Matt Katz, president of Kat Hats Incorporated in the city of Pretzelburg, runs a successful business as a world-renowned cat trainer. Kat Hats are felines who have been trained to arrange themselves on the heads of humans “as a living headpiece.” (Be sure to remove the book’s dust jacket to see some charming examples.) The Kat Hat shop doubles as the home Matt shares with his wife, Glamorella, and their children, Pocketmouse and Lambkin. Also visiting the family is “the pride and joy of Kat Hats, and the warmest cat ever known,” Thermal Herman 6⅞ths. If you can’t already tell from the character names, Kat Hats is beloved author Daniel Pinkwater delivering what his fans love: a story that sparkles with eccentric characters, skillful comic pacing and originality.
At its heart, this is an adventure tale. It seems that the local witch, Chickarina, has gone on a hike up the Witch’s Spitz with an “extra-large jumbo frozen fruitsicle, blueberry and avocado flavor.” Her son, Old Thirdbeard, knows that she often gets an ice cream headache when consuming such treats and worries she is stuck atop the snowy mountain with a “frozen brain.” Since Chickarina was not wearing her witch’s hat when she was last seen, the Katzes know the solution: Send Thermal Herman 6⅞ths out into the cold night to find her.
Illustrator Aaron Renier’s thickly textured gouache illustrations bring the Katz family and their unusual work to life in vivid and entertaining detail. We read, for instance, that Glamorella is famous for her pretzels flavored with peach and apricot; Renier paints her baking them while wearing a space helmet (which is, in point of fact, a cat). The book’s full-bleed spreads—no borders can contain this family’s spunk—are packed with many such peculiar surprises, ready and waiting for readers to discover.
Utterly weird and wonderful, Kat Hats is a picture book you won’t soon forget.
Utterly weird and wonderful, Kat Hats sparkles with eccentric characters, skillful comic pacing and complete originality.
Each generation creates new illustrations of our classics, just as every era re-translates the foreign masterpieces. Apparently, we require our own idiom.
The latest such re-envisioning is Helen Oxenbury’s sparkling new edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for Candlewick Press. Since its publication in 1865, Alice has been interpreted by many illustrators. Lewis Carroll himself was first, but he wasn’t deemed competent to portray his imaginary world in the published book and its sequel. As a result, the volumes will forever be associated with the witty, stylized drawings of John Tenniel. But there have been other famous portrayals. Arthur Rackham’s scenes are as moody as a Grimm fairy tale; Ralph Steadman’s characters are needlessly grotesque; Barry Moser’s Humpty Dumpty resembles Richard Nixon.
Helen Oxenbury has joined the long tradition, but definitely given the book her own bright twist. The Rabbit and Dormouse are extremely rabbitty and mousey. With his pencil mustache, the overweight, slouching Hatter looks like Oliver Hardy on a bad day. Most important for drawing young readers into this challenging masterpiece, Oxenbury’s Alice looks like one of them. She is a modern-looking blond girl in a sleeveless blue dress and white sneakers and she has an appropriately feisty air. When the Red Queen rails at her, Alice stands with her hands on her hips and glares back. She leans on a table and gazes longingly at the stolen tarts. Following the tumble into the Pool of Tears, she looks drenched and convincingly shivery. Helen Oxenbury’s paintings and drawings have a fitting kind of playful innocence that some other versions lack, which will draw young readers. Particularly impressive is her take on some of the requisite bring-down-the-house numbers several pages of Alice shrinking and growing, double-page spreads of the tea party and the trial of the Knave of Hearts.
The volume is oversized, the typeface large and friendly, the margins generous. This beautiful book quietly takes Alice out of the inky hands of scholars and places her back in the hands of children, where she has always belonged.
Each generation creates new illustrations of our classics, just as every era re-translates the foreign masterpieces. Apparently, we require our own idiom.
The latest such re-envisioning is Helen Oxenbury's sparkling new edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for Candlewick Press. Since its…
Love grows in the face of fear in Love in the Library, a picture book based on the experiences of author Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s maternal grandparents in Minidoka, a World War II incarceration camp in Idaho.
As the book opens, a young woman named Tama has been forced to live at Minidoka for the past year, because in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor, being Japanese American is “treated like a crime.” Though she finds the camp unsettling, she makes the most of her assignment to work in the camp’s library. There, she is surrounded by books and receives regular visits from a man named George. It’s not until a conversation in which George validates Tama’s feelings of dread that she realizes he has been coming to the library to see her: “You can’t possibly be reading all those books you check out,” she tells him. “No,” he replies. “Do you see how long they are? I’m only human, you know.” They marry and have their first son while imprisoned at Minidoka.
Illustrator Yas Imamura’s soft, muted, earth-tone illustrations work wonders in bringing the characters and setting to life. Her fine, smooth lines gently capture the tenderness that permeates this tale, and backlit scenes seem to lift Tama and George from the page.
