Kim Hillyard freshens up the popular children’s literature theme of self-confidence in Mabel and the Mountain: A Story About Believing in Yourself (Penguin Workshop, $14.99, ​​9780593659021). Originally published in the U.K., where it won a Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Award, Hillyard’s humorous debut stars a rotund fly named Mabel, who has made a list of three big, ambitious dreams: climbing a mountain, hosting a dinner party and befriending a shark.

Intrepid Mabel has her heart set on reaching the top of a real, snow-covered mountain—not a fly-sized peak. There’s no time to waste, Hillyard reminds readers: “As everyone knows, when you have BIG PLANS it’s important to get started right away.” 

Mabel doesn’t get much encouragement from her friends. Her fellow flies, sporting knitted hats and handlebar mustaches sure to tickle kids’ funny bones, remind her that flies do not climb. But plucky Mabel forges ahead. 

Young readers will enjoy cheering Mabel on as she slowly makes her way up the mountain, one teeny tiny step at a time. A great model for believing in herself, Mabel even comes up with a cheer to keep up her flagging spirits. At last, success: The little fly summits against a rainbow-filled sky.

With the first goal on her list checked off, Mabel returns home. As for her other goals? Well, a table nearby is set for a dinner party, where Mabel finds her determination has inspired her friends to launch their own big plans. The story ends with Mabel poised on a rock above the ocean, leaving readers to imagine just how she might make friends with one of the sharks swimming in the distance. 

Mabel’s ultimate success is never in doubt, but what makes this book stand out from similarly themed stories is Hillyard’s humorous and appealing artwork featuring bold, bright colors, creative lettering and graphic elements. To show Mabel’s size, Hillyard places the fly next to a human hand along with the words, “Yes, she is small.” Along with the excellent use of white space, these playful choices make Mabel and the Mountain a perfect option for preschool or toddler storytime.

A once-thriving farmers market seems to be in decline, but its people are not defeated, and its community is not without hope. The Last Stand (Knopf, $18.99, 9780593480571) tells the story of a grandfather-grandson duo who keep their vegetable stand going for the neighbors who rely on them. Moving and gently passionate, this picture book by Antwan Eady (author of the acclaimed Nigel and the Moon) with illustrations from Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey explores determination, tradition, community and love.

A note of appreciation for the clever title: Papa’s stall is indeed the last stand remaining at the market, but the title is also a declaration of resolve. Through poetic and precise observations from the grandson’s point of view, Eady thoughtfully narrates the way Papa moves, looks and sounds. Outwardly straightforward and childlike, these descriptions are layered with meaning and wisdom. Eady’s well-chosen words build a subtle sense of pride and determination. Readers will feel the love Eady has for his rural South Carolina background, which inspired this book and its tone of tangible warmth.

Fans of the Pumphrey brothers’ first book, The Old Truck, will be charmed anew by their handcrafted stamp artwork. Colorful and cheerful, The Last Stand radiates compassion and purpose; this is artwork that feels alive. A strong sense of place permeates each scene, and small details make this world feel lived-in—slightly worn and tired perhaps, but resolute. The Pumphreys fill the pages with people with whom you feel an instant connection, making the book welcoming and homey.

A revealing and poignant author’s note adds yet another layer to this heartfelt story through an educational tribute to the historic—and ongoing—struggles of Indigenous and Black farmers. Papa and his grandson may be the only ones still selling at the market, but they aren’t truly alone: Every inch of The Last Stand is a declaration of solidarity, perseverance and an intent to make a stand.

Spring is here and that means it’s time to garden! This follow-up to This Little Kitty follows the same mischievous cats outside where they gather their gardening tools, seeds and starter plants, and discover all the garden has to offer. The kitties help weed and soften the dirt. They help water the seeds, but watch out for that tricky water hose! The kitties discover buzzing bees and flowers that make them sneeze. Fuzzy friends are there too, but who is that, rustling the grass? Don’t worry, kitties, it’s just a fluffy bunny! By the end of the day, the kitties are a mess, but when it’s time to clean up, they are nowhere to be found. Where could they be? It turns out these kitties have found the perfect place for a catnap. 

