black: The Search for a Sister Gone Missing. Because their mother had bipolar disorder and was suicidal, Bonner and her sister, Nancy, were raised mostly by their physically abusive father. Eventually Nancy changed her name to Atlantis Black, which Bonner felt suited her sister perfectly, as “the Atlantis of legend is mystical, self-­destroying, and forever lost.” Likewise, Atlantis nicknamed Bonner “Lucky Betsy” because she hadn’t inherited the depression and mental illness that ran through their family tree like a venomous snake.

In 2008, when Atlantis was 31, her body was found on the floor of a Mexican hotel room, her death most likely the result of a heroin overdose. However, mysterious circumstances caused Bonner to wonder if the body they found wasn’t actually her sister’s. Fingerprints and dental records weren’t checked. Could her sister be alive, hiding somewhere? This notion could simply be magical thinking, Bonner admits, but the messy last few months of her sister’s life were filled with a host of suspicious, shadowy characters, whom Bonner duly investigates. Part exorcism and part adoring tribute, The Book of Atlantis Black is deeply haunting and darkly fascinating.

With two stumbling-drunk parents, including a mother who faced a variety of health issues and spent hours reading and watching true crime dramas, Marcia Trahan’s childhood had hardly bolstered her self-­confidence. “I was not simply shy; I was frightened by almost anything that was unfamiliar, any uncertainty,” she writes in Mercy: A Memoir of Medical Trauma and True Crime Obsession, her adroit exploration of how inherited fears and traumas overtook her life.

Already prone to depression and having attempted suicide at age 27, Trahan was then diagnosed with thyroid cancer in her 30s, and a string of complications ensued. Three years later, she found herself glued to true crime TV in an obsessive way. “Only violent death captured my attention, as it had captured my mother’s,” she writes. Eventually she connects this obsession with the deep-seated medical fears instilled in her by her mother and realizes, “I sought out true crime programs because my body had experienced surgery as violence.” 

This is a wildly freeing revelation for Trahan, after years of being so fearful of medical procedures that she couldn’t even stand to have her teeth cleaned. Searingly honest and deftly written, Mercy is the story of a unique psychological journey that ends in satisfying self-revelation.

Some ghosts from the past never stop haunting us, as shown by these two sharply crafted memoirs in which true crime meets family trauma.

Betsy Bonner explores her sister’s unsettling life and death with laser-sharp prose in The Book of Atlantis Black: The Search for…

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Into the woods, under the sea

Feature by Alice Cary

Full of well-researched details and evocative illustrations, two middle grade books tell stories rooted in the natural world and offer informative looks at how humanity impacts the environment.

Readers will look at crows quite differently after reading Newbery Medalist Cynthia Voigt’s Little Bird, the tale of a young crow who’s the smallest member of her flock.

Little Bird lives a bucolic life at the Old Davis Farm, where humans live alongside domesticated farm animals as well as the wild creatures who dwell in the forests, lakes and mountains nearby. Voigt’s plot kicks into high gear when a fisher cat (a carnivorous mammal in the weasel family) kills a fledgling crow as Little Crow watches in horror. The predator also steals the flock’s prized possession, a shiny silver pendant the crows call “Our Luck,” so Little Crow ventures into the great unknown beyond the farm to try to retrieve it.

During her quest, Little Crow becomes a winged detective who encounters a variety of animals, all of whom Voigt gives distinct personalities without overly anthropomorphizing. Little Crow also learns about great dangers, such as Longsticks (guns), the Sickness (rabies) and Fire. She begins to realize that she can choose her own path in life, instead of always following her flock’s bossy leaders.

As a reader, it’s a pleasure to put yourself into the hands of a writer like Voigt, whose career as an author for young readers spans nearly four decades. Voigt’s research into the natural world and her masterful sensibility on the page combine to create a wild and wonderful adventure told completely from a corvid’s point of view. This memorable tale is a celebration of knowledge and truth, as well as the importance of understanding and communicating with those who are like and unlike yourself. As Little Bird herself observes, “The more you can understand, the more you can know.” It’s also about the joy of stepping outside your comfort zone and finding new experiences. Those are some mighty meaningful lessons for one little bird.

After just a few pages, readers will be completely immersed in the underwater world of Rosanne Parry’s A Whale of the Wild, which follows a pod of orca whales in the Salish Sea between British Columbia and Washington. “We alone among the creatures of the sea share our food,” explains Vega, a young whale who is training to be a “wayfinder” for her family. In her matriarchal pod, led by Greatmother, Vega helps her mother look after her younger brother, Deneb, and is eagerly anticipating the imminent birth of her sister.

As described by Parry, pod life is fascinating, but it’s impacted by the hungry group’s desperate search for increasingly hard-to-find salmon. Their family lore includes a traumatic attack by humans when Vega’s mother was young; several brothers were killed, and her sister and cousins were taken away, presumably to a theme park or aquarium. Parry, whose previous book, A Wolf Called Wonder, explored the dynamics of a wolf pack, skillfully incorporates details about orcas as well as the many threats to their existence. The majestic scene in which Vega’s long-awaited sister arrives, only for tragedy to strike, is especially moving.

The pod’s grief, along with a massive earthquake and subsequent series of tsunamis, trigger a terrifying cascade of events that result in Vega and Deneb becoming separated from their pod. They seek safety in the normally forbidden deep ocean, trying to avoid the many overturned “boats that bleed poison” and other debris. Vega sees firsthand what she’s been taught: “What touches the water touches us all.”

Although Vega and Deneb experience the consequences of ocean pollution, they also encounter humans trying to make a positive impact on the lives of marine wildlife. Vega recalls her uncle’s words: “Perhaps there is nothing more than to swim beside those you love and help them with all your strength.” A Whale of the Wild offers brisk drama alongside insight and wisdom, demonstrating the vital importance of taking care of each other and the world we live in—above and below the surface.

Full of well-researched details and evocative illustrations, two middle grade books tell stories rooted in the natural world and offer informative looks at how humanity impacts the environment.
Children's & YAPicture Book

In the city, wonder awaits

Feature by Alice Cary

Ordinary city life becomes extraordinary when seen through the eyes of talented author-illustrators Chris Raschka and Christy Hale.

Two-time Caldecott Medalist Chris Raschka’s In the City celebrates the joys of newfound friendship. Two girls, one Black and one white, make their way separately through a city while pigeons circle overhead. “Could a friend be waiting for me?” they each wonder.

As the girls walk, pigeons soar above and settle down to roost on a statue in a park. The girls sit on the same park bench and watch the birds. “Now we see them one for one,” the text says, highlighting differences among the birds, including gleaming rainbows of colored feathers. A turn of the page finds the girls facing each other, reaching out to hold hands as the flock takes flight around them. Raschka asks, “How do two friends find each other?”

Raschka’s watercolor city teems with color and movement. Reddish buildings give way to park trees in myriad shades of green. He unites the girls and the birds through a similar shade of blue, seen on one girl’s glasses, the other girl’s hair scrunchie and the pigeons’ neck feathers. Raschka’s plain-spoken prose forms rhyming couplets that never feel forced, and his refrain evokes the coos of pigeons and is sure to be echoed by engaged young readers.

Combining all the ingredients for a perfect read-aloud picture book, In the City is a visual feast and an introspective meditation on the rewards of noticing what’s right in front of us.

The streets of Brooklyn snap into focus on the very first page of Christy Hale’s Out the Door, a salute to the daily routines that define our lives. A girl walks down the front steps of her home, heads down the sidewalk with her father and rides the bustling subway to school. Minimal text and bright, cheerful illustrations reveal every step of the journey. Tree branches arc overhead as she walks down her street. She crosses beneath a traffic light, walks down the subway station stairs, waits on a crowded platform and strolls past shops and skyscrapers.

The book’s prose is spare. “Through a tunnel in the dark” is the only text on a page with a cross section of the city, depicting the girl’s train as it travels beneath the streets. Hale styles prepositions in bold and uses different colors to set them off from the rest of the words, emphasizing the motion of the girl’s journey. Her collage illustrations initially appear as deceptively sparse as her prose, but a closer look reveals skillful use of pattern, texture and detail that brings the city to life as the girl travels through it to school and back home again.

There’s great comfort to be found in such routines, and youngsters will be riveted by the sights and sounds of Hale’s city. Out the Door is a charming read that will prompt readers to reflect on their own daily rituals.

Ordinary city life becomes extraordinary when seen through the eyes of talented author-illustrators Chris Raschka and Christy Hale.

Two-time Caldecott Medalist Chris Raschka’s In the City celebrates the joys of newfound friendship. Two girls, one Black and one white, make their way separately through a…

Children's & YAPicture Book

Celebrate the joy of working together for a greater cause

Feature by Alice Cary

Two picture books inspired by real-life community organizations demonstrate the great things we can achieve when we all pitch in.

Based on Jillian Tamaki’s experience of volunteering at a community kitchen in Brooklyn, Our Little Kitchen follows a mother and child who help a group of volunteers prepare and serve a meal for their community.

As the story begins, everyone springs into action to assemble ingredients from a garden as well as the kitchen’s cupboards and refrigerator. The group’s leader heats up day-old bread until it’s “soft and warm, as good as new!” then ponders what to do with canned beans for the third week in a row. Once the cooking starts, the pages burst with onomatopoeias in huge, sprawling letters (“glug glug glug” and “chop chop chop chop chop”). When the leader shouts “FIFTEEN MINUTES!” in a spiky speech bubble that nearly fills the whole page, the energy and urgency is palpable.

