picture book recs (round 11)

I should maybe retire this blogging project, or rework it, or something. Because I keep forgetting to be attentive when reading picturebooks to whether I would broadly recommend it -- thinking instead about particular people in my life who might like it.

But here are some books I've particularly liked these last 6 months. And I've been doing a lot more of ~skim-reading books and not actually tracking that I've read them on GoodReads.

• Insha'Allah, No, Maybe So by Rhonda Roumani and Nadia Roumani & illustrated by Olivia Aserr -- Ranya's mom says "Insha'Allah" ("God willing") lots of times, and it starts to feel to Ranya like "Insha'Allah" is just another way of saying "No"
• We Move Together written by Kelly Fritsch and Anne McGuire & illustrated by Eduardo Trejos -- about disability and community
• Just What to Do written by Kyle Lukoff & illustrated by Hala Tahboub -- I was less a fan of this than my partner was, but it is a nice book about the struggle to figure out what to do when someone you care about is sad
• We Care: A First Conversation About Justice written by Megan Madison and Jessica Ralli & illustrated by Sharee Miller
• I'm Sorry You Got Mad written by Kyle Lukoff & illustrated by Julie Kwon -- about apologizing
• [board book] The Belly Song written by Mother Moon & illustrated by Leah Giles -- a matter-of-fact sing-along book normalizing body shape diversity. Big belly, little belly, round belly, flat! Some have a lot of muscle. Some have a lot of fat. Some wiggle and they jiggle, and some do not. And I like whatever kind of belly that you've got!

picture book recs (round 10)

How has it been 6 months already?

I'm clearly still not loving a lot of books I'm reading.

Here are some solid ones:

• Wombat written & illustrated by Philip Bunting -- fun
• [board book] Latke's First Hanukkah written & illustrated by Alan Silberberg -- fun
• The Light She Feels Inside written by Gwendolyn Wallace & illustrated by Olivia Duchess -- feelings and social justice, Black girl protagonist
• There's No Such Thing as Vegetables written by Kyle Lukoff & illustrated by Andrea Tsurumi -- fun and serious and queer (teaching your kids about social constructs!)
• All About Penises: A Learning About Bodies Book and All About Vulvas and Vaginas: A Learning About Bodies Book written by Dorian Solot and Marshall Miller & illustrated by Tyler Feder

picture book recs (round 9)

Okay, back to a 6-month rhythm! (And back to not reading/loving a lot of picturebooks -- but hey, you get a blurb about each book.)

• Weather Together by Jessie Sima -- not necessarily my favorite of the Kelp and Nimbus books, but a nice story about ~depression and friendship
• The Good Hair Day written by Christian Trimmer & illustrated by J Yang -- a boy who wants long hair but struggles to tell his parents, despite having positive role models
• The Wishing Flower written by A.J. Irving & illustrated by Kip Alizadeh -- a girl with a crush on another girl!
• Big written by & illustrated by Vashti Harrison -- protagonist is a fat Black girl. being Big is praised for kids ("you're such a big kid!") up to a point, and this book powerfully highlights that tension.
• Every Body: A Celebration of Diverse Abilities photography by Shelley Rotner -- really thorough and diverse representation in photographs and text of various disabilities (including learning/intellectual disabilities, as well as physical disabilities) that acknowledges difference directly and matter-of-factly; I have some quibbles with the Glossary, but it's generally good enough
• Timid written & illustrated by Harry Woodgate -- a light-skinned kid (they/them pronouns) named Timmy who loves performing ... until there's an audience. this book is so fun! (though the ending is arguably a bit rushed)
• Hold That Thought! written by Bree Galbraith & illustrated by Lynn Scurfield -- brown-skinned Finn (they/them pronouns) has an idea -- which gets bigger and more colorful as they share it with others
• How Are You, Verity? written by Meghan Wilson Duff & illustrated by Taylor Barron -- an autistic Black kid (they/them pronouns) named Verity who loves sea life and struggles some with social scripts
• I Just Want to Be Super written by Andrew Katz & illustrated by Tony Luzano -- the author wrote about his process: "What did it feel like to be bursting with energy? To want to blast into action, like a superhero raring to use their powers, only to have everyone always telling you to hold back that impulse?"
• [board book] My Hair Is Like the Sun written by St. Clair Detrick-Jules & illustrated by Tabitha Brown -- photographs of Black kids paired with simple illustrations of the natural world
• Big Bad Wolf’s Yom Kippur written by David Sherrin & illustrated by Martín Morón -- even Big Bad Wolves can repent and change!

