A Black child visiting family heads out on a Louisiana bayou tour with his poet grandfather in this setting-oriented picture book from Armand and Harris. Paddling in a pirogue with an old friend of Grandpa’s, the trio sees otters, herons, and more under moss-covered cypress trees. Grandpa reflects on practices learned by their ancestors from the Choctow and Houma people, while a discussion about plantations leads to his acknowledging how their forebears “endured a lot for us to be born free.” Conversational text alternates with factual asides and stanzas of a poem by Grandpa as Troy finds wonder in the setting. Digital illustrations awash in earthy browns and greens give the story a homey, inviting feeling. An author’s note and the complete poem conclude. Ages 4–8. (May)

Reviewed on 05/16/2025 | Details & Permalink

Tracing a matriarch’s birthday party through the eyes of a young attendee, Langley and Grooms craft a heartwarming story celebrating intergenerational bonds. Eagerly anticipating great-grandma Caroline’s 100th birthday, young Jasmine spends the trip there reflecting on her pets’ short lives compared to her relation’s century. When Jasmine asks the woman, “How did you get to be so old?” Great-Grandma Caroline teaches the child to skip rocks while explaining that “making one hundred years” takes patience, determination, and faith—values that ripple through the generations as Jasmine gets the hang of rock-skipping. Illustrations focus on the familial figures, capturing the joy of celebrating life’s milestones. Jasmine and her family are portrayed with brown skin; background characters are shown with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. (May)

Reviewed on 05/16/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this freewheeling adventure, Mango and Nan, portrayed with pale skin, plan to head out for vanilla ice cream—until they hear a “plop” that Nan identifies as a leaky tap. “We can’t let water go to waste,” she tells Mango. When the labyrinth of pipes, depicted in a comical cutaway, proves too complex for their DIY skills, Mango comes up with a new plan: take the plops with them via a hose, spreading water where needed en route to ice cream. As slyly observed digital artwork by Tahboub shows, it seems a fine idea—until the water pressure increases dramatically. While the ending doesn’t draw the clearest line between conserving water and enjoying a favorite treat, readers will come away knowing that amazing adventures can flow from best-laid plans. Background characters are shown with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/16/2025 | Details & Permalink

A grandfather’s garden roots a child’s sense of cultural heritage in a quietly affirming rhyming family story from Matari and Ghanameh. As the young narrator examines a family photo album, Mama explains that the child has “two homes, one here, one far away,/ in a place called Palestine.” When the youth longs for the one they’ve never seen, they head to Jiddo’s garden, which offers up growing things, including the figs that represent Jiddo’s “favorite taste of home.” Asked how he learned to care for the plot, Jiddo describes his baba’s garden in Palestine, recounts how “our family had to flee,” and explains that while he hopes to return one day, “for now, I tend the garden.” Even light bathes the blues, golds, greens, and reds of the cartooned illustrations, dotted with images of poppies and watermelon slices, in this tender, yearning work about how the home in Jiddo’s heart “makes everything grow.” An author’s note and glossary conclude. Ages 3–8. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/16/2025 | Details & Permalink

The young narrator of this intimate-feeling picture book cherishes time with her attentive grandmother, Alice—especially when the woman brings out a box of treasured mementos. “Every object is a clue,” Potter writes, to “the story of her life before she was my grandmother.” As a child, Alice, born with stiff joints, spends time reading, observing, and collecting, practices that sustain her when she’s sent to a hospital in Switzerland. Eventually, Alice marries a fellow artist and starts the family whose descendants lead to the narrator’s birth. The creator’s aesthetic seems to flow directly from Alice’s own hand, and themes of creativity, mindfulness, and persistence thread through this thoughtful work about how “everyone has a story that is much bigger than the part you can see.” Characters are portrayed with pale skin. Ages 5–8.

Reviewed on 05/16/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this lucid, accessible verse memoir, Atkins (Green Promises) chronicles her experiences as a college freshman healing from the trauma of sexual violence and finding her voice through poetry. Circa 1972, 18-year-old Atkins returns to her Massachusetts childhood home to process “the word that ends one story and starts another.” When her stoic parents offer little support, she gains fleeting comfort from Sylvia Plath’s poetry. Even as Atkins tries keeping busy with state college, therapy, and a string of jobs, it becomes harder to ignore misogynistic attitudes within her family, her community, and academia that strive to silence her and excuse her rapist’s actions. Atkins’s clarity-seeking letter-poems addressed to Plath, Maya Angelou, Emily Dickinson, and more bristle with honesty. Using symbolic language (“I want to find courage to wrestle out/ what hunkers inside me/ like a wounded bird flapping, ruffling wings”), the author contemplates what it means to be a writer, a woman, and a woman who writes. With empowering eloquence, Atkins reflects on suffering, survival, and sexism as she lived it within the context of the Vietnam War and civil rights legislation. It’s a brave, searing autobiography that recalls the work of Laurie Halse Anderson and Amber Smith. Includes an author’s note and bibliography. Ages 14–up. Agent: Sara Crowe, Sara Crowe Literary. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/16/2025 | Details & Permalink

