Ellen Myrick Publisher Preview: Fall 2023/Winter 2024 (Part Two – Pajama Press, Red Comet Press, Scallywag Press & Sleeping Bear Press)

Ellen Myrick Publisher Preview: Fall 2023/Winter 2024 (Part Two – Pajama Press, Red Comet Press, Scallywag Press & Sleeping Bear Press)

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Part Two! This is the post where I round up a bunch of smaller publishers’ publications coming out in Fall 2023 and Winter 2024 (doesn’t that just sound like the distant future?).

To aid me today, I ask that you grant me some patience with these posts. I received feedback recently that while these are nice posts, if I highlight a book and don’t make any kind of a mention of the translator, then what am I even doing? Trouble is, not every publisher provides that kind of information. As such, I’ll make mention of the those people wherever the publishers have taken the time to do their due diligence. Woohoo!

You can see my previous round-up of titles here.


See It Dream It Do It: How 25 People Just Like You Found Their Dream Jobs by Colleen Nelson and Kathie MacIsaac, ill. Scot Ritchie

Publication Date: October 17, 2023

ISBN: 9781772782882

Personally, I don’t think enough attention is paid to those kids that fret constantly about their future. I know that when I was a highly strung child, I perpetuated a continual fret about what my future job prospects might be. It would have done me quite a bit of good to see a book like See It, Dream It, Do It. Career books are always very popular in a library, of course, but I feel like this book offers a level of reassurance that is different. For example, it might say to you, “you like horses – here are the jobs”. Then it’ll show you actual photographs of actual people doing one of these jobs. It even has spinoff jobs as well! With a nicely diverse selection of experts, maybe I just like this book because it appeals to elementary school/middle school me, but doggone it that kid still exists and we have to give her something!

The Great Grrrrr by Marie Sabine Roger and Marjolaine Leray, translator Angus Killick-Yuen!

Publication Date: September 19, 2023

ISBN: 9781636550565

In the case of The Great Grrrrr, the element of surprise is a bit lost when you read the title. This French import is, by all accounts, born for storytimes. In it, a monster is incredibly excited because he gets to deliver a small, pink package. I mean, just look at this punim:

Alas, the woman of the house isn’t home immediately and the monster starts to lose patience:

Long story short, I’m 99% certain that the monster destroys the house. And then the little old lady who lives there comes along . . .

As someone who has been both monster and little old lady in my time, I’m fond of this tale. More to the point, I’m highly intrigued by the way in which Leray depicts those fantastic facial expressions. Just delightful, right down to its endpapers:

The Rescues Finding Home by Tommy Greenwald and Charlie Greenwald, ill. Shiho Pate

Publication Date: September 5, 2023

ISBN: 9781636550763

Does your library hold a program where kids read to dogs? Such programs have been existence for decades now, but that doesn’t mean that the formula to finding the perfect book for a child to read to a pet has been cracked. Enter Tommy Greenwald. Alongside a Charlie Greenwald and an illustrator named Shiho Pate, the three have managed to conjure up a book that may be the perfect reading level for such programs. The essential premise is that it stars two rescue dogs who are adopted together from a shelter. As they explore their new home they make sure to work in plenty of daytime naps along the way. Warning: Cuteness Alert.

Eye Spy by Ruth Brown

Publication Date: October 3, 2023

ISBN 9781912650903

The old “I spy with my little eye game” gets a kick in the pants thanks to this lovely little, mildly retro, book. With all the trappings of classic Jerry Pinkney, the premise is kind of neat. A range of camouflaged animals appear on these pages and you have to spot them. It’s sort of what you’d get if Animalia spread itself out and worked in some science along the way. Here’s a taste of what I mean:

Neat, right?

Okay. I’m a sucker for a good cover. Now feast your eyes on this:

Street Monsters by Barbara Joosse, ill. Kevin M. Barry

Publication Date: August 15, 2023

ISBN: 9781534112728

That’s pretty great.

