Stories that Shape Us
A place where CL/R SIG reviewers share annotations and insights on books that matter.
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Nancy Brashear and Carolyn Angus Here is a baker’s dozen of our favorite books for older readers published in 2025 that did not receive Children’s Literature and Reading reviews—books we would like to see added to middle school and high school library collections.  Away (Alone #2). Megan E. Freeman. (2025). Aladdin. In this companion to Alone (2021), the entire community of Redhawk, Colorado, is rounded up overnight because of “imminent threat.” Herded onto trains and with phones confiscated, they are transported to Camp Rogers, an evacuation center with armed guards. It is there that four young people (ages 11 to 14) meet, their suspicions melding them into an investigative group searching for the truth, especially after the governor’s Council for Displaced Coloradans pressures their families to sell their homes. As evidenced through their multiple points of view augmented by introspective free-verse poetry, film scenes scripts, journal articles, letters, radio broadcast transcripts, newsletters, camper interviews, and incident command advisories, they uncover an unimaginable conspiracy and devise an ingenious scheme to save their families, city, and state. (Gr 6-8)  Bold Words from Black Men: Insights and Reflections from 50 Notable Trailblazers Who Influenced the World (The Bold Words #2). Tamara Pizzoli. Illus. by Desire Cesar “El’Cesart” Ngabo. (2025). Denene Millner. In this companion to Bold Words from Black Women (2022), Pizzoli spotlights 50 Black men from a variety of backgrounds and experiences including Olivier Rousteing, Nelson Mandela, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Jesse Owens. Each inspiring entry includes a digitally-created portrait of the person on either the recto or verso page of a colorful double spread with his quotation in bold print, brief biographical information, and a statement about the quote on the opposing page. The final double spread cements the book’s message with the words “BELIEVE IN BLACK MEN” in bright orange against a vivid turquoise background. (introduction) (Gr 6 Up)  The Corruption of Hollis Brown. K. Acrum. (2025). Harper. In this novel-in-verse horror story, troubled 17-year-old Hollis Brown, who feels trapped in dead-end rural and haunted Rose Town, encounters Walt Eidelman, a 100-year-old ghost from the 1900s who has body-hopped into more than 200 people over the decades. Before Walt possesses Hollis’s body and moves into his mind, they make a deal: Hollis gets a personality “do-over” from Walt, and the ghost-visitor gets a safe place to “ride” inside him. The boys learn to work together amidst growing romantic feelings, and, with the help of Hollis’s two best gal friends, they must find a way to break Rose Town’s curse for a better future for all. (resources for recipes in the text, author’s note) (Gr 9-12)  Fascinating Fungi: Nourishers, Killers, Connectors, and Healers. Karen Latchana Kenney. (2025). Twentieth-First Century. Kenney provides an intriguing account of the evolution of fungal organisms once classified as plants but now recognized by scientists as belonging to their own kingdom, the Fungi Kingdom. The engaging format of short chapters with interest-catching titles, informative text boxes, and captioned full-color photographs and diagrams explores the diversity of species in the fungal world. In the final chapter, “Planet Savers, Future Builders,” Kenney considers some of the possibilities of mycorestoration as scientists continue to discover ways to use fungi to help solve environmental problems and restore balance in nature. (ways to connect with mycophiles, glossary, source notes, selected bibliography, further resources, index) (Gr 6 Up)  How the Word Is Passed: Remembering Slavery and How It Shaped America (Young Readers Edition). Clint Smith. Adapted by Sonja Cherry-Paul. (2025). Little, Brown. Cherry-Paul’s engaging and accessible adaptation of Smith’s How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery in America (2021) takes readers on a tour of landmarks and monuments to explore the legacy of slavery in America: Monticello Plantation, the Whitney Plantation, Angola Prison, Blandford Cemetery, Galveston Island, New York City, and Senegal’s Gorée Island. Smith’s personal account of visits to these historical sites and the conversations he had with people he met encourages reflection on how the history of enslavement in America relates to our present-day lives. (author’s note, afterword, glossary, selected sources, index) (Gr 6 Up)  The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze. Derrick