A baker's dozen of perfect active verbs, measured out sparingly just one at the time, culminating in a final two words together. Twelve dazzlingly expressive illustrations of different birds in various stages of anticipation (the adults) and growth (the chicks) on stark black backgrounds that make the...
It begins in mostly black and white ...
By various lunar predictions, tonight should be the last night of Ramadan. Eid Mubarak! In spite of all the good intentions expected of this holy month, world events haven't exactly played out quite that way, which only makes the first line of the preface here that...
Welcome to Ramadan at Shirin's house: she sky-gazes with her father, listens to stories told by her grandmother, helps her mother sort squares for a new quilt ...
While you're preparing for Eid– which should begin next week on July 29 (the moon has a calendar all its own!) – add ordering, buying, or borrowing this book to your list of to-do's right now. Nabeel and his family are about to provide quite the nourishment for the soul. Ramadan,...
Welcome to Choctaw country: native storyteller Greg Rodgers re-introduces a "hidden away" tale transcribed from the 1930s to "the living world of Choctaw literature," while native artist Leslie Stall Widener animates Rodgers' words with whimsical renditions of the animal characters garbed in Choctaw-inspired colorful duds. Young (and old, ahem!)...
"When I was a kid, I was what you might call a desert rat," begins renowned American Southwest storyteller Joe Hayes’ latest picture book from boutique indie Cinco Puntos Press. Once upon a time, that desert rat-kid stumbles on a rattlesnake trapped under a rock and releases...
Welcome to the corner of Broadway and West 139th Street in New York City: Today, Kameeka is determined that she will finally claim her rightful title as the Hula-Hoopin' Queen of 139th Street! But today is also the beloved Miz Adeline's birthday – "I love Miz...
And you thought you knew Little Red and the Big Wolf? Look again ...
So this might seem like a Chinese New Year title (because it is – although I just received a copy; the first print run sold out almost immediately, yippee!), but it's even more about sharing, forgiveness, and friendship. Which means don't read it just once a...
Get ready for quite the imaginative, clever twist on this predictable genre: even the youngest readers know what comes after A-B-C ...
Summer is finally, suddenly almost here (we had snow just two weeks ago where I happen to be stuck). With that steady warmth comes the sort of utter enchantment found between the pages of Suzy Lee's wordless Wave-y wonder. Really, who needs text when you have such whimsical, beckoning expanses? Arriving...
Here's lucky #7 of the bilingual I See the Sun series from internationally-minded boutique press Satya House – lucky because India celebrates the series' gravitas by being the first to be offered in lasting hardcover. This summer, the rest of the series also reappears in solid incarnation;...
In 1947, seven years before Brown v. Board of Education desegregated all public schools throughout the United States, the Mendez family of Westminster, California, finally won a three-year fight for an equitable education for their children – and all children like them. In an era...
As much as he likes to paint, do puzzles, and sing the loudest during circle time, Morris' favorite part of going to school is the dress-up center. There he dons the tangerine dress, marvels at its swish and crinkle, and loves that the bright color...
Argh! Here where I'm stuck for another month, three or four inches of snow greeted me this morning (so much for almost May!). But if anyone can convince me summer is coming, that would be the inimitable Shaun Tan. This, his latest title, immediately pulls...
Imagine a long scroll, that unfolds like a fan or an accordion. Each panel, when finally open, reveals a single, elongated picture, with sparse text to illuminate the densely populated illustration filled with mountains, animals, plants, people, that give way to trains, police cars, fences, highways, and...
Christy Jordan-Fenton and her mother-in-law Margaret Pokiak-Fenton began publishing stories in 2010 about the older Pokiak-Fenton's difficult childhood as a young Inuit child growing up in Canada's Northwest Territories. Their four books in four years are comprised of two titles for middle grade readers, Fatty Legs and A Stranger at Home, which were then...
According to a note at book's end, Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī of 13th-century Persia, also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, or simply Rumi, "...