Every page sizzles and pops as Tamaki captures the kitchen’s hustle and bustle. Lively, detailed visuals abound, often depicted from unusual perspectives such as extreme close-ups and overhead angles. Even the book’s endpapers feature illustrated recipes. Tamaki’s thoughtful author’s note is the icing on this treat: “We are often told that a single person can change the world. Just think what many of us can accomplish—with our bodies, voices, votes, and hearts—together.” Our Little Kitchen is an inspiring call to action that will warm readers’ hearts and tummies.

Cooking a community dinner can be a haphazard, improvised affair, but stitching a community quilt is a measured and precise endeavor. Such contrasting processes make The All-Together Quilt the perfect counterpoint to Our Little Kitchen.

Lizzy Rockwell has more than 30 books to her name, but The All-Together Quilt is especially personal. Her author’s note describes her involvement with a Connecticut-based quilting group called Peace by Piece. Senior citizens, kids from the neighborhood and adult volunteers like Rockwell meet two afternoons each week at a senior housing facility to stitch. Their quilts hang in public libraries, a community college and a children’s museum.

Zeroing in on small acts of collaboration between kids and adults, Rockwell depicts the group making a quilt from start to finish. Her images are informative as well as narrative and include labeled diagrams of sewing tools and illustrations of classic quilt blocks. There’s even an explanation of the origins of each fabric used, from an African wax print to a Scottish plaid. The strong how-to component may encourage young readers to learn to make their own quilts.

The book’s communal spirit is epitomized in a glorious spread that shows a diverse group of people of all ages gathered around a quilting frame, working together to create something beautiful. “It takes a long time to quilt the quilt,” the text reads. “Everybody lends a hand.” The All-Together Quilt is an exemplary, colorful and moving blend of fact and fiction.

Two picture books inspired by real-life community organizations demonstrate the great things we can achieve when we all pitch in.

Based on Jillian Tamaki’s experience of volunteering at a community kitchen in Brooklyn, Our Little Kitchen follows a mother and child who help a group…

NonfictionNature

A walk in the woods

Feature by Alice Cary

We don’t just live on this planet; we’re part of it. These books help foster a stronger relationship with the living world around us.

In 1851, Henry David Thoreau wrote that he came to the woods “as a hungry man to a crust of bread.” More than 150 years later, many of us continue to crave the forest. These four books provide a variety of fun ways to immerse yourself in the natural world.

If you’re searching for a perfect gift book with broad appeal, 100 Things to Do in a Forest by Jennifer Davis may be the answer. Inside are 100 creative ways to spice up your woodsy wanderings, brought to life with colorful illustrations by Eleanor Taylor. Creative types will appreciate recipes for hedgerow jam and campfire bread. Kids of all ages will love making a grass whistle. Try a dice-rolling walk or (yikes!) cowpat Frisbee—although Davis assures readers that cow “poo is not smelly, dirty or harmful.” There are suggestions for woodland yoga, meditating or local gifting, such as leaving a book in a tree for someone else to find. Pair 100 Things to Do in a Forest with a local trail guide, and keep an outdoor lover busy for many happy months.

“There has always been singing in dark times—and wonder is needed now more than ever.”

America's National Historic TrailsCongress created the National Trails System in 1968, and since then it has designated 19 National Historic Trails that commemorate and protect routes of historic significance, special places that allow hikers to experience firsthand “the intersection of story and landscape,” as Karen Berger explains in America’s National Historic Trails: In the Footsteps of History. Some trails are coastal routes, while others cross the inland landscape, and they range in length from 54 to 5,000 miles. Stretching across time and weaving throughout the nation’s history, they include the East Coast’s Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, the Lewis and Clark Trail, the Oregon Trail, Alaska’s Iditarod Trail, Hawaii’s Ala Kahakai Trail and many more.

Each entry contains stunning photographs by Bart Smith and a detailed discussion of the history and geography of the route, as well as a list of specific historic sites, such as museums and visitors’ centers, along the way. Whether you’re a history buff, an outdoor enthusiast or both, America’s National Historic Trails offers a wealth of touring possibilities. I’m already making a list.

Backyard Birdwatcher's BibleWhen a great horned owl perched on my deck railing one winter afternoon, it felt like a mysterious, magical and majestic visitor had arrived. Keep a copy of The Backyard Birdwatcher’s Bible close at hand, and you’ll be more than ready to identify your own winged guests. Compiled by an impressive team of experts, the book contains a lengthy identification guide with corresponding photos. A discussion of “Birdwatching for Beginners” explains that migration pathways are inherited. Astonishingly, a common cuckoo chick raised by a foster parent can migrate months after its genetic parents have left and still find its way to Africa.

The “Birds in Art” section is especially fascinating, showcasing a variety of artists and their work. Some of their stories will astound you, such as English photographer Eric Hosking, who was struck by a tawny owl and lost sight in one eye. Undeterred from his passion, he went on to take “the first ever flash photograph—ironically, of an owl with its prey.”

