Lyrically told and dimensionally visualized in textural collage illustrations, Kelkar’s tale—addressed to the world-famous Kohinoor Diamond—follows its centuries-long journey via two children who witness the historical events. In a vivid beginning scene, the children see “you sink in sandy sediment...// until a pair of brown hands/ sifts through the grains/ and you emerge.// Look at your shine!” The gem’s “shine” becomes a repeating motif of an object undimmed across a history of bloodshed and oppression. The diamond first sits “in the Peacock Throne,/ seven long years in the making” before being looted, passed around via violent acts, and eventually taken and reshaped “to become a symbol/ of the power of your colonizers.” Ending text considers the diamond’s being told it “should look different to belong” and its “being cut down, torn down,/ like a piece of property just passing hands,” hinting at a long human history extending beyond a single object—one that continues to shine. Extensive back matter includes “The Kohinoor Diamond: A History of Looting and Theft,” plus details about colonization and stolen artifacts. Ages 8–12. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/26/2024 | Details & Permalink

Williams, making her picture book debut with a personal-feeling work about her great-grandmother, traces how Japanese American activist Yuri Kochiyama (1921–2014) became a civil rights ally, documentarian, and organizer. Born in San Pedro, Calif., Kochiyama was 20 when the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor occurred, after which her father was violently questioned and her family was sent to an Arkansas incarceration camp. There, she met Nisei soldier Bill Kochiyama and began corresponding with him when he went off to war. When other soldiers mentioned feeling lonely, the letter-writing campaign she organized reached thousands. After the war, the couple moved to Harlem, where Yuri joined the civil rights movement (“She knew how it felt to be denied freedom because of the color of her skin”). She attended meetings and protests, housed anyone passing through, and wrote letters to political prisoners, per a lengthy author’s note, “making connections between movements and identifying common sources of oppression.” Airbrush-style illustrations incorporate images of letters and envelopes, emphasizing the power of Yuri’s correspondence in her activism. An author’s note concludes. Ages 5–9. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/26/2024 | Details & Permalink

Just right for young creatives, this optimistic biography of artist Corita Kent (1918–1986) shimmers with the figure’s energy and sense of possibility. The story launches with an art lesson explained by an unidentified narrator: “Sister Corita teaches us to SEE/ what everybody sees/ but doesn’t see.” Images depicting a group viewing the world through a “finder”—a piece of cardboard with a square removed—and experimenting with art in a classroom are interspersed with hand-rendered typography that quotes Kent’s insights (“The commonplace is not worthless, there is simply lots of it”). Yellows, pinks, and oranges dominate Sweet’s mixed-media collage illustrations, which pivot to b&w to portray a scene describing “injustice, inequality, prejudice, poverty” and back into color to convey Kent’s eventual renown and departure from the church. Combining pop art and protest, the result is a joyous nexus of experimentation and creative responsibility that details a “small and quiet” figure whose art remains “big and loud.” Creators’ notes, an artist timeline, and a list of quotation sources conclude. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/26/2024 | Details & Permalink

A family works to ensure their son can attend school in the U.S. in this fictionalized account of a 1970s educational battle to secure education for undocumented students in a Texas district. Alfredo Lopez (b. 1949) is looking forward to second grade, but on the first day of school, he does not find “migas for breakfast, fresh laces for his sneakers, or a sharp number two pencil.” Instead, he’s kept home, waving to peers each day. In a flashback, the text outlines the protagonist’s birth in Mexico, his parents’ departure to find work in Texas and his eventually joining them there, and, after a year of classes in the U.S., a new state law: “If you do not have proper documents,/ you are illegal./ So,/ You cannot go to school.” Without telling Lopez, his parents risk deportation for a court case claiming the law as unconstitutional. In Ortega’s digital illustrations, inviting schoolroom images give way to the subdued brown palette of an intimidating courtroom setting. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. More about those involved, an author’s note, and additional information conclude. Ages 4–8. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/26/2024 | Details & Permalink

In a carefully researched account, Huahn traces a Chinese girl’s attempts to attend school in 1884 California. As part of the only Chinese family in her San Francisco–area neighborhood, Mamie Tape (1876–1972) and her siblings grow up playing with neighborhood children, and “I thought school would be the same.” When she and her mother arrive, however, they are stopped by the principal and told, “Your kind is not welcome here.” Tape’s parents push against San Francisco’s policy excluding Chinese children from its schools. The saying “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” repeats as the family takes step after step to ensure Tape’s education. While the school board keeps institutions segregated, the family wins the right for Tape to attend classes—“because of the steps I’d taken, there was now one public school where we were welcome.” A subdued palette of brown, maroon, and slate blue dominates Chan’s sometimes-wooden digital illustrations, which focus on classroom scenes as well as the Tape family’s well-appointed home. An author’s note and bibliography conclude. Background characters read as white. Ages 4–8. (May)

