Author: Margaret Kingsbury

This little girl protagonist has two great families: her mom and her daddy and his partner Harry. She also has the perfect schedule worked out to split the time between the two, but when her mom picks her up from school on Tuesday — Daddy’s day — she feels thrown off. Things just aren’t right! However, her dads and mom have a surprise that will make everything better. This is a super fun, LGBTQ+ inclusive picture book.

While the other three books on this list present happy divorced families, this picture book deals with the initial sadness of finding out your parents are divorcing. Thursday is the protagonist’s favorite day of the week, but when her parents tell her they’re divorcing on a Thursday, it ruins the day for her. At first she feels stuck in sadness and frustration, but nature and the comfort of a unicorn lovey she found next to the trash help her to awaken to the world again slowly. This is a sensitively written, sad yet hopeful picture book about divorce.

My daughter and I have been slowly making our way through The Critter Club early chapter books, and while this book isn’t new, it’s new to us. Amy’s parents are divorced, and her Dad is remarrying a woman who has a child Amy’s age, Chloe. Amy is so excited to meet Chloe, but they immediately clash. To Amy, it feels like Chloe is being intentionally mean to her. Over the weekend, both girls are constantly at odds, until a wayward Dalmation helps them connect, and Amy realizes she and Chloe were just having one big misunderstanding.

This new early chapter book series is adorable. When Anne the librarian was a child, she had a beloved doll, Ivy. When she finds Ivy in a box, she adds her to her library’s book buddy collection. Kids can check out a book buddy for two weeks and write their own little book about their adventures. Ivy is adopted by a girl who is staying with her dad for the weekend. She rarely gets to visit her dad, and she’s resentful of her younger step-siblings who are always there, and who monopolize her time. She loves staying with her mom, but she misses her dad too. She tells all this to Ivy, who calmly listens. Maybe Ivy and the other book buddy companions can help! Told from Ivy’s perspective, this is a delightful and imaginative book for early readers.

This interactive board book is a lot of fun for toddlers. With bandaid flaps, a pop-up ice pack, and even a baby that can be taken out and cared for, this is such a good way for very young children to explore injuries and how to take care of them. It’s one of our most-read board books.

This picture book biography is a fascinating glimpse into the life of Tu Youyou, who became the first Chinese woman to win a Nobel Prize after discovering a cure for malaria based on traditional Chinese medicine. After a childhood bout with tuberculosis, Tu Youyou became interested in viruses and how they worked. This eventually led her to studying medicine in college and to leading her own research team. This is an excellent addition to STEM and women in science collections.

We’ve been reading this picture book a lot lately. From the five types of germs to how the immune system works, this book explains germs using simple, child-friendly language and silly illustrations. It’s an excellent introductory text to the topic that’s also a blast to read.

This follow-up to The Secret Life of Boo-Boos is a more thorough introduction to viruses. It includes information about how viruses reproduce, the immune system, wearing masks, vaccines, and more. While more in-depth in its approach, it’s still child-friendly with cute illustrations, and would be a valuable addition to elementary school libraries.

In this beautifully illustrated picture book, L’il Sissy and her siblings visit her Uncle John in the city, where they help him transform an empty lot into a vibrant community garden. The story is based on author Bernette Ford’s childhood experiences, and award-winning illustrator Frank Morrison’s rich illustrations are stunning. I would not be surprised if this one wins some awards next year.

Just like my daughter and I, Miguel and his dads can walk to their local community garden. Today, the garden is having a garden party, and Miguel needs to find sunflowers for the party. By comparing and contrasting different produce in the garden, readers can help Miguel find the sunflowers. This is a standalone follow-up to Amara’s Farm, another delightful compare/contrast book about sustainable food. Amara makes an appearance at the end!

In this rhyming picture book, a community joins together to create a rooftop garden. With hard work, they’re able to gather together and find fresh food for a feast. The warm illustrations depict families of all types, and the back matter includes gardening steps and the stages of plant growth. There’s also a QR code for an accompanying song.

This poetry collection centers an elementary school’s community garden. The poems are playful and cleverly written, and I love the interactive elements. On every page, readers are invited to interact with the poems and illustrations, from searching and finding items from the poems to solving mysteries. It’s a fantastic, garden-themed poetry collection.

This Chinese picture book follows Zhao Di as she celebrates all 15 nights of the Lunar New Year. She loves celebrating Lunar New Year with her friends and especially loves playing with the lanterns. But she’s sad when the 15 days are over and it’s time to smash the lanterns. She’s not ready for the fun to end!

