Category: The Kids Are All Right

This picture book tackles the big-picture history of how the ocean, and the creatures that live in it, came to be. Divided into three parts, it begins billions and billions of years ago when the Earth was covered in magma. Berne describes how the Earth cooled down and how life started, and how that life evolved over millions of years into what we know today. Even though it covers such broad and complicated topics, Berne keeps the prose lyrical and expressive vs. informative, which makes this really lovely to read aloud. Instead, she packs the back matter with lots of further reading. The illustrations are also lovely.

I’m typically not super interested in machines, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this one. In lyrical prose, Cusolito follows the history of how humans explored the ocean and the tools and machines humans have made to enable that exploration, from snorkeling gear to diving suits to submersibles and more. Each page includes more details about the tools for further reading. Maybe don’t tell your kids about the recent Titanic submersible catastrophe though, if they haven’t heard about it already…

The illustrations in this nonfiction picture book about octopi (octopuses?) are stunning! Each page spread depicts a different type of octopus. On one side of the page, Slade has written a lovely poem about the octopus. On the other side is a paragraph-long description of the octopus shown in the illustration and octopus behavior. It’s a really beautiful book.

Kids love this interactive nonfiction about things found at the sea. It’s a giant book — probably a nightmare to shelve for librarians and booksellers — but a great format for the kind of illustrations and content. Each page covers a different topic: “On the Beach,” “At the Port,” “Welcome Aboard,” and more. The book follows Plum and Robin, mother and son, as they explore the beach. Flaps uncover more details about what they find, like treasures from the tide and seahorses living among the coral. Be sure to check out the author’s other book in this series, In the Garden.

I buy this book (or the We Are Little Feminists Box Set) as a gift for every baby shower I’m invited to. This particular board book in the series depicts photographs of disabled children and parents out and about — hiking, playing, running, exploring, and more. It shows a variety of disabilities and a variety of mobility aids. The prose is short and full of energy. Also check out We Are Little Feminists: How We Eat, which shows feeding tubes and other eating aids.

This Halloween board book releases on July 18th, and it’s so cute! Each page shows a kid who is a wheelchair user in a different Halloween costume that uses the wheelchair as part of the costume. One child is a racecar driver, another is Cinderella in her carriage, and a third is an alien in a spaceship. The wheels turn, making it really fun for toddlers.

Sign language board books are fairly common, but this one, the first board book in a two-book series, is my favorite. Each page shows the child Nita using a new sign, and an interactive pull-out page gives instructions on how to make the sign. The second book in the series is Nita’s Day. Author Kathy MacMillan is an ASL interpreter.

Pitzer has written and photographed three board books with children with Downs Syndrome. Each board book covers basic toddler concepts. In this one, various children with Down Syndrome participate in daily activities and play, and invite the reader to do the same: “I can play patty-cake, can you?” I Like Berries, Do You? depicts children with Down Syndrome eating a variety of foods and asking the reader if they like those foods, too, and My Up & Down & All Around Book introduces prepositions. As a side note, the Amazon title for I Like Berries, Do You? includes the euphemism ‘special needs’ which is generally frowned upon in the disabled community. I still enjoy the book, but I wanted to note that. You can read more about why you should avoid that term and what words to use instead at the Center for Disability Rights, in this article by Emily Ladau, and at the National Center for Disability in Journalism.

I’m surprised I haven’t reviewed this one in the newsletter yet! As someone with severe allergies, I really identify with the protagonist in this graphic novel. Maggie loves animals. However, when her parents allow her to adopt one from the humane society for her 10th birthday, she discovers she’s severely allergic to them. The dog has to go back, and her parents take her to an allergist, where they learn she’s allergic to all animals. Meanwhile, she’s also navigating a new school, a new neighbor, her pesky brother, and a new sibling on the way.

I have reviewed this middle grade novel-in-verse once before in a newsletter, but as one of my favorite 2023 middle grade releases, I had to include it again. Twelve-year-old Dominican American Aniana’s joints hurt often, and sometimes swell and feel hot to the touch. She hasn’t told anyone though, because she has a big secret she’s hiding from her Mami — she’s joined the swim team. As a child, Mami lost her brother in a flood, and she doesn’t want Aniana anywhere near the water. Aniana loves water and swimming, however. When the pain gets to the point that she’s no longer able to hide it, her parents take her to the doctor, and she’s eventually diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Her secret swim meets are also revealed.

This is another middle grade novel-in-verse, and the first book written by someone with cystic fibrosis that has a main character who also has cystic fibrosis. Penny Rooney’s English teacher has assigned the class a poem about themselves, but Penny can’t think of anything to write about. Penny and her older sister Liana love to play in the creek in their backyard in Durham, North Caroline. One day Penny finds a distressed and lost dolphin in the creek, and she’s determined to help it. This is a lovely novel about friendship and identity.