Tokuda-Hall depicts Tama as a multifaceted woman who is vulnerable yet tough, scared but willing to seek out the miraculous in her newly limited life. That she conveys Tama’s abiding spirit while also acknowledging the great injustice of the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during this time is important: Tokuda-Hall never sugarcoats Tama’s experience, and her author’s note emphasizes the hate that spawned the imprisonment: “Hate is not a virus; it is an American tradition,” she writes.
Love in the Library returns again and again to Tama’s search for the words to describe her experience, such as constant: “Constant questions. Constant worries. Constant fear.” Later, when Tama realizes that George loves her, he tells her that the word for when she feels “scared and sad and confused and frustrated and lonely and hopeful” is human.
Love in the Library is an exquisite piece of historical fiction and a love story for the ages.
This exquisite picture book, based on the experiences of the author's grandparents, tells a love story for the ages without sugarcoating history.
Leap for joy! Whistle and stretch, curl up and cuddle, wriggle and laugh with your favorite child. Judy Hindley’s latest book is a tickly, giggly delight for parents and preschoolers. Her text, peppered with rhyme, along with Brita Granstrom’s lively illustrations, invite readers to identify body parts and then get up and use them in play. It’s great fun for the preschool set, and will have them moving, learning, and laughing.
A crew of friendly children demonstrates some of the amusing things kids (and grown-ups) can do with their bodies. Their smiles are contagious: Feel how it makes/your belly go/when you laugh /Ha-ha! /Hee-hee! /Ho-ho! Young children will have a blast imitating the moves: counting off fingers and toes, kissing, bending, bumping, and stomping. The acting and interacting opportunities are irresistible: A mouth is to yawn;/Open wide /See all the teeth and the tongue inside? And even grown-ups will find themselves hamming it up: A tongue is to talk/and to sing La-la! /La-la, /la-la, /la-la! The words lend themselves so effortlessly to imaginative and enthusiastic readings that even a distracted, grumpy three-year-old may be persuaded to listen and join in.
Says Hindley, This is a book to play with. I hope it encourages children to express and celebrate the sheer delight of owning a body. It certainly does, and in a refreshingly uninhibited, cheerfully goofy way.
Granstrom’s good-natured children romp through rooms at home and play outside. Her scenes are full of activity, with a few quiet moments as well. Backgrounds are in a single muted color, with simple line-drawn details, which allow the bright, bouncy kids to really shine without being overwhelmed. The words themselves are visually appealing. There is plenty of variation in letter sizes and a playful disregard of margin alignment. Beginning readers will enjoy picking out letters in the super-sized words sprinkled throughout: Peek-a-boo! , Hooray! , Bump! Eyes, Nose, Fingers, and Toes is a warm book that celebrates the exuberance toddlers feel as they play. Read this book with a child you love, and get carried away together with the silliness and joy of it all.
Julie Anderson writes from Bell Buckle, Tennessee.
Leap for joy! Whistle and stretch, curl up and cuddle, wriggle and laugh with your favorite child. Judy Hindley's latest book is a tickly, giggly delight for parents and preschoolers. Her text, peppered with rhyme, along with Brita Granstrom's lively illustrations, invite readers to identify…
Laurent de Brunhoff still reigns over his royal legacy It’s been seven years since we’ve seen a new story involving Babar, the king of the elephants. Before his untimely death in 1937, French artist Jean de Brunhoff turned a family bedtime story into an international favorite when he wrote and illustrated the original The Story of Babar in 1931 and followed it with six more Babar books. The eldest of Jean’s three sons, Laurent, carried on the adventure of Babar and has since published over 30 Babar stories which have been translated into 17 languages and sold millions of copies all over the world. The stories have influenced the imaginations of generations as they turned the colorful pages and learned more about these adventurous and fashionable elephants who walk upright, wear glasses and hats, drive cars, raise children, and exist in their own world with humans as if there were no barriers. Now Babar, his family, and the wise old Cornelius are back in a new adventure from the imagination of Laurent de Brunhoff called Babar and the Succotash Bird. The new book is about Babar’s son, Alexander, who meets a magician bird, a Succotash bird, who shows the young elephant tricks and captures his imagination. But unfortunately for Alexander, there are two types of Succotash birds, good and bad, and the story illustrates the consequences when one is confused for another during a family hiking trip to the mountains. Laurent’s signature bright watercolors and interesting mix of elephant and human characteristics are as entertaining as ever. “You know, it may happen in conversation, but when I have an idea it is so visual sometimes,” said Laurent from his part-time home in New York City. “When I travel somewhere I want to use what I’ve seen, but Babar doesn’t go there, it’s just used in the Babar world,” he explained. “This time for the new book, I really wanted to have some magic, because in all the other Babar books there is no magic really, it’s very real the life they have. That’s why I wanted a magician. And since I like birds, this magician is a bird, a Succotash bird. In fact my wife (writer, Phyllis Rose) invented it. I had only some noise for him, and she said, oh, it sounds like succotash! I thought it was very funny and thought it was a very good idea.” The release of the new book will mark several important milestones in de Brunhoff’s work and life. The man behind Babar turns 75 in August, and a switch in