Reviewed on 04/26/2024 | Details & Permalink

A “man of words” envisions a silent demonstration in this moving account of the Silent Protest Parade, a 1917 Manhattan civil rights march. In free verse that creates a rhythmic tug, a third-person narrative introduces lawyer and poet James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938), whose “Lift Every Voice and Sing” became known as the Black national anthem. Early lines explain that “white people had long hurt Black people,” and how increased attacks—further discussed in back matter—led Johnson to call for a march in New York City: “A big protest/ on the biggest avenue/ in the biggest city/ in the country,” featuring “just serious,/ somber/ silence.” Explaining that silence can sometimes be more powerful than words, he conceives an idea that results in a march of 10,000, including hundreds of silent children alongside adults, all protesting the hatred and violence. Crisp prose from Williams and Long is matched by Gordon’s high-contrast digital illustrations in browns, oranges, and yellows, which mimic chalk and monoprint textures. An authors’ note provides further context. Ages 4–8. (May)

Reviewed on 04/26/2024 | Details & Permalink

Acknowledging how “not seeing a person’s color erases a big part of who that person is,” Bolling and Pew highlight nearly two dozen nuanced tones in this intersectional work. An introductory page calls out how the misguided idea “I don’t see color” ignores “the experiences of people of color, their humanness, and the everyday effects of racism.” Free-verse text subsequently establishes that “color is history./ Color is our story./ I see color” before segueing into concise descriptions of activists, leaders, and allies. On one page, “SMOKY QUARTZ” introduces Elizabeth and Roy Peratrovich “writing the words that would change history,” while “WARM BEIGE” references Sue Ko Lee “striking against poor working conditions and demanding higher pay.” Frazier’s digital drawings lean into emotive portraiture, while backgrounds hint at the context behind the presented figures’ actions, throughout this high-level work that underscores “all that can be achieved together.” Authors’ notes and more about featured activists conclude. Secondary characters are portrayed in fanciful monochrome palettes. Ages 4–8. (June)

Reviewed on 04/26/2024 | Details & Permalink

In this activist picture book, a child living in San Diego’s Barrio Logan vividly narrates, in English and Spanish, a story of individual and collective strength. In their Chicane neighborhood, which now sits adjacent to a freeway and a junkyard, Elena and Mami encounter jacaranda blossoms, close-knit neighbors, and a tiendita, as well as vehicle fumes and noise. Elena is excited to see construction, believing it’s the start of a long-requested park, but the community soon learns that the workers are breaking ground on a planned police station. Defying “men in hard hats, and police with squawking radios,” the residents join hands and surround the equipment, and the bravery of a protesting neighbor inspires everyone to stand their ground—until their efforts, step by step, result in community-built Chicano Park. In a powerful work that celebrates community engagement at any age, Mora’s pencil, charcoal, watercolor, and digital illustrations contrast hard-edged concrete and metal with cloudlike jacaranda blossoms and vivid hand-rendered murals. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. A history of the park and an author’s note conclude. Ages 4–8. (June)

Reviewed on 04/26/2024 | Details & Permalink

“Welcome to Broad Street, in hot, stinky old London,” begins this enthralling 1854-set work focused on epidemiology, smartly pitched for younger audiences as an intriguing medical mystery. With urgent language and expressionistic drawings rendered in graphite and charcoal, and colored digitally, Hopkinson (Cinderella and a Mouse Called Fred) and Henderson (Trucks on Trucks) immerse readers in a close city neighborhood where deadly cholera has broken out: “Piles of horse dung line the streets. Sewage and human waste fill cesspools in yards and cellars.” Dr. John Snow (1813–1858) has long investigated cholera—he’s been “chasing it for years”and has a theory about the outbreak’s cause. That theory, however, flies in the face of prevailing medical and popular wisdom, which holds that cholera is airborne. In spreads that vividly evoke Snow’s relentless search across the city, he clearly becomes a “medical detective,” mapping cases and interviewing residents. When his work results in the handle being removed from the contaminated Broad Street pump, it’s a radiant, reverential moment, as befits “a milestone in science, a shining moment in the long fight against epidemics.” Back matter provides further context. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. Illustrator’s agent: Chad W. Beckerman, CAT Agency. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 04/26/2024 | Details & Permalink

Seventeen-year-old half white, half Filipino Lucia Elenemaria Cruz is grateful that her 18th birthday isn’t going to be a traditional debut. It clashes with her casual style, the complexities of planning such a thing make her anxious, and after falling out with her only friend, it’s not like she’d have anyone to invite. When, during her cousin’s debutante ball, Lucia learns that her mother has secretly started planning one for Lucia, she’s furious yet skeptical. Lucia is constantly comparing herself to her more affluent relatives, and her Filipino mother works two jobs. With little money to pay for the event, how will it even happen? Things change when Lucia learns that her beloved grandmother will be arriving from the Philippines for her debut. Lonely and unsure of herself, Lucia joins her school’s comedy club, hoping that writing stand-up material will help her express herself over this period of rapid change. Rogers (I’d Rather Burn Than Bloom) attentively depicts issues surrounding race, gender, parental responsibility, divorce, and self-esteem via Lucia’s numerous relationships, particularly with her mother. Lucia’s stand-up comedy seeds humor throughout this cathartic read. Ages 15–up. Agent: Serene Hakim, Ayesha Pande Literary. (July)

Reviewed on 04/26/2024 | Details & Permalink