Barnes. (2015). Viking. Black 13-year-old Henson Blayze, a talented football player who is only an eighth grader, is recruited for Midnight High School’s varsity team of mostly white boys in Great Mountain, Mississippi. After a stellar performance during the first half of the Midnight Marauder’s opening game, Henson is outraged to learn that his ten-year-old friend, Menkah Jupiter, has been badly beaten by state troopers. When he informs the cheering crowd at halftime that he is heading to the hospital to see the boy, they turn on him. “Just. Play. BALL!” In the midst of Henson’s fall from grace, racial dynamics create high tension and a near-death experience, and his father’s revelation about the family trust and legacy forces Henson to make hard choices about his future. (author’s note) (Gr 6-8)  The Invisible Wild. Nikki Van De Car. (2025). Running Press Teens. Sixteen-year-old Emma Arruda, who lives on the Big Island of Hawai‘i, comes upon a non-sensible teen she nicknames “Hilo” living in a shack in the woods and agrees to secretly help him stay hidden. Emma realizes that she has reawakened her lost childhood gift of seeing the menehune, the legendary spirits and original island inhabitants, whose home is threatened by construction in the old forest in which they have always dwelled. When menehune leader, Koa, expresses his anger at Hilo and Emma for perceived slights against nature, he declares that the only way he will forgive them (and lift Hilo’s curse) is by their stopping the deforestation and development before the sacred land of the menehunes is destroyed—or by finding a new solution. (author’s note) (Gr 9-12)  The Last Bookstore on Earth. Lily Braun-Arnold. (2025). Delacorte. In this post-apocalyptic world, 17-year-old Liz has not left the suburban New Jersey bookstore where she worked (or its upstairs apartment) throughout the year following the acid-rain Storm that killed her family and destroyed the town, leaving it deserted and without electricity or water. Occasional travelers stop by to trade food, batteries, or other useful items for books, stories, and mail. When an intruder, Maeve, breaks into the store, Liz reluctantly lets her stay, unaware of the angry gang in pursuit of her. Using Maeve’s construction skills, they work on Liz’s repair to-do list, and, together, they raid deserted stores and homes for supplies. When the gang finds them and a second Storm hits, Liz and Maeve must use their wits to survive. (Gr 9-12)  Mindworks. Neal Shusterman. (2025). Simon & Schuster. The intriguing design of the jacket of Mindworks, “an uncanny compendium of short stories,” will grab the attention of both fans and those new to the writings of Schusterman, a master at crafting speculative fiction. The 43 short stories are organized in seven sections with equally intriguing titles: Forces of Nature; Angels, Demons, Monsters, and a Tree; The Wheel of Destiny; Attics, Basements, Windows, and Walls; The Living, the Dead, and the Undecided; I’m Not Myself Today; and You Reap What You Sow (The World of Scythe). Because of its length, moving around in Mindworks, rather than a straight-through reading, should be most satisfying. (Gr 6 Up)  Phenomenal Moments: Revealing the Hidden Science Around Us. Felice Frankel. (2025). MiTeen Press. Science photographer and Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher Frankel introduces readers to a collection of full-color photographic images related to patterns in the world around us. Phenomenal Moments includes five themed sections: light and shadow, form, traces, transformations, and surfaces. Each section includes five or six entries with two double spreads: a strip of a photograph of an object or scene and the question “What Do You See?” set against a solid-color background followed by a double-spread page with a close-up photograph and “Moment” (why and how she made the photo) and “Phenomenon” (the science involved in what you see) text boxes. (“About the Chapter Openers”) Gr 6 Up)  The Raven & Other Writings (Monstrous Classics Collection). Edgar Allan Poe. (2025). Aladdin. This collection of writings of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1848), who is best known for his classic gothic horror short stories and poems, includes 11 chilling and macabre tales (such as “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”) and16 poems (such as “The Raven,” “To One in Paradise, and “Annabel Lee”). Two other new books in the Monstrous Classics Collection were published simultaneously: Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow & Other Stories and Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera.” (Gr 6 Up)  (S)kin. Ibi Zoboi. (2025). Versify. Inspired by Caribbean magical