publishers will bring the reissuing of all Laurent’s classic Babar stories, some of which have also been turned into an animated series for HBO. Laurent admits that going seven years without another Babar story has been unusual for him, but it has given him time to concentrate on other artistic pursuits as well as traveling and hiking, particularly in the American West. “I really wanted to put the elephant a little bit on the side and spend more time with my old painting,” he said. “I like to do abstract watercolors. I like the medium of watercolors but I like to do some large paintings, which are abstract; even if they are inspired by the sea and the sky, they are abstract. I started to learn how to paint in an academy in Paris and I switched very early to abstract painting in the ’50s. I showed my paintings at that time on different occasions, but after 10 or 15 years I was so busy with the books it was too difficult to keep the two worlds together, and little by little I dropped painting. It’s hardly 10 years ago I started again to paint, and I must say I’m happy with that.” At a show for his abstract paintings a few years back at the Mary Ryan Gallery on 57th Street in New York, (where the original artwork for the new book will be exhibited this fall) Laurent said it was amusing to see the reactions of people who anticipated that his works would mirror the Babar stories. “It was well received I must say; still people are expecting me to draw elephants so they are a bit surprised when they see these abstract paintings.” Laurent said the idea for the new book came to him quickly during a time when he had been hiking and camping in the High Sierras of Yosemite National Park. “Suddenly I had an idea for this book, and it was very fast, it came very strongly in my mind, very precisely. Some pictures you will see the landscape is inspired by the American West, some of the canyon lands, and some of Yosemite,” he said.
Today Laurent’s family consists of a son, daughter, and grandson who live in Paris, as well as his two brothers whom he is very close to, and his beloved mother, Cecile, the original creator of the character of Babar 70 years ago. Like Laurent and his brothers, his children grew up with Babar, yet as far as his children continuing the Babar legacy, Laurent says the experience has been different for them. “You know I was 12 years old when my father died, so there was this emptiness . . . we missed Babar. But I’m still alive, and they’ve already started their own lives. So I don’t think suddenly, when I am no longer on this world, they will take over.” Regardless, the release of Babar and the Succotash Bird, subsequent reissuing of the Babar backlist, HBO animated series, and other promotional campaigns currently in the works continue to share a family gift sure to endure for generations.
Laurent de Brunhoff still reigns over his royal legacy It's been seven years since we've seen a new story involving Babar, the king of the elephants. Before his untimely death in 1937, French artist Jean de Brunhoff turned a family bedtime story into an international…
History lives and breathes, not only within us but also as we uncover new ways to see and understand the past. These picture books introduce young readers to fresh, vital perspectives on Black history.
★ Born on the Water
Readers are in for a sweeping history lesson that spans centuries in The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, an illuminating extension of the educational movement begun at the New York Times Magazine in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and Newbery Honor author Renée Watson begin this exquisite book with a framing story about a Black girl who receives a school assignment to trace her family’s roots and feels ashamed that she can go back only three generations. Upon hearing this, her grandmother gathers the whole family to explain their heritage, starting with their ancestors in West Central Africa. “Ours is no immigration story,” she says. In a series of free verse poems with titles like “They Had a Language,” “Stolen,” “Tobacco Fields” and “Legacy,” the authors convey not only facts but also feeling, a powerful mixture of pride, joy, tragedy, sorrow, perseverance and triumph.
Nikkolas Smith’s visceral illustrations bring all of these emotions to life, starting with joyous scenes of families living in the kingdom of Ndongo, “their bodies a song under open sky and bright sun.” These pages burst with the colors of turquoise waters and grassy fields of gold and green beneath warm, sunlit skies. The images are a wonderful gift to readers, offering a sense of what life was like before enslavement.
With the suddenness of a single page turn, life changes cataclysmically as these ancestors are kidnapped from their homeland and imprisoned aboard a ship called the White Lion. Shadowy illustrations convey the brutality that follows: an empty, ransacked village; people in chains forced onto a ship; faces filled with sadness and fear. One image shows a person who has jumped overboard, and Grandma explains that their ancestors are those who survived the terrible journey: “We were born on the water. We come from the people who refused to die.”
Grandma’s history continues to the fields of Virginia, where a baby named William Tucker becomes the first Black child born in the new land, and on across centuries of resistance and achievement. “Never forget you come from a people of great strength,” Grandma says. “Be proud of our story, your story.”
Born on the Water is a triumph and a history lesson that every child needs to learn.
★ A History of Me
“I was the only brown person in class,” begins the young narrator of Adrea Theodore and Erin K. Robinson’s A History of Me. She feels the eyes of her classmates on her back whenever their teacher discusses slavery and civil rights. “I wanted to slide out of my seat and onto the floor and drift out the door,” she admits. Even worse, a bully taunts her after school, “If it wasn’t for Lincoln, you’d still be our slaves!”
