A Levine Querido Publisher Preview (Fall 2024)

Happy 4th of July!

And what better way to celebrate our nation’s founding than (checks notes), ah, by celebrating the books that exist in this fine country? Okay, so my reasoning for posting this preview of upcoming titles coming out of Levine Querido is tentative at best. Whatever the case, you can just assume that I was so excited to premiere these books that I simply couldn’t wait for the holiday to pass. And believe me, after you get an eyeful of some of these titles, you may be inclined to feel the same way.

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Makers by Young Vo

ISBN: 9781646144495

Publication Date: August 27, 2024

If you saw and loved Young Vo’s Gibberish then have I got a treat for you! Vo’s the kind of fellow who has a delightful sense of humor that comes across in everything (even his emails). In his latest book, he uses visual language and metaphor to tell a story of friendship between two boys. Van and Minh live in a village beside the sea and both has aspirations to be boatmakers so as to sail across it. One boy is a perfectionist, trying to make everything absolutely perfect. His friend is the opposite, always chasing the next new idea. As a result, neither can bring anything to completion. That means they have to blend their creative styles to get things done. I suspect a number of us will be able to relate (at least to one boy).

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Quill the Forest Keeper by Marije Tolman, translated from the Dutch by David Colmer

ISBN: 9781646144525

Publication Date: August 13, 2024

Something about this cover looked familiar to me. And it wasn’t just the fact that the creator, Marije Tolman, did the wholly beautiful picture book Little Fox (released in the U.S. in 2020). No, it was something else. Something a little more recent. Something like… my blog post from March 16, 2023 Books From Bologna: Titles I’d Love to See in America (Part Two). Looks like at least one of my prayers from that post has been answered because the title that I knew as Egalus is coming here.

Here’s the funny thing about the book, though. Its original title is apparently a portmanteau of the Dutch word for hedgehog along with an ending for gods in Dutch mythology. How the heck do you translate a title like that into English? Long story short, you don’t, you find something equally good. From what I can understand, this book was actually created for a Children’s Book Week, and using Marije’s signature style it uses a Pantone 5th color to bring out this marvelous bright bright orange in all of the spreads. See, look!

Marije was apparently with her family on a trip to the Scottish Highlands when she photographed all those beautiful images you’re seeing in her landscapes. Combine that with some gouache for the little animals and you have yourself a book. In this story, Quill is a little hedgehog who wants to keep his corner of his world clean. Yet every time he cleans one area, another one gets dirty. Exhausted by his Sisyphean efforts, he and goes to sleep and his friends try to pick up the slack. Is there anything better than fuzzy woodland creatures paired with jaw-dropping landscape art?

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On a Chariot of Fire: The Story of India’s Bene Israel by Erica Lyons, ill. Siona Benjamin

ISBN: 9781646144341

Publication Date: September 3, 2024

This one was pitched to me as, “The other side of the Hanukkah story.” But no, that doesn’t mean that it’s from a Maccabee p.o.v. The original Hanukkah tale focuses on a particular sect of Jewish people who fought the Maccabees, but did you know that there was another entirely different sect of that group who fled across the sea to find a new home in India? During this journey there comes a great storm and only a few survive to reach the shore. There they continue to practice their Jewish faith. Illustrator Siona Benjamin identifies as a member of that community and her art helps to elevate this undertold part of the Jewish diaspora.

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The Legend of Tiger and Tail-Flower by Lee Gee Eun, translated from the Korean by Aerin Park

ISBN: 9781646144594

Publication Date: August 13, 2024

Here’s a description you won’t hear every day. According to Levine Querido, Lee Gee Eun is the “Sophie Blackall of Korea”. This particular story (which you can tell from the cover is pressing all my goofy buttons) is told in a combination of traditional picture book spreads and graphic novel types of panels. It’s a perfect format for a zany, very fun story. And who doesn’t love tales of opposites attracting? In this case, the tale centers on an unlikely friendship that forms when a magical dandelion attaches itself to the tail of a grouchy tiger. The tiger has alienated all of its friends, so what happens when the dandelion gets along with those same animals? It turns into a touching mediation on losing friends. And check out the serious eyebrows going on here in the art, by the way. Bert and Groucho have nothing on these two.

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Chooch Helped by Andrea L. Rogers, ill. Rebecca Lee Kunz

ISBN: 9781646144549

Publication Date: October 8, 2024

Yeah, as an older sister I feel this one. But before we get into the plot, I just want to note tht one of the neat features of this book is that the art in it comes from a debut artist who made her name in the fine arts world. Rebecca Lee Kunz is a member of the Cherokee nation and this book is about a pair of Cherokee siblings. Sissy’s little brother is into “helping” out, which, quite frankly, bugs the crap out of his sister. After all, he keeps making a mess of things. Sissy’s upset that he gets away with stuff that she never got away with, which I believe is the rallying cry of older siblings everywhere. Meanwhile, the book is also an ode to traditional Cherokee practices. Ultimately, when Sissy loses her temper and yells at her brother, she gets sent to her room, and Chooch comes to reassure her himself.

