Picture Books

Trees by Tony Johnston

| Tasha
Cover image for Trees.

Trees by Tony Johnston, illustrated by Tiffany Bozic (9781534475175)

This picture book explores trees from their own point of view. Beginning with the line, “Trees love sky,” the book goes on to show how integrated trees are into the environments around them. From holding out their limbs for songbirds to celebrating the clouds above them by reaching tall, the trees help form the world around them. As trees burst into blooms or offer a sheltered place to read, time spent alongside trees in nature is always worthwhile.

Told in very simple poetic words, this picture book is ideal for the youngest children to see trees as something special and valuable in our world. The Author’s Note clearly ties trees to helping our climate crisis and also shares some of the amazing things that trees can do.

The illustrations of the book are particularly impactful. All painted on wooden panels, they have an incredible richness, sharing a wide variety of trees and habitats around the world including dreamy green wetlands, golden fields of wheat, and stirring details of the rough bark and the moss that is part of it.

A book that will have you headed outside to hug trees. Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Keep Your Head Up by Aliya King Neil

| Tasha
Cover image for Keep Your Head Up.

Keep Your Head Up by Aliya King Neil, illustrated by Charly Palmer (9781534480407)

A bad day starts for this boy when he wakes up late. He can’t move fast and his sister has used his sparkly toothpaste to make slime. Still, he knows he can try to make it a good day. But things just keep on going wrong. He has forgotten his gym uniform plus he doesn’t get the class job that lets him take a walk. His face starts to show his frustration. He gets the last laptop in writing class, the one with the sticky space bar. He forgets to raise his hand in math class, even though his answer was right. He manages to get paint all over his uniform. He’s been trying to avoid a meltdown all day, but it doesn’t work. He gets sent to the principal’s office. The quiet there helps, but the day won’t get much better until he decides to keep on trying to keep his head up.

Neil captures all of the emotions of a bad day in her picture book. The steady drum of small things going wrong throughout the day is something that many kids will recognize. They will also relate to the emotions of anger, frustration and the final loss of control after trying so hard. There is a lot of empathy in this book and yet also no easy answers other than to keep on trying, be gentle with yourself.

The illustrations by the Coretta Scott King Award winner Palmer are rich and beautiful. He shows all of the emotions that the protagonist feels using a cloud that follows the boy everywhere. The cloud changes color as the boy’s emotions get darker and angrier too. Throughout there is a sense of a strong Black family unit and larger Black community.

An emotional look at a bad day that just might turn out OK. Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Simon & Schuster.

Red and Green and Blue and White by Lee Wind

| Tasha
Cover image for Red and Green and Blue and White.

Red and Green and Blue and White by Lee Wind, illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky (9781646140879)

Based on a true story, this picture book explores hate crimes and what a community can do to stand up for what they believe in. Isaac lived in the one house in town decorated in blue and white for Chanukah rather than red and green for Christmas. Teresa lived across the street in a house with a big Christmas tree. The two were best friends. They both loved playing in the snow, being creative, and lots of sprinkles. One night, a shadow approached Isaac’s house and threw a rock through their front window. Isaac’s family considered not lighting the menorah that night, but lit it after all. Teresa made a picture of a menorah to support them, one that glowed with white and blue light. Soon others in the neighborhood joined them, then the school and library, then more and more. Finally, 10,000 windows lit with a combination of red and green and blue and white, standing in solidarity against hate.

Inspired by events that happened in 1993 in Billings, Montana, this picture book shows how one act of hatred cannot stand before a community committed to being there for one another and standing in unity together. The book shines with hope and love, the moment of darkness at its center an important opportunity for a community to show who they really are. It’s a book of inclusion and community, an important story for our volatile times.

Zelinsky’s illustrations are filled with light and darkness. From the glowing holiday lights spilling out of homes to the darkness of the act of hatred, there is a distinct insistence not to fear the darkness but to make it one’s own. The final image of the mixture of holiday lights is profoundly moving and sets just the right tone for all of our winter holiday celebrations.

Important, beautiful and inspiring. Appropriate for ages 5-7.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Levine Querido.

Hope at Sea by Daniel Miyares

| Tasha
Cover image for Hope at Sea.