There are also helpful tips on how to attract birds, with step-by-step instructions for building a nest box. Grab a pair of binoculars, and you’ll be all set.

The Lost SpellsA follow-up to the bestselling The Lost Words, The Lost Spells is a combination of Robert MacFarlane’s acrostics (poems in which each line begins with a letter to spell out a word) and Jackie Morris’ illustrations of the natural world. Suitable for adults as well as younger readers, the book celebrates a range of flora and fauna, including a red fox, goldfinch, oak tree and snow hare. Calling this “a book of spells to be spoken aloud,” nature writer MacFarlane (Underland) writes, “Loss is the tune of our age, hard to miss and hard to bear. Creatures, places and words disappear, day after day, year on year. But there has always been singing in dark times—and wonder is needed now more than ever.”

This is a decidedly heartfelt volume, with accessible poems that somehow feel sacred. Morris’ hauntingly beautiful watercolors are perfectly matched to the spirit of the text. Should you find yourself unable to go outside, cozying up with The Lost Spells is the next best thing.

We don’t just live on this planet; we’re part of it. These books help foster a stronger relationship with the living world around us.
Children's & YAPicture Book

Yes, even the mice: Christmas picture books with tiny protagonists and big hearts

Feature by Alice Cary

Kind and generous mice are the stars of the show in two sparkling picture books that prove that no heart is too small to spread the joy of Christmas.

When Clement Clarke Moore penned his famous holiday poem in the early 19th century, he had no way to know that “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” as it was originally titled, would become one of the most beloved Christmas verses of all time. He certainly couldn’t have imagined how famous the lines “Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse” would become.

But according to Tracey Corderoy and Sarah Massini’s Mouse’s Night Before Christmas, there was, in fact, a mouse stirring on that Yuletide evening. In this alternate version of events, a lonely mouse is spending the night gazing in awe at the tree, decorations and gifts of the human family whose house he shares while wishing he had a friend to celebrate with. When Santa lands (with a clatter, naturally) on the lawn, having lost his way in a snowstorm, Mouse offers to act as his guide and help save the day. Will Santa make Mouse’s Christmas wish come true?

Corderoy recounts her heartwarming mouse-capade in rhyming verses that reflect the spirit of Moore’s original poem. In lines such as “He was quiet, and careful, and ever so neat— / quite the best little helper that Santa could meet!” she strikes the perfect balance between honoring Moore’s phrasing and adding her own lively twists.

Illustrator Massini’s wonder-filled images anchor the book in gorgeous pastel hues with splashes of holiday red on Santa’s suit, the reindeer's harnesses and Mouse’s dashing scarf. As Santa’s sleigh soars across the sky, it leaves a trail of bluish-white stars in its wake that contrast beautifully against the dark and wintry night sky. Massini’s work is filled with texture: the spiky needles of the Christmas tree, the curly wisps of Santa’s beard, the colorful knits of the handmade stockings hanging from the mantel.

Mouse’s Night Before Christmas is a joyful addition to the canon of Christmas picture books. It’s steeped in tradition, holiday magic and the happiness that comes from helping others and sharing joy with someone special.

A mouse named Mistletoe already has a best buddy, an elephant named Norwell, in Tad Hills' Mistletoe: A Christmas Story, a tale of unlikely friendship that will call to mind Arnold Lobel’s beloved Frog and Toad adventures.

Lively and determined, Mistletoe is an avid knitter whose lace collars, jolly striped tights and matching red cap, coat and boots epitomize prim-and-proper fashion. Norwell is a thoughtful artist who loves to stay cozy indoors, while Mistletoe loves nothing better than being outside in the falling snow. Try as she might, tiny Mistletoe can’t convince her friend to join her. Sitting by Norwell’s fire and enjoying each other’s company, they each begin to plan a Christmas surprise for the other.

Like Lobel, Hills uses understated humor throughout the story to underscore the differences between his two characters and highlight their friendship in ways guaranteed to bring a smile to readers both young and old. “Just a drop for me, and a cookie crumb, please,” Mistletoe says when offered tea. Later, as Mistletoe works night and day to knit a gift for Norwell, she “realizes two things: one, sometimes you don’t have enough yarn, and two, elephants are big!” The creator of the bestselling Duck and Goose series, Hills is hardly a stranger to odd-couple friendships, and his lively prose energizes this otherwise quiet tale.

Using a palette of bright, bold colors, Hills skillfully alternates lively panels, full-page illustrations and double-page spreads to depict Mistletoe’s holiday mission and reveal how she transforms her giant rainbow-colored balls of yarn into an enormous present for Norwell. Mistletoe knits everywhere—even in the bathtub ("which isn't easy")—in order to finish on time. Her efforts to haul her massive creation to Norwell’s house are especially comical.

