When developing risk-taking, self-confident children, parents know that showing children examples of bravery is more effective than talking about this rather intangible word. Two new picture books about bravery in action will leave children chuckling with delight and feeling strong and confident.

Lindsay Leslie’s This Book is Spineless has the most imaginative approach to overcoming fears. The book itself is scared of what lies ahead as the pages turn, and the book asks readers to help it be brave and face its fears. With book puns such as “being spineless” or “growing a spine,” this story is sure to be a delight to children and the adults who read to them.

Leslie’s sensory language will almost allow young readers to hear the ghosts, see the mysterious strangers and feel a rocket’s propulsion during their adventure with the book. At the end, the book also realizes that while it needed a little push from the reader, it quite liked the journey and was proud of preserving to the end of the tale and surviving spooky events that frightened it.

Illustrator Alice Brereton creates scary mirror-image prints in blacks and grays. Once the book plucks up enough courage to advance beyond these illustrations, the book becomes even braver and takes many risks to finish the story. Bright colors create an explosion of joy and confidence at the end.

When You Are Brave also focuses on rising to and successfully navigating life’s challenges. Author Pat Zietlow Miller (Sophie’s Squash) creates an inspirational story that is quietly profound with positive messages of looking inside oneself to find a tiny seed of courage which will grow with use.

A young girl is faced with moving somewhere brand new and far away. But soon the girl realizes she has to be as brave as a caterpillar that goes to sleep, not knowing when it will wake up; or like the lost dog who searches for miles for his welcoming backyard light; or a baby bird, launching from the nest for the first time. Even when things might not work out, having had the courage to try is a mighty life lesson.

Illustrator, Eliza Wheeler, (Doll Bones and Miss Maple’s Seeds), creates richly detailed gray, dark scenes when the girl is scared. Once she reaches deep inside to find her courage, Wheeler depicts the tiny fire starts to glow from within her, which soon grows into a magical, shimmering set of wings. The connection between the girls’ growing courage and the growing light is a beautiful inspiration for young readers.

The decorations and treats may differ, but two things are vital for a proper birthday celebration: good friends and the perfect birthday wish. With the-more-the-merrier themes, Hoo Hoo Who? and Ten Rules of the Birthday Wish are original and clever tales that leave everyone feeling invited.

Ten Rules of the Birthday Wish by author Beth Ferry and illustrator Tom Lichtenheld offers resourceful birthday tips and tricks for nailing the perfect celebration, no matter who you are. Both sincere and hilarious, the rules encompass everything from when to celebrate (short-lived insects should party straightaway), to how to blow out a candle (spit-prone camels should seek assistance). Clever asides, such as a tongue-in-cheek “pin-the-stinger-on-the-human” game, keeps readers engaged and scanning the page for laughs. Several party fails provide hilarious exceptions to the rules (i.e. spiny animals vs. balloons).

From page one, Ferry and Lichtenheld capture their audience by encouraging young readers to count along. Boldly and cheerfully illustrated, every page is visually appealing with soft colors. Text alternatively pops and shrinks, keeping readers engaged and looking for the occasional tiny footnote and aside. A conversational, confident tone makes for an easy and amusing read aloud. Inviting and funny, Ten Rules for the Birthday Wish doesn’t take itself too seriously. But despite the mirth, one cannot deny that every page carries an underlying and earnest wish for your birthday joy.

Hoo Hoo Who? begins with a surprise party, thrown by Owl, that is in full swing. But since the farsighted Owl has broken his glasses, he may need help welcoming his party guests. Aimed at a slightly younger audience, author-illustrator Mary Maier and author Lauren Horton’s picture book encourages little readers to predict which animal is next on Owl’s guest list. With detailed clues about the guests’ physical appearances and movements, even the youngest listeners can join in the guessing. Before the last guest arrives, however, there is one more surprise for the blurry-eyed Owl.

Maier’s text has a rhythm that lends itself to read-alouds and inspires participation with owl hoots and other animal sounds. And here’s a preschool party tip: have your little party-goers pretend to be each animal as they arrive. Educators will enjoy that Horton, who is also a speech pathologist, includes links for incorporating this book into educational settings.

Maier illustrates with bold lines, quick dashes and spatters of paint, which echo the excitement—and slight frenzy—of a surprise party. (Or perhaps someone looking through broken glasses?) With large, vibrant illustrations and extreme animal close-ups, Hoo Hoo Who? is friendly and energetic. Seeing “you” written on the guest list brings this party even closer to the reader.