In an author’s note, Theodore describes writing this debut picture book after learning that “some thirty years after I had attended elementary school, the way the subject of slavery was being taught was still causing harm to young black and brown children.” As the narrator of A History of Me shares her experiences in history class, she also reflects on the lives of the women in her family, including her great-great-grandmother, who was enslaved, and her mother, who spent part of her childhood in the Jim Crow South. “And so I should be grateful to go to school and learn,” the narrator says repeatedly, but it’s clear that her feelings are more complicated than simple gratitude.
Illustrator Robinson skillfully illuminates the book’s many strands of history. The narrator’s historical musings appear in sepia tones, while contemporary scenes leap off the page in vivid colors, adding a dose of energy to the tale. The narrator is a quietly thoughtful force to be reckoned with. Her piercing eyes often gaze directly at readers, and she faces down the bully with her head high, striding purposefully down the sidewalk past him.
The book concludes as the narrator discusses growing up and having a daughter of her own. A wonderful spread shows her daughter reaching triumphantly toward the sky, surrounded by a sunburst of rainbow color and empowered with the knowledge “that she is free to be anything she wants to be.”
“What happens when you are proud of where you come from?” asks Theodore in her author’s note. A History of Me is a moving reminder of what we gain when we draw strength and inspiration from the past.
Through stories of triumph and pride, two picture books challenge widely held notions about the history of African Americans.
Change. It’s hard to deal with at any age, but it is especially difficult for young children. In Shadow, by Jill Newsome, Rosy and her family move to a new house, far from her friends, her school, and everything familiar. Suddenly her world is turned upside down. In fact, life becomes pretty miserable for poor Rosy. Any child in a turbulent situation can empathize: sometimes everything feels just plain wrong, which can make for a cranky existence. Fortunately this state of misery never lasts forever. For Rosy, things start to look up when she walks home from school one snowy day and finds an injured rabbit in the woods. She and her family adopt the rabbit and nurse it back to health. It quickly becomes Rosy’s first new friend, following her everywhere and earning it the name Shadow. But life is never easy, and no good story is that simple. One day Shadow disappears, and Rosy is again distraught until a girl from her new school brings Shadow home in a box. Now Rosy has a second new friend to play with, and life is a lot more, well, rosy! Shadow is extremely effective in its simplicity. In very few words, Newsome is able to communicate the pain of childhood loneliness and sadness. Her lyrical text is nicely complemented by the watercolor illustrations of her husband, Claudio Munoz, who has illustrated several children’s books including Man Mountain, Little Captain, and Come Back Grandma. Munoz’s stormy paintings deftly convey the anger and fear Rosy feels towards her strange new world, and later her pleasure in companionship. With such sparse text, Munoz’s pictures are essential to the overall mood of the book. Shadow reminds us all that change is indeed scary, but that with time and patience things ultimately work out in the end. Rosy learns that once you make new friends, life is a lot less threatening. These are simple truisms, but valuable ones that apply to children of all ages.
Lisa Horak is a freelance writer and full-time mother.
Change. It's hard to deal with at any age, but it is especially difficult for young children. In Shadow, by Jill Newsome, Rosy and her family move to a new house, far from her friends, her school, and everything familiar. Suddenly her world is turned…
Adults often wish they could revisit their own childhoods, but I find myself envying kids today when I survey all the great children’s books being published this year. These 15 titles are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the wonders that will fill young readers’ shelves in 2022.
Sing, Aretha, Sing! by Hanif Abdurraqib, illustrated by Ashley Evans FSG | February 1
Hanif Abdurraqib is an acclaimed writer of poetry and cultural criticism for adults. He received a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2021, and his 2019 book, Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Quest, was long-listed for the National Book Award. Plus, his 2021 book, A Little Devil in America, was BookPage’s best nonfiction book of the year.
Picture books require a deep attention to language that’s similar to poetry, so it’s always exciting when writers with backgrounds in poetry branch out into writing picture books. Abdurraqib is well-versed in music and cultural history, so I can’t wait to read this picture book that will explore Aretha Franklin’s connections to the civil rights movement.
Solimar: The Sword of the Monarchs by Pam Muñoz Ryan Disney-Hyperion | February 1
Every new book from Newbery Honor author Pam Muñoz Ryan is cause for excitement, but the ambitious premise of Solimar offers more reason than usual. Set in a fictional fantasy kingdom, the story offers an irresistible royal heroine and a fascinating depiction of magic, told in Ryan’s signature lush and lyrical prose.
Out of a Jar by Deborah Marcero Putnam | February 8
In BookPage’s review of author-illustrator Deborah Marcero’s previous picture book, In a Jar, reviewer Jill Lorenzini wrote that it “does what all the best picture books do: It captivates, entertains and leaves you with a reminder of magic still shimmering around the edges.” In a Jar’s ending didn’t seem to hint at a sequel, so it’s delightfully surprising that Marcero has created another story about Llewellyn the bunny and the things he tries to keep bottled up.