A timeless story about appreciating and honoring differences among friends, Mistletoe merrily conveys the seasonal feeling of joy we experience when we share gifts from the heart.

Kind and generous mice are the stars of the show in two sparkling picture books that prove that no heart is too small to spread the joy of Christmas.

Children's & YAPicture Book

Snowy days

Feature by Alice Cary

Ezra Jack Keats set the gold standard for snow stories with his Caldecott Medal-winning book, The Snowy Day, in 1962. Two picture books are worthy additions to his legacy.

A cold and snowy day has never been so cheery as in the delightful A Sled for Gabo, which contains a winning combination of picture and prose. Author Emma Otheguy’s rich text conveys both narrative and mood in an evocative but spare style, beginning with the opening spread: “The day it snowed Gabo followed the whistling sound of an old steam radiator into the kitchen.” Illustrator Ana Ramírez González paints the large, inviting kitchen in bright colors and includes a red table, a purple and orange stove, and walls covered in light blue paint and red, green and yellow tiles.

Gabo can’t wait to head outside to play, but he doesn’t have snow gear or a sled. His mother reassures him by saying, “Vamos a resolver”—Spanish words and phrases are skillfully sprinkled throughout the story—and equips her son with his father’s hat, multiple pairs of socks and plastic bags over his sneakers. With understated, matter-of-fact determination, she sends Gabo outside to solve his own problem.

Otheguy perfectly captures the meandering freedom of a child on the hunt for fun and adventure. Gabo, who is “much too shy for anyone just his age,” roams his lively neighborhood in search of a sled and encounters a variety of friendly adults, a stray cat and a frolicking dog. When one adult joyfully presents him with a cafeteria tray, Gabo can’t help feeling “very small and very sad” because he desperately wants a real sled. But before long, Gabo finds a new friend, a girl named Isa who quickly shows him that his tray will make an excellent sled.

Ramírez González bathes Gabo’s snowy outdoor world in warm tones. The sun gleams bright yellow, the houses sparkle with a multitude of colors, and reds, oranges and pinks burst forth from everything, including Gabo’s hat and his shoelaces. The illustrations accentuate how, in this welcoming neighborhood, everyone looks after one another—even the stray cat.

By the end of the day, Gabo has learned an important lesson about the joys of friendship and about sharing and making do with what you have. A Sled for Gabo’s friendly spirit will wrap itself around your heart like the warm helping of dulce de leche that Gabo and Isa share after their perfect day of sledding.

In Ten Ways to Hear Snow, a blizzard helps a young girl understand how her beloved grandmother copes with the difficulties of aging. Lina has been looking forward to making warak enab (stuffed grape leaves) with Sitti, her Lebanese grandmother. An evening snowstorm has left their city “muffled and white,” but that doesn’t stop Lini from heading to her grandmother’s nearby apartment.

Author Cathy Camper transforms Lina’s journey into a sparkling study of both keen observation and onomatopoeia. “Ploompf!” goes the powdery snow falling from a pine tree, and “swish-wish, swish-wish” is the sound of people brushing snow off their cars. Basking in every moment of this winter wonderland, Lina tallies nine different snowy sounds during her walk. Illustrator Kenard Pak’s images are full of muted tones and plenty of white space, which emphasizes the vast, quiet mood created by the newly fallen snow. His art sets the perfect stage for Lina to hear so many different and unfamiliar sounds.

Once Lina reaches her destination, the joy of her relationship with Sitti takes over the tale. Although Sitti is losing her eyesight, grandmother and granddaughter work side by side in her kitchen, filling grape leaves with lamb and rice. When Lina holds a grape leaf up to her nose and suggests that it looks like a mustache, a cheerful illustration shows the pair clowning around and taking selfies. Sitta may be getting older, but she remains independent, energetic and full of fun.

In a final, touching scene, Lina asks Sitti how she can see snow with her diminished eyesight, and the two discuss the importance of listening. Finally, hand in hand, they venture outside, where Sitti teaches her granddaughter one final way to hear snow. Ten Ways to Hear Snow is a quietly powerful story about the ways that both young and old can help each other adapt to a changing world, told with care and insight.

Ezra Jack Keats set the gold standard for snow stories with his Caldecott Medal-winning book, The Snowy Day, in 1962. Two picture books are worthy additions to his legacy.

Children's & YAPicture BookMiddle Grade

Black history now

Feature by Alice Cary

In the pages of these books, young readers will meet American heroes and heroines who made vital and lasting contributions to a history we all share. Some lived long ago, some are still alive today, but each has left their indelible mark.

William Still and His Freedom Stories

Do you know about the remarkable life of William Still, “the Father of the Underground Railroad”? If you don’t, as Don Tate explains in William Still and His Freedom Stories, it’s because white abolitionists usually glorified their own heroism while diminishing the efforts of African Americans.

