I Wish isn’t going to sit quietly in a category. It’s the kind of book that would rather wander off and make up its own categories, expecting you to follow dutifully behind. And you will, because it is strange and wonderful and ultimately very very memorable. Can many other books out there say half as much?
Let’s hand Omar to as many kinds as we can name. Because as far as I’m concerned, funny books that also prove to be smart and socially conscious (not to mention anti-racist) might help us get out of the mess this world is in.
Deft poetic language pairs with the resonant watercolors of Sydney Smith to create a book that is more than a memoir and more than conveying a message. This is pain, turned into art, and written for young children. Incomparable.
Drawing On Walls is the kind of book that you wish other writers of children’s nonfiction would read. A story that justifies its very existence by justifying the very existence of its subject.
If you have kids looking for outright, down and out, horror horror (the ones who’ve watched Stranger Things but balk at the heft of a Stephen King novel) this little book is an answer to your prayers. Prayers / nightmares.
There are plenty of inspiring picture books out there for kids. Few understand their purpose as perfectly as this book does.
Gorgeously wrought and tenderly rendered, this feels like a labor of love that will snuggle itself deep into the hearts and minds of kids everywhere. Regardless of whether or not you even like cats, you will find much to admire and love (not necessarily in that order) in this gutsy little book.
It’s a mystery. It’s a game. It’s filled with puzzles and riddles and clues. It’s funny, and it’s deadly serious. Parts are evocative and parts are heartfelt and parts are completely unforgettable. Having a rough day/week/month/year? Cuddle up to this. Challenging enough to intrigue you. Enticing enough to keep you.
You can hand today’s book to a kid learning to read, absolutely. Just be warned that their read may be punctuated with interjections of a highly voluble nature. In other words, this is laugh-out-loud funny.
If you’re anything like me, 2020 hasn’t been a great year for reading. That’s okay. This isn’t a great list for predicting (but it’s fun). See what may or may not win big in 2021!
The true story of the man responsible for keeping key American documents out of the hands of the invading British in 1812. A book about the rescue of ideas put to paper.
May casual cruelties fall by the wayside in the presence of such books as this ione. May our children find it and love it and read it repeatedly. And may we see more such books from Ann Clare LeZotte and authors like her, that put work and care into the very folds of their stories.
A picture book and a graphic novel and an early chapter book and a bedtime story all rolled into one impossible-to-define package. I’m not even kidding when I say that When You Look Up by Decur gives you a deep and abiding faith in 21st century storytelling. Now if only I could figure out where to shelve it…
We may have spent the better part of Poetry Month sheltering in place, but that doesn’t mean poetry went to sleep. Instead, books like this one have just been biding their time. Go out. Find it. Discover it. And discover why a book this good deserves some keen adjectives in its arsenal.
They say, write what you know. And if what you know is how to lie on a steel table, your head screwed into place, a laser pointed at your face, that might be a good place to start. We live in dark times. How dark are they? SO dark that a book about a kid with a potentially deadly eye cancer is the bit of lighthearted levity we all need and crave.
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