The finalists have been announced in a wide-range of categories for these annual LGBTQIA+ awards featuring titles from 2024. You can check out the full list on the Lambda Literary site. Here are the finalists in the juvenile categories:
Han lived a quiet and grumpy life alone until Kate and Olly moved in next door. The two children were curious and loved to make new friends. When they met, Kate asked all sorts of questions and Olly romped through Han’s yard. When Kate asked about Han’s wife, Han got sad. Kate hoped that bringing flowers would help and soon they were sharing snacks. Han set the kids on a quest to find the ingredients for pho. These were just the curious and determined children who could get it done. Han hadn’t made pho without his wife, and sharing the soup allowed him to share stories of her too.
A book about grief without being a tear jerker that could leave sensitive children unhappy, this book focuses more on building new connections across generations. The children are shown as caring and active, creating a friendship. The illustrations capture Han’s changing mood as the story goes on as well as his growing relationship with the children.
A book that may inspire new chats with neighbors. Appropriate for ages 4-6.
The 2025 Eisner Awards have been announced. These awards are the biggest in the comic industry and are announced every year at Comic-Con. The biggest winner this year was delightfully a teen graphic novel: Lunar New Year Love Story that won 3 of the awards, including overall Best Writer. Here are the youth finalists and winners:
For a Girl Becoming by Joy Harjo, illustrated by Adriana Garcia (9781324052241)
From the U.S. Poet Laureate comes a picture book that celebrates the birth of a little girl. From the birth itself and the baby in its “spirit house,” to those that gathered to celebrate your birth, to the gifts given to you by the halves of your family. Breathe and walk, remembering the source of your breath, the source of your walking and running. Horses ran the land when you were born, remember. It’s impossible to encapsulate Harjo’s poem with any clarity. It is the celebration of a birth, the speaking to all of us about where we came from, and a thunder of a poem. The illustrations by Garcia flow on the page, forming horses, children, families and weaving an interconnection.
A great book for a baby gift and one that celebrates the poetry of life. Appropriate for ages 4-8.
Reviewed from e-galley provided by Norton Young Readers.
The shortlists for the 2025 Barnes & Noble Children’s & YA Book Awards have been announced. This is the fifth year of these awards that offer prizes in three categories. The shortlists are below:
PICTURE BOOKS
All the Books by Hayley Rocco, illustrated by John Rocco
Deanne loved spending time in nature with her family as a young child. It was a love that continued throughout her life. When wildfires started spreading in California, Deanne applied for a job with the U.S. Forest Service. She was hired by them to fight fires. She had found exactly what she loved. It was a physical job with long hours and risks. But Deanne wanted to do more: she wanted to become a smokejumper. So, at age 26, she started taking the required physical tests. She passed them, but was found to be too small for their requirements. Deanne fought the decision, filing a formal complaint. Months later, she was allowed to take the tests and soon passed them to become the first female smokejumper in the nation.
Deanne is the epitome of resilience and determination. The book focuses on her willingness to take risks but also on her level-headed approach to gaining new skills as she pushes the envelope of society’s biases toward women. The writing here is approachable and evocative. It shares how Deanne was feeling as she hit each obstacle and overcame them. The illustrations are full of flame colors, smoke and fire. It brings the dangers and the drama directly to the reader.
Bravery, resilience and character are all on display in this great picture book biography. Appropriate for ages 4-8.
Reviewed from e-galley provided by Penguin Young Readers.
The Black Mambas are an anti-poaching unit that works in South Africa on the Olifants West Nature Reserve. The unit was started when animals in the reserve began to disappear, particularly rhinos and pangolins. The unit is the first all-women anti-poaching unit in the world and despite doubts from family members became very successful. The book explores how the unit was created, what sorts of training they go through, and what they do on a daily basis to protect the wildlife in the reserve. One particularly dramatic series of images shows the women tracking poachers and successfully stopping them. Told via photographs, the book celebrates the impact these women have had on their community and the success of the reserve.
A stirring tale of women successfully stepping out of traditional roles. Appropriate for ages 5-10.
Marjorie Rice grew up loving shapes, enchanted by the golden rectangle. She studied art and geometry, but her parents wanted her to be a secretary. Meanwhile, others were discovering five-sided shapes that could fit together, creating a seamless pattern. They each declared they had found them all. Majorie was raising children, doing art, helping with math, and discovered the question of five-sided shapes in her son’s Scientific American magazine. Marjorie started to work on the problem, despite it being declared as solved. Her first discovery was declared the tenth tiling pentagon, but she wasn’t done yet!