Also pretty great is the premise. You know when you’re a kid and you’re tucked in bed all safe and sound, when suddenly these awful screetching noises come from outside? The mind may be prey to some pretty wild imaginings when this occurs. Enter, the street monsters. These are, obviously, the monsters that take care of our streets at night. I’ve been a fan of Barbara Joosse for years, and this is precisely the kind of premise that can appeal to kids and their parents alike. And, since this is the year 2023, you even get some swanky nonfiction backmatter with photographs at the end. Not too shabby, eh?

A longer round-up next week, scout’s honor. In the meantime, be sure to keep an eye peeled for these truly interesting looking titles!

Review of the Day: Stories of the Islands by Clar Angkasa

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Stories of the Islands
By Clar Angkasa
Holiday House
$22.99
ISBN: 9780823449781
On shelves October 31st

There was a time, oh best beloved, when fairytales and works of folklore ruled children’s libraries across America. It was an era before the big box bookstores, long before the internet, when librarians set the tone for what would and wouldn’t sell in the world of children’s literature. Back then, if you wanted to look at world cultures, fairytales and folktales were your one and only way of doing so. Even then, few distinguished between the tales told by white people about other cultures and tales told by people from those cultures themselves. These days, folktales have long since fallen out of favor in the publishing industry. And gone is the time when librarians became sticklers for “original” rather than fractured or rewritten versions of classic tales. These days, if you’d like to rewrite a story, you are fully within your rights to do so. After all, isn’t that how folktales began in the first place? Told from person to person over time, until they morphed and changed to fit a variety of cultures? Much of this was in my head as I read Clar Angkasa’s reworking of three Indonesian folktales from her childhood. In her hands, the stories “Keong Mas”, “Bawang Merah Bawang Putih”, and “Timun Mas” take on new life for a new era of readers in this clever collection. And as I’ve said many times before, if folktales and fairytales are to remain pertinent, it’s entirely possible that adapting them into the graphic novel format is the perfect way to make that happen.

Three traditional Indonesian folktales. Three ways of looking at the world. Three entirely new interpretations. Clar Angkasa asks us, “Who are these women beyond the hero’s love interest? What are their hopes and dreams outside of what’s expected of them? Why are they waiting for their saviors instead of just saving themselves.” Stories of the Islands is her answer. Three tales are selected in total. In the first, “Keong Mas” a proud princess is turned into a snail and can only save herself if she truly wishes to save others. “Bawang Merah Bawang Putih” is different, following the travails of a pair of adopted sisters and the beloved father who becomes their enemy. Finally “Timun Mas” is the story of a woman who unexpectedly becomes a mother and must outwit the giant that would take what she holds most dear. Playing off of the original tales, Angkasa reworks these old stories, while still retaining the elements that have made them memorable favorites for so many years.

In her Author’s Note at the end of the book, Clar Angkasa offers what I can only call a bit of an explanation about what you’ve just read. She tells us that she was raised by a badass single mom and that that experience gave her “a strong distaste for narratives that perpetuate the concept that a woman is limited to what society expects of them.” How then to come to grips with the traditional Indonesian folk tales she grew up with? Simple. Rewrite them. As such, she plucked the three tales she knew best and found ways to make them just a bit different. And folktale purists (for no matter the form of art, you will find a purist lurking in its shadows) will no doubt take issue with the changes. What made me happy, though, was how Angkasa owns up to what she’s done. Not only does she include an Author’s Note with her thoughts on the subject of changing folktales, she also writes out the three stories in their original forms at the back of the book so that kids can compare and contrast. Which do you prefer? Why? Why did the creator of this book make the changes that she did? Should she have changed more? Less? Explain!

This year, the same year that Angkasa releases Stories of the Islands, a different publisher is releasing a very different adapted folktale. Jon Klassen’s The Skull is a Tyrolean folktale. In his explanation at the end of the book, Klassen notes that it is the very nature of folktales to be changed. Historically they were oral tales, and in the telling, some details or elements would be changed and passed on. So when you change a folktale, you’re really just in keeping with the nature of storytelling itself. I take heart in this. I look at the old collections of fairytales and folktales in children’s libraries across the country, and I think how people are still telling those tales. They may adapt them to modern times so that kids today better understand them, but their ultimate purpose, to tell a good tale, remains intact. They may not remain the stories we remember from our youth, but if we open ourselves up to the possibility that they might be even better, we allow our kids to take part in a tradition as old as human speech.

