The interconnections between self and the universe star in this poetic, science-based work. Making eloquent links (“Before you were here,/ you were waiting...// everywhere”), Westerfeld, making his picture book debut, references the human body’s basis in other entities. Musing quatrains consider how “you” were “once the sunshine,” as well as rain, minerals, and “every living thing.” Using ink, watercolor, and gouache, Lanan’s light-filled renderings follow caregivers and a child across the seasons, on alternating spreads envisioning a developing fetus alongside elements of nature (“Our world is mostly sea, and you are mostly water”). The often metaphorical phrases build to a close that centers empowerment and belonging in a welcoming world. Back matter explores the text’s scientific basis. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 09/06/2024 | Details & Permalink

Sibling creators Seacrest and Seacrest Leach spotlight daydreaming in this fantasy-forward double author debut. Savvy opening lines enthusiastically instruct on how to be a “make-believer” (“Start by daydreaming about your favorite things”). Affirming text further conveys a sense of limitlessness, suggesting ways to envision new people, places, and experiences, and hinting that some visualizations can “start looking less like dreams and more like something truly real.” Lui liberally scatters repeating shapes (petals, stars) across luminous, soft-edged vistas that call attention to children’s extraordinary capacity for individual and collective imagination, accentuating the connection and magic that arises from make-believe. Human characters are portrayed with various abilities and skin tones. An authors’ note concludes. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 09/06/2024 | Details & Permalink

In a stirring picture book centering friendship, Sanders highlights the reassuring sentiments and moments that can exist between contrasting ideas. After one child moves house, a growing relationship forms with a new neighborhood playmate: “Between strangers and friends.../ ‘Hello.’ ” Figueroa’s visual storytelling overlays smudgy coloring with scratchy textures as the duo’s interactions provide opportunity for text to encourage empathy (“Between ‘What?’ and understanding.../ Listening”), sharing (“Between mine and yours.../ Ours”), and more. As the children romp across green fields amid skies and trees washed in varied shades of pink, they engage in play, occasionally accompanied by round monster-like beings. Turning to inky, starry nighttime scenes, the book concludes by gesturing toward the infinite well of experiences and understanding to be found in companionship, closing out a moving picture of bonds that can connect. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. (Dec.)

Reviewed on 09/06/2024 | Details & Permalink

In a picture book inspired by Wambach’s Wolfpack, for adults, the U.S. soccer Olympic gold medalist offers lively affirmations for “Little Wolf”s. Upbeat second-person text enjoins readers to embrace their innate powers, sandwiching key “Wolfpack Way” tenets. Acknowledging life challenges, direct language emphasizes both individuality and collaboration while urging perseverance, pride, and bravery. Rahmalia’s creamy, clean-lined digital renderings showcase realistic school-day moments—a bus ride, art class, more—and loosely follow a blonde-haired child sporting a backward rainbow cap that reads, “We Can Do Hard Things.” Depictions include children of various abilities and skin tones. Back matter summarizes the Wolfpack Way. Ages 3–6. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 09/06/2024 | Details & Permalink

“We sing, learn, sign! We stim, dance, crawl!/ Grown-ups, siblings, cousins, all having a ball.” Intersectionally diverse characters are shown interacting throughout this buoyant picture book that spotlights how, “with love and adaptation... we play!” Slice and Cupp utilize rhyming couplets on each spread to show play in inter-abled relationships: on one page, a child using leg braces frolics with another wearing an eye patch; elsewhere, a child playing in nature decorates an adult’s cane. A spread noting that “some days bodies are not much fun./ They hurt and ache—can’t jump or run” attends an image of a duo snuggled up and reading in a chair. Harren’s realistic digital art shows characters of various body types and skin tones using apparatuses for breathing and communication as well as mobility aids, PPE, and more, expanding the text into an inclusively populated world in which play is accessible for all. Learning guides for kids and adults conclude. Ages 3–7. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 09/06/2024 | Details & Permalink

Active grandmother Halmoni interrupts her busy schedule to spend time with her grandchild in this humorous culinary mystery. When Halmoni—a lively “super senior”—arrives to make special kimchi, her grandchild Keo believes that she actually “cared about other things, not me.” After telling Keo “you are my treasure,” she doesn’t seem to make kimchi but instead buys and washes out a giant clay jar, then digs an enormous hole in the backyard, which Keo fears is meant to be Halmoni’s grave. One evening, the whole family slices and seasons a hundred heads of cabbage, but Halmoni’s gone the next day—and so are the kimchi ingredients. Choi’s imaginative Keo offers a well-reasoned foil to the actions of “slippery, spicy, and tingly as kimchi” Halmoni, while acrylic and colored pencil illustrations, finished digitally, depict the family activities in warm hues and imagined fantastical events in blue-green tones. Characters cue as Korean. Includes a pronunciation guide, author’s note, and more about kimchi. Ages 5–9. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 09/06/2024 | Details & Permalink