Two friends face off at drama summer camp in this fantastic and inclusive middle grade novel with dual perspectives. Maggie is a fat Jewish kid with dyspraxia. Chloe is an actress with an overbearing mom who is beginning to discover she’s a lesbian. The two former best friends had a falling out after a school musical went horribly wrong. Now they’re bunkmates in a summer camp. Kapit has two other middle grade novels with neurodiverse characters that I love just as much: Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen! and The Many Mysteries of the Finkel Family.

This book, told in alternating points of view, follows two friends who struggle to find belonging in 6th grade. Unlike other middle-grade books centered around friendship, this one doesn’t center on drama or a falling out. Instead, the two friends continue to support each other through the ups and downs of middle school. I really love this book!

Middle school is filled with unspoken rules, which Talia finds out when her best friend suddenly doesn’t want to be friends with a girl. Furthermore, when the mathletes captain doubts her abilities, Talia leans into girl power. She’ll start her own all-girls mathletes team!

This novel-in-verse, inspired by the author’s experience living on the spectrum as someone who largely “passes” in society as neurotypical, follows a neurodivergent girl who always sticks to her rules for being normal. But when an incident at school causes her to lose friends and even face expulsion, Selah needs to figure out how to get the school to realize that different doesn’t mean damaged.

Torrey Maldonado is a middle school teacher, and he writes from such an authentic experience about growing up in New York City. In What Lane?, Stephen, a mixed kid, finds that rules are different depending on who he’s hanging out with. Can he figure out how to be his authentic self?

Lupe Lopez is pumped for first grade and ready to rock reading. Unfortunately, reading is harder than she imagined. When her teacher places her in the beginning reading group, her rival mocks her. She may be frustrated, but she’s not about to give up, and it turns out her rock-and-roll skills might be able to help her, and her group, learn to read! This follow-up to Lupe Lopez: ¡Reglas de una estrella de rock! is just as fun as the first book. Candlewick has a section on its website of more books in other languages (mostly Spanish).

This new picture book by comedian Jesús Trejo is both hilarious and heartwarming and is based on Trejo’s childhood. A young Jesús is thrilled to be spending the day with his Papá at work as a landscaper. He’s told that when the magical water jug is empty, it will be time to return home, and is placed in charge of the water jug. Unfortunately, Jesús gets a little over-enthusiastic about the water, giving water out to cats and sweater-clad dogs, splashing it on his face, and more. Soon, they’re out of the water, but Papá still has many more houses to go! Check out more Spanish titles from Astra Publishing.

This sweet and funny picture book retells the Caribbean folktale “La Cucaracha Martina.” Martina does not like parties. She enjoys the quiet, and too many people make her nervous. Her tías could not be more different in personality. After helping to clean the house before a party, Martina finds an imaginary world to escape to, but it turns out that she’s not truly home without her family, and her tías are an important part of that family. Simon Kids has more bilingual and Spanish children’s books here.

This is a stunningly illustrated picture book that blends fabulism with reality. Puerto Rican marine biologist Melissa Cristina Márquez tells the story of herself as a little girl. Young Meli only has five more minutes of beach play remaining, so she decides to explore a tide pool, where she meets the hermit crab Jaiba. Jaiba takes her on an underwater adventure where Meli learns her true destiny is to become the mother of sharks and to teach others about shark conservation. Check out more Penguin Spanish children’s books here.

This book is a humorous take on belonging and acceptance. When Ramen sees how much more popular spaghetti is, he wants to be spaghetti too! The illustrations are very fun and the book has a sweet message about the power of being yourself.

Shinsuke Yoshitake is one of my favorite children’s book authors. He always gets to the heart of a child’s frustrations and desires! In this book, a young kid wants to be able to open anything and not have to ask for help. The book gets sillier and sillier with each page turn, and you really get an understanding of just how many things there are to open in this world!

This fun and inventive counting book is about, yes, 100 dragons all named Broccoli! Over the course of the book, they scatter to all areas of the world until just one is left. Seasons change, and the last dragon emerges…with 100 babies, all with different names and adorable portraits!

From the creator of I’m Just No Good At Rhyming, Chris Harris has a new book filled with silly poems and illustrations. This is a perfect book for those who love Shel Silverstein or silly poems in general! I love Andrea Tsurumi’s fun illustrations.

