I met Natasha Tripplett at the 2026 Children’s Literature Conference here in Bellingham, Washington. She was friendly, with a gentle, gracious spirit, and I was […]
Mina
Matthew Forsythe’s 2022 picture book Mina is a genuine pleasure. What’s more, there are many engines driving this pleasure. The story has multiple nicely original […]
The New Rooster
The art in Rilla Alexander’s 2022 picture book The New Rooster is a visual joy. The colors are bright and bold, and Alexander’s compositions seem […]
Every Monday Mabel
Jashar Awan‘s 2025 picture book Every Monday Mabel was a Caldecott Honor book, meaning it has been hailed as one of the year’s best picture […]
Ada and the Goat
Heidi Aubrey’s 2025 picture book Ada and the Goat is full of graceful images and uses space well. For example, on the first page Ada […]
Selma
The title Selma gives no real clue what this 2026 (2025 in German) picture book is about. Indeed, American readers might think of Selma, Alabama […]
Get Me Out of This Book
Get Me Out of This Book: Rules & Tools For Being Brave is surprisingly good. I say “surprisingly” because I often find picture books with […]
Stories of the Night
I recently saw an announcement about this year’s Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. (Lindgren wrote the Pippi Longstocking stories, and other works.) I knew the work […]
Hey Diddle Diddle
The nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle” is hundreds of years old. Many sources say two hundred years. Some say four hundred (with possible precursors being […]
Babies on the Bus
Karen Katz’s 2011 picture book Babies on the Bus has a very simple premise: rework the children’s song “The Wheels on the Bus” to include […]