Two Latinx-cued siblings attempting to follow a family empanada recipe worry that they’re missing a key ingredient in this tender intergenerational story. After Grandma Monona’s death, young Sebi and Star miss their world-traveling grandmother. But “Mami misses Monona the most.” For Mami’s birthday—her first without Monona—the siblings plan to make empanadas, just like their grandmother did each year. The children contemplate the “secret ingredient” on Monona’s recipe card, shopping with Papi at the market. There, they tell their plans to Doña Rita, who explains how each country has its own version of the food—“little pockets filled with love and a taste from home.” Méndez sensitively emphasizes legacy alongside loss: the children pick flowers from the pots Monona planted, play her favorite song while cooking, and compare their empanada-crimping styles to hers. Palacios’s warm-hued illustrations—mustard yellow, avocado green, and terra cotta—portray cozy comfort throughout this story about love folded into a family’s favorite dish. An empanada recipe concludes. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 09/06/2024 | Details & Permalink

A child creatively honors two special fall holidays—the Mid-Autumn Festival and Sukkot—in this uplifting story that twines two cultural practices. As the leaves turn “vivid red, just like my name, Ruby,” the child narrator prepares for both celebrations. Accompanying Nainai to the Chinese market, Ruby helps to buy red chrysanthemums, a persimmon (“round like the moon”), and a garden lantern in the shape of a rabbit. At the Jewish grocer, Ruby and Zayde purchase a lulav and etrog (“bright like the stars”), plus dates and figs. Back at home, the family builds a backyard sukkah and hangs homemade paper lanterns from its evergreen-branch roof. Still, Ruby feels that something is missing, and enlists both Nainai and Zayde to help create a food that honors both observances. Matula and Lyons describe the autumnal events and interpersonal relationships in affectionate prose, and Subisak’s digital, sumi ink, Japanese watercolor, and Chinese brush and pastel images employ transparent washes for scenes of daylight celebration, deepening to shadowy moments of invocation under a full moon. Creators’ notes, more about the holidays, and a recipe conclude. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 09/06/2024 | Details & Permalink

In this bustling domestic work celebrating a ritual rooted in maternal appreciation, a girl of Korean heritage—excited to eat a special soup on her special day—learns about the food’s deeper cultural meaning. On the morning of her birthday, young Maia notices “a delicious smell brewing in the kitchen.” Her umma explains it’s miyeok guk, often called birthday soup because it’s eaten by new mothers for its vitamins and nutrition. And then, “every year on their birthdays, those children eat miyeok guk to honor their mothers.” With recipe-level granularity, conversational lines take readers through each step as Maia helps her family with the preparation, reflecting that “the love she puts into the soup is what makes it special,” and decides what to serve friends at her party. Chang insightfully conveys a child’s experience of learning to take part in an established Korean custom, and steamy swirls throughout Kim’s digital pink, purple, and yellow palette tie together generations strengthened by birthday soup. A glossary, author’s note, and recipes conclude. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)

Correction: The text of this review has been updated for clarity.

Reviewed on 09/06/2024 | Details & Permalink

Gentle narration and painterly illustrations illuminate the making of a “kneaded and needed” dietary staple across generations in this homey picture book. Grandmother Nana, visiting the child narrator, is going to “show me, her Little Pickle, how to bake our special family bread.” Once the pair starts working in the kitchen, unadorned text juxtaposes each contemporary step with one from a previous generation. As the duo gather store-bought ingredients and preheat the electric oven, Nana explains how “her nana had to collect eggs from the chicken coop” and fuel the wood-burning stove. The chiaroscuro of Soman’s pen-and-ink and watercolor images contrasts evenly lit situations with theatrically lit, darker-toned flashbacks, communicating how, as Detlefsen writes, amid hardships (the Great Depression, Covid lockdowns), “still there was bread.” Protagonists are portrayed with pale skin, while background characters appear with various skin tones. An author’s note and recipe conclude. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 09/06/2024 | Details & Permalink