Children's Picture Book Highlight

As I have previously mentioned in my last children's book blog, every time I take my children to the library, I check out the new picture books and staff pick sections to see what I can find in terms of diverse characters and/or topics.

Here are some that I have found in the last month! Happy Reading!




I Am a Baby

Author: Kathryn Madeline Allen
Photographer: Rebecca Gizicki
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
ISBN- 13: 978-0-8075-3622-3

This is an adorable picture book full of photographs of diverse infants and toddlers. Each page features a child with a familiar object or person that is labeled in short phrases or
sentences that is useful for families in supporting their young child's language development. The pictures include beautiful close-ups and feature a variety of different caregivers and races of children and families.



Ten, Nine, Eight
Author: Molly Bang
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
ISBN-13: 978-0-688-00907-6

This is a Caldecott Honor Book originally published in 1983. It is a counting book featuring a child of color getting ready for bed. This is a great text for counting interactions and vocabulary development for the familiar activities and items needed for the bedtime routine. I especially like this book because it features the child's father affectionately putting the child down for the night. The illustrations are colorful and fun. After reading this text, a caregiver could easily develop a seek-and-find or labeling activity to support understanding and vocabulary.



Say Hello!
Author: Linda Davick
Publisher: Beach Lane Books/Simon & Schuster
ISBN-13: 978-1-4814-2867-5

A colorful and simple text featuring the many ways to say hello. The majority of the pages have a range of 3 to 4 words making this a perfect text for infants and toddlers who are not yet able to listen to a longer story. This is also a great text for young children who need more support and examples of ways to show affection without using spoken language. The
illustrations in this text include a variety of digitally created multicultural characters.



Feast for 10
Author: Cathryn Falwell
Publisher: Clarion Books, New York
ISBN- 13: 978-0-395-62037-3

First published in 1993, this is a counting book depicting an African American family first at the grocery selecting food and ingredients to buy and then counting again at home the materials needed for cooking and setting the table for the the family's dinner. The text is developmentally appropriate for very young children and the illustrations are detailed and life-like.

This text is great for discussions about family, grocery and meal preparation routines, and cultural similarities and differences among families.



Yaffa and Fatima: Shalom, Salaam
Author: Adapted by Fawzia Gilani-Williams
Illustator: Chiara Fedele
Publisher: Kar-Ben Publishing
ISBN- 13: 978-1-4677-8938-7

Yaffa is Jewish and Fatima is Muslim. These two women share a very
special friendship! They are similar in that they both live in the Land of Milk and Honey (Israel) and are neighbors. They both own a date grove and sell their dates at the market. During the evenings, they spend time with each other and share their meal from the earnings at the market that day. While Yaffa prays at a synagogue and reads from the Siddur (Jewish Prayer Book), Fatima prays in the mosque and reads from the Qur'an (Islamic Religious Text). They both celebrate holidays and practice fasting. They are more similar, than different!

One year, after excessive rain and a poor harvest, Fatima and Yaffa did not have many dates to sell at the market. They each laid awake in their own beds worrying about the other. They both set out at night secretly with a basket of dates to place into the other's basket unknowing that the other did the very same thing. Both woke up to find more dates in their basket and thought of each other once again. They both set out in the evening once more to fill the basket of their neighbor only to cross paths in the field and witness that they both were sharing dates with each other all along!

This is a very inspiring story that was inspired by a tale from both Jewish and Arab origins. While reading this story, children have the opportunity to discuss cultural elements such as clothing, eating, and religious practices and holidays of people from the Middle East. It is an excellent example of being a good, giving neighbor and friend!



Sam Sorts
Author: Marthe Jocelyn
Publisher: Tundra Books
ISBN- 13: 978-1-101-91805-0

Follow Sam on an adventure as he cleans up his heap of a mess! This picture book includes the counting and sorting of toys that Sam finds. He even places his toys into a Venn diagram! The text features many opportunities for cognitive/mathematics and language activities such as rhymes and descriptive words.


Check out this book trailer for Sam Sorts!

Flowers for Sarajevo
Author: John McCutcheon
Illustrator:  Kristy Caldwell
Publisher: Peachtree Publishers
ISBN- 13: 978-1-56145-943-8

This is a text more appropriate for our K-3 population about a boy named Drasko living in a war torn city of Sarajevo (currently in Bosnia-Herzegovina). Sarajevo has previously been a city of Yugoslavia and prior to that, Austria-Hungry. Drasko and his father, Milo sell beautiful, fragrant flowers at the marketplace. After Milo leaves to serve in the war, Drasko is left to sell the family's flowers at the marketplace by himself. One day, a mortar hit the bakery in the marketplace taking the lives of 22 people simply waiting for bread.