Born in New Jersey, Still was the son of formerly enslaved people who were forced to leave behind two of their elder sons when they escaped enslavement in Maryland. At just 8 years old, Still helped a neighbor avoid slave catchers and escape to safety, an experience that defined the rest of his life. As a young man, Still worked for the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery and assisted freedom-seeking people on the Underground Railroad. After a chance reunion with one of his older brothers, who had escaped and made his way north, Still began recording the testimonies of every person who passed through his office in case the stories helped family members find each other. Still concealed his records after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 to protect himself and the people he’d met, but he published them in 1872.

Tate’s short sentences and accessible language convey the urgency of Still’s work, and his illustrations sensitively communicate the danger and terror faced by enslaved people. Nighttime scenes bathed in ominous blue washes are particularly effective. There’s plenty of hope here, too. One particularly wonderful spread shows Still’s words like rays of light beaming from a copy of his book. “Stories save lives,” Tate writes. “William’s stories needed to be told, so slavery’s nightmare will never happen again.”

Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre

The nightmare of racism did not end with abolition, however, and Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre is an extraordinary account of the worst racial attack in American history, a 16-hour massacre in 1921 that destroyed thousands of homes and businesses and left as many as 300 people dead.

Author Carole Boston Weatherford begins by celebrating the successes of the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma, also known as Black Wall Street. It was a place where commerce and community thrived through more than 200 businesses, including beauty shops, movie theaters, soda parlors, two Black-owned newspapers and the largest Black-owned hotel in the country. Floyd Cooper’s illustrations convey the hustle and bustle of this booming, prosperous area and show the expressive faces of Greenwood’s residents filled with pride.

Then, in a spread dominated by shadow, Weatherford explains, “All it took was one elevator ride, one seventeen-year-old white elevator operator accusing a nineteen-year-old Black shoeshine man of assault for simmering hatred to boil over.”

The horror that follows is depicted with care, mindful that the book’s readers will be children. Many readers will feel angry at the injustice and violence that white police officers, city officials and Tulsa residents inflicted on the Black community in Greenwood. Cooper’s illustrations shift powerfully as expressions of fear and sadness replace pride on Greenwood residents’ faces.

The book ends in Tulsa’s modern-day Reconciliation Park with a reminder of “the responsibility we all have to reject hatred and violence and to instead choose hope.” Detailed notes from Weatherford and Cooper root the Tulsa Race Massacre in the context of anti-Black violence throughout American history. Cooper’s grandfather lived in Greenwood at the time of the massacre, a revelation that adds a deeply personal dimension to the book. Unspeakable deserves to be read by every student of American history.

Jump at the Sun: The True Life Tale of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston

Packed with evocative language and energetic illustrations, Jump at the Sun: The True Life Tale of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston is a fabulous showcase of not only Hurston’s storytelling abilities but also those of author Alicia D. Williams and illustrator Jacqueline Alcántara. Its vibrant opening lines offer a promise on which the book more than delivers: “In a town called Eatonville—a place where magnolias smelled even prettier than they looked, oranges were as sweet as they were plump, and the people just plain ol’ got along—lived a girl who was attracted to tales like mosquitoes to skin. Zora was her name.”

Williams focuses on key moments throughout Hurston’s life when she was inspired by her mother’s advice to “jump at de sun. You might not land on de sun, but at least you’d get off de ground.” As Williams chronicles Hurston’s journey toward literary greatness, she intersperses biographical details with lively commentary and poetic descriptions. Her writing sings and soars.

Alcántara’s illustrations playfully complement Williams’ prose and bring this tale to life on sunny pages filled with bright colors. Whether Hurston is running through the Florida swamps of her childhood or dancing the Charleston in Harlem, her zest for life shines through. An author’s note explains that Hurston died in 1960 and was buried in an unmarked grave until 1973, when Alice Walker honored Hurston with a tombstone inscribed with “A Genius of the South.” Jump at the Sun will leave readers in awe of the life of this national treasure and eager to discover more of her wonderful words for themselves.

That They Lived: African Americans Who Changed the World

Books that tell childhood stories of notable people are beloved by young readers, and That They Lived: African Americans Who Changed the World makes a fantastic addition to this category. Rochelle Riley profiles 20 Black leaders, including activists, scientists, athletes and artists, and accompanying each brief biography are two photographs: The first is a well-known image of the profile’s subject, and in the second, either Riley’s grandson Caleb or photographer Cristi Smith-Jones’ daughter Lola re-create the image in full costume.

Every page of this book has been tailor-made to appeal to young people, from Riley’s thoughtful profiles to the way Smith-Jones stages each portrait to honor the spirit of its subject rather than merely imitate the original photograph. Her attention to small details is extraordinary, such as Shirley Chisholm’s horn-rimmed glasses and Duke Ellington’s pocket square.

