Author: Margaret Kingsbury

This is another beautifully illustrated picture book about a little girl and her papa spending a day together. They take a walk, go to a coffee shop, and play their violins outside. That’s when the narrator meets Papa’s friend, Mister Blue, who is unhoused. He and Papa are military veterans and served together. Mister Blue plays the drums. The little girl has lots of questions about Mister Blue, and when it rains, they invite Mister Blue over and make music together inside. It’s a simple and stunning picture book.

One day, on the walk to school, Jess and her mom see a woman in a doorway sleeping with her cat. The next day, her mom stops and chats with the woman, whose name is Grace. After that, Mom and daughter put together boxes for Grace and her cat Luna and eventually hear about her story as a refugee. When Jess brings a Christmas card, they find Grace has disappeared.

This picture book biography is about Kip Tiernan, the woman who opened the first unhoused women’s shelter in Boston in 1974. It begins with her childhood during the Great Depression and how she helped her grandmother feed unhoused men who came to her door. But Kip noticed some women dressed as men to get food. She also noticed women sleeping outside on benches. She vows to help these women and devotes her life to doing so. The watercolor illustrations are lovely, and this is an important biography about a little-known but important figure in U.S. history.

This powerful middle grade novel follows 12-year-old Ojibwe Opin, who lives in a car with his mother and older brother Emjay. They’re trying to make it across California to move in with Opin’s uncle, but Emjay, who is constantly angry, frequently disappears, slowing down their trip. Opin’s days aren’t filled with much happiness until he finds and adopts a puppy. The unhoused shelter his mom finds, however, won’t accept pets.

In this charming picture book, Harper attends a family reunion for the first time. Both her dad and daddy’s family come, and the park is packed with relatives. She befriends her cousin Noah, and the two wonder how the entire family could live together and what that would look like. They also notice the wide variety of families. This is a really sweet, fun read.

Every year, Lil Alan and his daddy pack up the car and head down to Granny’s house for a family reunion. As a tradition, all the kids share something meaningful at the celebration, which makes Lil Alan nervous this year. He doesn’t know what to share. But as he spends time with his family, he comes up with the perfect way to contribute to the tradition. This is a lovely, beautifully illustrated picture book celebrating the traditions of a Black family.

A Black boy isn’t looking forward to their annual family reunion. He’s dreading the long car ride and trying to make conversation with people he doesn’t know, but as the celebration continues, he finds himself having fun and enjoying time with his family. It’s a fun, rhythmic read a lot of kids will relate to.

This is also a rhythmic read and follows the pattern of “This Is the House That Jack Built.” It follows a young girl as her family prepares for a feast and gathers around the table that her grandfather built. It’s a joyous, inclusive read centering family traditions and meals. It’s perfect for holiday celebrations.

This book is SO easy for kids to follow. Each step in the recipe is depicted with photographs. My five-year-old can almost completely finish a recipe on her own with this cookbook, with me doing all the oven preparations, of course. Her favorite recipes so far have been the nutter nuggets, which are like peanut butter and oat balls, and wrap & rolls, which are like pigs in a blanket.

This picture book is a fascinating glimpse into Black history through the lens of cooking. Each page spread is divided by months exploring one historical moment with an accompanying recipe. January explores how the Black Panther Party implemented free school breakfast in 1966. The accompanying recipe is “The Black Panther Party’s creamy grits.” Back matter includes a closer look at some of the people mentioned in the book. This is such a neat book.

This vegetarian cookbook is part of a series and includes both text for each step in a recipe as well as illustrations so kids can easily follow. We make the banana pancakes frequently! More than 30 recipes are included. Other books in the series include Kids Can Bake and Kids Can Cook.