Mina by Matthew Forsythe Paula Wiseman | February 15
Matthew Forsythe’s picture book Pokko and the Drum was one of 2019’s most singularly charming and acclaimed titles. Readers who loved it will want to line up outside their library or bookstore so they can be the first to discover his next book, Mina. Fans of Pokko’s dry humor and intricate colored pencil illustrations will find Mina a worthy successor.
John’s Turn by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Kate Berube Candlewick | March 1
Author Mac Barnett is one of the funniest, smartest and most prolific writers working in children’s literature today, and just about everything he publishes is worth a reader’s time. For John’s Turn, he’s paired with Kate Berube, an illustrator I love for her deceptively simple lines and masterful ability to convey complex emotions through facial expressions. It’s worth noting that Barnett is publishing two additional books this spring: a picture book illustrated by Marla Frazee called The Great Zapfino, out April 5 from Beach Lane, and a graphic novel adaptation of the “live cartoon” he developed during the early days of the COVID-19 lockdown with illustrator Shawn Harris called The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza, out May 10 from Katherine Tegen.
The Aquanaut by Dan Santat Graphix | March 1
Dan Santat is best known as the Caldecott Medal-winning author-illustrator of 2014’s The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend, as well as many other beloved picture books. However, I first became familiar with him as a graphic novelist via his hilarious, action-packed 2011 graphic novel, Sidekicks, the tale of a group of pets who belong to a superhero named Captain Amazing and who are, secretly, also superheroes. Santat packs so much imagination and heart into all of his books that I can’t wait to discover the story he’ll tell in this standalone graphic novel.
The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill Algonquin | March 8
Kelly Barnhill’s Newbery Medal-winning The Girl Who Drank the Moon is an exquisite fantasy tale—and she hasn’t published anything for young readers in the five long years since it came out! She’s kept busy in the meantime, releasing a book of short stories for adults in 2018 and putting the finishing touches on The Ogress and the Orphans. Whether you’ve been counting the months, weeks and days or are brand-new to Barnhill’s sharp, word-perfect prose and classical yet fresh storytelling, you’re going to love this standalone fantasy.
Mama and Mommy and Me in the Middle by Nina LaCour, illustrated by Kaylani Juanita Candlewick | March 29
Nina LaCour is an acclaimed and beloved young adult author whose 2018 novel, We Are Okay, won the American Library Association’s Michael L. Printz Medal for excellence in young adult literature—the YA equivalent of the Newbery Medal. There are very few picture books that depict families with two moms, so this book is notable for two reasons: It contributes sorely needed representation, and it’s LaCour’s first picture book! I’m also looking forward to the illustrations by talented up-and-comer Kaylani Juanita, whose work I’ve admired in picture books such as When Aidan Became a Brother and Magnificent Homespun Brown.
Perfectly Pegasus by Jessie Sima Simon & Schuster | March 29
Every so often, an author-illustrator makes their debut with a book so fully formed that you read it and think, “Surely, this cannot be their first book!” So it was with Jessie Sima’s Not Quite Narwhal, which was published on Valentine’s Day in 2017 and has gone on to sell more than 250,000 copies. Sima has since published five more picture books, and this spring, they’ll publish this companion to their debut. Read enough picture books and you’ll realize how masterfully Sima walks the line between treacly and genuinely sweet. I can’t wait to read Perfectly Pegasus and let out an “awwwwww!” in spite of myself.
A Duet for Home by Karina Yan Glaser Clarion | April 5
Readers who love middle grade stories featuring big families have wholeheartedly embraced Karina Yan Glaser’s Vanderbeekers, who hit shelves in the fall of 2017 and have since starred in five heartwarming tales. I’m always intrigued when an author finds initial success with a series and then launches into either a standalone tale or a new series, because it gives them an opportunity to reveal new dimensions to their writing and storytelling. A Duet for Home is a standalone novel that seems poised to explore similar themes as in Glaser’s bestselling series, like family and what it means to find a home, but from a totally different lens.
I’d Like to Be the Window for a Wise Old Dog by Philip C. Stead Doubleday | April 5
Speaking of remarkable debuts: Husband and wife team Philip C. and Erin E. Stead won the Caldecott Medal for their very first picture book, A Sick Day for Amos McGee. The Steads are picture book creators whose every release is noteworthy, but I find the title and cover of this one to be irresistibly enticing. Fans as well as dog lovers should know that this is Philip’s first of two canine-themed books in 2022: June will see the publication of Every Dog in the Neighborhood, illustrated by fellow Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell. It’s enough to make you bark with joy.