folklore, (S)kin, a fantasy-in-verse told through the first-person points of view of two teens in alternating chapters, entwines the fates of Black 15-year-old Marisol (and her mother, Lourdes), poor recent immigrants from Haiti, and 17-year-old Genevieve (and her father—a professor of the occult, stepmother, and twin baby half-siblings) in Brooklyn. Marisol and Lourdes come from a proud ancestral line of soucouyants (skin-shedding, flying fireball witches who sip on the life force of their victims); Genevieve, whose biological mother was a Black woman, lives with her privileged White family and battles daily against burning skin. After Lourdes and her daughter move into Genevieve’s home to help with the babies, dark secrets are exposed, fiery nights and revenge explode, and the girls literally get to see the world through each other’s eyes. (author’s note) (Gr 9-12)  Who Owns the Moon?: And Other Conundrums of Exploring and Using Space. Cynthia Levinson & Jennifer Swanson. (2025). Margaret Quinlin. Levinson and Swanson address a series of intriguing questions such as “Why go back to the Moon now?” and “So how can people govern themselves and others to maintain peace and order there?” The format of the narrative text with informative insets and text boxes accompanied by a wealth of captioned photographs and diagrams offers readers a timely and accessible history of space exploration and the present-day conundrums related to new technologies to get to the Moon and how to govern activity in space as well as opportunities for space-related careers. (acronyms, authors’ note, picture credits, source notes, further resources, bibliography, index) (Gr 6 Up) Nancy Brashear is Professor Emeritus of English at Azusa Pacific University, in Azusa, California. Carolyn Angus is former Director of the George G. Stone Center for Children’s Books, Claremont Graduate University, in Claremont, California.
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Nancy Brashear & Carolyn Angus Here is our list of favorite books published in 2024 that did not get Children’s Literature and Reading reviews—books we would like to see added to classroom, school, and family library collections.  Animal Albums from A to Z. Cece Bell. (2024). Walker. Readers of all ages will giggle-snort their way through Bell’s zany ABC picture book featuring 26 imaginative “animal albums” inspired by those of animal musicians from the 1940s to 1980s in her personal collection. Double-page spreads spotlight colorful, richly detailed album covers and clever songs (aka poems), such as “Eat Your Vittles, Vivian” performed by “Vampire Bat Vaudeville Revue” for the letter V. (introduction, QR code for songs, more about the animal artists). (PreK Up)  The Bard and the Book: How the First Folio Saved the Plays of William Shakespeare from Oblivion. Ann Bausum. Illus. by Marta Sevilla. (2024). Peachtree. Bausum’s witty narrative filled with fascinating facts and quotations, complemented by photographs and Sevilla’s colorful artwork, is a superb introduction to the life of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and to the First Folio (1623), the book that preserved the bard of Avon’s comedies, histories, and tragedies. (author’s notes, source notes, resources, index) (Gr 6 Up)  The Bletchley Riddle. (Ruta Sepetys & Steve Sheinkin. (2024). Viking. In 1940, 19-year-old Jakob Novis works at Bletchley Park, Britain’s top-secret WWII codebreaking center. When his 14-year-old sister Lizzie, who refuses to believe that their mother was recently killed in a bombing raid in Poland, joins him and becomes a messenger, the contentious siblings finally team up and are immersed in codes, clues, riddles, and family intrigue amidst increasing personal and national danger in this historical mystery. (photos, historical note) (Gr 6 Up)  Cornbread & Poppy for the Win (Cornbread & Poppy #4). Matthew Cordell. (2024). Little, Brown. In this latest book in Cordell’s early chapter series about best friends who are opposites, the simple text and expressive ink-and-watercolor illustrations humorously depict Poppy and Cornbread’s entry in the Small Rodents Competitive Cycling Championship Classic. Poppy is determined to beat bully Gerald for the Winner’s Cup, but in a pants-splitting grand finale, the unexpected happens. (PreK-Gr 2)  That Curious Thing. Chris Raschka. (2024). Michael di Capua. In Raschka’s fantasy, when 12-year-old Cleo finds her missing cat, Muffin, in a neighbor’s apartment, she discovers a secret organization of talking cats, PURR (Peace Urgently Requires Reasonableness), whose aether beam plan to solve the energy crisis has been stolen by nemesis KLAW (Cats Loving Awful Warfare). After she and Muffin join PURR, Cleo goes undercover to stop KLAW from sending all dogs into outer space—and discovers a curious thing about herself. (Gr 3-5)  Fast Cheetah, Slow Tortoise: Poems of Animal Opposites. Bette Westera. Trans. by David Colmer. Illus. by Mies van Hout. (2024). Eerdmans. In this playful concept book, 16 pairs of animals are matched to accentuate opposing characteristics introduced through poem titles as antonyms. For example, ”Relaxed”—sloth, “Busy”—ant; “Quiet”—pill bug, “Noisy”—cricket. Free verse poems written in first person are placed on opposite sides of double-spread pages with colorful, mixed media illustrations of animals displaying the behavior or emotion portrayed in the poems. (PreK Up)  A Flicker of Hope: A Story of Migration. Cynthia Harmony. Illus. by Devon Holzwarth. (2024). Viking. Told from the perspective of Lucía, a young Mexican girl, Harmony’s lyrical text, enhanced by Holzwarth’s vibrant illustrations, interweaves stories of the spring migration of monarch butterflies and her father’s journey north as a migrant farm worker. Papá’s promise to return when the monarcas do, leaves Lucía watching the autumn skies for a “flicker of hope,” the homecoming of the mariposas. (glossary, author’s notes) (PreK-Gr 2)  Future Tense: How We Made Artificial Intelligence—and How It Will Change Everything. Martha Brockenbrough. (2024). Feiwel and Friends. “The future is not what you think.” Brockenbrough offers an accessible exploration of artificial intelligence from its history to present-day acceleration of technological advances and use of AI throughout the world. In the third part of the book, she addresses the future of living with AI and the need for human intelligence to continue to guide its further development. (bibliography, endnotes, index) (Gr 9-12)  Godfather Death. Sally Nicholls. Illus. by Júlia Sardà. (2024). Viking. In Nicholls’ reimagining of a Grimm’s tale, embellished by Sardà’s classic folk tale style artwork, after rejecting Father God and the Devil, a poor fisherman chooses Death as his son’s godfather because of his equal treatment of humanity. Godfather Death makes the fisherman rich through predictions of living or dying, but when the fisherman changes the verdict of the king’s demise and tries to bargain with Death, he learns he can’t cheat death. (Gr 3 Up)  Golden Gate: Building the Mighty Bridge. Elizabeth Partridge. Illus. by Ellen Heck. (2024). Chronicle. Heck’s stunning artwork rendered in mixed media over red-orange paper and Partridge’s second-person narration give readers an accessible account of the seemingly impossible building of a suspension bridge across the Golden Gate strait from the beginning of construction in 1933 to its opening on May 27, 1937. The afterword provides more details about the Golden Gate Bridge, “one of the most beautiful and most inspiring bridges ever built.” (PreK Up)  A Greater Goal: The Epic Battle for Equal Pay in Women’s Soccer—and Beyond. Emily Rusch. (2024). Greenwillow. Rusch chronicles the history of gender bias and the pay gap for female soccer players from 1985 through current times including the development of the U.S. Women’s National Team, their participation in the Olympics and World Cups, labor and contract negotiations, and a winning lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation for equal pay on September 6, 2022. (resources, source notes, index) (Gr 9-12)  The Hotel Balzaar (The Norendy Tales #2). Kate DiCamillo. Illus. by Júlia Sardà. (2024). Candlewick. Young Marta, whose father is a missing soldier, quietly explores the Hotel Balzaar while her mother cleans rooms. After a mysterious guest, a countess with a pet parrot, departs before telling her the final of seven stories that seem to tie small important things in her life together and circumstances change, Marta realizes that she is now living in the missing story, one of “of love enduring.” (Gr 3-5)  How to Know a Crow: The Biography of a Brainy Bird. Candace Savage. Illus. by Rachel Hudson. (2024). David Suzuki institute/Greystone Kids. In this engaging exploration of the world of the Corvidae family, Savage’s chapters, which focus on the life of a fictional American Crow named Oki, include text boxes of fascinating facts and “Crow Lab” suggestions of activities. Hudson’s mixed media illustration provide eye-catching details of the characteristics and behavior of crows. (author’s note, glossary, resources, index) (Gr 3 Up)  Life After Whale: The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall. Lynn Brunelle. Illus. by Jason Chin. (2024). Neal Porter. Chin’s stunning, realistic watercolor-and-gouache artwork telling the visual “whale fall” story of a 90-year-old female whale pairs beautifully with Brunelle’s informative