Laura Gehl, illus. by Maria Mola. Kar-Ben, $17.99 (24p) ISBN 978-1-5124-2087-6
Lila, a little koala, sees how her older sisters get to show off their eucalyptus-themed Shabbat specialties (Rachel makes eucalyptus oil candles, Naomi makes eucalyptus wine) and yearns to be part of the preparations. But as Mommy gently but firmly
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Laura Gehl, illus. by Olga and Aleksey Ivanov. Albert Whitman, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8075-7171-2
Buoyed by gentle humor, this first slice-of-life installment of the Ruby Celebrates! series opens with the eponymous protagonist and her cousins picking far too many apples to solely dip in honey or to bake a single apple cake. In the Ivanovs’...
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Laura Gehl, illus. by Joyce Wan. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-374-30122-4
What’s the only thing more adorable than a Joyce Wan character? A Joyce Wan character in a Halloween costume. In this sequel to Peep and Egg: I’m Not Hatching, Egg might have lost his shell, but he hasn’t lost his negative attitude. His sibling,...
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Laura Gehl, illus. by Christopher Weyant. Viking, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-425-28824-5
A guy walks into a pillow store, and from there, Gehl and Weyant’s story becomes increasingly silly and delightful. The gentleman—a mustachioed, bespectacled, mild-mannered fellow who lives alone—believes he is making three perfectly normal...
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Laura Gehl, illus. by Sarah Goodreau. Kar-Ben, $17.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4677-2199-8
Gehl uses the framework of Aesop’s well-known fable to give readers a brief overview of some of Israel’s cultural and topographical highlights. After visiting the beach, the opera, and musuems, Hare and Tortoise stage a race to the Dead Sea. While...
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Laura Gehl, illus. by Amy Adele. Kar-Ben, $17.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4677-1188-3
The Haggadah declares, “Let all who are hungry come and eat,” and the Sheep family takes that admonition to heart. Each time Mama, Papa, Hannah, and little Noah try to get on with their seder, relatives keep showing up: “Uncle Sol came in his jeep,/
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Laura Gehl, illus. by Timothy Banks. Capstone, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-68446-427-2
Young Leif the Viking is a classic outlier: “The other Vikings liked to battle and brawl,” writes Gehl (Except When They Don’t), “Leif didn’t.” Leif particularly loves wandering the fjords with his hiking stick (“It was beautiful. It was quiet. It...
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Laura Gehl, illus. by Joshua Heinsz. Little Bee, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4998-0804-9
There’s no one way to be a person, Gehl and Heinsz suggest in this story about eschewing gender stereotypes. In bubbly art, children are seen first engaging in traditionally gendered activities: “Girls like pom-poms,/ pink, and jewels./ Boys like...
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Laura Gehl, illus. by MacKenzie Haley. Page Street Kids, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-62414-940-5
This sweet tale of three BFFs sharing secrets at a birthday sleepover on a night with a full moon takes on a bit of a Halloween vibe. Willa is eager to attend her very first sleepover, where she’ll join her fellow ninja enthusiasts—and brave Ninja...
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Laura Gehl, illus. by Yas Imamura. Beach Lane, $19.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-6659-0507-7
Ellie the Elevator, whose attentive face is formed by simply rendered architectural details, lovingly serves all of the residents who live in her building—a metropolitan microcosm that Imamura (Love in the Library) depicts with stylishly smudgy,...
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Laura Gehl, illus. by Andrea Zuill. Random House Studio, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-593-37625-6
Donut wants to fly, but actually doing so is another matter entirely: despite valiant efforts and a supportive forest friend group, the unicorn remains stubbornly earthbound. Gehl (The Hiking Viking) chronicles these attempts through brief rhyming...
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Laura Gehl, illus. by Sonia Sánchez. S&S/Wiseman, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-66591-559-5
Gehl’s joyous couplets exalt a day of snowy fun, using the titular refrain as springboard. From the “moment you wake” and “stillness/ before the first flake,” energetic lines laud snow’s myriad qualities while describing the play it allows (“Snow is
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Laura Gehl, illus. by Stephanie Roth Sisson. Astra, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-66260-208-5
Gehl and Roth Sisson offer a winning library portrait in this evenhanded picture book with rough-edged, digitally colored pencil-drawn illustrations. Book lover Orson’s favorite places are quiet spots, so the child initially struggles to adapt when...
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Laura Gehl, illus. by Joyce Wan. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-374-30121-7
A chick named Peep can’t wait for her sibling to hatch, but Egg has plenty of reasons to stay in his shell. Peep tries to tempt Egg with visions of everything they’ll do together, but splashing in puddles is “too wet,” and playing hide and seek with
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Laura Gehl, illus. by Tom Lichtenheld. S&S/Beach Lane, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4424-5336-4
Though nominally about underwear, always an attention getter, Gehl’s debut offers lessons in counting and cooperation. In each example, the number of desirable items (“FIVE flat mats”) is too few for the animals that want them (“SIX fat cats”), and...
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Laura Gehl, illus. by Sarah Horne. Carolrhoda, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-5124-3130-8
Though Ana had asked her Abuela Lola for amusement park tickets for her birthday, she receives a chicken instead. Disappointed but good-natured, Ana reasons that the fowl is a better gift than socks or underwear—and she does like scrambled eggs. But
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