This is such a cool book. Each of the 15 recipes includes an illustrated fairytale that relates to the recipe. After making the pumpkin and spice flapjacks, for example, you can read a story about Cinderella and her pumpkins. After making a goat cheese and onion tart, read about some hungry billy goats and their cheese and onion tarts. The stories are silly, and the recipes are yummy. I admit my daughter won’t eat that cheese and onion tart, but maybe one day she will. 🙂

This nonfiction middle grade tells the story of Thanksgiving from the Indigenous perspective. Each chapter alternates between two perspectives: a fictional narrative titled “When Life Was Our Own,” which follows Little Bird of the Wampanoag tribe and her family and their daily lives. The other section is nonfiction, which further explores topics shown in the fiction section. It’s an excellent nonfiction for kids.

This picture book also explores Thanksgiving from the Indigenous Wampanoag perspective but for younger readers. It opens with N8hkumuhs planting weeâchumun (corn), beans, and squash, or the Three Sisters, in her garden with her grandchildren. They ask her about the true story of Thanksgiving, and she tells them of how they were warned of the Pilgrims’ arrival and how their ancestors taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn, beans, and squash to survive. This is the book elementary-aged readers need to be reading about the holiday.

This lyrical, rhyming picture book explores 12 harvest festivals and traditions from around the world. In Bolivia, people gather in the streets on the last day of the Carnival season to celebrate Martes de Challa. In Tamil Nadu, India, children and adults thank the cows on the third day of Pongal. Back matter includes a calendar of harvest festivals and more information about harvest season and the festivals presented.

This delightful picture book is set to the tune of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and features a sweet potato pie-loving girl celebrating a food-filled holiday with her family. More and more family members and neighbors arrive laden with delicious food to share, but while the narrator helps with the food, what she’s really craving is her grandmother’s sweet potato pie. While this picture book doesn’t specify a holiday, it’s a great read for Thanksgiving.

This picture book tells the story of Arctic animal life from millions of years ago. Many of these animals are ancestors of current animals, like the megalonyx and the sloth. It’s a really cool read and illustrated by an Indigenous artist. It’s part of a Nunavut-developed leveled book series.

This immersive, 124-page nonfiction book looks at the botanical life in different regions. Sections are divided by habitat: tropical, Mediterranean, temperate, arid, cold, and water. Each page spread explores different topics and places within that habitat, such as the Sonoran Desert, Mount Everest, the Congo rainforest, and so much more. It’s heavily illustrated in vibrant, bold colors. Plant lovers of all ages will enjoy it.

This paper-cut nonfiction is so cool! Each page has flaps to lift to uncover more about the human body. On one page, paper cuts of a running man’s muscles can be lifted to reveal the skeleton and more information about the skeletal and muscular systems. On the next page, ribs can be lifted to reveal the lungs and heart, which can be lifted to reveal a dissection of the heart. Every page is super neat and full of facts. It is for older readers; it says ages 8-12, but my 5-year-old loves it. I just wouldn’t give it to a toddler unless you want all those neat flaps to be torn out.

This beautifully illustrated accordion-style picture book folds out to 8 feet tall! Both front and back contain lots of fascinating ecological information as it follows a river to the sea. It can be read unfolded or like a normal book. It’s part of a series that includes several other foldout books. I’ve only read one other — The Sea Below My Toes — and loved it as well.

Maggie is visiting Granny in the city, and for the first time, Granny agrees to teach her how to bead. As Granny teaches her, she talks about her history, how she lost her First Nations status as an Anishinaabe woman when she married a man who wasn’t First Nations, how her Auntie Jeannie taught her how to bead, and the meaning behind heart berries. It’s a lovely, warm picture book. The author includes a note about what inspired the story and more details about some of the history the grandmother mentions.

This is a super cool musical book that relates a Cree folktale and includes eight Cree songs. It includes a Cree glossary in the back. The story is about a young rabbit who runs to tell his village that Grand Chief Salamoo Cook is heading their way and will host a contest to win the waaskee-choos juice. The publisher, The Secret Mountain, specializes in children’s books that share music from all over the world. Tomson Highway is a Cree author and playwright.

