Mom Read It

“The miracle is in all of us”: Love in the Library

Posted on July 18, 2022 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Love in the Library, by Maggie Tokuda-Hall/Illustrated by Yas Imamura, (Feb. 2022, Candlewick Press), $18.99, ISBN: 9781536204308

Ages 6-9

Inspired by award-winning author Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s maternal grandparents, Love in the Library is a wrenching and inspirational story of finding love and hope in the darkest times. Tama is a librarian in the Minidoka internment camp during World War II, where she meets George, a patron who shows up every day to check out books and talk to Tama. Life in the camp is brutal, and Tama’s resilience is flagging, but George is always there to smile and support her. Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s language is powerful as she describes life in the camp and Tama’s depression: “The barbed wire fences and guard towers cast long shadows over her path”; “And though each camp was different, they were all the same. Uncomfortable and unjust”; “Tama kept her eyes down and tried not to think about the life she used to have”. Yas Imamura’s gouache and watercolor palette uses dull browns greens, setting the mood for life in Minodoka, but dresses Tama and George in bright colors; Imamura also gives the cramped conditions in the housing bright colors – a pretty pink quilt acts as a wall between rooms – to convey hope and the determination to carry on. When Tama loses herself in her books, she dreams of surreal knights and ships, young lovers and butterflies. An author’s note provides background to Tama’s and George’s story. Endpapers show a wall of barbed wire stretching endlessly across the covers. Love in the Library is a story of finding hope when there feels like there is none left, and joins the growing body of work that breaks the long-held silence about that period of American history.

Love in the Library has starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, BookPage, Booklist, and the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books. Download a teacher’s guide and the author’s note at Candlewick’s book detail page.

I’ll Go and Come Back stretches love around the world

Posted on July 18, 2022July 18, 2022 by Rosemary Kiladitis

I’ll Go and Come Back, by Rajani LaRocca/Illustrated by Sara Palacios, (March 2022, Candlewick Press), $18.99, ISBN: 9781536207170

Ages 3-7

A young girl named Jyoti visits her family in India, where she experiences some culture shock: it’s so different from home! But she and her grandmother, her Sita Pati, spend time together making sand art, going to the market, and playing games. When she leaves, she doesn’t say goodbye; in India, they say “Poitu varen”: “I’ll go and come back”. When Sita Pati visits Jyoti, she experiences a similar culture shock, but Jyoti is there to play, create, and shop with her. Told in a repeat narrative from Indian and American experiences, I’ll Go and Come Back reminds me of Margaret Chiu Greanias’s Amah Faraway, which I also loved. I enjoy the reverse narrative, where each character swaps roles to become the caregiver and guide to a new culture. Rajani LaRocca creates warmth between Jyoti and Sita Pati, brought to life by Sara Palacios’s gouache and acrylic artwork. Sita Pati and Jyoti holds hands and lean toward each other when they’re together, and readers get a peek into Indian culture, with touchstones like food, public spaces, and clothing. Endpapers look like colorful sari prints. I’ll Go and Come Back is a sweet grandparent-grandchild story that celebrates culture and familial relationships.

I’ll Go and Come Back has a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

Intermediate, Middle Grade

Are you ready for the National Menagerie of Art?

Posted on July 15, 2022July 15, 2022 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The National Menagerie of Art: Masterpieces by Vincent Van Goat and Lionhardo Da Stinki, by Thaïs Vanderheyden, (May 2022, Prestel Junior), $12.95, ISBN: 9783791375090

