Cat Nap, a 2025 Brian Lies picture book, is simply lovely. Beautiful. The sleepy cat on the front cover is napping in the Metropolitan Museum […]
This is Orange
Rachel Poliquin’s 2025 picture book This is Orange: A Field Trip Through Color is lovely and quietly ambitious. It has only a limited story: it […]
My Great-Aunt Arizona
Gloria Houston’s picture book My Great-Aunt Arizona was published in 1992, but it feels older. This is because of the book’s subject matter, its approach, […]
The House Before Falling Into the Sea
I has assumed the title of Ann Sue Hak’s 2024 picture book The House Before Falling Into the Sea was metaphoric–some symbol of something that […]
A Pond, A Poet, and Three Pests
Okay, I’ll admit it: I was skeptical about A Pond, A Poet, and Three Pests. A lot of kids books about poetry are forced, or […]
It Began With a Page
Gyo Fujikawa was a writer, illustrator, and designer. She wrote and illustrated her own books, illustrated others’ books, and did other artistic projects, such as […]
Unspeakable
Many picture books are light. They strike a happy tone, and only dip into darkness occasionally. That’s not the case here. The subtitle of Unspeakable […]
Big Ole
I live in Bellingham, Washington. It’s a good-sized town about 85 miles north of Seattle. It’s fairly artistic and literate, and I got curious if […]
The Great Migration
The Great Migration: An American Story is another of those picture books that I’m not at all sure really is a picture book, or at […]
We Are American, Too
Some picture books play out in their own worlds. They happen in imaginary realms and unspecified times. Some–a few–are timeless. They make such an impression […]