Clever and amusing departures from more solemn birthday gift books, Hoo Hoo Who? and Ten Rules of the Birthday Wish charmingly leave no birthday boy, girl, animal, bird or bug behind.

In Fear the Bunny, Richard T. Morris offers an amusing riff on William Blake’s famous poem “The Tyger,” insisting that it is bunnies, not tigers, that strike such a fearful figure. 

For his part, Tiger can’t help but laugh when he comes upon a tangle of his fellow forest-dwelling animals reading about “Bunnies, bunnies, burning bright.” But when Tiger tries to tell them that they have it all wrong, that they should fear him, a tiger, not some fluffy, cuddly bunny, the animals push back. In their forest, they tell him, no animal is quite so fearsome as the bunny.

Frustrated, Tiger tries to explain. Tigers are the ones with dagger-sharp teeth and deadly claws. But he gets nowhere. The others are distracted. Something stirs ominously in the distance. The animals flee to shelter, and though it seems silly to Tiger, he eventually heeds their desperate pleads and hides in the forest’s lush foliage.

But when Tiger spies the bunny from whom they’ve so diligently hidden, he can’t contain his disdain. He mocks the bunny, and the other animals’ cowering, that is until he sees the horde of bunnies that lay in wait.

With its witty premise and attractive illustrations, Fear the Bunny will amuse children and parents alike.

Like Fear the Bunny, the latest from Caldecott Honor author and illustrator David Ezra Stein, Hush, Little Bunny, takes its inspiration from a popular source. But where Fear the Bunny draws inspiration and then dashes off in a totally unexpected direction, Hush, Little Bunny hews closer to the original material. 

Stein takes the popular lullaby, “Hush Little Baby,” and reworks it for all the bunny lovers out there. Accompanied by his gorgeous watercolors, Stein takes us along with Papa Bunny and his little one as they bid winter goodbye and welcome spring with all the new experiences it brings—both frightful and exciting.

The portrayal of familial love that emerges is both moving and engaging, and, as always, Stein’s delightful brushwork is worth the price tag alone.

In author and illustrator Nicola Killen’s The Little Rabbit, Ollie can’t wait for the rain to stop, so he can go play in the puddles. Before the wind has settled, Ollie races out the door with his umbrella and favorite stuffed animal, Bunny, in tow.  

As soon as they’re outside, a golden petal settles onto Bunny’s nose and something astonishing happens. With a twitch of his nose, Bunny springs to life, hops out of the basket and darts off with a pack of wild rabbits. 

Ollie calls and calls, but can’t find Bunny anywhere. Just as the sky darkens and the rain returns, Ollie spots him. He’s stranded in a puddle of quickly rising water. With the aid of an inspired gust of wind, Ollie hops aboard his upturned umbrella and sails through the puddle to rescue Bunny. 

Next, Bunny leads Ollie up to the treehouse. But when Bunny climbs higher up the tree and jumps towards the clouds above, what will Ollie do?

With each turn of the page, The Little Rabbit grows increasingly fantastical, reminding readers of the wonder-filled realm between reality and make believe that young children inhabit with such glee. With its beautifully stark watercolors and the occasional gold-embossed magic petal, The Little Rabbit is as visually charming as is its text. 

Children see the world through their unique lens. Their innate creativity and innocent imaginations give them a pure perspective on the world. But in the era of smartphones, I wonder if the artistic language of photography—line, color, texture, balance, lighting—is being lost. Do children know that photography goes beyond selfies and Instagram filters? Do they understand what makes a quality photograph? Do they realize that a photograph can move people to action? The following three books address these questions and show children the history, power and beauty of photography.

The Bluest of Blues: Anna Atkins and the First Book of Photographs by Fiona Robinson 

Author Fiona Robinson tells the story of photography pioneer Anna Atkins in The Bluest of Blues. Raised by her scientist father, Anna Atkins developed a love for the natural world early in her life. She became a collector of flowers, ferns, insects and shells. In her early 20s, Anna began cataloging her collections and dedicates herself to creating a herbarium with thousands of dried botanical species. She wanted to share her work with the world, but she didn’t have a “quick, accurate way to copy her collection” until she was introduced to the cyanotype print. Using its chemical reaction process, Anna started to document her collection and later published what is considered the first book of photography. As a lifelong lover of sun prints, I love using this printing process with my students, but I have always stumbled when attempting to explain the chemical process. Robinson’s blue watercolor and pencil illustrations provide a strong foundation for students’ forays into cyanotype art. 