All right. Back up a bit. I’m going to nerd out on some stuff, so you can take a breather, if you so choose. There are three different stories in this book, right? And each, to varying degrees, has been changed for a contemporary audience. So how did Clar Angkasa and her editor decide on the order of these stories? You see, the flow of this reading is very important. You need to lure the audience in with the first story. Do something too bold and forthright and you run the risk of alienating your audience. Do something too calm and thoughtful and you’ve the same result. So Angkasa needed to make that first story the most appealing of the three. She went with “Keong Mas” the story of the princess turned into a snail, which I feel was a rather bold choice. Her telling of this story plays with time frames. When the tale starts all you know is that someone is trapped in the form of a snail. The flashback sequence that follows is made up of muted colors, but Angkasa doles out the information of how our princess ended up in her spiral prison in fits and starts. What, in another author’s hands, would have been a linear telling from point A to point B appears here as a story that kids almost have to decode and decipher. Had I been writing this book, I don’t know that I would have started with something this intricate. Still, in retrospect it makes sense. The stakes are low in “Keong Mas” whereas in “Bawang Merah, Bawang Putih” the two main characters’ lives are at stake and in the final story “Timun Mas” there’s a giant to defeat. The tales increase in excitement and danger as you read. “Keong Mas” is still, I think, the most ambitious of the three tellings, but a dedicated reader will be able to figure out what’s happening. Absolutely.

As for the art itself, it’s magnificently appealing. I’m not well-versed enough in the terminology of early 21st century graphic novels for kids to be able to give a name to precisely the kind of clear cut art that Angkasa is employing here. It owes a bit of itself to Raina Telgemeier, but the sheer beauty of the watercolors being utilized on the pages are unique. What I can call it, without doubting myself, is engaging. Since this is aimed at an 8-12 year-old readership, this acts as a kind of gateway comic for kids who may be less comfortable with some of the more ambitious GNs out there. The layouts of the panels, along with Angkasa’s storytelling methodology, are straightforward. While I might have had to clarify which princess was which in the first story, kids should have no problem. Plus there are some particularly keen artistic flourishes at work, if you look for them. The giant of “Keong Mas”, which is rendered as more of a shadow person than a minutely delineated character, is a perfect villain precisely because it hasn’t any clear features at all. Sometimes when I read a comic, I’ve no idea if the creator thought every detail through. With Stories of the Islands I never had a doubt.

Of the three tales, “Timun Mas” (a.k.a. “Golden Cucumber”) is the most similar to its original story. In both the old and the new, a woman and her daughter outwit a giant and return to one another at the end. The difference is that in the original the mother goes to a dukun for the solution to her problems. Here, the women figure out what to do on their own. I suppose that’s a perfect capper for this book, and a perfect explanation as to why the author/artist made the changes that she did. Passive protagonists are hard to root for, so in each one of these stories the woman or girl being put upon has a moment where she has to take her life into her own hands, make her own decisions, and set off on paths unknown. Our old folktales can contain many outdated ideas and notions, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find that there’s something about them that carries on and prevails, year after year, century after century. It’s just a matter of reworking them into tales we can be proud to share with our own kids. A marvelous example of bringing the old and the new together to create something that contains the best of both worlds. A beautiful potential future for folktales worldwide.

On shelves October 31st

Source: Galley sent from publisher for review.

Excerpt Time! Read the Beginning of “The Gray” by Chris Baron

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All right, you yahoos. Time to do some serious excerpting. Now I know that if you read my blog on the regular, you probably like books. And if you’re anything like me, you probably also like free stuff. Book excerpts, therefore, are the perfect amalgamation of these two “likes”. They give you the delights of a book with all the thrills of a movie preview.