A variety of both historical and contemporary figures is included, and Riley relates fascinating stories about each of them. Muhammad Ali, for instance, might never have become a boxer if his bike hadn’t been stolen when he was 12. After he told police officer Joe Martin, “When I find whoever took my bike, I’m gonna whup him,” Martin introduced him to boxing lessons. Fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her bus seat to a white man on March 2, 1955—nine months before Rosa Parks did the same. “It felt like Harriet Tubman was pushing me down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth was pushing me down on the other shoulder,” Colvin later recalled. “History had me glued to the seat.” Every profile ends with a takeaway, such as “Claudette Colvin taught us that you are never too young to make a difference.”

“We want to show [young people] that every important or powerful or talented or beautiful person in the world was once a child,” write Riley and Smith-Jones in a foreword. To look closely at the young faces in Smith-Jones’ photographs and then at the luminaries to which they pay tribute is to gain a powerful under- standing that Black history is being made every day—even today.

In the pages of these books, young readers will meet American heroes and heroines who made vital and lasting contributions to a history we all share. Some lived long ago, some are still alive today, but each has left their indelible mark.

Children's & YAPicture BookMiddle Grade

Make every day Earth Day

Feature by Alice Cary

Climb a tree, splash in a creek, dig in the dirt, bask in the sun—and take these wonder-filled books along as you discover all the marvels of nature and explore our responsibility to preserve and protect this beautiful planet.

Once Upon Another Time

To introduce a child to Earth’s natural splendor, start with Once Upon Another Time. This poetic ode, written by Charles Ghigna and Matt Forrest Esenwine, is short on text but packs an understated, powerful punch about stewardship. Without an ounce of sanctimony, it vitally conveys how humans have transformed Earth’s landscape.

Opening with idyllic scenes of snowy mountain peaks, rivers running through golden canyons and wild animals grazing in a lush valley, the book pivots to show how humans have filled these vistas with highways, skyscrapers, smog and machinery. Andrés F. Landazábal’s luminous illustrations span the long sweep of history, depicting everything from the cosmos, when “Earth and moon / and stars awakened,” to a modern cityscape observed by a child through their apartment window.

Once Upon Another Time concludes with a stirring call to action, urging readers to “take a step outdoors. / Breathe in air that once was shared / by monstrous dinosaurs!” Scenes of kids playing in a city park, exploring a meadow and camping under the stars will appeal to readers’ senses, urging them to hold an oak leaf, taste the rain, smell the clover and listen to the bees. This stellar book is sure to send kids outdoors equipped with new ways of observing and appreciating their surroundings.

Hello, Earth!

For readers ready to dig a little deeper, Hello, Earth! Poems to Our Planet is the perfect next step. In a collection of appealing and accessible poems, Newbery Honor author Joyce Sidman examines geology, the solar system, natural history and geography. Several pages of back matter, including short scientific explanations of each poem and website links and suggestions for further reading, complete the package. 

Sidman’s verses zoom through our planet’s long history, with stops in a jungle teeming with wildlife, a seemingly barren desert and more. In “Big and Small,” Sidman writes, “We need to figure out / the way / we fit together.” Many of the poems gently speak to the need for respect: “Earth, / you are our ship / through light / and darkness. / We will honor you.”

Miren Asiain Lora’s art depicts vast spaces in which humans are small figures amid wide-angle landscapes, a subtle but effective reminder of our place in this big world. Her spreads are bathed in slate blues and earth tones, so splashes of warmth from erupting volcanoes or the beams of a lighthouse really pop. Hello, Earth! is an excellent handbook for the youngest of Earth’s caretakers.

★ Wonder Walkers

Yearning to transform an ordinary day into an extraordinary adventure? Micha Archer’s Wonder Walkers is an exceptional, radiant tribute to the power of curiosity.

On a bright, sunny day, a girl and a boy lounge inside on the couch and pose a magical question: “Wonder walk?” This is their code for a special journey they’ve obviously taken many times before. Once outside, they ask—but don’t answer—a series of “wonder” questions that are guaranteed to perplex and delight: “Is the sun the world’s light bulb?” “Are trees the sky’s legs?” “Is the wind the world breathing?”

Archer’s exceptional collage illustrations are full of vibrant colors and textures, from striations in underground rocks and roots to swirling clouds at sunset. This book is about not only observing and pondering but also actively exploring, and on page after page, the young explorers peer into a cave, climb a massive tree, run through a valley and sink their toes into a sandy beach. Wonder Walkers is chock-full of joy, beauty and creative thinking, certain to encourage young readers to head straight outside and dream up their own imaginative questions.

★ Fatima’s Great Outdoors

For the ultimate outdoor adventure, nothing beats a camping trip. In Fatima’s Great Outdoors, Fatima Khazi is looking forward to her first such expedition after a difficult week at school dealing with microaggressions from her classmates and culminating in a bad grade on her math quiz. On the drive to the campground, excitement builds as Fatima, her parents and her older sister snack on homemade samosas and belt out Bollywood tunes.