This is a short, nonfiction graphic novel for elementary school readers about Sacajawea. I was a little nervous about reading this because so many portrayals of Sacajawea are problematic, but I find this one to be both nuanced and accessible. It opens with Sacajawea thanking the water, then being taken from her Shoshone tribe by raiding members of a different tribe. She spoke multiple languages, which is why Lewis and Clark wanted to take her on their expedition, even though she was pregnant. The author, who is a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of Fort Hall, Idaho, was the model for the U.S. coin Sacajawea appears on. The illustrator is also Shoshone. There’s lots of room to continue the conversation surrounding Indigenous genocide and colonization while reading this, depending on the age of the child.

This picture book is lyrically narrated by water, nibi. Nibi remembers how the Anishinaabe honored and cherished it, but as time passed, fewer and fewer people respected it. Then Grandma Josephine came along and advocated for water. She taught the younger generation, including her great-niece Autumn Peltier, about the importance of water and how to honor it. Autumn became an activist at the age of 12, confronting the Canadian government about poor water conditions. Back matter includes more information about Autumn Peltier and Josephine Henrietta Mandamin. This is an excellent book to accompany We Are Water Protectors.

This adorable board book follows a day in the life of a white cat. Each page has one action sentence—”The cat slurps a drink of water”—followed by the action repeated three times—”slurp, slurp, slurp.” Pages are mostly black and white with pops of vibrant color. My daughter particularly likes the page where the cat poops.

This adorable picture book based on a true story would also make a great winter read. A family has decided to adopt their first kitten, and everyone has different ideas about what to name the kitten. Surprisingly, they agree on Nigel, but when the youngest member of the family and the mom arrive at the shelter, they find it’s shut down. The next day, the mom goes to another shelter alone, but instead of bringing home a kitten, she brings home a cat, and she’s named him something completely different. This is such a sweet story.

Ethan walks to school with his older brother, and one day, he sees stray kittens and ends up naming them. He worries about them when the weather turns cold. He and his brother take the kittens to a local vet clinic where they’re spayed and neutered. Ethan and his brother are also given boxes with straw to help the kittens stay warm. Ethan ends up bringing one of the kittens home. There are a lot of stray cats where my mom lives, and she converted a shed into a heated barn for them during the winter (and she also captures them to be spayed and neutered). It’s great to see practical stories about how to help the feral cat population like this.

Now for a completely different kind of picture book. A boy chronicles all the amazing ballet moves his cat performs—glissades on slippery floors, pas de deux with the new puppy, en pointe while staring out the window. His friends also have cats capable of amazing feats, like stealing stuffed animals, riding vacuum cleaners, and sliding down banisters. Worried that his friends don’t believe that his cat does ballet, the boy invites his friends and their cats to a party at his house. What follows is a most improbable ballet performance.

There are two new Día de Los Muertos picture books out this year centering the death of a beloved dog. Perro and Benito have grown up together, but then one day, Perro is sick, and Benito’s father takes him to the vet. Perro does not return with Papá. Papá and Mamá encourage Benito to help them create an ofrenda for Perro. At first, Benito resists, too sad to contribute. When Abuela sends him a dog alebrije, however, he adds it to the altar. This is such a sweet picture book with many Día de Los Muertos traditions.

The second picture book about a dog’s death is gorgeously illustrated and meditative. A young girl gathers her deceased pet dog’s favorite things. As she does so, she remembers all their good times together and honors the life they had together. Her family helps gather pictures to add to their ofrenda. Back matter includes the author and illustrator’s personal connections to dogs in their lives, as well as a description of how to build an ofrenda.

This simple and hilarious picture book depicts two skeletons from Skeletown and their fun antics. There are only two words in the entire book: “Sí” and “No.” The bold black, white, and fluorescent orange illustrations depict scenes that are Sí and No, like buying a balloon (Sí) or being catapulted into the air by dozens of balloons (No). It’s a funny picture book for young readers.