Hope at Sea by Daniel Miyares (9781984892836)

The daughter of a shipwright, the protagonist in this story loves the sea and wishes that she could join her father on his next journey. She decides to stowaway on his trip, hiding onboard. The wind soon carries the sailing ship out onto the sea. It doesn’t take long for her father to discover her and soon she is working alongside others on the ship: tying knots, painting the hull, carrying loads. They travel for weeks, stopping for cargo at ports along the way. She starts to miss her mother though as they near home again. Then a storm hits, one that batters the ship. Ordered to stay below, she knows she must try to help. After being thrown onto the rocks, they must abandon the sinking ship. But those who love them find a way to light the shore. It’s a light that inspires her father’s new adventure.

The text and the illustrations of this picture book work hand-in-hand. They form the complete story together. The text itself is robust in places where descriptions are needed and then becomes the gentles breeze of words when the illustrations can carry the tale. It’s a story with plenty of tension and amazement as the young protagonist heads on an adventure. It can also be seen as a clever allegory for life’s journey with risk taking, hard work, storms, near disasters, and recovery and reinvention.

The illustrations are filled with details that evoke the time period and the elements of the ship. From bright sun to the darkness of a hiding place to tropical ports and then the movement and danger of the storm, all of these make for a real page turner of a picture book.

A grand adventure at sea. Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Anne Schwartz Books.

Time for Bed, Old House by Janet Costa Bates

| Tasha
Cover image for Time for Bed, Old House.

Time for Bed, Old House by Janet Costa Bates, illustrated by AG Ford (9781536209983)

Isaac is on his very first sleepover at Grandpop’s house. He’s had a great time, but isn’t looking forward to sleeping away from home. Isaac insists that he isn’t sleepy, so he and Grandpop put the house to bed together. They move quietly and slowly, turning off the lights. As the house gets darker, Isaac hears noises, but they are easily explained as being the dog or the wind moving the swings outside. The window shades are closed for the night and they head upstairs, listening to the sounds of the creaking house. Then Isaac reads a picture book aloud and puts Grandpop to sleep. Then it’s up to him to listen to the sounds of the house and say good night.

This is a gentle story about sleeping over at a grandparent’s home for the first time. Isaac is unsure but also excited, an accurate portrayal of the mix of feelings that young children have at staying away from home, particularly for the first time. The quiet and slow good-night process adds to the lovely bedtime tone. I particularly appreciate that it is a grandfather doing this loving moment with his grandson.

The illustrations offer just the right mixture of glowing lights, gathering darkness, and warmth as this Black grandfather and grandson share a special evening together. This book is not one to startle or scare and the illustrations take real care in exposing what the noises actually are in the house. The empowering final scenes when Isaac is the last one up also set the perfect tone.

Quiet and filled with building self-esteem. Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Candlewick.

Time Is a Flower by Julie Morstad

| Tasha
Cover image for Time Is a Flower.

Time Is a Flower by Julie Morstad (9780735267541)

Time happens in the ticking of a clock, but it can also be seen in a flower. It starts with the seed, quiet and waiting in the dark. The flower emerges with bright petals. The picked flower then droops, releases those colorful petals. Time is also a tree, one that can grow beside you. It may be shorter than you at first, but who will be taller in ten years? How about fifty years? Time is a spider’s web, made carefully and invisibly. Time is transformation, a mountain eroding into a pebble or a butterfly that used to be a caterpillar. Time is sunsets, sun beams on the floor, the shine of moonlight at night. It is photographs with memories or your hair growing longer. It is a batch of bread rising and baking, or a song moving, or a wiggly loose tooth. It can move slow or fast, depending on what you are doing. It takes different shapes, moving through your day in all sorts of ways.

This quiet look at time offers so many ways to view the passage of time. Children will see themselves in some of the impatience or how wonderful times go far too quickly. The use of a flower at the beginning of the book broadens to include many examples of time passing through a regular day. Morstad’s writing is poetic and simple, the stanzas inviting readers to linger and think about time.

The illustrations are done in pencil, markers, colored inks, pastels and digitally. They have a dynamic vintage feel with an edge of modernity that invites you to explore. From the purple glow of a seed in the dark ground to the pastel softness of a butterfly’s wing to the beauty of a changing sunset that turns the page to a starry blue night, these illustrations capture the wonder of small moments in life.

Take your time with this one. Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Tundra Books.

The 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson

| Tasha
Cover image for The 1619 Project: Born on the Water.