picture book recs (round 8)

Okay, it's been two and a half years since my last recs post (Dec 2020), and I have managed to force myself to finish a post.

My reading has definitely gone down since my capacity for everything went down in the pandemic. Most of what I've been reading has been recommended to me by someone, so I'm not sure how much my standards are high/different vs. I'm just burnt-out (I brefly got really enthused about some books in late December 2021/early January 2022, but then slipped back) that I haven't been excited to rec a lot of books myself. Though I've definitely gotten excited about some picturebooks in 2023, so *shrug emoji*.

board books:

• My Hair Is Beautiful written by & illustrated by Shauntay Grant [photographs of Black baby girl hairstyles]
• The Colors of Tet: Màu của Tết written by Ha Huyen & illustrated by Huyen Van -- Vietnamese & English book about Vietnamese Lunar New Year
• A Is for Anemone: A First West Coast Alphabet written & illustrated by Roy Henry Vickers [Tsimshian, Haida, and Heiltsuk] and Robert Budd -- beautiful
• I don't love the "We Are Little Feminists" board books, but I appreciate what they're doing.
• The Animals of Chinese New Year = 中国农历新年动物生肖 written by Jen Sookfong Lee & translated by Kileasa Che Wan Wong.
• Being You: A First Conversation about Gender words by Megan Madison and Jessica Ralli & art by Anne/Andy Passchier
• A Is for Artichoke: A Foodie Alphabet from Artichoke to Zest written by America's Test Kitchen Kids & illustrated by Maddie Frost
• [explicitly fat-positive, anti-BMI, etc.] Every Body: A First Conversation About Bodies written by Megan Madison and Jessica Ralli & illustrated by Tequitia Andrews (I read this in reguar picturebok, but it's also available in board book.)

queer/gender picturebooks:

• My Dad Thinks I’m a Boy?!: A Trans Positive Children's Book by Sophie Labelle
• Pride Puppy written by Robin Stevenson & illustrated by Julie McLaughlin
• Fred Gets Dressed by Peter Brown -- Betsy Bird rightly notes that this isn't really about being trans, but I appreciate its normalization of gender-non-conformity
• Love, Violet written by Charlotte Sullivan Wild & illustrated by Charlene Chua -- elementary school girls in lurve!
• [available in board book and picture book] Being You: A First Conversation about Gender words by Megan Madison and Jessica Ralli & art by Anne/Andy Passchier
• If You're a Kid Like Gavin: The True Story of a Young Trans Activist written by Gavin Grimm and Kyle Lukoff & illustrated by J Yang -- I had worried this would be targeted only at trans kid readers, but it does a good job connecting trans experience
• Payden's Pronoun Party written by Blue Jaryn & illustrated by Xochitl Cornejo
• Bathe the Cat written by Alice B. McGinty & illustrated by David Roberts -- not ABOUT being queer, just casually has 2 dads in a mixed-race family, but also it has great casual queer representation like the magnets on the fridge (trans pride flag!)
• No One Owns the Colors written by Gianna Davy & illustrated by Brenda Rodríguez -- which, per the title, is pretty broad, but also clearly opens with pushing back against the idea that "pink is for girls and blue is for boys," and is consistently applicable to gender non-conformity etc. (I also appreciate its normalization of change with the line "I'll copy the trees and I'll change with the seasons;" and I appreciate the line "there are colors we're made of and colors we choose" without any value judgments)
• And That’s Their Family! written by Kailee Coleman & illustrated by Jamie Malone -- explicitly includes poly families in its representation; and has queer rep in lots of the illustrations, not just the ones "about" queer families

other picturebooks:

