Publisher Preview: Eerdmans Spring 2025 Sneak Peek!

There’s nothing I like better than a glimpse into the near future. Publishers produce so many books in a given year that it can be difficult to get a sense of what they’re putting out into the world. That’s why I eschew the Big Five and prefer to highlight some of the smaller folks. Eerdmans, the Michigan-based publisher, has a tendency to release seriously high quality fare. As such, take a gander at some of the books they have on the not-so-far horizon.

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Ramon Fellini the Dog Detective by Guilherme Karsten

ISBN: 9780802856364

Publication Date: February 11, 2025

Translated from the Portugese. Who likes murder? Who likes pets? Who likes picture books? Now you can get all three in a pet murder mystery picture book, just like the good lord intended. Karsten is from Brazil and in this story a dire event begins everything. Someone has attacked the fishbowl. The fish appears to be all right but then a knock comes at the door. Behold! It is Ramon Fellini, a cat who insists that he’s actually a dog in disguise and he is here to solve the case. The kid of the home is entirely gullible and believes everything Ramon says, with consequences. Consider this a nice unreliable narrator/detective picture book and/or a way to talk about dramatic irony with younger kids. It’s ideal for smart children who like to be more intelligent than the characters they read. I asked who did the translation of the book, and it turns out that it was the author himself! A hilarious intro to mysteries and a great read aloud.

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Thread by Thread by Alice Briere-Haquet, ill. Michela Eccli, translated by Sarah Ardizzone

ISBN: 9780802856395

Publication Date: February 18, 2024

A French translation. So this book would pair nicely with 2024’s Loose Threads by Isol. But where that book uses embroidery in its art, this book uses actual knitting and thread, combined with pen and inks. In this story of refugees and immigration, a house is beginning to unravel. The mouse family inside understands that their situation is untenable, and when the house goes all the way they must run and seek shelter. The yarn helps the family to make a boat, and that takes them to a place where kind people lend them their own yarns in order to knit a new home. The text, if you can see it here, is very short, sparse, and spare. What’s remarkable is how this lighthearted mixed media pares with a pretty serious subject. It’s probably significant that both book creators are educators. A timely refugee story told through the language of knitting.

Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re wondering, “Betsy, I know you have this bizarre obsession with whether or not knitting needles are pointed in the correct direction in picture books. Does that apply to Thread By Thread?”

Oh yes. It does. And I am happy to report that it passes with flying colors.

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Trouble Dog: From Shelter Dog to Conservation Hero by Carol A. Foote, ill. Larry Day

ISBN: 9780802855817

Publication Date: February 25, 2024

Look, if I’m going to get feels from a dog book, then I want those feels to be earned. And this book? This may be giving me the strongest dog feels I’ve felt in a very long time. That cover is part of the success. This is a story of a conservation working dog, a phenomenon I was unaware of before. But as it happens, Working Dogs for Conservation (WDFC) is the world’s largest and oldest conservation dog organization and author Carol Foote worked with them and met with many of their scientists and founders (apparently they’re well worth an Instagram scroll). As a longtime freelance journalist, Carol was really into the research that goes into a book of this sort. This is an endearing story about a dog who finds a new life with a new job. Tucker is in the shelter because he’s “trouble”. So when the adult Laura visits, she decides he might be the right kind of trouble. Turns out, he’s ball-obsessed and completely ill-suited to typical pet life, in part because he has so much energy. Fortunately, that energy can be redirected, and Tucker is placed into a conservation dog training program. There, he excels as a fast learner. On his first job he is sent to find rosy wolf snails in Hawaii. You see, dogs like Tucker can sniff out invasive species and other creatures that need tracking. Throughout the course of the story you watch him find rare animals too like moon bears in China and mountain lions in Chile. At the story’s end there’s some good backmatter with photos of the real canine scientists in the field. “Tucker”, the hero of this story, is a mixture of two real dogs featured at the end of the book. Note that the book combines STEAM and the environment for cross-curricular possibilities and that, “The backmatter is readymade for the classroom”. This is even a good dog that kids with ADHD can identify with. After all, they might see themselves in this dog.

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The Quiet One by Yiting Lee

ISBN: 9780802856418

Publication Date: March 4, 2025

Creator Yiting Lee was the quiet one in class growing up. Little wonder that she was drawn to create a book about finding your footing in the classroom and in the world. This is one for those kids who might see themselves as tinkerers or future engineers, and it really captures the ways that introverted kids shine when they don’t have to pretend to be someone else. Just an opportunity to share who they are with others. In this story, Milly is the quiet one in a very noisy classroom and she dreads Show & Tell. She’s much more comfortable being alone and tinkering. One day she finds a broken cleaning robot and when she fixes it, it informs her that its name is Arnold. Because he’s a robot, Milly is not as afraid to speak to him. For Show & Tell day she decides to bring Arnold and to talk about him. Her reward? Her classmates explode with interest and now Show & Tell is an opportunity for her to share what she loves. Featuring a nicely diverse classroom, this is a lovable picture book with a STEAM twist. Yiting lives in Singapore and wrote this in English. Impressive!