Now THE GRAY by Chris Baron (out June 13th) is tackling the subject of anxiety. Normally at this point in the post I’d just cut and paste the publisher description of the book. I’m not going to do that today, though, because this is one of those rare cases where the email I received from Kelsey Marrujo, the Assistant Director of Publicity at Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, contained a description much better than anything I read elsewhere. Here’s how Kelsey sold the book to me:

“THE GRAY (Feiwel & Friends, on sale 6/13/23), follows a boy spending the summer in the country with his widowed aunt to help deal with his anxiety. This is Chris’s most personal book yet, inspired by his pre-teen move from NYC to a farm upstate, how it was an escape from bullying, and how caring for horses helped him develop confidence to manage his anxiety.

Obviously, anxiety in children is on the rise. THE GRAY offers a look at the realities of middle-schoolers dealing with this, without offering platitudes or tidy endings. Like Chris’s experience, protagonist Sasha faces bullying, “toughen up” messaging from his own father, and constant reminders of his late uncle—all of which trigger episodes of anxiety, which he calls “The Gray.” But when he’s matched up with a horse at a local ranch coincidentally named The Gray, he feels a kindred spirit, and his management strategies start to change.

In THE GRAY, Chris—a parent and educator of over 20 years—explores tech’s role in regards to anxiety disorders, the vast differences and approaches the various generations have to understanding anxiety, the benefit of humans interacting with horses when it comes to healing and confidence, and the holistic, community effort required to help kids with anxiety.”

As someone who knows kids with anxiety, this struck home for me. So here’s an excerpt from THE GRAY by Chris Baron for everyone who might be curious about it:

Thanks again to Kelsey Marrujo and the folks at Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for this excerpt today. You can find The Gray by Chris Baron on shelves everywhere as of June 13th. Look for it then!

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Apt. 3 by Ezra Jack Keats

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Hat tip to Nick Bruel (our other other brother from another nother mother) for today’s suggestion. He asked if we’d done any Ezra Jack Keats before and we said, “Sure! We did The Snow Day“. Then he asked if we’d done Apt. 3 and we had NOT! Plus, I recently highlighted on my blog the new Keats bio for adults, Becoming Ezra Jack Keats, so this seemed particularly apropos. In this episode we discuss how this book is like Only Murders in the Building, how, from a color-perspective, this book is quite muted compared to previous titles by Keats like Whistle for Willie, and why you should never follow someone when they ask, “What’s the matter – scared?”

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, or your preferred method of podcast selection.

Show Notes:

Again, a great big thank you to our listener and fan, Lorena, for this copy of the Australian picture book, Satin by Sophie Masson, ill. Lorena Carrington. Thank you, Lorena!!

And here, I am so pleased to show you, is the original 1971 Kirkus review of Apt. 3. It is, as is often the case with this publication, delightful.

Kate got quite intrigued, specifically, by the choice of mixed-media newspaper featured in the trash can here.

Not long enough ago, Kate and I helped move a bedbug-ridden mattress from an old apartment building. So you can understand our instinctive shrinking away from the mattress in this hallway image.

This is so strange. The text says that wild “colors from outside had come into the room and were floating around,” but you get none of that from the images. It feels like a poor melding of text and image, yet what’s so strange is that the author and illustrator are one and the same. As Kate points out, it would have made sense for the colors to have been muted in this book only up to the end. That would have been the bolder choice.

Kate Recommends: Renfield

Betsy Recommends: Her upcoming talk on the podcast Open to Debate.

Celebrate Gender Expression with a South Asian Focus: An Interview with Jyoti Rajan Gopal About MY PAATI’S SARIS

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At this exact moment in time there are libraries across the country being forced to remove or restrict books where characters, be they penguins or people, have the freedom to express themselves and declare who and what they love. The answer to this, I should think, is obvious. Let us flood the market, my friends. Let us create an unceasing tidal wave of books on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. And, in the ultimate act of defiance, let us make them be really good books. Books where the plot is far more than a declaration of who a person is. Books with plot. And, better still, books not restricted within the borders of the U.S.

Today book checks all of those boxes. But what’s weird about today’s book is that it’s the rare case where it actually came out . . . wait for it . . . last year. I know! I never do that! But My Paati’s Saris, which ended up being a School & Library Journal Best Picture Book of the Year as well as a New York Public Library Best Book For Kids of 2022, is the book I want to talk about today. In a country where so many push us to be only one way, it’s good to see books that break that binary.