This picture book tells the story of an amateur mathematician who discovered tiling shapes that others couldn’t. These were questions from the beginning of math and design, solved by a mother of five working out of her home. It is an inspiring story of resilience, tenacity and patience. The illustrations in the book invite readers to look at five-sided shapes themselves, seeing them elongate and shrink and they fit together.
It’s a book that makes mathematics something tangible and beautiful. Appropriate for ages 5-9.
Ruth Asawa was raised on her family’s vegetable farm in California. She attended Japanese school on Saturdays and won an award in her regular school for a poster she made of the Statue of Liberty. Her life was divided in half, but soon that was to become even more clear. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, her father was taken away. Two months later the rest of the family entered imprisonment. Ruth started to draw her life in the camps. At age 20 after the end of the war, she started to create the wire sculptures that she would become known for. Eventually she was asked to create the memorial for those imprisoned in the Japanese internment camps.
Told in poetic language that uses the image of lines repeatedly, this nonfiction picture book pays a deep and respectful homage to this Japanese-American artist. Asawa rises again and again, despite the racism that impacted her childhood and teen years. The use of art to create conversation and connection is clear in this book. The illustrations are done in charcoal, watercolor and digital media. They capture the lines, the wire, the connectivity and the inhuman conditions of the camps.
A book that celebrates survival and the way art can carry a spirit through its darkest days. Appropriate for ages 5-9.
Reviewed from e-galley provided by Roaring Brook Press.
A Book of Maps for You by Lourdes Heuer, illustrated by Maxwell Eaton III (9780823455706)
From a map of the town with its orange groves, this book of maps explores neighborhoods, yards, the local school, the town library, the city park, and Main Street. At the end of the book, the person creating the maps heads away to a car and moving van and a new person finds the book of maps waiting as they arrive to what is their new home.
Full of wry details, this book offer the joy of maps large and small and exploring them on the page. An inspiring book that will have children creating their own maps.
Appropriate for ages 4-6. Reviewed from library copy.
The Gnome Book by Loes Riphagen, translated by Michele Hutchison (9781782694687)
Kick is a gnome who wants to share everything about how gnomes live. Gnomes live in cities and villages mostly, between the walls. Kick shows readers how to make their own gnome hat, what clothes they have, and what pet insects they own. They share their collections and their favorite things as well as details about their family, school and life.
Filled with details to pore over, this Dutch picture book gives a humorous glimpse of the life of a tiny gnome that will have young readers glued to the page. Small touches throughout the book award a slow approach and deep reading.
Appropriate for ages 4-6. Reviewed from library copy.
Big Bike, Little Bike by Kellie DuBay Gillis, illustrated by Jacob Souva (9780063315235)
Duck finds a bike just sitting there, but it’s too big for him. After a crash, Rhino finds the bike but it’s a bit too little for him! The bike turns out to be too slow for Cheetah, but too fast for Turtle. After some messiness and some more crashing, the bike is left in the muck and sold as junk. But one person doesn’t think the bike is too old and soon has it up and going again for his daughter. Time passes and she outgrows the bike, until it is found once again by someone new.
This merry and dynamic picture book celebrates reuse of items even if they might be the wrong size for someone or too old. It’s a look at opposites at first filled with plenty of action and then the book leans into its environmental look at how one person’s garbage can be reworked and recreated into something new and fresh. Written in easy language with lots of repetition and plenty of crashes, this picture book is inviting. The illustrations of a variety of animals and their experiences on the bike are funny and full of cycling silliness.
Ideal for little ones learning opposites or great for bicycle storytimes. Appropriate for ages 3-5.
Reviewed from e-galley provided by HarperCollins Publishers.
Ah-Fu’s grandfather decided that he was now big enough to bring home the ox from the field in the evening. He explained that Ah-Fu was too small to ride the ox. Ah-Fu set off until he met a flock of swallows who explained that Ah-Fu shouldn’t try to lead the ox by the horns as he was too small. Next, Ah-Fu met a frog who explained that Ah-Fu was too small to herd the ox from behind. Ah-Fu whispered all of these rules to himself until he found himself facing an enormous ox. He was not big enough at all! Ah-Fu soon learned that the ox may be big but he was maybe even more scared and worried than Ah-Fu. Soon the two worked together to get home but Ah-Fu would have to break all the rules to make it happen.
This charming tale reads like a traditional folktale with its talking animals and the structure of building a list and then breaking it down. The ox being so large and so gentle-hearted adds to the story as Ah-Fu must become the courageous one. The luminous illustrations were done digitally using traditional Chinese gongbi and xieyi techniques. They are stunningly beautiful with their misty qualities that work particularly well for this story.
Beautifully crafted and just right to share aloud. Appropriate for ages 4-6.
Reviewed from e-galley provided by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
Waking Brain Cells 