Also translated by Helen Wang, this sweet and funny picture book was originally published in Taiwan. Leilong the dinosaur loves books and especially loves the library and going to story time with his friends. But there’s a big problem: Leilong is far too big for the library. He keeps accidentally smashing books, and he just can’t fit! Is there any solution?

This gorgeously illustrated picture book was originally published in Korea and takes place along a Seoul subway. It’s an imaginative and contemplative read that relates the lives and thoughts of subway goers. It’s the kind of picture book adults will enjoy just as much as children.

This beautiful celebration of the seasons is written in both English and Anishinaabemowin, an Indigenous North American language of the Anishinaabe. It follows a grandmother and grandchild as they explore all four seasons, from summer sunsets listening to the bugs to watching blue jays on a snowy winter day. It’s an excellent book to add to intergenerational, seasonal, and Indigenous American collections.

This fascinating and beautifully illustrated nonfiction identifies types of seashells as well as giving lots of neat facts about them. Written by a marine biologist, it’s super informative. This is a perfect companion for seashell collectors.

I am picky about the wordless picture books I enjoy, but this one is delightful and so evocative of the beach. Three siblings ride a bus to the beach with their parents, ready to make a sandcastle. But the sandcastle keeps getting toppled, either by a rampaging toddler or by the sea itself. But these siblings don’t give up, and keep on building despite interruptions.

Every year Fang’s family goes to Transylvania for vacation, but Fang is tired of the same trip, and thinks Transylvania is boring. He has a mission to convince his family to go to the beach instead. But vampires don’t go to the beach! This is a super funny picture book.

Written in African American Vernacular English (AAVE), this lyrical picture book encourages kids to clean up litter at the beach. While Kenzie and her mom are snorkeling, Kenzie spots all kinds of litter. Wanting to help the marine life, like her seal friend, she slips on her mermaid tail, grabs a net, and starts scooping litter. However, she knows one person isn’t enough to clean up everything. She enlists the help of other children, and together, they clear the beach of litter.

I adore all of the Amy Wu picture books by Zhang and Chua, and both this most recent book in the series and Amy Wu and the Patchwork Dragon have school-related themes. In Warm Welcome, a new student at school has Amy confused. No matter how much she talks to him, he doesn’t respond. When she hears him greet his little sister in Chinese, she realizes he wasn’t rejecting her, he just didn’t understand her! Amy decides to throw a community dumpling party and welcome him properly this time — by making a welcome sign using Chinese characters. But now it’s her turn to feel a little shy about an unfamiliar language.

This picture book has a similar theme to Amy Wu and the Warm Welcome but a different approach, and it takes place in a preschool instead. All of the students in Luli’s preschool speak different languages. On the first day of school, they play separately instead of together, the lack of a common language creating a barrier between students. But Luli has an idea to bring everyone together — tea! The next day Luli brings tea and cookies to the classroom, and they all have a tea party. The tea party helps break the ice, and, afterward, everyone plays together in groups. I am writing this as I drink green tea, so I am fully behind the idea of tea parties = friendship.

This autobiographical picture book tells the story of Vanessa’s first day of school. Vanessa wants to show how special she is by dressing uniquely for school. Unfortunately, her unique outfit is not a hit with the other kids at school, and they won’t play with her. She begins copying them, hoping that doing so will help them like her, but that doesn’t work either. After some parental love and insight into her name, she realizes she can still be Vanessa. When she returns to school this time with confidence in herself, she feels more comfortable and is able to make friends.

This follow-up to The King of Kindergarten follows a young Black girl on her first day of school. She could not be more excited, and when she decides to wear a tiara on the first day, her mother reminds her of what queens of kindergarten do: they brighten up the room, they’re kind and caring, and they’re helpful. By practicing these skills on her first day of kindergarten, the little girl helps make her classroom community better for everyone.

This picture book addresses childhood depression. Coen is depressed, and doesn’t feel like leaving his bed. One by one, his father, mother, and little sister try to coax him from the bed, but none of their approaches works. All Coen wants to do is huddle under the covers and feel his emotions. When his family gives him the space, quiet, and support to do just that, his blue feelings slowly dissapate, and he’s able to climb out of bed and start his day.

Based on the author’s experiences with anxiety, this picture book chronicles how a girl and her dog deal with day-to-day anxieties. Even though it’s the weekend, the child narrator and her dog have a lot of worries. But with some deep breaths and imagination, plus the bravery and kindness found in one another’s company, the two are able to go outside and play, despite their initial fears.