• [Muslim] The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family written by Ibtihaj Muhammad with S. K. Ali & illustrated by Hatem Aly
• [Indigenous] I Sang You Down from the Stars written by Tasha Spillett [Trinidadian-Cree] & illustrated by Michaela Goade [Tlingit] -- beautiful
• [Black people] Don't Touch My Hair written & illustrated by Sharee Miller -- love this
• Fred Gets Dressed written & illustrated by Peter Brown
• [about worry/anxiety] The Whatifs written by Emily Kilgore & illustrated by Zoe Persico
• [Persian New Year] Seven Special Somethings: A Nowruz Story written by Adib Khorram & illustrated by Zainab Faidhi 
• [India, bedtime] Goodnight Ganesha written by Nadia Salomon & illustrated by Poonam Mistry -- beautiful
• Bodies Are Cool written & illustrated by Tyler Feder
• Sunday the Sea Witch by Andrea Stein and Cayce Matteoli
• Stanley's Library written & illustrated by William Bee
• Mother God written by Teresa Kim Pecinovsky & illustrated by Khoa Le -- though I wish the Scripture Guide were included in the book itself, rather than a separate PDF on the book website
• The Twelve Days of Christmas in Texas written & illustrated by Janie Bynum
• Luminous: Living Things That Light Up the Night written & illustrated by Julia Kuo
• That Flag written by Tameka Fryer Brown & illustrated by Nikkolas Smith -- a powerful story about the contemporary legacy of the Confederate flag
• Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers? written by Junauda Petrus & illustrated by Kristen Uroda -- articulating an abolitionist vision!
• [explicity fat-positive, anti-BMI, etc.] Every Body: A First Conversation About Bodies written by Megan Madison and Jessica Ralli & illustrated by Tequitia Andrews

***

Reminder to please purchase your books from independent bookstores (see, e.g., this list of Black Owned Bookstores in the United States or these lists of A[A]PI-owned bookstores from EpicReads and Libro.fm). Most will ship to you. And if there are books you can't find at your preferred indie bookstore (though most will special-order for you), you can also shop on BookShop.org -- which has an affiliate program supporting independent bookstores (I first learned about it when my local indie was closed due to pandemic).

picture book recs (round 7)

Happy 5 years of intentionally reading picture books, to me!

With a 2-year gap since my last rec post! (lol/sob)

***

So, picking up where we last left off (post #6)...

I did power through the remaining 9 of 19 categories in Minh Lê‏'s "Best Picture Books of 2017" before the end of 2018 -- and decided I would not be repeating this exercise in 2019, since the ratio of "books I really liked" to "books on this list" was low. There were some I really liked, though:

• The Blue Hour written & illustrated by Isabelle Simler [Honorable Mention for Best Nature/Environment] the illustrations are so beautiful
• Flowers for Sarajevo written by John McCutcheon & illustrated by Kristy Caldwell [Honorable Mention for Most Powerful] I WEPT
• Super Manny Stands Up! written by Kelly DiPucchio& illustrated by Stephanie Graegin [Honorable Mention for Best Friendship/Kindness]
• Accident written & illustrated by Andrea Tsurumi [Honorable Mention for Best Design]

In post #5 I mentioned Betsy Bird's Caldecott and Newbery predictions -- which while rarely accurate, contained almost entirely books I hadn't previously encountered. I now follow her on GoodReads and consistently get recs from her but got a lot from her "31 Days, 31 Books" lists in December 2018. ... Which I didn't get very far in, because life happened (see also, the fact that it's now been 2 years[!!!] between rec lists), but:

December 1 – Board Books & Pop-Ups (Who knew I would STILL be reading board books after 3 years? I didn't love any of these, but below are ones I would varying degrees of recommend.)