Karen Obuhanych’s This Little Kitty in the Garden is a bright and colorful celebration of spring. Pairing rhythmic, rhyming text that begs to be read aloud with bold, playful illustrations, Obuhanych captures each kitten’s personality on every page. Whether they are finding the best nap spot, chewing a stray weed, splishing and splashing in the watering can or digging the perfect hole for a little seed, these feisty pets find excitement in their garden. Readers will enjoy searching the spreads for all of the sneaky cats. Even if they cannot be found, they are sure to have left dirty paw prints behind!

Use this charming story to introduce young readers to gardening, or even the joys and woes of pet ownership. While This Little Kitty in the Garden is sure to attract cat lovers and gardeners alike, one only needs a sense of humor to enjoy this romp on a lovely spring day. Don’t be surprised if your young readers ask for This Little Kitty in the Garden over and over again! 

Author-illustrator duo Mrs. & Mr. MacLeod kicked off The Grunions series with their wild and whimsical How to Eat a Book. The series continues with the delightfully riotous The Door That Had Never Been Opened Before.

Twins Gerald and Geraldine and their cousin Sheila live in a grand mansion with many, many doors, all artfully rendered in heavy black pen-and-ink with bold splashes of primary colors. Layered paper cutouts create a 3D effect, and shadows bolster the visual drama so that the story pulses with manic energy. After all, there’s so much to explore when it comes to doors, from the swinging double kitchen doors to a trapdoor in the floor. But to the Grunion cousins’ immense frustration, there is one door in the house that just won’t open. Why is it locked, the kids wonder? And what’s on the other side of it?

The trio aren’t shy about expressing their big feelings about the situation, whether through shouts or leaps or open-mouthed indignation. Sheila “studied the splinters and notches, / the nails and latches” while Gerald, who “closed every door he ever found,” secretly decides to protect the huge red door from the boisterous Geraldine, who “shook as she stomped and wriggled around . . . She screamed at the door and fell to the ground.”

A wild scuffle with a hammer results in a big crack in the door—through which a flowering vine emerges and grows at an alarming pace. What will happen when it fills the house and there’s no more room inside for the Grunions? The story’s brisk pace and rhythmic phrasing ramp up the fun suspense as the kids try to escape the vines, with the mysterious door their only possible way out.

Readers will delight in The Door That Had Never Been Opened Before’s kinetic and expressive artwork that’s rife with clever details (keep an eye out for the kitten) and high-impact type treatments. They’ll have lots to think and talk about when they encounter the book’s final pages, which reveal what’s beyond the mysterious door and will surely build anticipation for the next rollicking Grunions adventure.

—Linda M. Castellitto

A lion dies, and his lonely, bored reflection goes in search of something new to represent. Such is the unusual premise of Marion Kadi’s fanciful Harriet’s Reflections, which follows a girl who learns valuable lessons about herself in the process of becoming attached to this strange alter ego. Kadi’s spare, humorous text gives momentum to this fun, surprising romp. 

After the lion’s reflection scouts around—nixing the idea of reflecting a flower or a duck—he spots Harriet and leaves behind a trail of puddles (a lovely detail) as he makes his way to peer in her window. The next morning, as Harriet heads to school, the beastly reflection is waiting and pounces with wild abandon into Harriet’s reflection in a water puddle. It’s a great scene, as the unsuspecting Harriet remains oblivious with her nose in her book, while her own reflection reacts with wide-eyed shock.

Kadi’s boldly colorful, swirling art is the star of the show, lending energy to each scene and adding oodles of personality to the lonely, soul-seeking lion as well as to Harriet, who at the start of the tale is miserable at school and sports a big frown. Each page bursts with vibrantly contrasting oranges, blues, greens and yellows; Kadi’s style is reminiscent of Matisse in both style and color, and the lion’s swirling mane and adorable, mischievous expressions are endearing. 