• Nature Notebooks—Charlotte Mason, a British educator who lived around the time of Atkins, believed that children need to observe nature and record their observations in a notebook each day. Make or order blank books for your students. Explain that for the next few months, they are going to be observing nature and recording their observations through drawings and notes. In my experience, colored pencils and watercolors work best for nature drawings. Set up a nature table in your classroom with shells, pinecones, magnifying glasses, rocks, dried flowers, botanical books, etc. Create a few pages in your own nature notebook to show students. As time allows, take students outside and let them spend time observing and sketching. When students come inside, let them look for answers to the questions (there will be many) that arise from their time spent outside. 
• Cyanotype Prints—Provide students with the opportunity to emulate Atkins by creating their own cyanotype prints. Purchase chemically treated sun paper at an art or photography store. I like to have enough paper for each student to create multiple prints. Ask students to bring in one small treasure from home. Gather buttons, old keys, blocks, jewelry, plastic letters and other small objects. Before beginning the project, take students outside and let them collect leaves, acorns, flowers and rocks. (I have classroom ferns and ivy plants and their leaves work well.) Let students spend time designing their cyanotype and then put them in the sun for five minutes. Come back in and soak the prints in water. Hang the cyanotypes up around the classroom to dry and then let each student pick out one of their prints to contribute to the class book. 

This is My Eye: A New York Story by Neela Vaswani 

Neela Vaswani’s story of a young girl living in New York City is told with photographs “taken” from the girl’s perspective. “My dad says it’s not what you look at—it’s what you see,” she says at the beginning of the story. From there, the photographs on each page illustrate the city’s subway stations, rainy days and people as seen through a peephole. Vaswani’s powerful photographs and spare text offer a glimpse of what it’s like to be a 9-year-old living in New York. Storytelling through perspective photography can be a tough concept for children, but this is the perfect gateway for classroom photography projects. 

• Figurative Language—This book is filled with figurative language. Briefly review personification, similes and metaphor, then read the book again and write down the examples of each on three sheets of chart paper. Print several photographs of cities and show them to students one at a time. Let students write their own sentences with figurative language to go along with the photographs. After they have composed several sentences, ask them to write their favorite on an index card. Hang each photograph on the board or bulletin board and let students come put their index card around the photograph that it describes. 
• City Stories—As a class, discuss the meaning of the sentence, “Walls tell stories and stories are everywhere.” Encourage students to talk about the stories they see in the coordinating photographs. If possible, use Google Earth to show your students images of murals in your city. Using the Socratic seminar method, have a class discussion about the stories behind the murals and what they symbolize. If there are not enough murals in your city, use historical or interesting local buildings. My 4^th graders and I did this exercise and the students were so interested that many of them did further research and shared their findings with the rest of the class. Inquiry-driven local history at its best! 
• Camera Walk—Write the phrase, “It’s not what you look at, it’s what you see” on the board or a piece of chart paper. Give students time to think about the meaning and then reread the book. Assign partners and then take students on a walk around the school’s campus. Their mission is to take 10 photographs while keeping the phrase “it’s what you see” in mind. Upon return to the classroom, give students time to write sentences to go along with their photographs. Extend the project by asking students to take photographs around their homes or in the local community. Have them email you the photographs and then share these with the class. 

Dorothea Lange: The Photographer Who Found the Faces of the Depression by Carole Boston Weatherford and Sarah Green 

Dorothea Lange knew from a young age that she wanted to be a photographer, and she became one of the leading photographers of the 20th century. But it wasn’t until she was in her late 20s that she had an awakening and realized that “She was meant to photograph people—not just the wealthy but from all walks of life.” Her newfound purpose led Lange to document the reality and suffering present around the country: breadlines, migrant workers, internment camps. She was focused on sharing reality and considered herself “a storyteller with a camera.” Insight into some of Lange’s famous photographs and her social activism led my students to have discussions about the power of photography, and they began to understand that a photograph is indeed worth a thousand words. 