Sometimes the dad in this picture book is happy and full of energy, like the sun. But sometimes he’s deeply sad, lost in the blue, or even an angry red. This makes the child narrator feel sad and angry too. Both father and daughter go to therapy, and the dad is able to find his sunshine again, though the blue does still come back sometimes. This is a picture book I needed as a child. It’s a lovely color-based metaphor, and a must for children having a similar experience with a loved one. The author bases it on her own experiences.

I adore this middle grade graphic novel about Chinese-American middle-schooler Livy. Livy’s anxiety is so pervasive it forms into an alter-ego—Viola. Viola follows Livy to a new school, and makes it difficult for her to make new friends and participate in school. In the end, she does tell her parents and she begins to go to therapy, which helps her manage Viola and her anxiety. I love the growing trend of showing kids in therapy.

This playful picture book is in direct contrast to Just Ask!. Joe wants to play pirates at the playground, but instead of playing with him, kids keep asking him what happened to his leg, and they won’t stop asking. When they finally do decide to play with him, they all have fun. It turns out it doesn’t really matter why Joe has one leg. What really matters is how much fun it is to be friends. Author James Catchpole, who is also a leg amputee, provides a helpful guide to caregivers in the back about how to respond when their curious children do ask disabled folk, “What happened?”

Disabled author and educator Kristine Napper provides an excellent conversation starter in this intriguingly formatted children’s book. Instead of traditional illustrations, the book uses neat typography and graphic design. The text is an extremely informative and straightforward guide to disability, from basic facts like how many people are disabled, to how to talk to disabled people, to ableism and discrimination disabled folk experience. Napper writes very personally and it feels like a conversation.

This nonfiction picture book chronicles the Mills v. Board of Education of the District of Columbia 1971 case, where the court ruled that schools had to allow and provide accommodations for disabled students. It’s a landmark case in disability history, and the child-friendly illustrations and accessible text make it a great introduction to some of the discrimination disabled people have experienced. It shows how disabled kids can make things change.

This illustrated anthology of biographies about 34 major disabled historical figures is a must for upper elementary and middle school students. The mini bios examine an array of people and their disabilities, from Frida Kahlo to Peter Dinklage to Arunima Sinha. The contemporary illustrations are lovely.

This joyful picture book celebrates disabled bodies as they move through a variety of spaces. The vibrant illustrations are accompanied by lyrical, simple prose that shows all types of disabled bodies moving fast, slow, waiting in line, playing, and marching for disability justice. It’s a powerful, lovely read and a call to action for more accessible spaces.

This picture book doesn’t release until August 23rd, but it’s definitely worth pre-ordering! Written by #DisabledAndCute founder Keah Brown, it tells the story of a little girl with cerebral palsy finding the perfect back-to-school outfit, and finding the perfect place to rest. When I interviewed Keah Brown for a piece I’m writing for School Library Journal, she told me how her impetus for writing this was the lack of disabled Black joy in her childhood reading (and not much has changed since).

All four books in Samantha Cotterill’s Little Senses series center a joyful experience for a child on the autism spectrum. In this one, two children play trains together, but when one child has trouble relegating and reading emotions, it could ruin playtime. With a bit of coaching from his mom, what could’ve been a disaster turns into lots of fun.

I’m a musical fiend and I cannot say enough good things about this delightful middle grade by disabled Broadway star Ali Stroker! 14-year-old Nat Beacon has moved, and while her dad wants her to join the wheelchair racing team, Nat wants to do something of her own, like theater. When she tries out for Wicked, she lands a part, but a fire might shut down the play. Stroker also has a new picture book that recently released, Ali and the Sea of Stars, which also centers disabled joy.

This interactive picture book is a lot of fun to read to kids. Doug is a happy kid who doesn’t like hugs. And that’s fine! Some people do, and some people don’t. How do you know the difference? You ask. I love this book’s emphasis on asking and how it demonstrates how to ask and various ways to respond.

Rissy the lovebird does not like kisses, but all lovebirds like kisses, right? Rissy worries there might be something wrong with her, but with her mother’s support, she realizes she is perfectly valid not to enjoy kisses and can show her love in other ways. This rhyming picture book flows really well and gets requested quite a bit at my house!

This board book is an excellent one to have on hand in preschool and daycare settings, and also for starting conversations with caregivers and young children. In clear language and dialogue, this book shows what consent means, how to ask for consent, and how to respond when asked for consent. It has advice for caregivers in the back.

While this picture book doesn’t discuss consent, it’s my favorite body-positive children’s book. Children need to love and embrace their bodies to be able to have the confidence to stand up for their bodies, and this rhythmic picture book will have kids singing about how their bodies are cool. I love the diversity of bodies represented. It’s a joyful, beautiful book.