Jennifer Chan Is Not Alone by Tae Keller Random House | April 26
Middle grade author Tae Keller won the 2021 Newbery Medal for her second novel, How to Trap a Tiger. Winning an award as prestigious and influential as the Newbery or the Caldecott can change the entire trajectory of a creator’s career, and I’m endlessly fascinated to see what authors and illustrators choose to publish after winning such an award. Jennifer Chan Is Not Alone will blend contemporary middle school dynamics with a central mystery and a hint of science fiction.
The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton Holt | May 3
It is such a good time to be a middle grade reader who loves tales of magic and adventure. Case in point: YA author Dhonielle Clayton is making her middle grade debut with The Marvellers, a fantasy novel that will blow the concept of the magical school sky-high—literally. The Arcanum Training Institute for Marvelous and Uncanny Endeavors is an academy in the clouds that attracts magically gifted students from all over the world, and it’s the enchanting setting for what’s sure to be the summer’s must-read middle grade fantasy.
The World Belonged to Us by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Leo Espinosa Nancy Paulsen | May 10
Jacqueline Woodson is one of the most beloved and acclaimed writers working today, and her reach knows no bounds. She has written books for readers of every age, from picture books to novels for adults, and has served as our National Ambassador for Children’s Literature. In her picture books, Woodson’s prose is often paired with artwork by exciting, talented illustrators, from Rafael López to James Ransome to E.B. Lewis. Here, she’s working with Colombian illustrator Leo Espinosa, who received a Pura Belpré Honor for his work on Junot Diaz’s picture book, Islandborn. The World Belonged to Us promises to be a nostalgic ode to summer in New York City as only these two talented creators could tell it.
Small Town Pride by Phil Stamper HarperCollins | May 31
Phil Stamper has published three acclaimed, character-driven YA novels that offer complex depictions of LGBTQ+ teens. It’s thrilling to see him branch out into middle grade, particularly since middle grade books centering the experiences of LGBTQ+ kids are desperately needed. I also love that this book is going to be set in a small rural town. As YA author Preston Norton said in a recent Q&A with BookPage about his new book, Hopepunk, which takes place in rural Wyoming, “Queer stories are needed everywhere because queer people are everywhere.”
Just in time for the school season, Kevin Henkes introduces a sweet mouse-child about to face the first grade in Wemberly Worried. The master of memorable mice characters, Henkes also gave us the much-loved Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, a children’s classic that won an ABBY Award.
The opposite of the energetic, outgoing Lilly, Wemberly is Henkes’s creation of a delicate and sensitive young mouse who worries about everything. Nothing is too big or too small to escape Wemberly’s worry. Day and night she worries. In bed, on the playground, or in the car, Wemberly worries. But by far her biggest worry is starting school. With the momentous first day looming, a multitude of new worries fills Wemberly. And this time the list of “what if’s” is a mile long.
Broaching a serious topic, Henkes explains Wemberly’s fears in a way children can relate to; he finds the sensitive spots that traumatize most children and deftly relates them with a touch of humor in his text and illustrations. And it’s his humor and eye for detail that make this serious story fun, including a rollerblading Grandma who espouses, “Worry, worry, worry. Too much worry.” Finally, the big day arrives. A caring teacher introduces Wemberly to another young mouse, who also happens to be wearing stripes and holding a doll. Wemberly’s worries aren’t cured instantly, but she and her new friend can’t wait for the second day of school.
With his colorful illustrations, Henkes creates a sweet, fragile little girl in Wemberly. His artwork isn’t just pleasing to look at, it conveys just as much as the text. Henkes communicates a wealth of emotion with facial expressions in the sharp drawings. You can see the hesitation in Wemberly’s eyes and the distress in her tiny frame.
Until they create a first grader’s version of How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, stick with Wemberly to help your youngsters address their fears about starting school.
Just in time for the school season, Kevin Henkes introduces a sweet mouse-child about to face the first grade in Wemberly Worried. The master of memorable mice characters, Henkes also gave us the much-loved Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, a children's classic that won an ABBY…
Tia loves music. But as a young African-American girl living in the deep South in the early 1900s, she has neither the opportunity nor the means to pursue her dream of creating it. One day, as she passes a house in the “white” part of town, she hears a lovely new kind of music, different from the blues guitar she’s grown up with the sweet notes of a piano. “It made Tia think of castles, mountains, and deep snow. The music took her away from the hot, dry town.” Tia so longs to hear more of it that she takes a job as a maid for the kind, elderly Miss Hartwell who lives in that music-filled house. William Miller’s wise and gentle words convey to the reader the power of music to soothe the human soul and transport us from our mundane lives to the land of our dreams. While listening to the piano’s melodies, Tia forgets her lot in life and escapes from her dreary, work-weary world. Music treats everyone the same and cannot distinguish between colors or ages. It treats everyone who embraces it like royalty.
Susan Keeter’s wonderful illustrations in mostly cool pastel colors seem to blend and soften the contrast between the “white world” and the “black world.” The most memorable image is that of Miss Hartwell’s white hands and Tia’s black ones resting together, in harmony, on the white and black piano keys. The illustrations truly bring this charming story to life.