Harriet initially finds that her fierce new reflection makes her happier at school. However, problems soon arise, as she and her reflection begin romping “around the schoolyard like wild beasts” and “devouring their lunch and showing off their fangs.” Harriet comes to yearn for her own reflection and devises a clever way to reclaim it. 

Harriet’s Reflections is a creative tale about trying on new personalities as well as finding one’s true self. Young readers will enjoy every humorous step of Harriet and her lion alter ego’s search for a balanced coexistence.

Micha Archer’s spectacularly colorful collages in What’s New, Daniel? tell the story of a young boy’s day in the park. Daniel runs to meet his grandfather, who asks the boy, “What’s new?” Daniel responds literally: “Um, I don’t know yet.”

Daniel heads deeper into the park to retrieve some answers. What’s new with his favorite rock? What’s new with the redwing blackbirds, Mother Duck, Polliwog, Snake and other budding life in the lush and lively park that the boy and grandfather visit? With abundant curiosity, Daniel explores every nook and cranny of what is clearly one of his favorite places in the city. The answers Daniel receives prompt him to also consider what is new in his life. When Snake shares that it has shed its old skin, Daniel points out that he’s just lost a tooth. When Daniel learns that the polliwogs are all growing legs, Daniel enthusiastically shares, “My legs are growing too!” Archer, who clearly knows children well, then depicts Daniel showing them how strong his legs are: “Watch me run!” 

Archer presents a verdant park teeming with life, a pocket in a big and bustling city. Her vivid palette showcases nearly every shade of green—the true star of this show—but also warm yellows (the flowers Butterfly lands on), rich rust colors (the leaves of the oak tree in which Squirrel builds her nest), and the gleaming blues and teals of the sky, the water and even grandfather’s sweater. As in her previous books featuring Daniel (Daniel’s Good Day and Daniel Finds a Poem), Archer achieves impressive textures and details in the illustrations, creating artwork to pore over. 

What’s New, Daniel? not only captures an intergenerational bond but also celebrates the joy with which children take in the natural world. There are no screens in sight. Instead, Daniel revels in the shimmering water of the pond, the cattails sending seeds into the wind, the unfurling leaves on the fern, and the delicate wings of a butterfly, not to mention his own growing body. As Daniel puts it, with such unbridled cheer, “So many things are new!” 

Every year, Lucía looks forward to watching the northern migration of the monarch butterflies —but this year, her Papá is leaving with them. He needs to find seasonal farm work to support his family. Lucía spends the warm months without him or her beloved monarcas, strumming on his guitarra when she gets lonely—“Songs soothe weeping hearts,” Papá says—and as autumn returns, Lucía counts down the days until those she loves return to her.

Author Cynthia Harmony and illustrator Devon Holzwarth have crafted a beautiful story about the life of the monarch butterfly and what it represents to a migrant farmer’s family in A Flicker of Hope: A Story of Migration. Though Lucía and Papá’s desire to see each other again is bittersweet and moving, the real standout is Holzwarth’s colorful illustration work. Monarch butterflies litter nearly every page and morph into what Lucía and Papá need them to be: the music strummed from a guitar, a path the car takes to work, Día de los Muertos skulls.

Back matter gives information about the monarch reserve in Mexico and elaborates on the connection between indigenous Mazahua culture and the butterfly, particularly its connection to Día de los Muertos. Readers desiring more extensive ecological and political details about seasonal work will need to find them elsewhere, as the back matter limits itself to discussing the metaphor of the book and only touches upon the hardships posed by seasonal harvesting in America, and how this is the only choice for many Michoacán workers.

For those who love butterflies or those looking for picture books that explore an aspect of the immigrant experience, A Flicker of Hope will be a meaningful, beautifully illustrated addition to their shelves.