The 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson, illustrated by Nikkolas Smith (9780593307359)

This picture book forms a way for younger children to benefit from the information shared in The 1619 Project. In this story, a Black girl is given an assignment in class to trace her family history. She can only trace three generations back and tells her grandmother that she is ashamed. So her grandmother shares the history of her family before slavery when they lived in West Central Africa. Her family spoke Kimbundu and were good with their hands and used them for growing things, inventing, mixing herbs, building tools, and caring for babies. They danced to offer worship, to share joy, and to mourn. Then they were stolen, taken from their families and lands, stamped with new names. They fought back, some refused to eat and chose to die on the journey, others survived. They had to learn a new language, form a new people, and survive the brutality of slavery. From that history have come generations of Black Americans who have changed our nation for the better. There is nothing to be ashamed of, take pride in this history of resilience and hope.

The focus of this picture book is to share the history of Black Americans in this country, showing how a deep history in the cultures of Africa are their origins. The book doesn’t flinch from the darkness of the Middle Passage or the horrors of slavery. These are also sources of pride for children reading the book, who may have been made to feel ashamed of where they came from. Written with a poetic touch, the entire book is filled with hope even in its darkest points. Throughout there is a sense of resilience and power, a knowledge that ancestors survived.

The illustrations carry readers through history. They show the rich cultures in Africa and the beauty of what was lost. They show slavery but not without hope shining in the sky above. They share connections, new families forming, and children who are a promise for the future. They show resistance, an insistence on change, a focus on the future continuing to carry us forward.

Powerful and important, this book belongs in every library. Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Kokila.

The Big Bath House by Kyo Maclear

| Tasha
Copy image for The Big Bath House.

The Big Bath House by Kyo Maclear, illustrated by Gracey Zhang (9780593181959)

With a warm welcome at your grandmother’s home in Japan, this picture book firmly places children in the midst of an extended loving family filled with aunties and cousins. Change into your yukata and your wooden sandals and walk together to the bath house. Shed your clothes along with everyone else. Start with washing, washing your hair and back, do a naked dance with your cousins, until finally it is time. Everyone enters the big bath together with a sigh. Wrap in a soft towel afterwards and find a treat of shaved ice while you are waiting for the adults to finish. Walk home at night together again, holding your grandma’s hand.

Based on the author’s childhood visits to Japan in the summer, this book is so filled with warmth and love. The connection formed by bathing together, chatting, playing together and spending relaxing time together is so evident that it need not be stated outright. The writing keeps the focus on the importance of bath houses for families. It also gives stodgy Americans a chance to glimpse other ways of bathing, spending family time and respecting each other’s bodies.

The nakedness in the illustrations of this book will have some adults concerned while others will recognize it as a celebration of different body types as well as a look at Japanese culture in ways that is different from our American views. The pages are filled with sudsy, steamy, bubbly bodies, all naked and lovely.

A bubbly look into Japanese culture and the closeness of a family who may live far apart. Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Random House.

Dad Bakes by Katie Yamasaki

| Tasha
Cover image for Dad Bakes.

Dad Bakes by Katie Yamasaki (9781324015413)

Dad wakes up when it is still dark and walks to work. When he gets there, he works side-by-side with others to create dough that rises and becomes rolls and loaves. When the sun comes up, Dad walks back home, smelling like warm bread. While he sleeps, his daughter waits for him until it’s time to wake him up. Together, the two go to the kitchen and make their own smaller batch of bread. While it rises and rests, they spend a lot of time together. A bread surprise is created in the kitchen and the two spend the rest of the day together until night falls once more.

Told simply and in a straight-forward way, Yamasaki pays homage to single parents who work long hours, often night shifts to care for their children and provide a true home for them. In her author’s note, she mentions her work as a muralist in correctional facilities, adding another layer to the book. The program the father in the book is part of provides opportunities to those recently incarcerated. This book shows the strength and resilience it takes to return successfully from incarceration and parent a child with love, dedicating real time to being together.

The illustrations show the urban setting the family lives in, particularly when Dad walks to and from work. Their apartment is warm and cozy, full of bright colors that carry through their day spent together. The relationship between father and daughter really comes alive in the illustrations, showing the time they spend together and the joy they both take in it.

A look at parents who work the night shift that embraces those who were once incarcerated. Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Norton Young Readers.