The Heart of Our Home

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.)