narrative text to describe how her death will benefit the ocean ecosystem for the next 100 years. (sections on blue whales, ecosystems, and phases of a whale fall ecosystem; books about whales; websites on whale falls; bibliography) (PreK Up)  Millie Fleur’s Poison Garden. Christy Mandin. (2024). Orchard. When she and her mother move into a neglected house on the edge of Garden Glen, Millie Fleur dislikes the sameness of the town’s tidy gardens all planted with roses. She uses seeds from her old garden to create a “wonderfully weird” garden. When the Rosebud Club declares it unacceptable, Millie Fleur comes up with a plan that results in the townspeople celebrating individuality in their yards too. (“Snapdragons & Spider Plants,” author’s note) (PreK-Gr 2)  Mountain of Fire: The Eruption and Survivors of Mount St. Helens. Rebecca E. F. Barone. (2024). Henry Holt. In this compelling narrative nonfiction account of the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington on May 18, 1980, Barone tells stories of victims, survivors, heroes, scientists, and others. She uses quotations from interviews, excerpts from media, and charts to analyze historic, scientific, and political aspects of the deadly and destructive eruption. (QR code for photos, maps, author’s note, characters, lessons learned, bibliography) (Gr 6 Up)  Outspoken: Paul Robeson, Ahead of His Time: A One Man Show. Carole Boston Weatherford. Illus. by Eric Velasquez. (2024). Candlewick. Weatherford’s beautifully crafted first-person free-verse poems, which incorporate quotes and lyrics of spirituals and songs, and Velasquez’s expressive oil portraits based on and inspired by photographs present the life story of African American Paul Robeson (1898-1976) in four acts: Youth, Artist, Activist, and Erased. (timeline, source notes, bibliography, copyright acknowledgments) (Gr 3 Up)  Puppet. David Almond. Illus. by Lizzy Stewart. (2024). Candlewick. In Almond’s magical novel, enhanced by Stewart’s black-and-white cartoonlike illustrations, elderly and lonely puppet master Silvester has just donated his life’s work to a museum. Visiting his old workshop, he creates child-sized Puppet, who comes to life. After meeting and making friends with young Fleur and her mother in the park, he passes on his puppet-making skills to the girl, and they put on a show in the park that brings the community together. (Gr 3-5)  Rising from the Ashes: Los Angeles, 1992: Edward Jae Song Lee, Latasha Harlins, Rodney King, and a City on Fire. Paula Yoo (2024). Norton. Yoo provides a well-researched account of the five-day deadly and destructive 1992 Los Angeles Riots ignited by the acquittal of four LAPD officers for the brutal beating of Rodney King and the history of systemic racism, police inequities, and tensions between Black and Korean communities in Los Angeles. (author’s note, “In Memoriam,” notes, bibliography, index) (Gr 9-12)  Shakespeare’s First Folio: All the Plays (Children’s Edition). William Shakespeare. Abridged by Anjna Chouhan. Illus. by Emily Sutton. (2024). Shakespeare Birthplace Trust/Candlewick. This special children’s edition of Shakespeare’s First Folio was created to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of the first printed collection of Shakespeare’s plays, Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories & Tragedies (1623). Each of the 36 playscripts is adapted, primarily using Shakespeare’s language, and embellished with Sutton’s beautiful artwork inspired by historic items in the trust’s collection. (Gr 3 Up)  The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman. Gennifer Choldenko. (2024). Knopf. Almost twelve-year-old Hank Hooperman and his three-year-old sister, Boo, are on their own when their unreliable mother, Geri, goes missing. Left with no food and six months of unpaid rent, they might end up in separate foster homes if Hank can’t find her. Following clues that lead him to unexpected help, he makes his biggest mistake ever and learns a stark truth that brings hope for him and his sister. (Gr 3 Up)  Ukraine Remember Also Me: Testimonies from the War. George Butler. (2024). Candlewick Studio. “We dream of peace, freedom, and the joy of being without war.” Ukraine Remember Also Me is a compelling collection of testimonies from Ukrainians following the Russian invasion of their country. Their stories were told as British journalist and artist Butler drew their portraits on visits he made to Ukraine in March 2022 and March-April 2023. (foreword, map, afterword, artwork notes) (Gr 6 Up)  Wild Places: The Life of Naturalist David Attenborough. Hayley Rocco. Illus. by John Rocco. (2024). Putnam. David Attenborough (b. 1926), who grew up exploring wild places