Kids are masters of wild invention. In The Neighbors, author and illustrator Einat Tsarfati cheerfully pulls young readers into a world of colorful, untamed imagination as seen through the eyes of one creative little girl.

There are many doors in the girl’s apartment building; some doors seem playful, some foreboding, and one is downright smelly. The lobster door knockers, jungle plants and paw prints she finds in the halls all lead her to one conclusion: Her building is full of museum thieves, mermaids and jazz musicians. Whoever they are, she asserts, the residents of her building are far more exciting than her own parents.

While Tsarfati writes with a genuinely kid-friendly voice, she wisely limits her narration and lets her art take over. Again and again, our curiosity ends with a satisfying explosion of intriguing detail and vibrant colors that tumble boldly into each apartment. Rare gems join a clutter of Legos, fire-breathing acrobat babies toast bread and pirate-ship chandeliers sway underwater. Readers will want to explore every inch of the pages. Hint: keep your eyes open for the missing pet hamster that appears as a sort of Where’s Waldo? in each apartment scene.

Tsarfati writes and illustrates with a child’s enthusiasm and sense of possibility. Bold and exciting, The Neighbors teeters delightfully on the edge of chaos with an acrobat’s balance of storytelling and imagination. With so much to look at, it’s a hard book to close. Tsarfati tells one apartment resident’s story, but there are countless others yet to be discovered.

When Pura Belpré came to America in 1921, she brought with her a love of storytelling that made her something of a legend back home in Puerto Rico. She became a bilingual assistant at the New York Public Library and was surprised to discover not a single collection of Puerto Rican folk tales on the shelves; there was nothing to do but write them down herself. Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré is a book about the celebrated writer and librarian’s stories, and how those stories took root and continue to grow.

Author Anika Aldamuy Denise threads Spanish vocabulary into Planting Stories. There’s no glossary but the words are clear in context: “Families come to hear folktales en inglés y español, to watch Pura’s puppets dance across the stage of her stories.” Paola Escobar’s illustrations contrast the island beauty of Puerto Rico (splashy palm trees and a trolley carrying passengers to the beach) with the density and hustle of New York, also beautiful despite the crowds and air pollution. The arc of Belpré’s life and legacy is shown in a way that recalls the emotionally gripping opening sequence from the movie Up as words and pictures combine powerfully to convey the impact of Belpré’s work.

Planting Stories includes a bibliography and resources for further exploration about Belpré, the first Puerto Rican librarian in New York, and her most famous stories. Anyone starting here will surely be curious to learn more about this hero librarian and the stories she scattered like seeds for us to discover.

This article was originally published in the February 2019 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

BookPage Top Pick in Children's, starred review, January 2019

In author and illustrator Corinna Luyken’s atmospheric new picture book, My Heart, young readers see a series of diverse children whose innermost feelings are manifested via clever metaphors and softly rendered monotype illustrations. “My heart is a window,” one small child says as they stare through a window lit with vivid yellow sunlight. “Some days it is tiny,” says another child, wondering at a small and delicate flower in the grass.

In spare and pleasing rhyming text, Luyken explores the fears, joys and emotional vulnerabilities of children—and the moments when their hearts are closed (like a fence) or open (like the flowers in a dazzling bouquet). Luyken juxtaposes the muted grays of pencil with lemony yellows that seem to shine from the pages in her simple, uncluttered compositions. If you linger over the artwork, you’ll see that Luyken includes a subtle heart shape on each spread. Some are more pronounced than others, like the heart that forms in the shadow cast by a long and daunting slide outdoors at twilight, or the heart shapes formed in the pattern of a wrought iron fence.

A heart can be “closed . . . / or open up wide,” and a young girl surrounded by luminescent yellows, with her arms spread wide in joy, proclaims, “I get to decide.” This is the foundation of Luyken’s sensitive story, and it’s an empowering notion: Whether their hearts are closed or open, broken or full, children have autonomy over their own interior lives.

