Ethan lives in a trailer park near his best friend, Ricky. As they head to middle school, the school includes kids from wealthier neighborhoods. Ricky decides that they need a new group of friends, but Ricky’s picks of new friends are more into wrestling than what Ethan likes. Ethan loves the card game Bio Battle, something that Ricky doesn’t understand. So Ethan starts to make new friends too, but soon the differences between him and his classmates continue to create issues. Ethan can’t have a new fancy phone, his shoes and backpack are falling apart, and he gets his clothes second hand. Is there any way to bridge the differences without losing himself along the way?
In this graphic novel, Feuti sensitively captures the difficulties that living in poverty create for children. Whether it is the place you live, the car you drive, your parents’ jobs, what you wear, or the items you buy, it all becomes somehow deeper and more personal than that for the child experiencing it. Gaming is such a great opportunity for kids with like interests to meet and start being friends. I love how it is depicted and then the final moment of the book where new opportunities arise. Feuti does a great job of showing the issues and also offering a way through shame to the other side.
A middle school graphic novel full of empathy, friendships and gaming.
A Ramadan Night by Nadine Presley, illustrated by Asma Enayeh
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: January 27, 2026
Reviewed from copy provided by publisher
ISBN: 9781665969338
Join a boy and his father at the beginning of Ramadan as they explore the sensory parts that make up a Ramadan night. The two of them walk to the mosque together in Damascus. They see the lights of the moon and stars above them. Their steps join those of many others as they walk hand in hand. The mosque is filled with laughter and warmth as they ready themselves for prayer. They bow under the mosaic ceiling and the scent of the mosque meets Sami’s nose. The evening ends with food to fill their empty bellies. Then they return home and Sami knows he’s found what makes a Ramadan night special.
Presley uses all the senses to evoke a night in Syria. Readers will feel part of the setting as the streets are explored, the mosque visited and community built. Her writing is rich and descriptive. She lets the elements in the setting tell their story with poetic language. Eneyeh’s illustrations are simple and bold. They share the beauty of Damascus and the community built around Ramadan. Both author and illustrator have lived in Syria and based the book on their memory of Ramadan in the city.
An inviting and richly told story of Ramadan. Appropriate for ages 4-6.
Ojibwe author, Quigley shares the traditional Seven Grandfather teachings in this picture book. Each teaching is accompanied by a creature that symbolizes it. Courage and bravery are like Bear. Thinking of others before yourself, is like Buffalo. Being humble is like Wolf. Through the story, modern Native children are shown, enjoying nature, participating in activism, and connecting with the world around them.
The book speaks directly to the child reading it, using a second person structure. The words are simple and honest, shining on the child and showing them how vital they already are. The book shows that children are valued and their own characteristics live in the Grandfather teachings. The illustrations share the various animals near the children, shining on the page with light.
A quiet and powerful book about self-worth and connection. Appropriate for ages 2-4.
A Good Hide by Karina Iceberg, illustrated by Natasha Donovan
Publisher: Heartdrum
Publication Date: January 13, 2026
Reviewed from Edelweiss e-galley
ISBN: 9780063254930
In Alaska, after a successful moose hunt, the hide is transformed into quality leather by the community. First, Auntie gives a blessing, then everyone helps scrape the hide until hands are raw. Next comes soaking the hide and stretch it in a variety of ways from drumming to pulling. After that everyone pees on it and then another stretch and a soak in the rain. Next brains are used to create goo that is squished into the hide. It is hung over the fire to let the smoke tan it. More rain, more stretching, more pulling it tight. Finally it is ready to be made into new clothing and items for everyone.
Told by an Alaska Native (Aleut-Alutiiq), this picture book celebrates the hard work, effort and community it takes to follow traditional ways of tanning leather. The process has elements that will surprise readers just learning about it, including peeing on the hide and using brain goo. Those parts make the book all the more interesting for young readers. The illustrations, done by a member of the Métis Nation of British Columbia, clearly show the many people who work together on creating leather as well as showing the steps it takes.
A fascinating look at a traditional Native autumn event. Appropriate for ages 4-6.