Miller has given us a touching tale of how music transcends all social barriers and forms connections between very different people. Tia and Miss Hartwell have little else in common besides a love for music, yet somehow that’s enough to form a true friendship.
Carolyn Cates lives and writes in Nashville.
Tia loves music. But as a young African-American girl living in the deep South in the early 1900s, she has neither the opportunity nor the means to pursue her dream of creating it. One day, as she passes a house in the "white" part of…
Trying to make new friends can feel like being lost in a blizzard! These picture books show how snowstorms can bring friends together in lots of wondrous ways.
Words to Make a Friend
Excitement permeates every page of Donna Jo Napoli and Naoko Stoop’s Words to Make a Friend: A Story in Japanese and English, a joyful ode to friendship between new neighbors.
As a Japanese girl and her family move into their home on a wintry day, the newcomer looks out her bedroom window and spots another girl who is outside playing. She quickly unpacks her snow gear and heads out to join her. The pair don’t let a language barrier get in their way, greeting each other with a “hello” and a “konnichiwa.” As they frolic in the flurries and build a snow monster together, they toss phrases back and forth like snowballs, trading “Let’s play!” for “Asobou!” and “shiver shiver” for “buru buru.” Napoli limits the text to a few carefully chosen words of dialogue like these, allowing the beauty of the snowstorm and the girls’ delight to speak for themselves as the story unfolds with natural momentum.
Stoop’s illustrations capture falling snow so exceptionally that readers will practically feel the frosty flakes falling onto their cold cheeks. Against this backdrop, the newcomer’s bright yellow boots and red coat and her new friend’s lilac parka and pink earmuffs pop wonderfully. The girls eventually go inside to warm up, enjoy a snack and try some origami. Their fun continues with such ease that a firm friendship seems bound to form.
Words to Make a Friend captures the energy of a budding bond and a swirling snow day, extolling the fun of exploring cultural differences while highlighting the curiosity that brings two strangers together and turns them into friends.
★ Friends Are Friends, Forever
In a story inspired by her own childhood move from China to North Carolina, author Dane Liu offers a lovely tribute to friendships old and new. Her writing is lyrical and detailed. “In our town, the winter howls,” the book opens. “Heavy flakes swarm and glaze the earth.” Indeed, a storm is brewing. Just before the Lunar New Year, Dandan informs her best friend, Yueyue, that she and her family are moving far away to America.
Dandan savors every moment of their annual traditions, knowing it’ll be the last time they’ll share them. There’s a festive meal featuring her grandmother Nainai’s dumplings, a fireworks display and the fun of a special art project. Dandan and Yueyue cut snowflakes out of red paper, dip them in water and freeze them overnight, then hang their ornaments from a tree the next morning. “Our best snowflakes yet,” Yueyue proclaims. “And my last,” Dandan says quietly.
Lynn Scurfield’s art begins with enchanting, vibrantly colored scenes of Dandan’s life in China: The best friends stroll down a snowy sidewalk, their expectant faces peer up at a stovetop where “vegetables skid around the wok,” and later, their farewell hug fills an entire spread with bittersweet emotion as Yueyue whispers, “Friends are friends, forever.” A wonderfully conveyed transition spread depicts a plane flying over a big globe, from China to the United States; in the background, daytime and nighttime skies represent the change in time zones. In America, Dandan’s days are besieged by loneliness and shades of gray. One especially evocative illustration shows her asleep in bed as jagged, scrawled English words cover the page, the strange new language haunting Dandan’s dreams.
After a low point, when Dandan’s classmates snicker at the satin dress she wears on her birthday, a freckle-faced friend named Christina emerges, and Dandan’s world slowly becomes lively and filled with color again. Liu brings the story full circle to the next Lunar New Year as the new friends celebrate with an old tradition and a parting gift from Yueyue. Scurfield cleverly unites old and new in a spread that depicts Dandan’s nightstand and her framed photo of her final embrace with Yueyue as, out her bedroom window, Dandan and Christina hang paper snowflakes from the branches of a tree.
While there are many children’s books about the difficulties of moving, Friends Are Friends, Forever is an especially well-crafted tale that explores the depth of old friendships, the loneliness of being a newcomer in a strange place and the beauty of new friends finding each other.
Birds on Wishbone Street
A girl named Moe wants to make the new boy feel welcome on Wishbone Street, a friendly neighborhood filled with families of many nationalities that’s based on a real street in Toronto. Sami, the new kid, has just arrived from Syria, while Moe’s father emigrated from Ireland when he was young. Initially, Moe feels shy about introducing herself. “Do I wave? Go say ‘hi’?” she wonders. “My head is a jumble of words, all shmushed-up together.”