This article was originally published in the January 2019 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Debut author John Sullivan has based the story of his picture book, Kitten and the Night Watchman, on real events from his life. Dedicated to “all the strays,” this sweet narrative follows a kind night watchman who waves goodbye to his family as the sun sets and heads to a construction site to work alone under deep blue skies. But he has a friend at the work site—a small homeless kitten to whom he carefully tends.

Sullivan writes in short sentences and puts to use a string of evocative similes like “the full moon shines like an old friend,” and “garbage trucks line up like circus elephants.” TaeeunYoo illustrates the moonlit shadows of backhoes that look like insects and an excavator shaped like a giraffe. The angles of the buildings and construction equipment are expertly juxtaposed with the round, soft curves of the kitten and the watchman, and Yoo’s use of light—from the moon, lamps, the man’s flashlight, etc.—is particularly effective in the dark palette.

In one moment, readers see the watchman resting at work, thinking of “his boy and girl, safe and asleep at home.” This offers young readers a glimpse into the ways in which their caretakers keep their safety in mind, even when apart from them.

At the end of Kitten and the Night Watchman, readers are introduced to a happy family who greets the watchman when he returns home with his new pet. Don’t miss the chance to share this tender story with a child in your life.

A delightfully unconventional tale, Edison: The Mystery of the Missing Mouse Treasure by German author and illustrator Torben Kuhlmann will appeal to children with a sense of adventure and an inventor’s imagination.

Pete, a young and curious mouse, is determined to find a family treasure that was lost at sea when the ship carrying Pete’s intrepid ancestor sank. With the help of a wise Professor, Pete researches, designs and builds a submarine. Clever and resourceful, the two mice discover plans for the invention that changed the course of human, and mouse, history.

While Edison reads like a chapter book, Kuhlmann smartly lets his illustrations do much of the talking. Delicately detailed, each image is endlessly intriguing. Submarine blueprints, old-timey “photos” and illustrated newspaper clippings draw together both the minuscule world of mice and the vast depths of the sea. Kuhlmann’s art varies from black-and-white sketches to immense full-color spreads, all of which seem infused with the sepia tones of a bygone era.

Concluding notes from Kuhlmann give readers a brief history of the lightbulb and a short bio on Thomas Edison. While it’s unlikely that Pete’s furry ancestor truly created the lightbulb, readers might be surprised by the debate surrounding its true inventor. A substantial book, Edison is a bit lengthy for a one-sitting read for very little listeners. However, kid-friendly chapters and extensive illustrations will keep readers hooked and looking for treasure.

Young readers will want to pay close attention to the illustrations in Bethanie Deeney Murguia’s charming new picture book about a unicorn disguised (maybe) as a horse. But then, to see a unicorn, you have to be watching pretty carefully anyway, right?

The story opens at sunrise, with a lizard who is waiting for the white horse in the stable to wake up. And maybe this is just a horse in a red hat; a horse who’s having a bad hair day; a horse who wants to keep the sun out of its eyes. I mean, really, if it was a unicorn, would it want to hide its glorious horn under a hat?

Still, discerning young readers will notice some very unusual things happening as this four-legged creature trots out and about. Are those flowers springing up under its hooves? Are those butterflies following in its wake? And is that a rainbow over its head? And, wait! Is that a magical palace with peaks that look, well, remarkably like unicorn horns?

With clever illustrations and a whimsical, conversational tone that’s perfect for storytime and read-alouds, Do You Believe in Unicorns? is sure to entrance readers of any age who may want a little more magic in their everyday lives. In Murguia’s world, all magic takes is believing.

While skateboarding through New York City, a boy pauses at the Museum of Modern Art and decides to head inside. Suddenly, his imagination kicks into gear: Figures from three legendary paintings step through their canvases to join him—the cubist figures from Picasso’s “Three Musicians,” the woman and lion from Rousseau’s “The Sleeping Gypsy,” and the abstract expressionistic body from Matisse’s “Icarus.” As a group, they leave the museum and roam the streets of the city, making memories at iconic stops like the Statue of Liberty’s crown. After the boy returns to the museum to say goodbye to his new friends, he stops to paint his own memories of the day on a building wall.