Ages 5-10

Art fans, animal fans, and folx who just love a good giggle will love this book of animal portraits based on 30 of the most famous and recognizable paintings in the world. Each painting and artist has an animal take, from Lionhardo Da Stinki’s Mona Piglet (La Gioinkonda) to Bunny Hopper’s Nighthares. Many adults will recognize the paintings that inspired these new works of art right off the bat; back matter includes the original works, artists, and a brief blurb. It’s a delightful introduction to art history, and just plain fun. Illustrator Thaïs Vanderheyden captures the spirit of each classic painting in her artwork, including similar colors and textures to the original, while working expressive animals into the reimagined piece. Birds hop along Mondrian’s bold lines and explore the bright primary colors of the work in “Four Birds, with Black, Red, Blue, and Yellow” by Pete Monkeyman; a panda takes on existential dread in Aardvark Mink’s “Pandamonium”, inspired by Edvard Munch’s The Scream. Absolute fun for art time storytimes. Pair these with Schiffer Publishing’s First Steps in Art board books.

picture books, Preschool Reads

The Little House of Hope is the story of America

Posted on July 15, 2022 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Little House of Hope, by Terry Catasús Jennings/Illustrated by Raúl Colón, (June 2022, Neal Porter Books/Holiday House), $18.99, ISBN: 9780823447169

Ages 4-8

A family arrives from Cuba and finds a home to call their own as they build their new lives in America. In time, La Casita – the little house – welcomes other family members and later, a family who needs a place to call home; together, they all work toward making the casita and America their new home. Terry Catasús Jennings was inspired by anger to write this story, after a realtor claimed to never rent to “Hispanics because they lived four families to a house and always destroyed the properties where the lived”. She was also inspired by the memories of growing up in her own casita. Here, the Definitely Dominguita author tells the stories of families who come here to be safe. In quietly passionate storytelling, she tells readers about the fears that spurred these people to leave their homes and come to the States, and she tells readers how these families all worked together to turn the house into a warm, loving casita: adults and children coming together to paint and clean, to mow lawns and make artwork, and how the casita inspired them. A father starts their own landscaping business. A mom starts a daycare in the casita. Another mother secures a job as a high school Spanish teacher, and a father becomes an accountant. A daughter uses her passion for collage to welcome new families to the casita, and when they’re ready to move on, sends them off with artwork to display in their home.

Pura Belpré medalist (2006) and Eric Carle Honor (2021) illustrator Raúl Colón pencil and watercolor artwork uses perspective and soft color to create beautiful moments: a family, looking up at la casita; gathered around a table, smiling; confiding in one another; a father, looking through the window and seeing a full home ready to welcome him. The Little House of Hope reminds us all that this is what America should be when we’re at our best.

picture books, Preschool Reads

Take your baby traveling with Feather Flores’s new picture book series!

Posted on July 14, 2022July 13, 2022 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Author and editor Feather Flores is breathing new life into a series of city-based books from Chronicle! Great for touristing families and residents alike, these rhyming looks at popular U.S. cities feature families of color enjoying the sights. Let’s take a look at two of them.

Los Angeles, Baby!, by Feather Flores/Illustrated by Asia Ellington, (Aug. 2022, Chronicle Books), $14.99, ISBN: 9781797207216

Ages 3-5

A family heads out to explore Los Angeles on a bright, sunny day! Mom and Dad buckle their daughter into the car and head out for adventure, visiting such sights as the Pier, famed restaurant The Grove, and the La Brea Tar Pits. At night, they head to historic Olvera Street and take in a show at the Hollywood Bowl. Lively rhyming text and vibrant digital illustration show diverse people enjoying the daily hustle and bustle of the city while pointing out some popular tourist sites. Endpapers feature different landmarks in bright and darker yellow, like Hollywood stars and shopping bags, film reels and the Hollywood Bowl. Start a travel storytime and have your kiddos make their own stars to create a Walk – or a Wall – of Fame at your library, and bust out the tissue paper and your papel picado templates for an Olvera Street-related craft.

Make a travel display or booktalk this to families looking for travel-related books. Consider displaying with Byron Barton’s Airport, Richard Scarry’s A Day at the Airport, Paul and Peter Reynolds’s Going Places, and Barefoot Books’s Amazing Places.