A snowstorm and a shared love of birds soon bring Moe and Sami together. Moe’s dad brought his pet bird to America in a hollowed-out radio—based on a true story of author-illustrator Suzanne Del Rizzo’s father—while Sami’s family raised pigeons in Syria. When Moe and Sami discover a cardinal that has been stunned by the cold during the first blizzard of the season, they cement their friendship by trying to rescue the creature, taking it to a vet with help from a neighbor. Their actions spark a collective effort to help the neighborhood birds. Everyone pitches in to make suet treats and weave winter roosting pockets; Del Rizzo includes instructions for both at the end of the story.
Del Rizzo’s unique art adds dimension to the book’s warm, welcoming neighborhood scenes. She creates illustrations with polymer clay, acrylic glaze and other mixed media, giving depth and texture to each page. Snowflakes truly seem to float in the winter sky, and the blanket used to swaddle the cardinal has realistic folds and wrinkles.
Del Rizzo also excels at presenting a community full of many intertwined familial and social connections while capturing the smaller details of the developing friendship between Moe and Sami. She expertly balances the hustle and bustle of lively outdoor scenes with more intimate indoor moments, such as when the pair share their treasures with each other, including drawings of birds, special feathers and other trinkets. In a lovely touch, Del Rizzo depicts Moe’s and Sami’s collections of keepsakes on the book’s opening and closing endpapers.
Birds on Wishbone Street is a bighearted book that will leave readers eager to discover the many treasures that new friendships hold.
Three picture books capture the magic of snow—and friendship.
Some children’s books are written to entertain. Others are written to educate in an entertaining manner. Rainy Day falls in the latter category.
Written by a journalist who specializes in children’s books, Rainy Day has a simple theme: Children can have meaningful relationships with fathers who no longer live in the home. The book describes the experiences of a young boy visiting with his father on a rainy day. They romp together in the rain, explore a wooded park, then visit a seashore, where giant waves pound in all about them. Toward the end of their visit, the rain stops and the sun breaks through the clouds, allowing sea gulls to fill the air. The message is simple: Rainy days aren’t so bad. And they don’t last forever. Incredibly, the father and son depicted in the book bear a remarkable resemblance to Cuban Juan Miguel Gonzalez and his son Elian. That is a coincidence, of course, since the artwork was completed long before the Gonzalez family made news around the world as a symbol of paternal rights, but it does get your attention.
Illustrator Angelo Rinaldi does an excellent job with the artwork, although its grainy, soft-focus images seem to target adults more than children. Where Rinaldi truly excels is in his depictions of the physical interactions between father and son. There is lots of hugging and hand holding and playful roughhousing. Obviously, Rinaldi understands that young children are far better able to remember their parents’ physical gestures toward them than their spoken words. With children, a single loving gesture is worth a thousand words or any number of expensive toys. Children who read the book will probably pick up on this message faster than their parents.
Written for children ages five to eight, this book is highly recommended for households experiencing divorce or separation.
Before becoming an author of books for adults, James L. Dickerson worked for seven years as a social worker in a child protection agency. He is a divorced father of a son.
Some children's books are written to entertain. Others are written to educate in an entertaining manner. Rainy Day falls in the latter category.
Written by a journalist who specializes in children's books, Rainy Day has a simple theme: Children can have meaningful relationships…
Hanukkah is the Jewish holiday most visible to non-Jews. Usually occurring near Christmas, it gets quite a lot of attention simply because of a coincidence of the calendar. One positive result of Hanukkah’s increasing commercialism is a feast of new books fiction and nonfiction for all ages. The publishing industry gives adults no excuse not to give at least one new book to children during the eight-day holiday.
Festival of Lights is a particularly valuable offering. It’s the story of Hanukkah, plain and simple its origins and significance told in concise, action-filled language. Colorful, detailed, and spirited pictures are balanced with just the right amount of text on each page, which sustains the interest of readers and listeners. The main story, of course, is the Maccabee victory over Greek oppressors, and the miracle of the cruse of oil that burned for eight days instead of one. Following this are explanations of the menorah and dreidel legends, simple instructions for making and playing with dreidels, and music for one of the traditional holiday songs: a Rock of Ages (Ma-oz Tzur).
Such merits make the book an ideal introduction to the holiday for non-readers and readers up to age eight. It can form the cornerstone of a family holiday library, re-focus a burgeoning Hanukkah collection, or serve as the festival’s literary representative for schools and churches. First published in 1987, the re-issue of Festival of Lights happily makes it available to new audiences. Making history and legend entertaining and memorable, it is a pleasant reminder of the real reason for the season.
Hanukkah is the Jewish holiday most visible to non-Jews. Usually occurring near Christmas, it gets quite a lot of attention simply because of a coincidence of the calendar. One positive result of Hanukkah's increasing commercialism is a feast of new books fiction and nonfiction for…
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Maria Ressa’s book is a political history of the Philippines and an intimate memoir, but it’s also a warning to democracies everywhere: Authoritarianism is a threat to us all.
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