Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

 
We all contain multitudes, but for those who forget, there is Divya Srinivasan’s newest picture book. What I Am (Viking) will be on shelves next month and was inspired by an experience her sister had. She was washing her hands in a restaurant bathroom when someone at the next sink looked up at her and asked: “What are you?”

On the title page spread of What I Am, an unseen, unnamed person asks our protagonist, an Indian American girl, the same question: In a oversized, somewhat intimidating speech bubble above her head, we read: “What are you?”

I didn’t know what to say. So I didn’t answer, and they left. But I kept thinking about it.

Read the rest of this entry »

“The bad-something. My mouth popped open. Tanisha turned around and ran out. Kiyoko kicked a stall really hard, and the sound made us cover our ears. Emmie started to cry.”
(Click spread to enlarge)

 
“The day the custodian found the bad-something on the bathroom wall, all the girls from Mr. Gilbert’s class were called into the principal’s office.” Thus opens Marcy Campbell’s Something Good (Little, Brown), illustrated by Corinna Luyken and coming to shelves in early September.

The “bad-something” scribbled in a bathroom stall is never named — though in a closing note Campbell, while explaining that the story was inspired by real-life events at her children’s schools, mentions “hate speech.” The principal grills the children and then tells them the bathroom is off-limits. Some of the girls sneak in there anyway and have a visceral emotional response to the “bad-something.” This spread is pictured above.

Read the rest of this entry »

 
James Yang’s A Boy Named Isamu: A Story of Isamu Noguchi (Viking, June 2021) is an imagined story about a day in the life of Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi. The young Isamu spends his day exploring the world around him — and with a sense of astonishment.

Read the rest of this entry »

 
Pictured above is a sketch author-illustrator and comics artist Grant Snider made during last year’s pandemic lockdown. Today, he visits to talk about what came out of that experience — his illustrations for Theresa Trinder’s There Is a Rainbow (Chronicle, January 2021), a bright — in more ways than one — book that captures with compassion what the last year was like for many socially isolated children.

Grant also discusses his process for illustrating Travis Jonker’s Blue Floats Away (Abrams), released a couple months after Trinder’s book. This book tells the story of a small iceberg. Blue, just as the title tells you, floats away from his family — unintentionally, that is. On his journey across the ocean, he transforms in many ways. It’s an entertaining tale, with an endearing protagonist at its helm, about the water cycle but also the ways in which climate change is altering our planet.

I thank Grant for visiting to talk about what he did with colored pencils and cut paper last year. …

Read the rest of this entry »

 
I’ve always wanted to see the Northern Lights, and maybe one day I will, but for now I’ve this beautiful picture book import from New Zealand, originally published in 2018, to hold me over — Elizabeth Pulford’s Seeking an Aurora (Blue Dot Kids Press, January 2021), illustrated by Anne Bannock.

Read the rest of this entry »

“Faoro made the wedding rings and a small surprise for Night: gold settings for her fangs. The alligator showed them off to the delight of the all the guests.”
(Click spread to enlarge)

 
Today’s featured picture book is a Venezuelan import. The Caiman (Amazon Crossing Kids, July 2021) — written by María Eugenia Manrique, illustrated by Ramón París, and translated by Amy Brill — was originally published in 2019 but has arrived on American shelves this month.

Read the rest of this entry »

“Wonder walk? / Sure.”
(Click spread to enlarge)

 
I’ve a review over at the Horn Book of Micha Archer’s splendid Wonder Walkers (Nancy Paulsen Books, March 2021).

That review is here. Below are some more spreads.

Enjoy!

Read the rest of this entry »

 
I’ve a review over at BookPage of Kim Hyo-eun’s beguiling I Am the Subway (Scribble, August 2021), orginally published in South Korea in 2016 and translated by Deborah Smith.

The review is here, and below are some spreads.

Enjoy!

Read the rest of this entry »

 
I’ve a review over at BookPage of Heena Baek’s Moon Pops (Owlkids, August 2021). As you will read in my review, the book was originally published in South Korea and has been translated into English by Jieun Kiaer. Author-illustrator Heena Baek won the 2020 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and this is the first of her books to be published in English. It is the story of a summer night so hot that the moon melts. So. A perfect book for summer.

Here is the review, and below are some spreads. …

Read the rest of this entry »

 
“My friend Jenny Mei is sad.” The narrator of Tracy Subisak’s Jenny Mei Is Sad (Little, Brown, June 2021) tells us this on the book’s first spread as the two of them walk to school. We can see it in Jenny’s hunched shoulders and scowling face. But sometimes it’s hard to discern when someone is grieving, especially if they mask it. A good friend, though, knows how to listen; how to spot churning, if hidden, feelings; and how, in nuanced ways, to show support.

Read the rest of this entry »