Once the family arrives at the state park, things don’t exactly go smoothly. Fatima’s father puzzles over tent setup until Fatima suggests they read the instructions, and then she has a hard time falling asleep after spotting the frightening shadow of a spider. Despite the setbacks she encounters, Fatima’s time spent in nature, which includes wilderness chores like gathering kindling, makes her feel like a “superhero” and reminds her of “how she used to feel in India: She had fun, she didn’t feel sad or scared, and she loved how adventure was around every corner.”

Ambreen Tariq’s writing is buoyant and full of wonderfully specific details, such as Papa’s “bear claw” hand on Fatima’s shoulder and Mama’s fearlessness in the face of creepy-crawlies. Stevie Lewis’ illustrations make each page sing, and her background in film animation especially shines when depicting the Khazis’ emotive faces. Lewis’ use of light is also splendid, from the golden glow of late afternoon sun through the trees’ canopy to the tiny sparkles of fireflies under the gleaming moonlight. 

A closing spread shows the Khazis posing for a photo on a beach near a group of people holding a banner that reads, “Brown People Camping,” a real organization founded by Tariq to promote diversity in the outdoors. Fatima’s Great Outdoors seamlessly combines a celebration of adventures in nature with the story of an Indian American family navigating their new life in the United States.

Treaty Words

Treaty Words: For as Long as the Rivers Flow is an unusual book. At 60 pages, it’s longer than most picture books, and with minimal text, it takes its time in a quiet, purposeful way, just like the flowing river at the heart of its story about an Indigenous girl and her Mishomis (grandfather) who spend a day together by the river in front of his home.

The granddaughter is a city girl, but her Mishomis’ small parcel of land is “the closest thing to home for her.” Not only is her Mishomis an outdoorsman, backpacking for six weeks each spring, but he’s also actively involved in a host of environmental projects, including sturgeon restocking and territorial mapping. On this spring day, as they listen to the sounds of trees rustling, geese honking overhead and ice breaking on the river, the girl recognizes the “privilege to be there in that moment, witnessing this intense transition.” 

Author Aimée Craft’s language is exquisitely lyrical. An Anishinaabe/Métis lawyer in Manitoba, Canada, a professor at the University of Ottawa and a leading researcher on Indigenous law, Craft writes beautifully about our responsibilities as Earth’s caretakers and the importance of treaties, which Mishomis calls “the basis of all relationships.”

Anishinaabe illustrator Luke Swinson uses seemingly simple shapes filled with gentle gradients of color; there’s a stillness to them that perfectly complements Craft’s text. This contemplative book is reminiscent of a great sermon, providing a springboard for deep thought. As Craft writes, “Every person was born with a set of spiritual instructions or understandings, my girl. It’s what we do with it that defines us as human beings.”

The Outdoor Scientist

Imagine having a chance to roam around with Temple Grandin, a Colorado State University professor renowned for her pioneering research on animal behavior and her work as an autism spokesperson. That’s exactly the treat in store for readers of The Outdoor Scientist: The Wonder of Observing the Natural World. This unique book is memoir, science guide and activity book all rolled into one. Perfect for independent readers, it’s Grandin’s personal invitation for children to become citizen scientists while exploring nature. The many projects she suggests (seashell wind chimes, pine cone animals and so on) are straightforward, with no fancy equipment required. 

“I’ve always been curious about pretty much everything in nature, especially when some sleuthing is required,” Grandin writes. As a kid, the outdoors were her sanctuary, “away from everyone trying to make me catch up in reading and writing.” Grandin’s childhood stories are fun as well as fascinating, as she describes hours spent unsupervised, playing and exploring with her siblings—and family photos are included.

Discussions in each of the book’s six chapters (rocks, the beach, the woods, birds, the night skies and animal behavior) are wonderfully far-reaching, spanning everything from the pet rock craze of the 1970s to whether marbles are made of marble. Each subject transitions effortlessly to the next. Short sidebar biographies touch on other relevant scientists as well, emphasizing their childhoods and including kid-friendly facts. Did you know, for instance, that Charles Darwin was seasick nearly every day during the five years he spent aboard the Beagle? 

Grandin’s enthusiasm for citizen science is contagious, and readers of all ages will adore spending time with The Outdoor Scientist. After all, as Grandin reminds us, “You don’t have to be a professor or a professional” to make a difference—“just someone who cares about the environment.”

Climb a tree, splash in a creek, dig in the dirt, bask in the sun—and take these wonder-filled books along as you discover all the marvels of nature and explore our responsibility to preserve and protect this beautiful planet.

Sign Up

Stay on top of new releases: Sign up for our newsletter to receive reading recommendations in your favorite genres.

Sign up now

Trending Features

All Features