Stronger Than by Nikki Grimes and Stacy Wells, illustrated by E. B. Lewis
Publisher: Heartdrum
Publication Date: January 27, 2026
Reviewed from Edelweiss e-galley
ISBN: 9780063264755
At 8 years old, Dante isn’t scared of almost anything, except the nightmares that he keeps on having. Dante spends his days outside playing in the Oklahoma countryside. He and his brother long to play Choctaw stickball, but they have to wait for their father to come home and do that with them. Night came and so did the nightmares of footsteps coming up behind him and a voice telling him not to run. To help with the dreams, his mother tells him stories of his ancestors, people who survived the Trail of Tears and the Tulsa Race Massacre. The next day, Dante headed to the library to learn even more about his ancestors and the racism they lived through and survived.
Beautifully told by Grimes in prose that reads more like poetry, this picture book shows the power of learning of one’s ancestors and the strength that can be gained from knowing more about them. It is the story of an Afro-Indigenous child, so Dante learns about Black history and Indigenous Choctaw history and draws strength from both. The illustrations are done in watercolor, focusing on the faces of Dante’s ancestors, the connection with his living family members, and the haunting vision of his nightmare.
A quietly powerful picture book about family history. Appropriate for ages 7-9.
Louisa May Alcott was born into a family very similar to that of Little Women. She had three sisters and they played with the books in her father’s study. The family was poor and moved often. Louisa loved to write in her Imagination Book but her older sisters were already working as domestic servants. When Louisa was twelve, her mother received an inheritance which allowed the family to purchase a new home in Concord, Massachusetts where she met neighbors like Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. As they continued to move, one of Louisa’s sisters died and Louisa’s dream of writing seemed far away as she was rejected again and again. It was after her time as a nurse during the Civil War that Louisa found her straight-forward writing style that everyone continues to love in her Little Women.
This approachable picture book biography of the famous author focuses on the parallels between her own life and that of the Marches in Little Women, a perspective that pays off at the end when Little Women is finally published. Alcott’s journey is fraught from the beginning due to poverty and yet she continues to dream of writing, showing a real perseverance as she struggles to find her unique voice. The illustrations are done in a mix of paint, pencil and digital, focusing closely when Alcott’s world begins to draw inward and having wide landscapes at the times of expansive thought and opportunity.
A great picture book biography of a big woman in children’s literature. Appropriate for ages 5-8.
A tall tale based on the life of Zora Neale Hurston takes readers into the life of this renowned author as a small child. Zora was a little girl who didn’t play gently with dolls or tea sets. She was always dirty after a day playing outside, climbing trees. But most of all, Zora was a story teller filling the air around her with tales that she made up on the spot. She dreamed of her stories changing the world and then set out to use her tales to end the local drought. Armed with just a watering can and her imagination, she went around town telling stories. But by the end of the day, there was no water in her can. About to give up, she realized that she had watered a garden with her stories and the drought came to an end as everyone started to use their imaginations together.
This second book in the Small-Girl series is a winner. Young Zora is presented with a huge imagination and a mouth willing to share the stories she creates. She shines brightly on the page, her ideas glowing against the grumpy adults she encounters. The illustrations move from huge suns and moons to fancy parlors to the stories that Zora weaves. The result is a book filled with deep color and sprightly tales.
A clever use of tall tales to speak to the power of stories and one amazing author.
Septima Clark was born in 1898 to a father who had been enslaved and a mother who was raised free in Haiti. Her parents firmly believed in education, getting Septima a real education by trading for lessons. Even as a child, Septima loved to teach others. At age 18, she moved to South Carolina and an all-Black school where she was allowed to teach. She taught children during the day and adults at night. In the 1950s, Septima started teaching at an integrated school for adults, helping people learn to read, write and vote. She worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and a team of teachers who helped Black people learn enough to pass the existing voting tests. Septima never stopped teaching and never stopped being the change.
There is something so beautiful about a child raised from poverty and following her own dream of teaching all the way through to its most exultant form, community activism and enabling others to follow their dreams too. Throughout this picture book biography, there is a sense of quiet strength in Clark, leading through teaching, creating change through her work. Dynamically written in poetic prose, the book reads aloud beautifully. The illustrations are oil paintings, capturing Clark from childhood through adulthood with grace and poise.
A force for change and good. Appropriate for ages 5-9.
Naomi has been returned to her biological family after living until recently with the woman she thought was her mother but who actually abducted her. Her family calls her by a different name and adjustment has been rocky. That’s why they decide to take a long summer vacation together in the Shenandoah Valley. However, the town they are near used to be a Sundown town and still holds some of the same beliefs about Black people living there. Naomi starts seeing a young Black girl outside her window who suddenly bursts into flames. As Naomi learns more about the history of the region, she realizes that it may not just be girls from the past who are in danger there.
