Leitch (Dinos Driving) explores how resentment can impact one’s relationships in this joyful ode to sports and the confidence and connections they can cultivate. Sports mean everything to Canadian sixth grader Liam, whose late grandfather—a soccer legend who played on the national team—is Liam’s hero. Participating in athletics also helps Liam decompress from the emotional stress of helping his younger sister Allie navigate a recent diabetes diagnosis. With his best friend Marcus, Liam dreams of attending Camp Jackman, an elite summer program for promising athletes. But when, following tryouts for the Cedar Glade town baseball team, Marcus is accepted while Liam is turned away, the two begin to drift apart, especially after Marcus befriends athletic prankster Jayson. Without baseball, Liam worries that his camp application won’t be impressive enough for admission. Desperate for a way to make himself stand out—and to win back Marcus’s friendship—Liam searches for a new sport to excel in. Earnest first-person narration conveys Liam’s tenacity, drive, and can-do attitude, even as he struggles to stay positive while managing feelings of disappointment, jealousy, and overwhelm. Protagonists cue as white. Ages 8–12. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

A tween receives a second chance to commune with his late father in this heartfelt time travel tale with Back to the Future flair. Mexican American 12-year-old Quetzalcóatl Castillo Anguiano—who goes by Queso—has felt alone since his dad’s death two years ago. One night, after wishing to see him again, Queso awakens to find that he’s been transported from present-day to 1985 Santa Ana, where he encounters his father, Pancho, age 12, as well as younger versions of his own grand- parents, who shelter Queso as a presumed runaway. As Queso attempts to acclimate to the technology, fashion, and culture of his dad’s youth, the two become fast friends. Queso also takes advantage of opportunities to subtly influence Pancho’s life, including by helping him navigate his undiagnosed ADHD and overcome academic challenges. Though Queso relishes this time to better understand and appreciate his family history (and learn Pancho’s legendary foosball techniques), he must return to his own era, even if it means losing his best friend all over again. Upbeat first-person narration enlivens the cross-temporal culture clash as Cisneros (Falling Short) sharply juxtaposes contemporary sensibilities regarding mental health, queer resources, race, and more with the 1980s backdrop. It’s a gentle and thoughtful story brimming with familial love. Ages 8–12. Agent: Deborah Warren, East West Literary. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

Two creatures seek to preserve their cultures’ peace in this latest worldbuilding extravaganza from Ponti (Meeselphe), whose oversize landscape format and signature-style visuals invite total storytelling surrender. On islands that float in the Longo River live the Oolongs and the Kukichas, trading peoples who resemble bear-dog hybrids and whose peaceful lives are introduced in almost identical extended narratives. In each culture, “grandparents can, after they die, come back to life as a future grandchild,” specifying the gender they’d like to be assigned upon their rebirth. When protagonists Lu Cha, an Oolong girl raised as a boy, and Ali Roo, a Kukicha boy raised as a girl, meet, they each agree that life is both charming and chock-full. Their quietude shatters, however, when a huge, crablike monster arrives, looming across the spreads and freezing the parents into popsicle form. The creature demands “longest-life lixirs for never-dying... every meal with a dozen desserts and... to be bossless and rulefree,” and it’s up to Lu Cha and Ali Roo to maintain their senses of self, whip up the elixir, and defeat the creature. Brimming with the creator’s signature and seemingly inexhaustible love for invented language and lush surrealism, it’s a dreamlike, richly rendered work that favors a collaborative approach to life. Ages 5–9. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

In a values-driven picture book debut from news correspondent Hall (Saved, for adults), a young hedgehog plans for a solo adventure in his idyllic neighborhood—but not before his reporter dad rehashes three rules: “don’t talk to strangers, don’t lose my bag, and never ever cross the river alone.” But when Hedgehog, arriving at the river’s edge, spies a baby owl fallen from her nest on the other side, and realizes that a hungry bear has seen her, he gets creative to help out while following the guidelines. Hedgehog creates a sign that communicates across the water body, then makes more, shouting “Read all about it!” while delivering them. When Dad returns, a surprise emphasizes the broader impact of the young animal’s care. In a story jam-packed with moving parts, the work lands its core message of personal responsibility: “You told the truth and you helped when it was needed,” Dad says. Watercolor and ink illustrations by Motzo (365 Cool Ways to Remember Stuff) feature light-as-air brushwork, giving the eager-eyed characters warmth and movement. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

“Introducing A.W.E.—/ an Awesome/ Wondrous/ Empowering emotion,” Stiefel and Gal (The Tower of Life) reteam to explore the nature of transcendent experiences. Awe, readers learn, isn’t the aww of encountering cute kittens but the emotional and physical experience that occurs “when chills travel down your spine,/ and sudden tears surprise your eyes.” Digitally assembled illustrations created from lush, radiant layers of pencil, ink, and watercolor capture awe in myriad manifestations. This includes small iterations, such as the delicate beauty of a butterfly, and expansive ones, epitomized by a gorgeous double gatefold that presents the Grand Canyon as a feast of radiant orange and pink hues. But awe, this lushly illustrated picture book hints, is also about the moments humans create for each other: acts of kindness shared, and “mystical, lyrical, spiritual” rituals followed. Awe, the creators suggest, exists wherever one is open to experiencing it in this reminder that wonder awaits those who pause to notice. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Creators’ notes and more about the subject conclude. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Miranda Paul, Aevitas Creative Management. Illustrator’s agent: Kelly Pelsue, Morgan Gaynin. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