• My First Book of Feminism (for Boys) written by Julie Merberg & illustrated by Michéle Brummer Everett
• Super Pooper and Whizz Kid: Potty Power! written & illustrated by Eunice Moyle & Sabrina Moyle
• My Art Book of Love written by Shana Gozansky [though I liked 2019's My Art Book of Sleep better]
• Before & After [National Geographic Kids Look & Learn] written by Ruth A. Musgrave [counting, nature/science]
• Contrary Dogs written & illustrated by élo
• Will Bear Share? written & illustrated by Hilary Leung

And because I took forever to finish this blogpost (during which time another nibling was born), I have since read some of 2019's Great Board Books and quite liked:

• Pride Colors written by Robin Stevenson
• Lejos / Far written by Juan Felipe Herrera & illustrated by Blanca Gomez Stevenson [second tier]

**

I read a lot of picturebooks about consent -- most of which I was pretty meh on, but I did really like:

• C is for Consent written by Eleanor Morrison & illustrated by Faye Orlove [board book]

**

I read some great books on gender:

• It Feels Good to Be Yourself: A Book About Gender Identity written by Theresa Thorn & illustrated by Noah Grigni
• When Aidan Became a Brother written by Kyle Lukoff & illustrated by Kaylani Juanita (Aidan is a trans boy, and he wants to make sure everything is perfect for his new sibling-to-be -- MY HEART!)
• Stacey's Not a Girl written by Colt Keo-Meier & illustrated by Jesse Yang (trans-masculine kid who may or may not be non-binary, and not-knowing is OKAY!)

Also on the subject of gender, I don't love Maya Gonzalez' work, but They, She, He: Easy as ABC isn't too bad (the purple dancing one, as opposed to the green narrative-less one).

I got the 2019: Discovery! set of Flamingo Rampant books and particularly liked:

• Bridge of Flowers written by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha & illustrated by Syrus Marcus Ware -- magic and science, and healing, and...
• It's a Wild World written by S. Bear Bergman & illustrated by kd diamond -- queer animals!
• The Great Space Adventure written by Ryka Aoki & illustrated by Cai Steele -- a kid who contains multitudes goes on a fantastic journey

Feeling very out of it this fall (I had heard of barely any of the GoodReads Best Picture Books Nominees this year), I did some digging for queer kidlit that came out this year and pulled a bunch of books from a Publishers Weekly "Reading with Pride: LGBTQ Books 2020." I didn't love any of the books I read off that list (and could we NOT include a picturebook biography of Ellen? on account of she treats her staff terribly, thinks "niceness" means palling around with politicians who actively worked against her community, etc.), but it did prompt me to read some other queer books that had been on my TBR list.

Which got me one solid Pride book:

• This Day in June written by Gayle E. Pittman & illustrated by Kristyna Litten [published in 2014]

**

Some excellent books for Black kids:

• Sulwe written by Lupita Nyong'o & illustrated by Vashti Harrison
• M Is for Melanin: A Celebration of the Black Child written & illustrated by Tiffany Rose

**

Deciding on picturebooks for M's 4th birthday amidst novel coronavirus and a resurgence of #BlackLivesMatter, I was aware how few picturebooks I had in my recs with East Asian representation. Like, I'd done an okay job of books with African-American protagonists (though it still didn't feel great), but amidst the anti-Chinese backlash, it felt really important to expose M to positive East Asian representation.

In my Internet searching, I learned that there's an Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. 15 years of this award, and I had previously read 3 picture book titles on it, all somewhat recent (A Different Pond and The Nian Monster from 2017-2018, and Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music from 2015-2016). So once ILL was a thing again (albeit too late for this birthday), I ILLed the picture book winners/honorable mentions I could get a hold of and hadn't already read.

I'm not sure I loved any of them, but I really appreciated the experience of reading them all in a fairly brief period of time. It made such a variety of representation feel so normal -- contemporary as well as historic/folkloric representation of East Asian, South Asian, and Pacific Islanders (Korean, Thai, Chinese, native Hawaiian, Japanese, Indian, Filipine, Bangladeshi, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Pakistani), in Asia and in the Americas.

