Author: Margaret Kingsbury

This adorable interactive board book is the perfect Halloween read for toddlers. I love Flavia Z. Drago’s vibrant illustrations, and this even includes a surprise guest from her previous picture book Gustavo, the Shy Ghost. It also encourages readers to make spooky sounds with each of the monsters. Be prepared to read this one 20 times in a row.

I am a sucker for cute ghost illustrations, and the ghost in this picture book is one of the more adorable ones I’ve seen. The glasses! *heart eyes* Ghost is lonely, and wants to play with friends, but no one can see Ghost, which makes it a little hard. Then Ghost meets Balloon and finds a ready and willing friend. But when a hide-and-go-seek game goes wrong, Ghost loses Balloon. Don’t worry, this one has a happy ending! You can see a couple of images from the book on my Instagram! I lucked out and brought it along to a pumpkin stand for pictures and it just so happened that the stand was ghost-themed!

This fun read-aloud features a skeleton band performing at the White House for our favorite presidential family — the Obamas. While all is fun and games outside, when the band moves inside, they find the White House haunted! Thankfully, even the ghosts on the inside know how to rock. This is delightfully rhythmic and would make a great segue into talking about the White House!

This is a non-scary middle grade about family curses and evil spirits. Freddie and his family are well known for their bad luck and clumsiness, which has earned Freddie the nickname of Faceplant Freddie. When he discovers an amulet from the Philippines, he thinks his luck has changed, but then it turns out the amulet is haunted by his bad-tempered great-granduncle Ramon, and that the evil spirits who murdered him have returned. With lots of adventure, friendship, and breakdancing (yes, breakdancing), this novel is a super fun read, and perfect for the Halloween season.

A young boy’s favorite place in the world is the dock near his house, where he fishes and enjoys watching nature. When a hurricane hits his town, the dock is decimated. He sets out to rebuild the dock by himself, but as neighbors notice his efforts, they lend a hand until a new dock is built. This beautifully illustrated picture book also includes backmatter about how hurricanes are formed.

After Adam, who has down syndrome, hears the mayor on TV ask everyone to pitch in on clean-up efforts around town after a major storm, Adam loads up his wheel barrel, calls for his dog, and sets out to pitch in and help. Everyone is so worried, and Adam finds many ways he can lend a hand. While this picture book doesn’t specify what kind of storm wrecks Adam’s town, the story definitely applies to the aftermath of a hurricane.

This lyrical nonfiction picture book describes the Beaufort wind scale, from a gentle wind to a tumultuous hurricane. After the hurricane, the community comes together to rebuild. Backmatter includes more information about the scale and wind speeds. It’s a lovely STEM picture book.

This award-winning middle grade novel takes place during Hurricane Katrina. Twelve-year-old Lanesha lives with Mama Ya-Ya in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward. Both have magical abilities despite being unrelated: Mama Ya-Ya can see into the future, and Lanesha can see ghosts. Days before Hurricane Katrina hits, Mama Ya-Ya predicts its arrival. Now it’s up to Lanesha to help her community.

In this adorable picture book, Leila, who is usually perfect at all witchy pursuits, struggles to bake the most perfect cake for the Magnificent Witchy Cake-off. Baking is hard, even with the help of her froggy companion! Thankfully, with the help of three supportive sisters, she finally figures out the trick to baking. Does she win the contest? Nope. But winning isn’t everything.

This super fun read-aloud has Spanish words scattered throughout the rhythmic prose. Told in the second person, this picture book gives advice about what to do if you realize your babysitter is a bruja. The colorful illustrations depict a little girl in just such a predicament. But in the end, it turns out that a bruja babysitter is an absolute blast.

Ah, this nostalgic, bittersweet picture book made me cry. It’s about a little girl named Hilda who helps the witch Hazel around the house. Witch Hazel tells stories from her past as she sweeps dust away, and the dust magically recreates her memories. When Witch Hazel dies, Hilda despairs, until a little sweep of dust recreates a memory of Hilda and Hazel together, and she knows Witch Hazel will never be truly gone as long as she remembers her. *wipes away tears*

In this hilarious picture book, a witch on a cooking show attempts to demonstrate how to make frog soup to her viewers. However, these frogs aren’t about to congenially allow themselves to be spooned into a soup. No thanks. They take off every which way, and this cooking show witch is left to scramble after them. This picture book gets big belly laughs from my little witch.

This heartwarming picture book is about how a home rented by Cuban refugees becomes a safe place in the community for other immigrant families to find refuge in. Esperanza at first thinks their new rental is small, but soon she sees how large it can become with her family’s generosity in sharing it with other immigrant families like them, who come to the U.S. with nothing. It’s based on the author’s childhood experience.

Based on a true story, this picture book takes place on the Mexico-U.S. border. When Noemi and her mama arrive at the border, they’re told they need to add their names to a ledger, which keeps track of those wanting to cross. The Notebook Keeper is another refugee in charge of the ledger, and Noemi is impressed by her kindness. When the Notebook Keeper calls her own name from the list, she gives the ledger to Noemi and her mother to keep up with. This book includes backmatter that describes this process in more detail.

In this lyrical, contemporary retelling of Sleeping Beauty, Beauty, a young Puerto Rican girl, is raised to be proud of her lineage as a Boricua of Taíno and African descent. However, when she gets older, she picks up on how the media and other racist people she encounters view people like her as less. She loses her sense of identity and self-love. But with the help of her family and community’s love, she “wakes up” to the injustice and begins to love herself and her people once more. This is such an empowering retelling.

I am a sucker for a good intergenerational picture book, and this one is stunning. Julia’s grandmother lives just outside Mexico City in a beautiful cottage. During the last few months of her mother’s pregnancy, Julia stays with her grandmother for the first time without her parents. Somehow Grandma senses whenever Julia is homesick and knows just what to do to help her feel better. This picture book is beautifully illustrated and includes poems by Tania de Regil’s great-grandfather, handwritten by her grandmother.

In this adorable picture book, mermaid Cadence longs for a kitten friend after watching kittens play by the shore. However, playing with a kitten is a bit difficult in the water. Can she find a furry friend to snuggle and play with? A nearby watching otter might be the perfect match for Cadence. This is an excellent read-aloud, and the colorful illustrations are lovely.

Heba, who is Pakistani American, is so excited to swim like a mermaid in the pool wearing her brand new yellow burkini, which matches her mama’s. However, when she arrives at the pool, the other kids don’t think she’ll be able to swim in her burkini. At first, she feels self-conscious, but Mama reminds her of all the mermaid girls before her, and Heba finds the confidence to enter the pool and show the other kids her swimming skills.

This cute early reader features three stories about mermaid Vera and her friend Octo-kid Beaker. With bright, colorful illustrations and funny and adventurous stories with simple, easy-to-follow prose, this new series is perfect for burgeoning readers. There are currently two books in the series, this one and Mermaid Days: The Sea Monster, with a third to release early next year, Mermaid Days: A New Friend.

This gorgeously illustrated guide to mermaids for kids ages 7+ follows a fictional, 19th-century explorer as she poses as a man and boards the HMS Challenger, which was a real ship. She takes detailed notes in her notebook as the ship encounters mermaids, including their history and lore. This is the latest book in the Folklore Field Guides series and all of them are so fascinating and accompanied by beautiful illustrations.

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.