Texas, Baby!, by Feather Flores/Illustrated by David DePasquale, (Aug. 2022, Chronicle Books), $14.99, ISBN: 9781797207223

Ages 3-5

Yee-haw, cowhands! Join a family as they head out on a tour through the Lone Star State! Rhyming phrases, bold text, and a diverse cast of characters are just the beginning of what makes this such a fun and vibrant book for toddlers and preschoolers. A girl and her dad are the main characters here, stopping off at the Fort Worth Stockyards to take in a rodeo, visiting the Space Center at Houston, enjoying a Tex-Mex lunch, and visiting the Alamo. There’s BBQ, western dancing, and bluebonnets to give readers the full Texas experience. Endpapers show a mix of things to discover, from armadillos and ten gallon hats to space shuttles and cactus. Have paper bags and construction paper on hand for cowboy crafts, cardboard tubes for rocket crafts, and crayons for this Texas Bluebonnet coloring page.

Other Travel, Baby! (my own title; I didn’t see a name for the series yet) books in this series include Chicago, Baby! and Washington, DC, Baby! by Feather Flores. San Francisco, Baby! and New York, Baby!, both illustrated by Ward Jenkins, were released in 2012 and are still available.

picture books, Preschool Reads

A goat learns to share in No Nibbling!

Posted on July 13, 2022July 13, 2022 by Rosemary Kiladitis

No Nibbling!, by Beth Ferry/Illustrated by A.N. Kang, (March 2022, Roaring Brook Press), $18.99, ISBN: 9781250762412

Ages 4-7

Derwood is a goat with a beautiful garden, but he’s always on guard: growing a garden is “risky business”, after all. A sweet – and smart! – bunny named Tabitha appears with a gleam in her eye and a rumble in her tummy. There is so much tasty food growing in the garden! Tabitha loves to chatter away with Derwood, slyly slipping in food-related puns – “Lettuce talk about something else”; Rabbits don’t really carrot one way or another”; “Romaine calm, Mkster Derwood” – and innocently convincing the goat he’s hearing things. The two slowly cultivate a sweet friendship, and Derwood lets down his guard and shares some of his bounty. An adorable story with delightful wordplay; kids will love the lovable curmudgeon and witty youngster. Anna Kang’s digital illustrations are expressive and softly colorful; endpapers feature some of Derwood’s crops, all sporting nibbles, across a green and white-checked tablecloth. The wordplay is colorful and bold, making this a great readaloud choice where you can emphasize the puns as Tabitha spouts them.

Read and display with some other fun books that play with language. I love Carson Ellis’s Du Iz Tak?, Dear Deer, by Gene Barretta, and David Ezra Stein’s Interrupting Chicken books.

Fiction, Middle Grade, Middle School, Realistic Fiction, Tween Reads

Pippa Park is back!

Posted on July 13, 2022July 12, 2022 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Pippa Park: Crush at First Sight, by Erin Yun, (Sept. 2022, Fabled Films Press), $16.99, ISBN: 9781944020804

Ages 9-12

In 2019, Pippa Park Raises Her Game hit middle grade shelves and made a splash: a modern-day take on Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, with a Korean-American lead character and a group of mean girls who broke all the stereotypes. I devoured the book and have booktalked this to dozens of my library kids. I’m so happy that we’ve got a follow-up to love now, too: Pippa Park: Crush at First Sight picks up shortly after Pippa Park Raises Her Game. Pippa’s getting into the swing of life at her school, she’s kinda sorta a Royal, even though Caroline seems to be trying her best to get Pippa to throw in the towel, and her best friend, Buddy, is now dating Helen. There’s a new crush on the scene, too: Marvel, an old friend, shows up on the scene when Pippa agrees to help volunteer with a local pastor’s drama club and sends Pippa into a tailspin: sure, Eliot is blonde and handsome, but Marvel is fun, makes her laugh, and likes the same things that she does! The fun begins when Pippa rashly agrees to host the Royals’ Christmas party at her sister’s apartment, just as Pippa’s sister takes in a very talkative neighbor, Ms. Lee, who’s recovering from an injury. Pippa hasn’t learned all of her lessons from the last time: she’s still trying to do it all, and putting off disaster for another day.