• Historical Context—Lange’s work is best understood in historical context. Spend time discussing the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, migrant workers and internment camps. Read aloud portions of Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp by Jerry Stanley, Children of the Great Depression by Russell Freedman, Blue Willow by Doris Gates and Write to Me by Cynthia Grady and Amiko Hirao. For older students, study primary sources including maps, song lyrics and posters. Using their new knowledge, ask students to write a first-person journal entry as if they are a child of the Dust Bowl or Great Depression. 
• Visual Literacy Lange considered herself a “storyteller with a camera.” Show students a few of Lange’s most well-known photographs including Migrant Mother, Breadline and Dust Bowl Refugees. Give students the tools they need to “read” the stories in these photographs. Let them practice by filling out a Reading Photographs graphic organizer. 
• Compare Photographers—Lange knew she was meant to photograph people. Read Antsy Ansel: Ansel Adams, A Life in Nature by Cindy Jenson-Elliott and Christy Hale, Polka Dot Parade: A Book About Bill Cunningham by Deborah Blumenthal and Masha D’Yans, and Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America by Carole Boston Weatherford and Jamey Christoph. Each of these photographers felt called to a certain type of photography. Look at examples of their photographs. Create a four column T-chart comparing and contrasting their lives and works.

Author Richard Louv’s 2005 book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder shifted my entire teaching paradigm. As classrooms continue to move toward technology-based learning, Louv’s nature-deficit disorder continues to explain why children no longer enjoy spending time outside. “If we are going to save environmentalism and the environment, we must also save an endangered indicator species: the child in nature,” he writes. For 80 percent of children living in urban areas, exposure to nature is often overlooked or limited. In these three picture books, distinct urban settings and unique storylines remind city-dwelling children that there is beauty and purpose to be found in interacting with the natural world. 

When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree by Jamie L.B. Deenihan and Lorraine Rocha 

What do you do when your birthday wish-list reads, “robot dog, drone, computer, phone, remote control car, and headphones,” but Grandma shows up with a lemon tree? In Jamie L.B. Deenihan’s picture book, the little girl’s initial disappointment is palpable. After reading a few care instructions for the tree, the girl begins to take an interest. Bright illustrations from Lorraine Rocha show the young girl nurturing the tree throughout the course of a year. Finally, the “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” adage is made literal as the girl finds great joy in setting up a lemonade stand outside of her urban apartment building. In a twist ending, her lemonade stand profits are used to purchase more plants which add color and beauty around her apartment building. The celebration of community and nature, spunky set of characters and colorful illustrations make for a cheery read-aloud that shows students the gratification that follows patience and hard work. 

• Classroom Lemon Tree—As a class, research lemon trees. Show students how to use climate and growing zone maps to determine if a lemon tree can survive in your area. (The answer is yes, lemon trees can be grown anywhere in the country.) Hold a discussion about the things the class needs in order to get a classroom lemon tree. Make a list of the students’ questions and then allow time for individual research. Knowing how to research for the purpose of answering questions is a valuable skill. These two lemon tree sites were informative and perfect for my second and third graders. Invite students to use their lemon tree research to write a letter explaining why the class needs a lemon tree and their plans for taking care of it.
• Entrepreneurship—An old-fashioned lemonade stand is a crash course in economics and marketing. With your students, discuss the concepts of advertising, supply and demand, capital resources and profit margins. Lemonade in Winter by Emily Jenkins and G. Brian Karas is an excellent read-aloud for budding entrepreneurs. Have students decide on a good or service to “sell” to their classmates. Spend a few weeks guiding students as they make a marketing plan (including a brand name and logo) and create a budget. After the planning is complete, celebrate their work with a Class Market Day. 
• Further Reading—Create an entire unit by reading more books that celebrate children bringing beauty to an urban community. Write the question, “How Can We Bring Beauty to Our Neighborhood?” on the board. Tell students that over the next three weeks, they will be hearing stories of children who improve their community. Read The Gardener by Sarah Stewart and David Small, Maybe Something Beautiful by F. Isobel, Teresa Howell and Rafael López, The Curious Garden by Peter Brown, A Bus Called Heaven by Bob Graham and City Green by DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan. These stories have young protagonists who see a need in their urban neighborhood community, create a plan and take action. After reading each book, record students’ own community improvement ideas. 

The Chickens Are Coming! by Barbara Samuels 

Siblings Winston and Sophie live in a big city apartment building with a small backyard. Walking home one day, they spot a lamppost sign advertising five hens. “You don’t need to live in the country to raise chickens,” their Mommy declares. Just a few days later, “THE CHICKENS ARE HERE!” Initially, the chickens and children are unsure of each other. Sophie and Winston are worried when the chickens don’t immediately lay eggs, and their various attempts to persuade them into laying eggs (performing a skit about Easter eggs, playing music, reading them a bedtime story) are unsuccessful. However, the children soon learn the habits and personalities of their unconventional family pets. Based on real families who raise chickens in Brooklyn, Samuels’ lively story and expressive illustrations celebrate the possibility of bringing a small piece of the country to the city. 

