Our Little Kitchen

Our Little Kitchenby Jillian TamakiPublished 2020 Come enjoy the bustle of a community kitchen. With simple text that varies between speech bubbles and standard text, we follow the meal from tending the community garden to sitting down and sharing with neighbors. The art takes center stage on many pages as we see things like chopping...

No More Naps!

No More Naps! A Story for When You’re Wide-Awake and Definitely NOT TiredWords by Chris GrabensteinArt by Leo EspinosaPublished 2020 Annalise Devin McFleece is supposed to nap, but she doesn’t want to take one. She’s loud and uses the one word she knows to say “no” to naps. But if she doesn’t want her nap...

Cubs in the Tub

Cubs in the TubThe True Story of the Bronx Zoo’s First Woman Zookeeper Words by Candace FlemingIllustrations by Julie DowningPublished 2020 Helen Martini hoped and waited for the day she would become a mother. And hoped and waited, but it never came. Instead a tiny lion cub comes home with her zookeeper husband because his...

B is for Ballet

B is for BalletWritten by John Robert AllmanIllustrations by Rachael DeanPublished 2020 Discover the world of ballet from A to Z with B is for Ballet. Told in softly flowing rhyme, each couplet introduces people, positions, or a famous ballet or character. The art is beautiful and almost-realistic, giving it a storybook feel while maintaining...

Can We Be Friends

Can We Be Friends? Unexpected Animal Friendships from Around the WorldWords and art by Erica SirotichPublished 2020 Can We Be Friends is cute and fun, and also 100% non-fiction!Told in a mix of rhymes and side block text, it is informative while still keeping young readers engaged. There’s 8 lines of rhyme on a full...

Bess the Barn Stands Strong

Bess the Barn Stands StrongWords by Elizabeth Gilbert BediaIllustrated by Katie HickeyPublished 2020 Bess is built on a beautiful June day and becomes a feature of the farm. The animals take refuge in her, the family celebrates in her, she is loved - though time shows her wearing thin. When the time comes for the...

The Secret Rhino Society

The Secret Rhino SocietyWritten by Jonathan E JacobsArt by Samantha CotterillPublished 2020 A Hippo, a worm, and a lightbulb walk into a movie theater...No punchline, that's the beginning scene of The Secret Rhino Society. Hudson, Fran, and Jean are best friends and share a love of rhinos. They are fascinated by how rhinos can charge...

The Only Woman in the Photo

The Only Woman in the Photo Frances Perkins & Her New Deal for AmericaWords by Kathleen KrullIllustrated by Alexandra ByePublished 2020 I’m partial to a good picture book biography, but it’s icing on the cake when I also learn about someone I had never heard of before.Frances Perkins was driven to help the people of...

Sugar in Milk

Sugar in MilkWord by Thrity UmrigarIllustrated by Khoa LePublished 2020 Sugar in Milk is a retelling of an old story of when the Persians came to India nestled inside the story of a young, immigrant girl who feels out of place in America.Our narrator is unnamed, but her emotions are vivid and touching.The story within...

Julia’s House

By Ben Hatke This is a twofer because, much to my delight, one of our family favorites - Julia’s House for Lost Creatures - has a sequel. Julia is a young girl who lives in a traveling house that sits on the back of a giant turtle. It’s too quiet all alone in her big...