In a closing note for Imagine!, author and illustrator Raúl Colón writes about his experience growing up in New York without ever visiting the museums. (“My hardworking parents were taking care of many important issues to help keep the family above water and my fragile health in check.”) What, he wonders, would his life have been like if he’d seen such works of art when he was younger? This inviting, well-paced wordless story, rendered in Colón’s signature, highly textured watercolor and colored pencil illustrations, is his answer to that question. The boy’s adventure, springing from the deep wells of his imagination, is nearly breathless, and the story as a whole is truly inspiring.

A reverent, playful tribute to the power of imagination and art.

From the very beginning, the energy of Kevin Henkes’ A Parade of Elephants is infectious as readers turn the page to see a parade of pastel-colored elephants. There are five, to be exact, but on this first full spread, they are laid out in five rows in which we see them incrementally (one in one row, two in the next, and so on).

For the most part, the elephants march from left to right on an uncluttered, squiggly-lined landscape, trimmed with heavy-lined borders that often form a stripe on top of the purple pages. But, delightfully, Henkes mixes up the compositions. Sometimes, for instance, there is a stripe of purple at the top with the elephants jubilantly marching below, and sometimes all the borders fall away while the elephants determinedly march on.

As we follow their march, Henkes sprinkles the text with prepositions for those children still learning the ways of grammar. Up, down, over, under, in and out march the single-minded elephants. In a moment of creative wordplay, we read that they are “big and round and round they go.” The short phrases and short sentences are laid out in a large, bold font. Closing with a happy surprise as it does—when they tire, the elephants scatter stars in the sky via their long, upturned trunks—young readers won’t want to see this story end.

Engaging, entertaining, and educational, A Parade of Elephants is one to trumpet about.

Caroline Hadilaksono has hit a home run in Surprise!, her first picture book as both author and illustrator.

Squirrel, Raccoon and Bear are tired of lazing around the woods all day. They decide a new friend would be nice, but making friends doesn’t prove easy. Rabbit is not interested in them, and neither are the birds. Turtle won’t even poke his head out of his shell.

Luckily, a family of city folks sets up camp in the woods and the three furry friends decide to throw them a welcome party. It will be a splendid affair with refreshments from the cooler, ketchup and mustard for decorating, and tomatoes and eggs for Squirrel to juggle. Bear makes pine cone party hats, too, all for the new friends.

Surprise! When the city folks return, it seems a mischievous squirrel and a fiesty raccoon are messing up their campsite. (They don’t seem to understand that it’s a welcome party.) When Bear arrives with the party hats, the family screams and scatters, leaving everything behind. The three animals aren’t sure why their new friends left so soon, but they have a splendid time together, just the three of them.

Children will delight in the pages that detail the party preparations: Raccoon ransacks packs of chips and cookies and Bear hangs a stringof hot dog links, from tree to tree like crepe paper. Hadilaksono’s illustrations and story are cheerful and lively, making Surprise! a tummy-tickling read.

When Angelina, a young African-American girl, enters her classroom, she notices that her skin, clothes and the curl of her hair are different than her classmates’. When a boy in her class named Rigoberto tells the class he’s from Venezuela, he notices how the class laughs because they don’t understand him. At a lunch table, an Asian girl notices how her classmates wrinkle their noses at her kimchi. On the playground, a small white boy notices that no one picks him to be on their team. But all this is about to change for these young characters in The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson, the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, a National Book Award winner and the winner of numerous other prestigious children’s literature awards.

Rafael López, a Pura Belpré Medalist, illustrates this poetic picture book with vibrant, expressive and richly patterned artwork. While the students describe their extensive summer travels to other states and countries, Angelina notices that, though she spent her summer at home reading, stories carried her to even more interesting places. And when she finds the courage to introduce herself during circle time, Rigoberto notices that she has the same name as his sister. In that moment, Angelina makes a connection and notices there’s room for her similarities and her differences.