• Hatch a Plan—In her author’s note, Samuels, a New York City resident, shares that chickens are the “cheapest and easiest farm animals to raise in a backyard.” Tell students to pretend that grocery stores have decided to stop selling eggs and so their family (or your classroom) will need to start raising chickens. They will need to decide which breed is best for their needs and neighborhood. Ask them questions: How many chickens? What type of cage is best? What will they feed their chickens? What type of eggs will their chickens lay? How much of a starting budget will be needed? Students are extra motivated when presented with projects that connect to the real-world. Create guidelines for final presentations and invite students to create visuals with photographs and their gathered information. Backyard Chicken Project and Backyard Chickens have a wealth of information for budding urban farmers. 
• Animal Breed Chart—On the back endpapers is “Sophie’s Chicken Chart,” a five-column chart with information about each chicken’s breed, weight, country of origin and egg size/color. Let children choose an animal (dogs, horses, cats, lizards, etc.) and create a similar breed comparison chart.  

Noah Builds an Ark by Kate Banks and John Rocco 

In this nonreligious retelling of the story of Noah’s Ark, a young boy named Noah peeks over his backyard fence toward the city and sees a storm on the horizon. “It’s going to be a beauty,” his dad says as he boards up the windows on the house. But Noah looks at the creatures in their garden and devises his own plan. Using his tool caddy and planks of wood, Noah repurposes his old red wagon and makes it into a makeshift ark. While his mother and sister fill water jugs and gather candles for the family, Noah furnishes the ark with food and furniture. The storm arrives, and it rains for four days. Noah and his family stay safe in the house while the animals ride out the storm in the lovingly prepared ark. When the storm passes, the animals exit the ark into the backyard which is framed by a rainbow. With attention to “the least of these” at its heart, Noah Builds an Ark gently reminds children that they, too, have the responsibility and privilege to care for the natural world. 

• Natural Disaster Preparation—Ask students what type of storm they think is coming to Noah’s city. Create a list of other natural disasters that can occur (hurricane, tornado, floods, forest fires, etc.), and then select three that are most relevant for your geographic area. Spend time reading books and learning about these natural disasters. After studying each one, help students create “I’m Ready” books. Give students fact sheets with the information the class learned in your research. Visit “Be Prepared” websites that explain how to prepare for these natural disasters. Invite a member of the local Red Cross chapter to come speak to your class. Students will record ways to prepare for natural disasters as well as family emergency plans and information. Providing information and guidance can help ease children’s fears as well as give them a strong emergency preparedness foundation. 
• Vocabulary Scavenger Hunt—Noah Builds an Ark is filled with vivid vocabulary. As a class, go on a vocabulary scavenger hunt. Identify the words that help readers visualize and understand the mood of the story. “Dreary,” “drizzling,” and “popped” are all words that create pictures in our minds. Discuss the meaning of the words. Then, encourage students to look through their independent reading books to find more vocabulary words. After the scavenger hunt is complete, students can share one of their favorite found words with the class. Chart these words and challenge students to use one of the words in their own writing.

People of all ages are fascinated with outer space and the largely unexplored frontier it is, but children are especially curious about the mysteries the universe holds. Two new picture books capture this wonder, and both stories are, in more ways than one, out of this world.

The smart twist at the end of author-illustrator Tom Sullivan’s Out There relies entirely upon his use of silhouette throughout the book. On the first spread, readers see what they assume are human children here on Earth—we see them from behind, shadows pointing up at a starlit sky—wondering if extraterrestrials exist in the universe. We see what we assume is an owl in a nearby tree. We also see the shadows of waving, alien-esque tentacles, but we figure they’re a figment of the children’s imagination; they are, after all, wondering about aliens. Before the big reveal, the children ponder what an alien planet may look like. “It could be filled with the strangest creatures,” Sullivan writes; the creatures pictured on the next page are all from Earth, albeit some of the most bizarre ones that exist (a blobfish, a flapjack octopus).

But at the book’s close, the children’s backs no longer toward us, we see that they themselves are the aliens, complete with green skin. We’ve been on another planet this whole time. What we thought was an owl in the tree were two alien creatures standing atop one another. And those tentacles are, well, actual tentacles! Out There is a book that reminds us of our humanity by revealing our own alienness from another perspective. And it reminds us that our planet—the bizarre, beautiful world we call home—is one worth taking care of.

