Here are a pair of newer picture books that celebrate our connection with nature and invite young ones to head out and explore:
Forest Song by Kirsten Hall & Evan Turk (9780593480366)
Explore poetry and nature together in this gorgeous picture book. Hall has written a poem that pays clever homage to great poets such as Robert Frost, Mary Oliver, and Edgar Allen Poe. The illustrations by award-winning Turk are rich with color, riotous with swirls and an invitation into the drama of the forest. Combined with the lyrical language, this book is a celebration of the woods.
Appropriate for ages 4-8 and can be used with older children to explore poetry. Reviewed from library copy.
Fill your pockets with a young child as the seasons change. From rocks in winter to petals in spring, shells in summer and acorns in fall. Layer them all together in a glass jar to see your year. Reach for them in your pocket when you need some comfort. This picture book celebrates seasons through the senses, touching each item, listening to them and pretending with them too. The illustrations are marvelously simple and yet filled with a magic of fairies and nature.
Appropriate for ages 3-7. Reviewed from library copy.
Mama Moon by Noah Grigni (9781250824295) Released April 15, 2025
A little girl lives with her two mothers near the sea. Her mama is like the moon, waxing and waning at times, “sometimes she’s blue, sometimes she’s bright.” There are some days she can’t get out of bed and these times can make the little girl very angry. After yelling at her mama to “Go away!” her mama has to go to the hospital to get better. The confusion of mental illness as seen through the eyes of a child is very powerfully depicted in this picture book. The book shines with love, showing that despite mental health struggles, parents are vital to a child’s life. The illustrations depict a mixed-race family and have a simple style with deep colors showing emotions as storms and mental health as a pitching boat at sea.
Appropriate for ages 5-9. Reviewed from e-galley provided by Macmillan Children’s Publishing.
Izzy is having a very bad day. She just can’t stop making mistakes. In fact, she made a huge mistake at school and doesn’t want to talk about it! When they go to visit her Lita and Lito’s house, Izzy just wants to be left alone. Instead she is asked to help make tortillas. Now there are even more mistakes! Can Izzy find a way to get past her mistakes and laugh about things again? A large and merry family supports Izzy in her struggles with mistakes, finding a creative way together to help her see that mistakes can be delicious. With rambunctious illustrations full of speech bubbles, action and joy, this picture book invites us all to laugh more together.
Appropriate for ages 4-8. Reviewed from library copy.
Based on the author’s childhood with housing insecurity and living in a blue van, this picture book shows the wonder mixed with the challenges of a child growing up living a nomadic van life. The strong connection to nature shines throughout the book as well as her connection to her family members. School is more of a challenge since they don’t have a house or apartment to invite others over. Being different from the other children can cause real upset and that is depicted with care. Judge’s watercolor and colored pencil illustrations provide a real glimpse into van life and housing insecurity for families. A great addition to picture book collections as this shows a type of family life not often depicted.
Appropriate for ages 5-9. Reviewed from e-galley provided by Abrams Books.
Ripening Time by Patrice Gopo, illustrated byCarlos Vélez Aguilera (9781546005391) Released April 22, 2025.
A little girl, her sister and mother buy green plantains from the grocery store. It takes a lot of patience to wait for the green fruit to turn sweet, yellow and black. Day after day that week, they check on the plantains and their progress, even stopping their babysitter from treating them like bananas for snacking. Finally, on Sunday they are ready to fry up and everyone can enjoy their sweet flavor together. I did not grow up eating plantains, but one of my best childhood friends had them regularly in her Trinidadian-American home. Ever since trying them, I’ve loved them too and enjoy seeing a book that celebrates this unique starchy-sweet fruit, the warmth of family and the need for patience. Illustrated with rich colors that feature golds, teals and oranges, this one is worth digging into. Appropriate for ages 3-7. Reviewed from e-galley provided by WorthyKids.
A young Métis-Ojibwe girl, Rose, travels with her family to the biannual buffalo hunt where they are joined by hundreds of other families. The hunt has become more difficult as white people and trains take over the prairies. Rose longs to join her father, who is one of the hunt’s captains. After days of no buffalo being spotted, Rose decides to help scout. She tracks the buffalo, thinking of herself as a wolf and sensing them nearby. While Rose found the buffalo, she has to also face her father, who told her not to leave camp.