near his home in England, has traveled all over our planet filming nature programs that have been viewed by millions. Recognizing the decrease of wild places, Attenborough is an activist for conservation. “We must rewild the World.” (author’s note, “Rebuilding Our Planet” with a chart of problems and solutions, bibliography) (PreK Up)  The Wild River and the Great Dam: The Construction of Hoover Dam and the Vanishing Colorado River. Simon Boughton. (2024). Christy Ottaviano. Boughton chronicles the construction of Hoover Dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River that began in 1931 and was completed in 1936. He provides a balanced account of the political, economic, social, and environmental impact of taming the wild river, and addresses the current crisis on the Colorado River. (timeline, “Dams of the Colorado River,” maps, notes, sources, index.) (Gr 6 Up)  Witch Hunt: The Cold War, Joe McCarthy, and the Red Scare. Andrea Balis & Elizabeth Levy. Illus. by Tim Foley. (2024). Roaring Brook. Balis and Levy’s deeply researched exposé with Foley’s expressive black-and-white sketches explores the story of Joseph McCarthy and the histrionic Red Scare and how ordinary people were accused of being communists in a national “witch hunt.” The screenplay-style format includes excerpts from primary sources and “Fly on the Wall” contextual commentary. (author’s note, timeline, source notes, further reading, index) (Gr 6 Up) Nancy Brashear is Professor Emeritus of English at Azusa Pacific University, in Azusa, California. Carolyn Angus is former Director of the George G. Stone Center for Children’s Books, Claremont Graduate University, in Claremont, California.
Nancy Brashear and Carolyn Angus As reviewers, we weed our bookshelves each January to make room for new releases. As book lovers, we add some books to our personal collections and put some aside for grandchildren and special friends. As advocates of reading, we will send the others to schools and libraries, but before we do, here is our list of books published in 2023 that are too good to miss—books we would love to see in the hands of all children and teachers.  Apart, Together: A Book About Transformation. Linda Booth Sweeney. Illus. by Ariel Rutland. (2023). Balzer + Bray. Together, Sweeney’s lyrical text and Rutland’s bold, colorful double-spread illustrations present a child-friendly introduction to how separate things can become something new when they come together. Apart, Together begins with simple pairings. For example, “APART, blue is blue and / yellow is yellow, but . . . // TOGETHER, they make green!” The transformations then become more complicated and metaphorical. For example, at soccer practice, “APART, players kick a ball . . . // TOGETHER they score!” (PreS Up)  The Bear and the Wildcat. Kazumi Yumoto. Illus. by Komako Sakai. (2023). Gecko. “One morning, Bear was crying. His best friend, a little bird, was dead.” This beautifully crafted picture book tells the story of Bear’s inconsolable grief until he meets a wildcat who understands his loss and helps him remember the special times he shared with the little bird. The wildcat, a traveling violinist, offers him friendship and a hopeful path of recovery with the gift of a tambourine and an invitation to join him in traveling as the Bear and Wildcat Band. (PreK Up)  The Bone Wars: The True Story of the Epic Battle to Find Dinosaur Fossils. Jane Kurtz. Illus. by Alexander Vidal. (2023). Beach Lane. Meeting in 1863, paleontologists O. C. Marsh (1831-1899) and Edward Drinker Cope (1840-1897) became friends and collaborators until Marsh pointed out a mistake Cope made in attaching the skull to the tail of a dinosaur he named Elasmosaurus. “And that’s when . . . the Bone Wars began,” the bitter competition between the two fossil hunters to make the next big discovery. (author’s note, illustrator’s note, selected sources, suggested reading) (PrekUp)  Champion Chompers, Super Stinkers and Other Poems by Extraordinary Animals. Linda Ashman. Illus. by Aparna Varma. (2023). Kids Can. A call for animal contestants becomes a guessing game to identify who takes first place. Each recto page features a mask poem and a part of the animal’s body. A page turn reveals the name, a portrait, and a paragraph of facts about the winner. Among the 18 winning contestants are peregrine falcon for fastest flyer, North American beaver for best engineer, and Etruscan shrew for smallest mammal. (protecting endangered animals, about measurements, about mask poems, recommended reading, glossary) (PreK Up)  Creep, Leap, Crunch!: A Food Chain Story. Jody Jensen Shaeffer. Illus. by Christopher Silas Neal. (2023). Knopf. In this cumulative story, grass is nibbled by a cricket that is eaten by a brown deer mouse and so on up a simple food chain of consumers: a red milk snake, red hawk, red fox, and black bear. But some days, each animal alludes its predator, and the story ends with the bear munching “flowers and seeds … / …all that she needs,” and they all live to forage another day. (illustrated glossary) (PreK-Gr 2)  Evergreen. Matthew Cordell. (2023). Feiwel and Friends. Evergreen, a young squirrel who lacks courage, must conquer her fears when she must journey alone through Buckthorn Forest to deliver an empty acorn full of her mother’s healing soup to sick Granny Oak. Along the way, Evergreen hears strange noises, makes some friends, eludes some enemies, and almost loses the soup several times before delivering it safely to Granny Oak. Cordell’s animal fantasy with a lively text and detailed, ink-and-watercolor illustrations, organized in six parts during which Evergreen’s I-can-do-it confidence grows, has a surprise ending. (PreK Up)  Friend of Numbers: The Life of Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. Priya Narayanan. Illus. by Satwik Gade. (2023). Eerdmans. Growing up in southern India, Srinivasa Iyengar Ramanujan (1887-1920) was observant, full of questions, and fascinated with numbers. “They made patterns only he could see.” Traveling to England in 1914 to study mathematics under Professor Godfrey Hardy at Cambridge University, Ramanujan continued to discover more and more complex numerical patterns and gained worldwide recognition as a mathematical genius. (author’s note, patterns in numbers, sample problems, glossary) (PreK Up)  Friends Beyond Measure: A Story Told with Infographics. Lalena Fisher. (2023). Harper. Narrator Ana tells about becoming best friends with Harwin on the first day they meet and doing everything together—until Harwin reveals that her family is moving far away, and they must make plans for how to remain best friends forever. Young readers will delight in poring over the charts, diagrams, pictograms, maps, and other infographics in Fisher’s humorously detailed cartoon-like illustrations. (glossary of infographics with activities) (PreK Up)  Hippos Remain Calm. Sandra Boynton. (2023) Boynton Bookworks. “Two fine hippos, / cozy at home, // take turns reciting / a morning-time poem” from The Big Book of Hippoetry. They calmly face some surprises during the day including a visit with one lonely friend that turns into a night of partying with a herd of hippos before they head home at dawn to snooze all morning long. For a fun read-aloud session, pair this rhyming picture book with Boynton’s first book, Hippos Go Berserk! (1977). (PreS Up)  My Head Has a Bellyache: And More Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups (Mischievous Nonsense #2). Chris Harris. Illus. by Andrea Tsurumi. (2023). Little, Brown. From front cover to back cover, this companion to I’m Just Not Good at Rhyming (2017) is chock full of nonsense including silly rhymes, concrete poems, haiku, limericks, fractured fables, and other forms of creative wordplay. Harris’s energetic, snarky, and clever words spill across page after page with occasional hilarious footnotes, accompanied by Tsurumi’s cartoon-like illustrations, for a laugh-until-your-belly-hurts reading experience for all. (glossary, indices by title and subject) (PreK Up)  My Incredible India. Jasbinder Bilan. Illus. by Nina Chakrabarti. (2023). Candlewick. When she visits Nanijee (her grandmother), Thara takes one memento from an old trunk and hears a story of Nanijee’s travels all over India. Each entry in My Incredible India features a boxed section about the special object from the trunk (for example, a small metal tuk-tuk or a model of the Taj Mahal), where it came from, brief paragraphs of related facts, and numerous colorful illustrations with captions. (time line, biographical note on Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Indian flag, index, resources) (Gr 3-5)  Penny & Pip. Candace Fleming. Illus. by Eric Rohmann. (2023). Caitlyn Dlouhy. On a class visit to the natural history museum, Penny sees a baby dinosaur hatching from an egg in a corner of a dinosaur exhibit, and the dinosaur sees Penny and follows her around the museum. In the lunchroom, he eats some of her cheese crackers, burps, and squeaks “Pip, pip.” In the Dinosaur Hall full of ancient skeletons, Penny realizes Pip is all alone and devises a clever plan to take him home with her and “into the future . . . together.” (PreK-Gr 2)  Robot, Unicorn, Queen: Poems for You and Me. Shannon Bramer. Illus. by Irene Luxbacher. (2023). Groundwood. Bramer’s new poetry collection, a companion to Climbing Shadows: Poems for Children (2019), explores various childhood