The publisher describes the book this way:

“A Tamil boy explores his love for his grandmother and her colorful sari collection in this tale of expressing your true self.
 

Another exciting day with Paati begins with a host of fun activities done in preparation for tonight’s party; threading flowers into garlands for decoration, going to the market, and helping her in the kitchen with the scent of sambar in the air.

Through it all the boy finds comfort in Paati’s sari, whether he’s wrapped in its colors for dress-up or clutching its folds for comfort. Each sari holds a story—ones that speak to him, but most important of all they allow him just to be.

With joyful text by Jyoti Rajan Gopal and dazzling art by Art Twink, My Paati’s Sari is a commemoration of how clothing can convey tradition and individuality, and connect us to both our families and ourselves.”

Today I’m speaking with author Jyoti Rajan Gopal about what makes this book tick:

Betsy Bird: Jyoti, thank you so much, for talking with me today. So let’s talk shop! Like a lot of librarians I’ve a bottomless pit of appreciation for process a.k.a. how any given book comes to be. So please, Jyoti, how did you come up with the story?

Jyoti Rajan Gopal
Photo by Alison Sheehy

Jyoti Rajan Gopal: Thank you for having me – I’m a huge fan!

I love saris – the patterns, the colors, their versatility, their history, the memories they hold, the way they make me feel when I wear one. Both my mom and my paati passed down their love of saris to me, and when I started writing for children, I was sure that at some point I would write a picture book about saris. I really thought it would be more of a non-fiction picture book.

But a small moment in my Kindergarten classroom with a student and a sari ignited the spark that led to this book.  That moment took me back to days of playing dress up with my brother, that feeling of freedom and joy, memories of my paati,  and I decided I wanted to explore those themes in a story about saris.

BB: I’d love to talk about gender expression in picture books published in the United States at this time. I’ve not seen many titles that have focused on South Asian kids and their culture. So, first, can you talk a bit about the importance of creating this book in the first place? What are you hoping it can provide that other books on the market today cannot?

JRG: When my daughters were little, they didn’t see their Tamil identities reflected in picture books. And while I was grateful for the few middle grade books we found with Indian American main characters, they tended to represent a very specific immigrant narrative. These stories are so important, and they are not enough.  It’s heartening to see how much has changed and expanded since then, but there’s room for so much more!

When I first started writing MY PAATI’S SARIS, I wasn’t setting out to write a book about gender expression necessarily. I wanted to share my Tamil heritage and the tradition and beauty of the sari while also telling a story rooted in how clothing and people can be safe harbors. As I wrote and rewrote it, it grew into a story about family, lineage, and loving relationships that provide security, comfort and the freedom to explore, regardless of how one identifies.

While we are incredibly lucky to now have a variety of picture books about gender expression, I hope this book expands that conversation beyond the more common Western centric narrative and that it feels inclusive for a broader audience.  Art Twink’s illustrations are just glorious and have added beautiful layers and thoughtful details that really make this book far beyond anything I ever imagined could be.

BB: Can you tell me a little bit about the choices you didn’t make for this book? Were there any ideas that you rejected? Or any first drafts that weren’t quite where you wanted to go?

JRG: While the story was always about a young boy and his grandma, initially the narrative focused more on the saris themselves as seen through the boy’s eyes – their colors, the different fabrics, the patterns, their richness. I was reading a lot about saris and their history, and I think that was bleeding into the story in ways that felt less personal. So, I put all that reading aside.

Once I concentrated on the relationship between the little boy and his paati, it all fell into place.  

BB: When picture books embrace themes of self-expression and independence, I worry that there’s always a danger of them all ending up feeling samey. This book, in contrast, has a distinct point of view and, quite frankly, joy. How did you make sure that this specific culture shone through throughout the book?

 JRG: It was so important to me that this be a story of joy and celebration, so I love that this stands out for you Betsy. I find that often, tension and conflict seem to be an inherent part of stories about identity and belonging, and again, while these are important stories and must be told, I wanted to go in a different direction. I wanted to immerse readers in the sights, sounds, smells, textures of a day in the life of Paati and her grandson, and through that emphasize the tenderness of their relationship. It’s all those little things that families do for each other that reveal love and care isn’t it?