Between jobs, Roy DeCarava would pop a new film canister into his black-and-white camera and capture the day-to-day lives of the neighborhood he called home: Harlem. As he photographed the world around him—from a young Black boy drawing with sidewalk chalk, to a sunlit Black woman standing in a white dress, or an older Black painter selling his work on the street—DeCarava amassed a world-renowned collection that honored his Harlem neighbors. 

Everywhere Beauty Is Harlem: The Vision of Photographer Roy DeCarava is the first book written about the life of the essential American photographer. Award-winning illustrator E.B. Lewis pays tribute by reenvisioning DeCarava’s iconic photographs as full-color paintings, imagining what DeCarava may have seen in the seconds before the film captured a moment forever in black and white. Playful juxtaposition of opposing concepts in the text, such as using eyes to listen or hungering for something that isn’t food, keeps the narrative bouncing forward. Emphasis on DeCarava’s search for beauty in every element of ordinary life—marked by the camera’s repeated “SNAP!”—provides a grounded base for relating to the photographer. Everywhere Beauty Is Harlem inspires readers to “look slowly” and discover a deep love for the everyday moments in their lives. After all, as author Gary Golio writes, “Life is how you look at it.” 

Quotes from DeCarava appear throughout Golio’s precise narrative text as well as a short biography in the backmatter that adds illuminating context and includes a statement by DeCarava himself, in which he proudly proclaims his intent to dignify Black lives and experiences through his work. A robust timeline puts into perspective the social and cultural changes that Harlem would have experienced throughout DeCarava’s life. Though the book lacks any of DeCarava’s actual photography, the biography and images of DeCarava and his camera will spark eagerness in readers for additional information. 

Everywhere Beauty Is Harlem honors a classic artist in a biographical picture book both beautiful and educational. Fans of Lesa Cline-Ransome or Carole Boston Weatherford will find this a worthy addition to their picture book collection.

When Granny goes to the market, people give her sidelong glances. After all, they’re selecting pristine produce from carefully curated displays while Granny is scooping up lumpy fruit and bumpy vegetables spilling out from an overflowing dumpster.

But the charming and resourceful star of Tang Wei’s debut picture book, Grandma’s Roof Garden, doesn’t mind the funny looks because she knows something important: This imperfect produce helps her feed her animals and compost her garden, a lush and colorful oasis she’s created atop a tall gray apartment building in the city of Chengdu, in southwest China. 

Clucking hens and honking geese, an inquisitive black cat and an impressive array of plants share space in Granny’s rooftop garden. Translator Kelly Zhang maintains the playful punchiness of Wei’s couplets and quatrains in the translation from Chinese to English: “Over each and every one, / Granny proudly cries with a grin: / Look at my gorgeous, / chubby veggie children!” 

Not only does Granny commune with nature and get lots of exercise every day, she creates community by sharing her bounty with her neighbors. Even better, she cooks the remaining produce for her family “to make them healthy, strong, and happy.” Wei’s expressive colored pencil drawings perfectly capture the neighbors’ surprise and delight, as well as the warm affection exuded by Granny’s family as they dine together on a host of delicious veggie dishes. A cheery mix of patterns, colors and textures brings visual interest and vibrancy to every page, from a spread overrun with dramatically curving vines to a set piece depicting an action-packed afternoon during which the cat supervises as Granny climbs a ladder, lays brick and tills a patch of dirt. Phew!

In her author’s note, Wei shares that Grandma’s Roof Garden was inspired by a beloved family member who has created her own marvelous roof garden. Readers will be touched to learn there’s a real-life Granny out there living a wonderful veggie-centric life—and perhaps be energized to grow community and good health in their very own gardens too. This heartwarming tale is one to share and treasure.