“Life as we know/ it,” explains Venit (Forts) on the opening pages of this celestial nonfiction overview, requires “Water/ Chemicals/ Energy... Remember that.” When robotic spacecraft Cassini found that Saturn’s moon Enceladus has all three, scientists and space enthusiasts worldwide celebrated the momentous revelation. The book chronicles in spare, crisp language how Cassini was equipped for her seven-year journey to Saturn with instruments that could detect the essential elements of life: “She grew and grew with tools.// And when she was all grown up, she left home.” Luminous digital illustrations by Blattman, making her picture book debut, enable readers to tag along as Cassini sails through stars, zooms along Saturn’s amazing rings, and dives into Enceladus’s mysterious plumes—the spacecraft meets every challenge the crew presents, even transmitting data during a final, fiery descent into Saturn’s atmosphere. It’s a courageous, steadfastly rendered journey that will help imaginations reach escape velocity. Includes contextualizing back matter. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Joyce Sweeney, Seymour Agency. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/16/2025 | Details & Permalink

The blue jay gets its due in this sharply written appreciation of the bird’s critically important symbiotic relationship with oak trees. A straightforward question opens—“How does the mighty oak tree create more oak trees?”—and the ensuing answer shines a spotlight on how nature’s perpetuation relies on interconnection and mutualism. The narrative unfolds seasonally, beginning in late summer as “blue jays perch in the canopy,/ watching and waiting for the acorns to ripen.” Rhythmic lines go on to describe an autumn harvest that sees the subjects stowing acorns in their throat pockets: “They fly one block, two blocks,/ over a farm or two,/ and hide their treasure.” After winter fast-forwards to spring, uncollected acorns sprout, and young jays grow into the “next blue crew.” Soft pen, ink, and colored pencil renderings have a fittingly feathered texture that enhances the careful detailing used to capture the birds and plant life alike. The magnitude of the blue jays’ contribution to forest health resounds in an admiring and conscientious portrait from Street, making her children’s debut, and Hunter (The Lonely Goose). Further information concludes. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Stephanie Fretwell-Hill, Red Fox Literary. Illustrator’s agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/16/2025 | Details & Permalink

New girl Abby Kita gets swept up in a boarding school murder mystery in this gripping graphic novel from Tamaki (Anne of Greenville) and Goux (Pet Peeves). When fellow student Elizabeth Woodward—starring as Juliet in the Wilberton Theater Society production of Romeo and Juliet—is found dead in the woods wearing her stage costume, Abby quickly discovers that she was the last person to see Elizabeth alive. Though authorities claim Elizabeth died by suicide, Abby is troubled by something Elizabeth said in their final conversation; Abby teams up with her roommate, student journalist Claire, to investigate the circumstances surrounding Elizabeth’s final days. As Abby gets closer to learning the truth behind Elizabeth’s death, she also uncovers a conspiracy involving drugs and sexual coercion simmering under the surface of Wilberton’s seemingly perfect exterior. At the same time, painful moments from Abby’s past resurface as she continues to navigate suspicion from school staff and students. Twisty and captivating, this offers an incisive look at how power structures at institutions are enforced at the expense of vulnerable young girls. Heavy black inks emphasize light and shadow, giving illustrations a noir-like feel, while pink accents both soften weighty emotional sequences and intensify high-energy reveals. Character skin tones echo the hue of the page. Ages 14–up. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/16/2025 | Details & Permalink

As a teenage witch in training, Verity Vox—accompanied by her shape-shifting familiar, Jack— travels from one community to another, offering her magical services at no cost as practice toward perfecting her ability to cast spells through song and spoken spells. Her latest request, mysteriously delivered to Verity upon a leaf, reads: “We’re cursed... Send help.” Tracing the origins of the plea, she arrives in Foxfire, a forgotten Appalachian mining town. Foxfire is suffering from blight and malice; simultaneously, the townsfolk are being conned by wicked salesman Earl, a purveyor of twisted bargains and corrupt contracts. Though Verity gamely attempts to counteract Earl’s curses and restore Foxfire to its former glory, when she learns that Earl draws power from the mountains themselves, she struggles to find ways to weaken his magic. Podcaster Martin, making his YA debut, blends supernatural fare with mundane, cozy elements into a warmly engaging tale about finding one’s place in the world. The sprawling Appalachian setting and nature-infused witchcraft give the narrative a timeless, folkloric feel. Protagonists cue as white. Includes a contextualizing end note. Ages 14–up. Agent: Kate Davids, Arc Literary. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/16/2025 | Details & Permalink