This collection of 60 activities ranges in ease and complexity and can be easily adapted to multiple ages and with various materials. The first one my daughter and I tried was a rainbow village building activity inspired by Rainbow Grandpa Huang Yung-Fu, a soldier who painted every building in his Taiwanese village various colors and patterns when he learned it would be destroyed. The village survives and can now be visited. I love that Wong-Nizic includes that information with the activity. This craft required boxes of various sizes, brown craft paper, tape, and a variety of coloring utensils. We wrapped the boxes in the brown paper and drew and painted colorful patterns onto them, creating a little mini village. We looked at images from the real village as we drew! Other activities include making rock dominoes, a very important person statue, and more. Often the activities are inspired by real people and artists.

I just received this one in the mail and haven’t had a chance to try out any of the activities yet, but I’m excited! This activity book includes seven “fun” sections: In the Fresh Air, With Paper, With Science, You Can Eat, With Crafts, With Imagin-yay-tion, and With Family. Most of these are very simple, classic activities like making snowflakes, ice cream in a bag, spiral friendship bracelets, a shoe shop, and more.

I was so excited when I heard about this one! This book’s goal is to “engage in art activities that work toward removing biases, promoting change, and taking action.” It’s divided into six units: Identity, Culture, Community, Empathy, Justice, and Activism. Activities include transforming your name into a work of art, celebrating community heroes and helpers through making papers and portraits, creating miniature billboards that address a social issue, and more. These activities can be adapted for all ages.

We have a variety of science activity books but this is the one we use the most, primarily because it has many experiments with household items we actually have! We’ve squeezed an egg into a bottle, made electric oobleck, conducted some potato science, and more. I do recommend checking out the required materials list before tackling some of these, though! While many are pretty easy, several have less common materials.

As you know, I love journals and journaling, and this cute picture book is all about Tim and his love for being outside and recording his observations in his nature journal. When his dad is too busy for Tim one day, Tim goes up to the attic and finds his dad’s journals, filled with stories of adventure and exploration.

When I first opened this book and saw that the end papers were paintings of mangoes, I knew I was going to love it. Nora spends her summers with her lola in the Philippines, and she loves helping at her grandmother’s store. When it becomes too hot for anyone to go outside, Nora wants to figure out a way to use the large mango tree outside the store to make treats for the neighborhood.

This book captures all the fears and joys of swimming for the first time. I love the facial expressions on all of the characters — they are filled with life and joy!

Oh, I relate to this city story about going to the pool so much! When my kids were younger, we were one of the many families heading to the NYC public pools on hot summer days. I love how this story depicts what it’s like to go swimming in a city pool.

In bold graphics great for little eyes, this accessible board book introduces pronouns, including neo pronouns. With simple, direct language, it encourages readers to ask for people’s pronouns. This is an excellent way to introduce pronouns to toddlers in those early stages of language development.

This is the first book I bought my daughter to discuss gender identity, and we still talk about and reread it regularly. Thorn addresses the reader in her straightforward explanation that some people are boys, some girls, and others are somewhere in between. She includes nonbinary and trans kids, as well as a range of racial and ability diversity.

While the first two books in this list discuss gender identity in a more basic, introductory sense, this one specifically unpacks gender stereotypes. Can girls play with trucks? Of course. Can boys play with dolls? Also of course. Additionally, it discusses pronouns and the difference between sex and gender. This is a great picture book for kids who have experienced gender stereotyping.

I love that there’s now a basic introductory discussion of gender identity for chapter book readers. Accompanied by kid-friendly illustrations, Passchier takes readers on a chapter-by-chapter rundown on gender identity, including discussions of gender expression, finding support, and biology. It includes questions at the end of each chapter for readers to think about, as well as an accessible summary of the chapter.

When Maizy Chen and her mother move to Last Chance, Minnesota to be closer to Maizy’s grandparents, she has a lot of questions about what they’re doing there. But when a beloved family treasure goes missing, Maizy is determined to find it no matter what it takes.

For Amelia MacGuffin, life in her little seaside town in unremarkable. That is, until the dragonfly staff, an essential part of the upcoming Dragonfly Day Festival, is stolen. The theft of the dragonfly staff means that the Dragonfly Day Festival might be cancelled, and with that, tourism revenues will plummet. With her parents reliant upon tourists to keep the Pacific General Store open, Amelia must step out of her comfort zone and step into the shoes of a sleuth.

Sometimes theft isn’t an item, it’s an idea and a recipe. Mila loves her family’s food truck, The Banana Leaf. But when celebrity chefs arrive and open a restaurant nearby, with the same food and the same recipes, Mila knows she needs to do something before her family’s food truck goes out of business.

I love the Carver Chronicles series, and this one is great for young readers. When a new kid, Khufu, joins Gavin’s third grade class, no one knows what to make of him. He tells far-fetched stories, and then he shows up at school with a bike in the same model and make as Gavin’s — the day after Gavin’s bike goes missing. The class comes to only one conclusion. Khufu has stolen Gavin’s bike and painted it orange to disguise it. What’s Gavin to do?