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Aiko and the Planet of Dogs by Ainhoa Cayuso, ill. Christopher Ellegaard, translated from the French by Irene Vazquez

ISBN: 9781646144648

Publication Date: October 8, 2024

Here’s an interesting case. How many picture books can you name that are translated by their own editors? Irene, I should mention, was the person showing off these titles for me in the preview, so you can forgive her for being a little bit biased towards this particular book. She explained that part of the reason she loves it was that it has a particularly weird and zany sense of humor. In this story, Aiko is a brave astronaut searching for a planet fit for human life. She crashes on a planet of talking dogs which she sees this as a wonderful thing. Who wouldn’t want to live here? What she hasn’t counted on, though, is that these dogs are the descendants of all the cosmonaut dogs abandoned in space in the early days of spaceflight. They ask Aiko, quite reasonably, why they should ever see humans again. Then they proceed to put her on a leash. This is a surprisingly comfortable arrangement, actually, but one day while she’s off on her daily walk, Aiko saves the dogs’ leader from a giant catfish. They set her free, and she in turn decides that she won’t tell anyone that they’re there. Kooky and fun.

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Coming Home: A Hopi Resistance Story by Mavasta Honyouti

ISBN: 9781646144570

Publication Date: November 5, 2024

You’re going to find that this particular book is illustrated in a wholly new and interesting style, not often seen in children’s books. Mavasta Honyouti is a Hopi woodcarver. Generally, Mavasta carves panels into wood in relief and is renowned for the ways in which he works pop culture into his traditional Hopi methods (you can see a lot of his art on Instagram here). Naturally, someone asked him if he’d ever be interested in making a picture book. Happily, he was interested and the result is this story about his grandfather surviving the boarding school experience. He carved all the illustrations for this book, but that’s only half the battle. To make this art work on the page, each image had to be photographed in just the right way so as to show a certain amount of depth to each image. Mavata’s grandfather, you see, was sent to residential schools as a child, and not only survived but managed to pass on the traditional woodcarving traditions and practices of his own ancestors. The book will be fully bilingual in English and Hopi, and has backmatter from an educator on the Hopi reservation.

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Night: A Children’s Fable by Katherine Jumbs, ill. Shana Dixon

ISBN: 9781646144631

Publication Date: January 2025

One of our rare 2025 titles today! Why it’s so far in the future that they don’t even have a book jacket for it yet! Folks may be excited to hear too that this manuscript was found in the unsolicited submissions pile. It features two debut creators and has a classic storytelling oral tradition feel to it thanks to its repetition and rhythmic style. Hailing from Malawi the fable tells the story of a young girl and her baby sister who live on the Malawi Savannah. One day people start to get angry. They want to know, why does it ever have to be nighttime? The night hears them, gets mad, and takes the darkness away. Now there’s no shade or nighttime and there’s also a huge drought. And because the complainy head citizenry is not good at apologies, it’s up to a child to ask the night for forgiveness and bring order back to the world.

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Frank and the Big Mistake by Martha Brockenbrough, ill. Jon Lau

ISBN: 9781646144600

Publication Date: November 5, 2024

Say hello to #3 in the Frank and the Puppy series. At the beginning of the book, our two heroes (Frank and Sunny) hear that a “Nibbling” is coming. Turns out, it’s a child who has no sense of boundaries and likes to dress them up in costumes. Author Martha Brockenbrough is on record saying that she sees these three books in the series as showing three different aspects of love. Love of siblings, love of friends, and then self-love after you’ve made a mistake.

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Golem Crafters by Emi Watanabe Cohen

ISBN: 9781646142699

Publication Date: October 2024

Now is that a cover or is that a cover? This is the sophmore novel for Emi Watanabe Cohen. She’s an author that blends aspects of her Jewish and Japanese heritage through a fantastical lens. In this story, two siblings are connected to their Japanese side of the family. One day, a mysterious package comes from the Jewish side. They are then asked to learn the family art of golem crafting. This transports them to a parallel world where they must figure out how golem crafting helps them stand up to injustice. And best of all? Cohen apparently lives in the Chicago area! Bonus!

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Mishka by Edward van de Vendel and Anoush Elmann, ill. Arnet Schaap, translated from the Dutch by Nancy Forest-Fler

ISBN: 9781646144587

Publication Date: November 12, 2024

Please note that author Edward van de Vendel co-wrote this particular book with a refugee from Afghanistan. Makes sense since the book itself is about an Afghani family coming to the Netherlands as a refugee. The family in this book has suffered a lot and they’re not good about talking about what they’ve been through. In the course of things they adopt a little bunny, and somehow it’s able to help them start to discuss their experiences. I was told that this book captures a young 8-9 year old voice so very well (and it’s hard to nail down that lower middle grade voice).

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The Curse of Madame Petrova by Marjoijin Hof, ill. Annette Fiemieg , translated from the Dutch by Bill Nagelkirk

ISBN: 9781646144532

Publication Dates: October 15, 2024

I liked this one based on the cover alone, way before I knew what the story is about. This book tells of twins separated at birth because of a prophecy that they would be the cause of one another’s demise. Now their parents are dead and their cousins want to inherit the family estate. So the twins fake their deaths so as to track down the one who made the prophecy (Madame Petrova) to make her change the curse. It’s a nice dark fairy tale.

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Finally, you may have read that Levine Querido, clearly having too much time on their hands (???) has launched a reprint imprint as part of their greater mission. And to kick everything off, they’re started with this:

Liberation Literature: Collected Writings of Virginia Hamilton

ISBN: 9781646144501

Publication Date: September 17, 2024

This is the collection that was edited by Virginia Hamilton’s husband back in 2010. There’s no better way to kick off this list than her work, which has been so important to children’s literature today.

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Special thanks to Irene for being such a trooper and presenting these books in a great big preview. Let’s give her a round of applause, folks!

Filed under: Publisher Previews