In the first half of this interpersonally interested picture book from Marino (I Love You, Little Horse), six animals of varying sizes encounter one another, focusing on what they have in common. A mule and rabbit bond over their long ears, the rabbit connects with a beaver around their teeth, and so on. “We are all similar in some ways,” Fox observes. When Bear arrives, the composition style, single-plane gouache landscapes sprinkled with wispy ferns and soft grasses, breaks into a single, almost startling close-up of Bear’s face. Similar he is not, as the other animals, gathered together on one side of the spread, point out, and Bear sadly wanders off, head down, to “find someone like him.” Seeing the impact of their insistence on comparison, the animals suddenly realize that they, too, are different from one another. While Mule and Rabbit may share long ears, Mule’s hooves “are nothing like Rabbit’s soft paws.” Bear, the animals at last acknowledge, has many wonderful qualities that make him a singular member of the group. Connection doesn’t require similarity, slyly suggests this telling about finding belonging. Ages 3–7. Agent: Deborah Warren, East West Literary. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

Caldecott Honoree Washington (Choosing Brave) places a wooden table at the heart of a Black family’s life in this affectionate solo debut. Warm text offers an accounting of the relations’ rhythms as the table hosts breakfasts, after-school game time, dinners of Mom’s pot roast, and Friday fish fries, as well as milestone celebrations and hands-on projects. In addition to these events, the young narrator reflects that it’s where “I do my best thinking,” where the family has serious talks, and where they experience sadness, too (“Sometimes we cry here,/ but there’s always space for someone/ to join and give us comfort”). And the surface further fosters communal and spiritual connection through hosted company, holiday rituals, and intergenerational storytelling. Images incorporate finely cut paper and colored tissue, enhancing this emotionally and visually layered celebration of connection, culture, and family that focuses on the ways a stalwart object can reinforce engagement and community in the everyday. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 3–6. Agent: Adriana Dominguez, Aevitas Creative Management. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

In this moving picture book, Wallace and Turk limn the life story of artist and entrepreneur Marie Procai (1897–1994), focusing on her devotion to her culture’s credo that “as long as pysanky are decorated, there will be good in the world.” As a child in a Ukrainian village, Procai learns from her grandmother the Easter tradition of creating natural dyes for intricately decorating eggs to express “a story, a wish, a prayer, a gift.” Arriving in the U.S. in 1911, she settles in a Ukrainian community in Minneapolis and carries on the craft, eventually introducing and teaching it to expanding audiences. Melodic prose foregrounds Procai’s tender relationship with her grandmother, love of her native land, and successful endeavors in globally promoting pysanky and other crafts. Grounded in Ukraine’s national colors of yellow and blue, gouache, colored pencil, and resist illustrations are boldly patterned and bright, teaming with the rich narrative to create an immersive tribute to a figure and a traditional art form. Extensive back matter includes an author’s note. Ages 7–10. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Learning to appreciate impermanence is the delicate takeaway of Goldsaito and Imamura’s conceptual intergenerational tale. In the cold of early spring, young Yuna climbs a gnarled cherry tree and asks her grandmother when it will bloom. Hībāchan answers, “We wait for so long for the blossoms to appear, but then they fall so quickly. Mono-no-aware, ne?” The phrase, Yuna learns, is a Japanese expression celebrating fleeting loveliness: the blossoms “become more beautiful because you know they will soon be gone.” It’s a concept the child struggles to grasp until the cherry tree blooms during the spring when Hībāchan passes, the wind carrying away the blossoms until only one remains. Decisive-feeling gouache and watercolor brushwork is delightfully tactile, the windblown grasses and cherry blossom explosions conveying nature through texture and movement in a thoughtful picture book that considers multiple seasons of ephemerality. An author’s note concludes. Ages 6–8. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Per an opening note, Boswell invites readers to “see the glory and grace of King Jesus as never before” in this earnest exploration of the lead-up to Easter. On each spread, rhyming poems introduce the events and significance of Holy Week’s days, accompanied by Perez Garcia’s earth- and jewel-toned Biblical scenes. Ranging from Palm Sunday (“Jesus rode/ Upon a donkey seated;/ The humble Christ came into town/ With palms and praises greeted”) to Holy Tuesday (“People asked/ About God’s word and rules./ So Jesus answered and he used/ Great stories as his tools”) and through Resurrection Sunday, accessible lines weave the days into a cohesive work across this volume designed for holiday sharing. With their velvety texture, gouache and digitally finished images simultaneously create a visual journey, skillfully capturing a spectrum of candle light, shadow, and sunrise. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. More about each day and a note to parents conclude. Ages 5–10. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink