Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors
World-renowned humanitarian and chef José Andrés's love of cooking started as a boy in Spain cooking paella for family over an open fire. As he grew older, attended cooking school, and traveled the world, he dreamed of the stories he could tell with food. While feeding sailors on a famous Spanish Navy ship, José wished that everyone everywhere had enough food to eat.
A handful of new picture books feature characters and stories from popular books for older kids, introducing these worlds to younger readers!
Aaron Becker once again proves how powerful wordless picture books can be. The Last Zookeeper tells the story of Noa, the last robot of a crew of seawall construction team, as he works to save abandoned animals at a flooding zoo. Full of imaginative ingenuity, Noa builds a boat and sails away into the horizon with the animals.
Will he be successful in saving them all? Will they simply survive, or is there something wonderful awaiting them? Be sure to read this gorgeous and heartwarming story to find out!
This picture book is a black, white, and neon pink look at a classroom skeleton named John who retires and moves to the country to live with Grams and Gramps in a cottage in the woods. Grams and Gramps have lived in this cottage for a long time, and it is described as a little bit crooked and a little bit under the weather. This perfectly describes what my fixer-upper home is like, with an inspired twist on words. John the Skeleton is a book in translation, and as such, it opens the reader to concepts, words, and illustrations that have a distinct Northern European flair. Gramp
This gorgeously illustrated nonfiction picture book shows the unique ecosystem of a whale fall. A massive blue whale dies, and her decomposing body nourishes various marine life, from scavengers to microorganisms, on the ocean floor over more than a century. Jason Chin’s watercolors beautifully depict the process in all its phases.
Joy comes in many forms in The Yellow Bus by Loren Long. We see the new yellow school bus carrying children from home to school. “And they filled her with joy.” Then, the bus has a new life driving older riders to the library and to country parks. They, too, “filled her with joy.” The illustrations show the sunshine yellow of the bus and everything in and around the bus drenched in color. Beyond these bright colors, the rest of the page is muted and in greyscale. This makes the yellow bus always pop off the page.
Monday is the best day of the week (according to Mabel).
Long before the days of cellphones and food delivery apps, demae (cycling deliverymen) used bicycles and amazing acrobatic balancing skills to deliver trays of steaming soba (buckwheat) noodles to hungry residents of Tokyo. The neighborhood kids all wonder, how do they manage those tottering towers of tasty food and stacks of breakable dishes while steering through the crowded streets with one hand on the handlebars? What would happen if the kids tried that too?
Nonfiction author Melissa Stewart delivers another great book, highlighting some of the mini-est mammals on earth.
This gorgeous books tells the story of a young girl who wakes up before the sun for a chance to ride with her Daddy, just the two of them. After collecting apple slices from Abuelita, they are out the door before the sun is up, feeding and grooming the horses under a starry sky. Our protagonist usually rides after school, but today is special because she gets to ride through the streets, like a cowboy, like her Daddy. As the sky starts to lighten, they ride past houses with darkened windows, past the panadería with layered cakes in the window, waving at the few cars that drive by.
Erin Entrada Kelly’s second Newbery win has her and her fans (old and new) jumping for joy!
A young girl gains courage and confidence from her friendly pup in Just Like Millie by Lauren Castillo (Candlewick Press, 2024). The quiet protagonist is reluctant to leave the cozy and safe apartment she shares with her mom. The big city feels too big and too full of people. Her mom encourages her to go to the park, meet new neighbors, and visit a storytime. These all feel hard and scary. Mid-story we see the mom and daughter visit an animal shelter and choose a small pup named Millie.
Neurodiverse thirteen-year-old Frankie has more than her share of challenges. She is learning to cope with multiple issues and manage her impulses. Meanwhile, Frankie’s twin sister, Tess, is handling the challenges of having a neurodiverse sibling.
The six realistic stories in this slim collection follow 10-year-old twins Ash and Mel and their younger brother Calvin. With carefully chosen and decodable words, this is a great option for both beginning readers and emerging readers looking to hone their skills. A list of content words (words that enhance the story but may not yet be decodable by all readers) is included at the beginning, and rich vocabulary words are bolded and defined in the text. And did I mention that the stories are fun and relatable?
What do you get when you combine a snuggle and a tickle? That’s a snickle! And what do you get when you read Give Me a Snickle! by Alisha Sevigny? Just about the best feeling ever and the cutest board book around! This beautiful book pairs colorful photographs of babies and toddlers being cuddled by their loved ones with silly, rhyming, made-up words that describe different kinds of snuggles. Give Me A Snickle! is gorgeous and fun and captures the joy of snuggling. It is sure to delight little ones, ages 0-3, and their caregivers.
I've been thinking a lot about gratitude and family so I'm really excited to share two new picture books especially for young readers ages 4-8 that combine these concepts to beautifully illustrate one of the oldest and most human arts of all: fixing something precious with the help of someone who loves you.