It’s not enough to simply notice these differences, however. Woodson encourages children to celebrate them. López’s illustrations respond to the dark shadows of apprehension and loneliness and replace them with the vibrancy of wonder and friendship. Whether shared at bedtime or in a group, this book is sure to foster compassion and self-esteem.

Omu’s hearty stew has been simmering all day, and she’s not the only one who has noticed its enticing aroma. But after Omu’s kind heart and generous ladle feed several hardworking neighbors and friends, Omu finds herself supperless. Unassuming and simple, Thank You, Omu! by author and illustrator Oge Mora begins with a lesson on compassion and ends with a celebration of community.

Mora’s art is a visually intriguing multimedia feast. Newspaper clippings, pastel art, clothing patterns and maps cheerfully collide in collages that reflect the bustling community of the story. Mora’s characters are bold, diverse and expressive, her cityscapes exciting and fun. Influenced by her Nigerian roots, Mora’s eclectic style is lively and urban but easily translates to different neighborhoods around the world.

While her illustrations are distinct and inviting, Mora, like all good storytellers, uses repetition to create a tale that becomes instantly familiar. Repeated phrases such as “big fat pot” and “thick red stew” help even the youngest readers follow—and delightfully predict—the chain of events. Mora writes with a composed energy that is both kid-friendly and timeless.

Thank You, Omu! isn’t a book that lectures, nor is it a tale of grand gestures. It’s a book about the simplicity of sharing what you have, and that kindness being returned with love. Based on the author’s memories of her grandma, Thank You, Omu! is a fitting tribute to those thoughtful hearts who turn houses into homes and streets into communities.

On a dull, rainy day, a little girl wearing a paper crown and her pet tabby cat wait by the window for the mail. When a package arrives, its brightly colored green tag hints at its content and the fun that’s about to transpire in Just Add Glitter. This truly crafty picture book combines author Angela DiTerlizzi’s bouncy rhymes with illustrator Samantha Cotterill’s cut-paper patterned scenes that she arranges in a 3-D environment before photographing them.

Once the rosy-cheeked girl opens the box, full of glitter, she brightens her drawings, paper crown and bedroom bit by bit, offering readers this advice: “Try a speck, a fleck, a sprinkle. / See how things begin to twinkle. / A little here, a little there, / Glitter, glitter anywhere!” Unable to resist the shimmering change, she introduces purple glitter to her creations and decides to brighten the entire house with “MORE glitter.” Readers can share the joy visually and tactilely by running their fingers over the increasingly bumpy, glitter-covered pages.

Up to their necks in glitter, however, the girl and her tabby realize there can be too much of a good thing. After sweeping it up, the girl looks in the mirror and also realizes that under all the bling, the most important part is just being herself. But that doesn’t mean a girl still doesn’t want to have fun. A concluding delivery of a package with googly eyes lets readers imagine what comes next. This delightful, vibrant story encourages children to sparkle inside and out.

Horse Meets Dog, the debut picture book from TV writer Elliott Kalan (“Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return” and “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”) tells the story of two stubborn animals who refuse to acknowledge one another’s identities. Upon first meeting, Horse assumes Dog is a tiny baby horse, and Dog assumes Horse is a very big dog. Their confusion grows until they are (literally) running in circles, unable to see the world from the other’s point of view.

With speech-balloons and Tim Miller’s expressive, cartoonish illustrations, over-the-top humor is the name of the game here, and the lively back-and-forth discussions between the two characters make Horse Meets Dog a particularly good choice for storytime. In one instance, Horse tries to feed Dog a bottle of hay and mocks Dog’s tail, telling him his tail should hang down “like a gorgeous hair waterfall.” Even gift-giving attempts fail: Dog doesn’t understand the heavy saddle Horse gives him, and Horse is utterly baffled by the concept of fetching a ball.

The new friends never come to understand the error in their thinking, and the comic rimshot of an ending—a bird appears to tell them they are “two weird-looking birds”—leaves readers hoping an epiphany will follow.

This article was originally published in the November 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.