A story that speaks to the real life on the prairie, the impact of white settlers and railroads, and the beliefs of the Métis people, this picture book is filled with an impactful mix of small details and a grand adventure. Written by Lindstrom who is Métis-Ojibwe and illustrated by McKnight who is a member of the Shoshone-Bannock tribes, the authenticity of the story is particularly noteworthy. The watercolor illustrations have a luminous quality that captures the light on the prairie and the beauty of the landscapes, creatures and people.
A young girl moves to a different place with her mother and grandmother, taking a plane and a car. Throughout there is a connection to nature, birds pass windows and fish surge in the water. But the sounds are different at her new home and so are the customs and rules. Slowly, new friends are made and a new home is formed.
With illustrations that are an enticing blend of vintage lines and modern color, this book speaks to tradition and family but also new possibilities in both its story and art style.
Two Peruvian-Americans come together to create a warm and delightful picture book biography of Alberto Salas, a Peruvian scientist who dedicated his life to potatoes. Searching for wild potatoes through the Peruvian landscape is a treat with that landscape depicted by a Caldecott-honoree illustrator. From the hilly land to Salas’ notes to finding the spark of a potato in the mud to the potatoes themselves, readers will be amazed by the colors on the page.
This book tackles climate change, the need for scientists and the manual labor that it sometimes takes for science to happen and to discover something that can feed a changing world. Enjoy this game of hide-and-seek!
Just finished Everything Is Poison by Joy McCullough. Just the 17th century Italian YA novel that modern readers need right now. Full of strong women taking care of their community plus the beauty of found family and an apothecary. http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/746825…
A truly great YA read that is engrossing, filled with fascinating details about apothecary work, and a call for women to fight, survive, and thrive on their own terms. The text is an engaging mix of prose and poetry, offering small glimpses of other people of that time who are living very different yet hauntingly similar lives. Highly recommended.
I’ll be taking a break from blogging. Thank you to all of my readers and the publishers who have supported my little corner of the Internet over the years.
Yours in Books by Julie Falatko, illustrated by Gabriel Alborozo (9781951836207)
Owl is looking for peace and quiet to be able to read his books. So he reaches out to a local bookshop to get titles that might help. After getting the store’s catalog, he asks for titles like “How to Soundproof Your Forest Dwelling” and “The Can-Do Guide to Moving to a Remote Tropical Island.” However, the store doesn’t have those titles, instead sending other books, ones that are helping as the youngsters of the forest begin to listen to Owl read stories aloud, bake treats together, and make crafts. Happily, the books selected by the cheery squirrel are just what Owl actually needs.
Told entirely in the letters being exchanged, the emerging relationship between Owl and Squirrel is a joy. At first businesslike, the accurate assessment by Squirrel of the book that Owl truly needs leads to exchanges of jokes and invitations to tea parties and visiting the bookshop. The entire book is about accepting a changing neighborhood complete with young and eager visitors who may also be exactly what Owl needs in his life.
The simple illustrations evoke the warm and lovely life in the woods. From the book-filled shop to the often spattered Owl looking surprised that some things are actually working out well. Readers will want to join in on their tea party and also head out to visit the bookshop and have Squirrel pick a tome just for them.
Full of friendship, letters, books and baking. What a treat! Appropriate for ages 3-5.
Bright Brown Baby by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney (9780545872294)
Spending happy time together with a baby is made simple with this new offering from the prolific and marvelous Pinkneys. Starting each chapter with a quotation from a major Black figure sets the tone for this treasury, ensuring that each story celebrates being a Black baby. Some of the stories focus on counting, others play peek-a-boo, and they all speak to self esteem and love.
The text is simple enough for the youngest of children, each page looking more like a board book. That makes sense when you know that each of the chapters in the treasury are going to be released in board book format as well with one of them out already. Still, there is a beauty in seeing them all together in one book, because the movement from one chapter to the next works well and keeps the lap time going.
The illustrations are bright and full of warmth. They are filled with families and little ones of different genders and sizes all hugging, playing and spending time with one another.
Lots of love for brown and Black babies and families. Appropriate for ages 1-3.
Waking Brain Cells 