Follow a young girl as she introduces Día de Muertos traditions in this adorable, interactive board book with flaps to lift. From ofrendas filled with candles, alebrijes, and skulls to delicious pan de muerto, the girl and her family prepare for a perfect Día de Muertos celebration. This is a great book to introduce toddlers to the holiday,

This nonfiction picture book uses graphic design to discuss immigration, with sections focusing on refugees and the many reasons people leave their home countries, including war. Chapters discuss borders, documentation, colonization, poverty, persecution, and more. The author/illustrator has also recently published a companion book, What is War? This book is probably best for older elementary-aged children and up.

This beautiful picture book is based on the author’s refugee experiences fleeing the partition of India in 1947. Azra knows she and her family are being forced to leave, and she plans to take her beloved doll with her. But when violence breaks out, she and her family flee earlier than expected, and she accidentally leaves the doll. When the family moves into a new home, she finds another doll that’s been left behind. The lovely illustrations depict the clamor as thousands attempt to flee via train, the despair and exhaustion on people’s faces, and also the love between Azra and her younger brother. Back matter includes a map of the partition in India, a glossary, more about life before and after the partition, and the author’s story.

I reviewed this picture book earlier in the year, but it’s worth adding to this list as it tells the story of Palestinian refugees in 1967. The simple story makes it easily relatable to children. Oraib was born in a refugee camp in Nablus, Palestine. She particularly loves the olive trees that grow around the camp, and she helps her mother harvest the olives and make many products from the olive trees. When war erupts, the family has to flee the camp before harvesting the olives. Before she leaves with her family, Oraib plants an olive pit, hoping to return one day and see the tree it grows into. This picture book is based on the author’s grandmother. I also recommend reading Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine by Hannah Moushabeck.

This picture book is told from the perspective of the 669 Prague Jewish children saved on the Czech Kindertransport by the British man Nicholas Winton right before WWII began. The children love their home and families and don’t understand what’s happening when their parents secure them train passports to leave Prague for England. They gather in the trains with other refugees, without their parents, worried about what is to come. When they arrive in England, they’re adopted into new families, though they never forget their parents. When the war is over they return to Prague to find their parents, but most never do. Their parents are gone. Fifty years later, they discover the identity of the man who secured their passage on the Kindertransport and saved their lives. Back matter includes a timeline of the Kindertransport movement and more about Nicholas Winton. The illustrations are beautiful and moving.

Skeleanor the skeleton loves music and dreams of joining a human band in a nearby village led by Ms. Ratsimiziva. She tries every instrument she can find, not realizing they’re all broken. She decides to perform in the town, but when she does, she scares everyone! Will she ever be able to join the band? This is a sweet graphic novel.

The eighth Narwhal and Jelly graphic novel is a hilarious Halloween tale. Narwhal loves Halloween and has so many ideas for what to dress up as. Maybe too many ideas? Jelly, on the other hand, has no ideas and finds Halloween to be too scary. When other sea creatures flee from a monster they claim has eaten Narwhal, Jelly summons his courage to save his best friend and, in the process, finds the perfect Halloween costume. I think my daughter and I have read this 5+ times this week alone.

Remy Lai is such a broad-ranging writer and illustrator. My daughter and I love her Surviving the Wild graphic novel series, but this one is quite a bit different. Based on Chinese mythology, it’s about two 12-year-olds whose lives unknowingly entwined when a desperate parent made a bargain with the keepers of death when they were infants. July Chen has always been able to see ghosts, but has learned to ignore them. But she can’t ignore William, who is stuck between the world of the living and the world of the dead. She decides to help him, and in so doing, she discovers the truth behind her yin-yang eyes. It’s a charming adventure with a little bit of spookiness.

I loved this queer and witchy middle-grade graphic novel! When Snap’s dog goes missing, she decides to investigate the town witch’s home. Instead of finding a scary witch, Snap finds Jacks in Crocs and a tee, working on taxidermy, which is admittedly creepy. The two become unlikely friends. This heartwarming graphic novel has a lot of nuance and depth.