Day: November 12, 2025

Publishers Weekly Best Picture Books of 2025

| Tasha

Publishers Weekly has announced their picks for the best books of 2025. The juvenile picks are broken into three categories. Here are the picture book selections:

PICTURE BOOKS

Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka con la Papa: Join the Quest with Peru’s Famed Scientist and Potato Expert by Sara Andrea Fajardo, illus. by Juana Martinez-Neal

Cranky, Crabby Crow by Corey R. Tabor

Don’t Trust Fish by Neil Sharpson, illus. by Dan Santat

Downpour: Splish! Splash! Ker-Splash! by Yuko Ohnari and Koshiro Hata, trans. from the Japanese by Emily Balistrieri

Every Monday Mabel by Jashar Awan

Fireworks by Matthew Burgess, illus. by Cátia Chien

For a Girl Becoming by Joy Harjo, illus. by Adriana M. Garcia

Island Storm by Brian Floca, illus. by Sydney Smith

The Keeper of Stories by Caroline Kusin Pritchard, illus. by Selina Alko

Lena the Chicken (but Really a Dinosaur) by Linda Bailey, illus. by K-Fai Steele

Let’s Be Bees by Shawn Harris

On Our Way with Mr. Jay by Chelsea Lin Wallace, illus. by Thyra Heder

Our Lake by Angie Kang

Papilio by Ben Clanton, Corey R. Tabor, and Andy Chou Musser

A Place for Us by James E. Ransome

Popo the Xolo by Paloma Angelina Lopez, illus. by Abraham Matias

So Many Years bookcover

So Many Years: A Juneteenth Story by Anne Wynter, illus. by Jerome Pumphrey

Stalactite & Stalagmite: A Big Tale from a Little Cave by Drew Beckmeyer

The World Entire: A True Story of an Extraordinary World War II Rescue by Elizabeth Brown, illus. by Melissa Castrillón

Your Forest by Jon Klassen

To Activate Space Portal Lift Here by Antoinette Portis – Book Recommendation

| Tasha

To Activate Space Portal Lift Here by Antoinette Portis

Publisher: Neal Porter Books

Publication Date: October 7, 2025

Reviewed from copy provided by publisher

ISBN: 9780823459858

Turning the pages of this book activates a space portal that lets readers be the first to interact with alien creatures! As the portal opens, the readers can see an orange and a yellow alien, who are just as surprised to see the reader and just as shocked that aliens are real. The aliens worry that the reader might eat them, but relax after the reader shares how small their teeth are. They have the reader make all kinds of faces which then scare some other aliens who respond much better to a big friendly smile. As the portal closes, there is an invitation to return.

This book begs to be shared aloud and with a group of children as long as you enjoy a bit of nonsense and noise resulting. I read this both in physical form and digitally and there is something about the physical page turns that make this book really engaging. The gloriously loud and simple illustrations of the aliens add to the chaotic fun of the book. 

A portal worth visiting. Appropriate for ages 4-6.