In my community, I think we more readily accept fluidity in gender play and expression when children are little. Why do we let that go as our children grow older? There’s such power in our families and communities to nourish and care for our young people.  I hope this book serves as a reminder that no matter their age, and no matter how they identify, our children always need us to be their shelter and their home.

BB: That’s lovely. Finally, what can we hope to see next from you?

JRG: I have several picture books coming out over the next few years, which is very exciting! Two in 2023, DESERT QUEEN (Levine Querido) and ONE SWEET SONG (Candlewick), two in 2024, SISTER DAY (FSG) and LOVE IS HERE WITH YOU (Candlewick), and two that have yet to be announced.

While I do write stories that speak to my Desi identity, I also write stories about the natural world, the environment, about subjects that have sparked my curiosity and led to deep dives of research. I am currently out on submission with just such a non-fiction manuscript that I love so much and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for good news!

That was lovely! Many thanks to Jyoti for taking the time to answer my questions today. And many thanks too to Kaitlin Kneafsey and the folks at Penguin Young Readers for setting this up. My Paati’s Saris is on bookstore and library shelves everywhere, so check it out today!

Ellen Myrick Publisher Preview: Fall 2023/Winter 2024 (Part One)

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It’s that time again!

For those of you unfamiliar with what’s about to happen, let me give you a rundown. First up, please be so good as to meet Ellen Myrick of Myrick Marketing and Media. Ellen represents a slew of small publishers, many of whom bring international children’s books to the States. And, if you know anything about the publishing industry, much of the work these publishers do comes in the form of letting folks know what you have on offer. That’s why Ellen comes to me. She tells me what folks have coming out, and then I do these round-ups of the coming season.

The trick to all of this is that being only human, I sometimes peter out before I get to the end of the previews on these posts. So this time around let’s try something different. First, Ellen has begun the preview with the second half of the publishers (a.k.a. the ones I sometimes miss) and then circles back to the first half. Second, I’m going to be a bit more choosy about what I feature. I’ll try to give each publisher at least one book they have coming out. More than that? We’ll see . . .

So! Let’s get cracking! First up on the list is everybody’s favorite . . .

Here’s a true fact: When my children were young and apps were the hot commodity, we used to really enjoy the Nosy Crow fairy tale apps of Jack and the Beanstalk or Cinderella or The Three Little Pigs. Now, of course, they eschew the app work for the book one, and after you see some of these you’ll understand why.

A Whale of a Time: A Funny Poem for Every Day of the Year by Lou Peacock, ill. Matt Hunt

Pub Date: September 29, 2023

ISBN: 9798887770253

If you’re anything like me, you tend to search with unending passion for decent children’s poetry every year. But writing a good poem for children is exceedingly difficult. So difficult, in fact, that only a handful of wonderful poetry books are even released annually! This particular book might be worth looking out for. It includes a poem a day (so take note, poetry-loving teachers). Want to go through it systematically? You can. Want to can dip in and out? You can. It’s written by a range of different poets, including everyone from Gwendolyn Brooks to (I believe) Linda Sue Park. Here’s one of my favorite spreads:

I’m Going to Be a Princess by Stephanie Taylor, ill. Jade Orlando

Pub Date: December 6, 2023

ISBN: 9798887770345

No shade on princesses but more than one mom reading this book is going to identify with Maya’s mother. When her girl declares that she wants to be a princess, mom tries countering with, oh say, rocket scientist Annie Easley. Nice try, mom. What I kind of appreciate is that the character of Maya isn’t against strong Black female historical figures. She just prefers her own, like Princess Amina, ruler of the Zazzau kingdom in West Africa. In a sea of princess stories on the one hand and books with strong, Black, historical figures on the other, it’s a smart author that has the wherewithal to combine the two.