Incredibly gripping and tense, this is a layered thriller for teens that speaks directly to the Black experience in sundown towns across the country. It also looks at how girls are exploited and ignored on multiple levels, becoming missing girls. Naomi is a great protagonist, strong and resilient while still struggling with her past and her current situation. Her messy relationship with her family is shown with empathy and honesty, adding to the questions of what is due to previous trauma and what is real.
A dark thriller full of personal trauma, history and ghosts.
Part of the I Like to Read collection, this is a very clever beginning reader.. Bug waits patiently for the bus to come, runs to the bus and hops on. Pig runs to the bus and hops on. So does Pup, but Bat doesn’t run or hop. Fox and Hen run to the bus, as does Cat. Slug runs too, but far more slowly than the others. Finally, Skunk runs and hops on the bus. But no one wants to ride with Skunk, not even the driver, except for Bug. But what will they do with no one to drive the bus?
Catrow gives this reader plenty of action built into his simple words and phrases. He keeps the sentences in the book simple and the real story is told in the pictures. The illustrations add a wildness to the title, with their wacky characters, oversized reactions, and the wonderful hops onto the bus by the various animals.
Silly and delightfully odd, this beginning reader stands out from the rest like a skunk on a bus.
A child discovers frog eggs in a pond. Eggs will become tadpoles and eventually frogs. But where did the very first frog come from? Well, the picture book merrily takes children way back in time to the Big Bang where the first atoms were just forming. Stars formed and exploded, atoms moving across the universe. 8 billion years later, our solar system formed around the sun. Earth was perfectly positioned to create living things, but it took time. Cells formed, became creatures, lived in water and eventually on land. Amphibians rule the land for 100 million years, evolving and eventually frogs started hopping.
This is the third book by this creative pair, offering a book both about frogs and about the universe and life itself. The text is engaging and interesting as it suddenly veers from pond life to all life and then back again to frogs. It’s a journey in time and space that is definitely worth taking as the book explains the process simply for young children to understand. The illustrations also change from watery blues and greens of frogs and ponds to the dynamic colors of the universe as it is born and grows.
A book about frogs that hops in new directions. Appropriate for ages 4-7.
Beginning with a gosling snug in his egg, the book tells it that it is time to hatch! Step one is finding and pricking the air cell in the egg so that the gosling can breathe. Step two is tapping away with its egg tooth to break that shell. Perhaps a quick nap, since that was hard work. Now on to cutting the shell and using wings and legs to exit. Find a warm spot to dry off and then you are set to head out with your mother and siblings.
Alongside the jaunty hatching story that can be shared aloud, there are in-depth facts on each page turn so that readers can learn more. It’s a great way to share information with children who are interested and still have a fast-paced read aloud for a crowd. The facts are written in an engaging style too, full of answers to natural questions. The art in this picture book is a lovely mix of cartoon and science, making for a book that will show well to a group and also read well snuggled close.
Celebrate the centennial of Langston Hughes’ first book of poetry with this new collection of selected poems paired with art from twenty gifted Black artists. This collection takes the poems in The Weary Blues and skillfully pairs them with illustrators who capture the essence of each poem in their unique ways. The result is a nonfiction poetry book with each poem separate but also part of a whole. Turning these pages is a journey through Hughes’ work and also through beautiful and distinct artistic reactions to each poem.
With poems like “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” included in the collection, children will discover Hughes anew. The book ends with a biography of Langston Hughes as well as biographical information on each of the illustrators. The sweep from one illustrator to the next has been done with care, creating a full story as the pages turn and still allowing them to stand on their own.
This belongs in every library. Appropriate for ages 8-12.
Visit Jerry Pinkney’s studio with his granddaughter in this celebration of a granddaughter’s love of art and her connection with her grandfather. There are papers around the room, stacks of stories, and bright watercolors on a tray. Grandad shows her how to make a wash, but Charnelle can’t do it quite the same way. He gives Charnelle her own sketchbook to fill. The two draw side-by-side and Grandad explains that each artist will see the world in their own way.
Celebrate the nurturing of a young artist in this picture book about one of the best-known picture book artists of our time. Tying music into the feel of the book, the quiet time spent together each making art clearly inspired her to become the artist she is today. The illustrations in her book pay homage to her grandfather and still have a feel all her own as she uses cut paper figures and objects like paint brushes and erasers to create pages with depth and texture.
A warm and lovely tribute to a genius of picture book creation. Appropriate for ages 4-7.
Waking Brain Cells 