Pippa Park is such a great character: she’s got great depth, able to move from being bubbly and fun to stressed the heck out, to conflicted, all at once. She’s the very definition of tween! (Okay, and maybe 50, because honestly, I feel like this at least twice a day every day.) Erin Yun includes cultural references, particularly amazing food, and has a brilliant grasp of complex middle school relationships. Her characters are kids that readers know; that may be the kid reading this book. Kids separated from their parents and being raised by other family members; kids stressed about looking good in their friends’ eyes; kids trying to navigate friendship, growing up, and social status. It’s all real, and it’s all here. Here’s hoping we get more Pippa adventures.

Visit the Pippa Park webpage for downloadable resources, including an AAPI Guide and book club kit.

Pippa Park: Crush at First Sight is another slam dunk for Erin Yun. A great add to your shelves.

picture books, Preschool Reads

My Dad is a Grizzly Bear sees grown-ups through kids eyes

Posted on July 11, 2022July 11, 2022 by Rosemary Kiladitis

My Dad is a Grizzly Bear, by Swapna Haddow/Illustrated by Dapo Adeola, (May 2022, Red Comet Press), $17.99, ISBN: 9781636550114

Ages 4-8

A little boy likens his father to a grizzly bear in this funny look at how we see our parents. Cartoony images show a giant grizzly bear chasing the boy and his sister; eating pancakes by the stack, and singing karaoke with the boy’s friends as the story progresses, in the boy’s voice: “He eats all the honey in the house. It drops off his pancakes and sticks to his whiskers. / He never leaves any for me because he is a grizzly bear”. The boy isn’t always put off by his dad, though – he and his sister giggle with glee as he chases them while the boy wields a water hose; as Dad “catches fish in his teeth” the boy is the one catapulting them from his fork. When the family goes camping and mom tells a scary story, Dad’s the one who saves the day with a big, warm bear hug. Kids will get a laugh as they think of people they know and what animals they could be: does someone hop around like a bunny? Or stretch like a cat? Or roar like a lion? A great book about dads and kids that we need more of: a fun-loving dad who’s there to rescue with a hug. Bright, colorful artwork, repetitive phrases, bold fonts, and a sweet story makes this a good storytime choice. Endpapers are a colorful splash of yellow pineapples on a pink background – just like Dad’s swim trunks on the cover. Download a free activity kit on Red Comet’s My Dad is a Grizzly Bear webpage.

Author Swapna Haddow is a popular, New Zealand-based author whose popular chapter book series include Dave the Pigeon and Ballet Bunnies. Visit her author webpage and join me in hoping more of her books appear on U.S. bookshelves. She’s also got loads of printable and fun activities. Dapo Adeola is a London-based illustrator and received the distinction of illustrator of the year at the 2022 British Book Awards. Follow him on Instagram for more of his artwork.

picture books, Preschool Reads, Toddler Reads

Bustletown moves from seasons to times of day

Posted on July 11, 2022 by Rosemary Kiladitis

All Around Bustletown: Nighttime, by Rotraut Susanne Berner, (Apr. 2022, Prestel), $12.95, ISBN: 9783791374901

Ages 2-5

Bustletown greeted visitors on American shores in 2019, with the debut of four oversized board books, showing the bustling town (get it?) through the four seasons. The latest Bustletown book shows readers what the town – still bustling! – looks like at night. The wordless seek-and-find book offers seven spreads where readers can see a library sleepover and a cross-section of a home’s residents getting ready to call it a night. Townspeople gather in the park to watch fireworks and a mischievous dog steals a woman’s hat. Familiar characters and locations resurface with yet another point of view, teaching concepts in a fun way. Challenges on the back cover ask readers to look for a nocturnal raccoon, sleeping horses, a neighbor sleeping outside, and more. Each spread reveals new details every time: there are so many things to see! Imaginative readers can look through previous Bustletown stories and tell their own stories about what the neighbors have been doing between each book. Create your own challenges for your readers: see what they’ll find.