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How Do You Eat Color? by Mabi David, ill. Yas Doctor, translated by Karen Llagas

ISBN: 9780802856388

Publication Date: May 18, 2025

Translated from Filipino and originated in the Philippines. So the creators of this book are from the Philippines themselves, and the translator is on staff at U.C. Berkeley (she also translated Dancing Hands, which I know a lot of you loved). Mabi is a vegan chef who loves plant-based eating and is very excited about making plant-based eating accessible to kids. Yas, meanwhile, sketched the art for this book from her own garden. To my mind, this reminds me of Lois Ehlert’s Eating the Alphabet. This book talks about the flavors of each of the colors, the creators including hints of Filipino culture in the art. Essentially, this is the kind of book that helps to make healthy eating look very diverse, depending on who is picking the fruits and vegetables. So, for example, eating red means eating stuff like hibiscus and red beans and tomato. The story itself moves from the morning to the evening with a chameleon following the kids throughout. Best of all, it’s a color book as well as a food book. Keep an eye out for dragonfruit, moringa, and others. There’s backmatter to find out what some of these fruits are. Heck, there’s even a “How can I try it?” and “How does it help my body?” section. Good for prek and early elementary. Plus kids just love rainbows. This connects to all those picture books about kids coming into the lunchroom with different foods. After all, healthy eating looks different for many different people and it may require a wider palette.

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A Universe of Rainbows: Multicolored Poems for a Multicolored World by Matt Forrest Esenwine, ill. Jamey Christoph.

ISBN: 9780802855718

Publication Date: April 1, 2025

Well look at that! I appears that Matt Forrest is following in the footsteps of Lee Bennett Hopkins thanks to this collection of 18 original poems from 20 big names. This book is a celebration of rainbows as they appear all around our world in many different forms, and beyond our planet. Inside you’ll find a veritable who’s who of poets. Nikki Grimes, Joyce, Sidman, Marilyn Singer, Laura Purdie Salas, Charles Waters, Irene Latham, Janet Wong, Jane Yolen, and more! The book itself is separated into five sections: Rainbows of Light, Rainbow Waters, Living Rainbows, Rainbows of Rock, and Rainbows Beyond (containing information on stuff like nebulas). In the main part of each spread you’ve the poem and then each illustrated spread has sidebars with the information highlighted in the poem. It’s a pretty good science book as well as poetry book. Best of all, it has one of my favorite animals, the peacock mantis shrimp (“Just because you’re beautiful doesn’t mean you can’t be fierce”). There are different types of poems, like haiku or Joyce’s pantoum. And best of all it has a beautiful global theme and lots of lovely backmatter. There’s a list of Books, Websites, and additional information on each thing mentioned. A Glossary is in the back as well.

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Adi of Boutanga: A Story from Cameroon by Alain Serge Dzotap, ill. Marc Daniau, translated by Alain Serge Dzotap

ISBN: 9780802856296

Publication Date: April 15, 2025

This cover may present a bit young, but the book contains a plotline that doesn’t come up for kids all that often. Written for ages 10-14, the story focuses on a girl encountering a possible forced marriage. This illlustrated novella is translated from the French and the author is Cameroonian himself. Heck, he’s been awarded Cameroon’s Order of the Knight for Merit for his work with literacy! The story starts off introducing 13-year-old Adi and the village that she lives in in Cameroon. The reader gets to see all the things that Adi loves doing, like going to school and unlocking the power of words. Then one day her uncle comes to her family with the shocking news that he made a deal for her to be married off. Her parents protest but because he’s the eldest within the family, you can’t argue with him. Happily, Adi’s father is not in favor of this plan and promises he’ll help her. I can tell you that the story does end happily, in large part because Adi always has the support of her family. Her father takes her to a couple who have started an organization to fund schools and create a refuge for girls like Adi. This is based off a real girl and a real organization and there’s some pretty good backmatter to give lots of context to U.S. readers. The author has so much great material to share that the publisher gave him space to include it in the American edition of this book. In the backmatter, he talks about Cameroon and the people in the story. There’s a glossary as well that covers what may be unfamiliar terms or parts of the culture. In its original form, this book has already been included in the International Youth Library’s White Ravens catalog. Maybe that’s because it’s optimistic, but not in a fairy tale kind of way, and offers such a positive aspect to what can be a horrifying topic. It’s not a misery book. And this is another case where the author is the translator! The publisher stressed that they wanted his voice to come through in the translation and so they gave him a chance to make that happen.

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And There Was Music by Marta Pantaleo, translated by Debbie Bibo

ISBN: 9780802856401

Publication Date: April 22, 2025

The title of this book reminds me of a line from the song “Till There Was You.” Translated from the Italian, this is a celebration of different genres and instruments when it comes to music. In spite of its Italian roots, this is the book’s first publication anywhere! The backmatter also covers everything from the Indian Classical Music to Gamelan Music, Irish Folk Music, or what one instrument or another is. Consider this to be definitely for the prek and early elementary classrooms. The vibrancy of the book and happiness and colors are sure to make this book a popular addition. A balance between the localized and the universal.

Special thanks to Amy Storey and the Eerdmans team for this fun preview of things to come.

Filed under: Publisher Previews