experiences. Some of the 22 poems are playful and silly while others delve into thoughts and feelings from a child’s point of view. Luxbacher embellishes each poem with a stunning illustration created with watercolor, gouache, pencil, found paper, and digital collage. (author’s note) (PreK Up)  A Spider Named Itsy. Steve Light. (2023). Candlewick. With a spare, rhythmic text and playful ink-and-watercolor illustrations, Light elaborates on “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” nursery rhyme. On the fateful day after a tree limb fell and destroyed his web on a watering can, Itsy sets out to construct a new web under the gutter of a house and meets some other insects ascending the crooked waterspout. A heavy rain washes them back down but after the sun comes out, they all climb the spout again, and the story ends with “New web home, newfound friends.” (PreS Up)  The Stars and Other Stories (Bear & Bird #2). Jarvis. (2023). Candlewick. In four short stories, unlikely best friends Bear and Bird quarrel over something silly and decide to get new best friends, have a surprise go awry, nearly lose each other, and discover that looking up at the stars with your “bestest” of friends is perfect. Jarvis’s crayon-like illustrations featuring these two charming characters add warmth and humor to the stories in this series for newly independent readers about the ups and downs of an enduring friendship. (PreK-Gr 2)  Stone Age Beasts. Ben Lerwill. Illus. by Grahame Baker-Smith. (2023). Candlewick. Following an introduction to the Stone Age, which started nearly three million years ago, Lerwill and Baker-Smith provide profiles of the wooly mammoth, elephant bird, Steller’s sea cow, and 15 other majestic animals that lived alongside humans then. Each double-spread entry includes a spectacular portrait and introductory paragraphs written in a conversational tone, smaller text boxes of other interesting facts, and a side bar with scientific name, weight, date of extinction, range (with map), and a comparison of its size to that of an adult human. (glossary) (Gr 3 Up)  The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread (Deluxe Anniversary Edition). Kate DiCamillo. Illus. by Timothy Basil Ering. (2023). Candlewick. This 20th anniversary edition of The Tale of Despereaux includes a new short story, “The Tapestry at Norendy,” the perfect link between DiCamillo’s Newbery Medal-winning fanciful, adventurous tale about a heroic small mouse named Despereaux Tilling and The Norendy Tales, her new series of original fairy tales. The first book in the planned trilogy, The Puppets of Spelhhorst, was published in 2023; book two, The Hotel Balzaar, will be published in October 2024. (Gr 3-5)  Too Small Tola Gets Tough (Too Small Tola #3). Atinuke. Illus. by Onyinye Iwu. (2023). Chronicle. Too Small Tola, who lives with Grandmommy and her older siblings, Moji and Dapo, in “a run-down block of apartments in the megacity of Lagos, in the country of Nigeria,” is worried when even her beloved megacity cannot fight off the deadly virus plaguing the world and goes into lockdown. In three episodic stories, Tola proves that she is small but mighty, as well as clever and resourceful, when she takes on her family’s economic challenges of surviving the pandemic. (PreK Up)  We Are Human Animals. Rosie Haine. (2023). Eerdmans. With a spare text and stunning double-spread illustrations, Haine introduces young readers to a family of Upper Paleolithic hunter-gathers living in what is now France about 25,000 years ago when planet Earth was very different. This accessible story of our Stone Age ancestors ends on a thought-provoking note: “This was tens of thousands of years ago, // The world is very different now, but . . . // We are still human animals.” (author’s note) (PreK Up)  What Rosa Brought. Jacob Sager Weinstein. Illus. by Eliza Wheeler. (2023). Katherine Tegen. Young Rosa lived in Vienna, being cared for by Grandma, while her parents worked in the family’s grocery store. “Then the Nazis, came, and things changed.” With rising anti-Semitism making life dangerous for Jews and new rules that prohibit them from owning stores making survival difficult, the family eventually obtains three visas to America. Rosa wonders what she will bring with her, until Grandma, who will not be going, says Rosa will be taking her love with her. “And that’s what Rosa brought.” (authors note, photographs) (PreK Up) Nancy Brashear is Professor Emeritus of English from Azusa Pacific University, in Azusa, California. Carolyn Angus is former Director of the George G. Stone Center for Children’s Books, Claremont Graduate University, in Claremont, California.
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