The next day, a cellist played  in front of the bakery among the rubble uniting the different people (Serbs, Croats, Muslims, and Christians)
through music. The cellist played at 10:00 AM everyday for 22 days in memory of each victim
of the attack. At the end of the story, Drasko leaves the flowers left over one day at the bakery in memory of the victims, at the orchestra's door in honor of the cellist, and at his father's seat at the dinner table. He wanted to be like his father and the cellist, and make his home, Sarahevo, beautiful again.

Flowers for Sarajevo is a useful text to teach school-aged children about conflicts around the world as well as teaching empathy for situations our friends, family, and members of our community may have experienced during times of war and violence. A CD accompanies this text so children have the opportunity to listen to John McCutchen sing "Streets of Sarajevo" accompanied by the cellist, Vedran Smailović. Listen to the sample here.



Pablo Finds a Treasure
Author: Andree Poulin
Illustrator: Isabelle Malenfant
Publisher: Annick Press
ISBN: 978-1-55451-867-8

Pablo and his sister, Sofia, go to the landfill to find recyclables for their
mother to sell at the local market in order to put food on the table for dinner. As they collect these recyclables, they also look for "hidden treasures" such as the blue boot, a book, or the two carrots to eat. Pablo looks through a garbage bag that is partially opened and finds a gold chain. Pablo and Sofia dream of what their mother will be able to buy from the market after selling
this gold chain. But then, a man who has been named, Filthy Face, sees them and demands that they hand over their entire collection. As they heading back home, Sofia is upset with Pablo for not giving her
the chain so she could hide it in her shoe. Once they get home and their mother asks what is wrong, Pablo opens his mouth to reveal that he still had the gold chain after all.

Prior to the start of the story on the copyright page, there is a note about how children in parts Central and South America, Asia and Africa are unable to attend school and are forced to work in harsh conditions to help their family earn money. Like Flowers for Sarajevo, this is a great text for our elementary population to teach about global issues and empathy towards classmates, neighbors, and families in our community who may have grown up or experienced similar situations as Pablo and Sofia.



All Kinds of Families
Author: Norma Simon
Illustator: Sarah S. Brannen
Publish: Albert Whitman & Company
ISBN: 978-0-8075-0286-0

Originally published in 1976, this picture book was evolved and in 2016, released a 40th Anniversary Edition with updated illustrations. This story is beautifully written and includes an inclusive description of the diverse families we may see in our community. Not only does this text feature diverse illustrations of families in terms of appearances, but also includes illustrations suggesting the birth and adoption of a child, terminal illness, death,
new marriages and separation/divorce, and military deployment. It would be a great introductory text to assist in the facilitation of discussions of family
life and issues.



Hop, Hop, Jump!
Author: Lauren Thompson
Illustrator: Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
ISBN: 978-1-4169-9745-0

This is a fun, active text to read to young children to get
them up and moving. There are four characters in this
picture book that model a movement with a labeled body part. Because it involves different body parts, the story could be read in a way that modifies the movements so that a child with limited movement abilities may be able to participate.




Round is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes 

Author: Roseanne Thong
Illustrator: Grace Lin
Publisher: Chronicle Books, LLC
ISBN: 978-0-8118-2676-1

This is a book about shapes poetically written featuring objects with Asian cultural significance from East Asia.
This is a useful text for discussions about the similarities and differences in cultural traditions, routines, foods, art, games, toys, clothing, and pets.




Little Frog and the Scary Autumn Thing
Author: Jane Yolen
Illustrator: Ellen Shi
Publisher: Persnickety Press
ISBN- 13: 978-1943978-01-4


This little frog loves green, the pond, his mother and father, but is terrified of something that is happening to her environment. The trees are turning colors and little frog is scared of the colors gold and red! Follow little frog as she experiences her first autumn and feel her emotions as she sees things happening around her for the very first time. Life can be overwhelming and scary. It is okay to have these feelings especially when experiencing something new, different or strange. This picture book is useful in
teaching young children that new situations and transitions can be scary, but once we experience them, we can learn to accept them. Some of us may need more supports than others. :)







By: Sara Marker, ODEC President