Move over, Ms. Frizzle. In John Hare’s wordless picture book debut, Field Trip to the Moon, students hop on a lunar bus and take off into the darkness of outer space. Clad in astronaut suits, they land on the moon and follow their teacher on the surface, exploring and learning. One child who carries a sketchbook and crayons is always falling behind the class, and when they stop to do a drawing of Earth from the moon, they fall asleep. After waking just in time to see the school’s lunar bus depart, the dejected child sits and (what else is there to do?) draws some more.

When ashen-faced, one-eyed lunar creatures quite literally pop up out of the moon’s surface, they delight in watching the small human draw. Upon discovering them, the child shares their crayons and paper, and the whole group draws on the surface of a lunar rock nearby. When the bus finally returns, the alien creatures flee, and the happy, relieved teacher hugs the child, but the teacher is quick to scold the student for doodling on the surface of the moon.

Hare’s acrylic illustrations, occasionally divided into vertical panels to accelerate the action, are textured and expressive. He communicates emotion effectively via body language, given that this is a wordless tale and that all the humans characters are concealed in space helmets. It’s not until the last page that we see the protagonist without a helmet, and with medium-length, shaggy brown hair, it could be a boy or girl. This is a field trip that won’t soon be forgotten.

Julie Danielson conducts interviews and features of authors and illustrators at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, a children's literature blog primarily focused on illustration and picture books.

Vincent van Gogh famously said that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day. Two new picture books about imaginative nighttime adventures prove the validity of this claim.

If it wasn’t already clear from award-winning team Philip and Erin Stead’s previous books, Music for Mister Moon demonstrates that these two really get introverts. In the first pages, we meet a cello-playing girl named Harriet Henry with long bangs hanging in her eyes. She loves playing her instrument, but only for her stuffed animals. She’d rather not play for crowds, thanks very much.

One night she strikes up a conversation with the moon after inadvertently knocking him from the sky with a teacup she throws in frustration at a loud owl. Mister Moon sometimes tires of being the moon and would like, for once, to float on a lake. With great determination, as well as the help of some friends (including the owl with whom she makes amends), Harriet makes that wish come true. After hauling the moon back up to the sky, Harriet plays her music for “no one but Mister Moon.”

With monoprint illustrations done in oil inks, along with additional flourishes in colored pencil, illustrator Erin Stead subtly anthropomorphizes the moon and creates exquisitely expressive characters and indelible images, like Harriet pulling the massive Mister Moon in a small wagon and rowing him in a frail boat on the lake.

Although she has help, it is the resourceful Harriet who primarily moves the story forward, and author Philip Stead gives her tremendous agency (and a sharp imagination). She makes herself a ladder to retrieve the moon, and she makes the wagon used for transporting him. She can even “change her room into a little house” so that she can make her cello sing. With a superb balance between text and art, Music for Mister Moon is a vivid journey into a child’s nuanced inner world.

David Zeltser’s tale of adventure, The Night Library, is inspired by Patience and Fortitude, the lions sculpted from pink Tennessee marble that guard the main entrance of the New York Public Library. The story—rendered by illustrator Raúl Colón with reverence, energy, cool blue hues for the night sky and warm earth tones for indoors—is told from the point of view of a young boy on the eve of his 8th birthday. He is disappointed when his parents give him a book, but later that night, he is greeted by a lion named Fortitude who stands outside his bedroom window. They take off together on a night journey into the “heart of the frozen city” and to the library, where the boy meets the second lion and tours the building with his new feline friends.

In the children’s section, the books fly off the shelves and form themselves into iconic book characters, such as Peter Rabbit and Mr. McGregor. The boy is moved to see another set of books form itself into the shape of his grandpa, reading to him. Before the boy heads home on the back of Patience, the boy spends quiet time in the library falling in love with literature, reading books he once shared with this grandfather. He writes it off the next day as a dream—until he finds a new library card, just for him, on the doormat outside his home.

Children’s books about the importance of reading are a dime a dozen, but The Night Library resonates on another level as it is also the story of a boy’s lingering grief following the loss of his grandfather. But sometimes richly colored stories can provide healing as well as adventure.

Julie Danielson conducts interviews and features of authors and illustrators at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, a children's literature blog primarily focused on illustration and picture books.