Tulsi, a girl in the mountains of northern New Mexico, became pen pals with Vanessa, who lives by the sea in Tanzania. Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw’s Like You, Like Me, which is based on the real-life friendship between her daughter Tulsi and her pen pal, Vanessa, shows how alike two girls and their worlds can be, despite living in very different places. Through collages made from painted papers and oil sticks, Kostecki-Shaw has created a vibrant exchange that celebrates global connectedness. It’s a delightful follow-up to her earlier book, Same, Same But Different, which featured two pen pals in India and the United States.

On the title page spread, the words that each child writes form a curving, yarn-like thread that crosses the page, stretching from one to another. The endpapers feature bright collage maps of New Mexico and Tanzania, along with a number of geographical facts about each place that will ground young readers and perhaps inspire them to seek out more information. Children will enjoy the intriguing local details of each girl’s home: Tulsi describes ponderosa pines that “smell like butterscotch candy” while Vanessa writes, “my city wears the sweet smell of frangipani.” They compare notes on pets, siblings, school and pastimes in spare prose that is both informative and authentically childlike. Kostecki-Shaw enlivens her cheery, earthy collages with patterns and stamped textures, from the multicolored feathers of a red-tailed hawk to blue spots on a galloping cheetah. An imaginative sense of dreamlike wonder pervades the book from time to time, such as when Tulsi flies on the back of a soaring hawk while Vanessa clings to a cheetah’s neck.

“My life has definitely gotten a lot more beautiful because of people I’ve met.” Read our interview with Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw. 

The girls repeat a refrain, “Like you, like me,” to each other as they discover similarities between their lives, and Kostecki-Shaw finds a variety of creative ways to accentuate these connections. The first spread, for instance, features Tulsi on the left-hand page, sitting on a couch as she writes to her friend, with snow-covered mountains visible past her window. On the right-hand page, Vanessa also writes from a couch, while an ocean sparkles outside her window. In the center of this spread, each couch seems to blend into the other. Elsewhere, the two girls’ shadows merge across the pages as they each play different musical instruments. By the end of the book, the friends gaze directly into each other’s eyes, saying, “I see you!” and “I see you too!” Like You, Like Me is a wonderful celebration of global friendship.

Angela is born “under the milky Arctic sunlight” and grows up with her father near a glacier. They hike there often and listen, with their whole bodies, to the glacier and its “universe of sound.” This is the enchanting opening to Angela’s Glacier, written by poet Jordan Scott and illustrated by Diana Sudyka in the same beguiling peacock, indigo and duck egg blue colors described as belonging to the glacier.

Scott’s descriptive and evocative text makes this one especially delightful to read aloud: In describing the way Angela’s father would carry baby Angela on his back to visit the glacier, Scott writes that they hiked “through lava fields covered with silver mosses, past chocolate-brown arctic foxes atop raven’s glass, crowberry, and pixie lichen.” With each step they practice pronouncing the glacier’s name: Snæfellsjökull. As Angela grows, she takes the hikes herself. She puts her head to the ice and listens, even whispering her fears to it. In a palette filled with nearly every shade of blue and aquamarine, Sudyka uses textures and graceful, swerving lines to capture the landscape and cold winds of Angela’s favorite place to visit.

School, friends, homework and extracurricular activities consume Angela as a teen: “Time just melted away.” She feels somewhat lost, and her heartbeat sounds strange. Then her father asks, “Have you visited Snæfellsjökull?” Angela heads to that “ancient blue,” and despite knowing she’s not going to stop growing up or being busy, she makes a promise to the glacier to always visit.

Scott’s afterword describes how the story is inspired by his friend Angela Rawlings, who shares her own note about her experience listening to the “gentle” sounds of glaciers in Iceland. She writes how important it is that readers listen to themselves, to each other and “to the ecosystems and their inhabitants who sustain us,” particularly during a time of climate change and species extinction. A warmhearted ode to the colder side of the natural world, Angela’s Glacier gives readers everywhere a chance to ponder the “glacier’s music.”