Grandpa and the Kingfisher by Anna Wilson, ill. Sarah Massini

Pub Date: October 9, 2023

ISBN: 9798887770178

Ever since Mel Fell by Corey S. Tabor won itself a Caldecott Honor, I’ve been quite fond of kingfishers. Though, honestly, they’ve been in American children’s picture books as far back as Margaret Wise Brown (a.k.a. “Golden MacDonald”)’s The Little Island, now haven’t they? This particular adorable book (and isn’t that a stunner of a cover?) follows a grandfather and grandson. The two have a relationship with the river and the kingfisher that lives there. Over time, the grandfather explains the cycle of life to his grandson. Then, after his grandpa is gone, the boy comes back and remembers. And just look at those illustrations!

Transported: 50 Vehicles That Changed the World by Matt Ralphs, ill. Rui Ricardo

Pub Date: October 3, 2023

ISBN: 9798887770208

Now THIS is a neat idea for a book. A step above your average catalog. Essentially, what Ralphs has done here is to consider a wide range of vehicles around the world, from the tractor to the kon-tiki raft, and talk about how they changed history. I mean, just look at the table of contents:

Each vehicle is given a section full of “Facts and Stats” as well as a justification for why it “changed the world” in the way that it did. it’s a bit of smart thinking. How had no one else thought to do this before?

Goddess: 50 Goddesses, Spirits, Saints, and Other Female Figures Who Have Shaped Belief by Dr. Janina Ramirez and Sarah Walsh

Pub Date: September 5, 2023

ISBN: 9798887770109

It’s like they always say. If you’re gonna do a book of goddesses, go big or go home. And by “big” I mean “include absolutely everyone in it”. That’s why this book has Inanna, Athena, Mami Wata, Nut, Ezili Danto, Rhiannon, Xiwangmu, Baba Yaga, Durga, Juno, Venus, Chalchiutitcue, Brigid, and many more. Heck, they even got Lilith in there! A world view, I was very pleased to see the inclusion of Mama Wata in particular. With the upcoming release of The Little Mermaid in theaters, expect Mama Wata to get a bit more attention these days than she may have had in the past.

The Mouse Who Ate Books by Jose Carlos Andres and Katharina Sieg

Pub Date: October 31, 2023

ISBN: 9788419607300

Oh, friends. Beware a book this cute that also features a love of books as well.

Is it just me, or does this book have some Leo Lionni trappings about it?

A Frederick-like mouse named Klaus eats and eats and is always unfulfilled. Unfulfilled, that is, until he tries a book. Turns out, they’re delicious! But these destructive eating habits do not go unnoticed, and soon Klaus is enlisted by a kindly bookseller to become a marketer for the bookstore. Thanks to him he’s able to bring people in for storytime (to consume books in other ways). And, because this is the publisher nubeOCHO we’re talking about, the book will (of course) be released in both English and Spanish. Lovely art.

Okay, enough of that cute stuff. Let’s talk about butts now.

The Big Book of Butts by Eva Manzano and Emilio Urberuaga

Pub Date: September 5, 2023

ISBN: 9788419607218

Believe it or not, this book is actually nonfiction. And, as its title suggests, it’s entirely butt-related. Now remember how that book The Day My Butt Went Psycho was banned from a school library not all that long ago? Americans have a hard time with butts sometimes. Those that do are gonna hate this book. Those that don’t? Let’s just say it might be a most popular title with a certain age-level of child out there. Justifiably so.

If You See a Bluebird by Bahram Rahman and Gabrielle Grimard

Pub Date: October 17, 2023

ISBN: 9781772782844

This book comes with a bit of a pedigree. Author Bahram Rahman wrote a different picture book called The Sky Blue Bench, which got a fair bit of attention after it won a Schneider Family Book Award. Bahram is, himself, from Afghanistan and his books take their inspiration from that land. In this story, a boy and grandma have both recently immigrated to Canada. She appears to be adapting nicely but the boy, Ali, is having a hard time adjusting. In the course of things, Ali is asked to make a wish on a bluebird after which, slowly, over time, he begins to learn to adjust where he is.

And that’s all she wrote for tonight! Expect Part Two soon with many many more books worth discovering. And, as ever, thanks to Ellen Myrick for this preview!