While I wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to recommend these particular books individually, if these 26 books were the only books you read to your [non-Asian] kid over the course of a few weeks, it could really help shift/expand their sense of what "normal" is.

I did really love this East Asian representation book, though:

• Magic Ramen: The Story of Momofuku Ando written by Andrea Wang & illustrated by Kana Urbanowicz [male Japanese inventor]

**

In trying to be more intersectional, I finally started intentionally looking for good disability-representation books and prioritized ones with Asian protagonists. I didn't love any of the ones I found, but I did read a few solid ones about white folks:

• We'll Paint the Octopus Red written by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen & illustrated by Pam Devito [child protagonist's baby sibling has Down Syndrome]
• All the Way to the Top: How One Girl's Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything written by Annette Bay Pimentel & illustrated by Nabi H. Ali [a biography of Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins, a disability activist who has cerebral palsy, focusing on her participation in the Capitol Crawl at the age of 8]
• Why Johnny Doesn't Flap: NT is OK! written by Clay Morton and Gail Morton & illustrated by Alex Merry [autism -- parody, but also not]

**

Another picturebook I loved:

• Vote for Our Future! written by Margaret McNamara & illustrated by Micah Player -- such a good!

***

Reminder to please purchase your books from independent bookstores -- see, e.g., this list of Black Owned Bookstores in the United States. Most will ship to you. And if there are books you can't find at your preferred indie bookstore (though most will special-order for you), you can also shop on BookShop.org -- which has an affiliate program supporting independent bookstores (I first learned about it when my local indie was closed due to pandemic).

***

I've maybe read 946 picturebooks in 5 years?

I exported my library; sorted by Exclusive Shelf to cut down to just "read"; then sorted by Date Read to cut everything before December 23, 2015 (though this barely changed the count, since I rarely read picturebooks an adult before Project Radical Aunt; it's also still weirdly blanking the Date Read on a lot of books, so I left those cells in, since I know a lot of them are picturebooks I've read since I started this project); and then ran a COUNTIF on the Bookshelves column:

=COUNTIF(Q2:Q1494,"*picturebooks*")

picture book recs (round 6)

Happy 3 years of intentionally reading picture books, to me!

Wanna guess how many kids' books I've read during that time?

(Answer is at the bottom of this post.)

***

I noted last blogpost that people keep sharing with me links to lists of multicultural picture books and similar, which I appreciate the thought behind (it is Known that I am reading lots of picture books to select ones to buy for the nibling), but at this point I have heard of (if not read) most all the books that show up on those lists, so I was so pleased to come across Minh Lê‏'s "Best Picture Books of 2017" where I had heard of almost none of the books AND at-a-glance it appeared to be a diverse author pool. I had gotten through 7 of the 19 categories in the last roundup. I have now gotten through an additional 3. [My intention is to power through the remainder by the end of 2018. Yes, I know that's a lot of books for this Winter Break; the floor of my bedroom is very aware.] A couple I really liked:

• The Book of Mistakes written & illustrated by Corinna Luyken [one of the Best on Creativity]
• Claymates written by Dev Petty & illustrated by Lauren Eldridge [one of the Best on Creativity]

I also came across Taylor Pittman's "17 LGBTQ-Friendly Books To Read To Your Kid In Honor Of Pride" -- which actually had a lot of books I hadn't read, including books I hadn't even heard of. New-to-me books I particularly appreciated:

• From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea written by Kai Cheng Thom & illustrated by Kai Yun Ching and Wai-Yant Li
• Prince & Knight written by Daniel Hack & illustrated by Stevie Lewis
• Princess Princess Ever After written & illustrated by Katie O'Neill

I also finally read Juneteenth picturebooks -- none of which I loved, but I would recommend reading some to your kids since especially amongst us non-Black Americans, this piece of our history is often unknown.

• Juneteenth written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and Drew Nelson & illustrated by Mark Schroder is a solid, child-appropriate, overview of Juneteenth.

In the lesser-known-African-American-history vein, I also liked

• Ruth and the Green Book written by Calvin Alexander Ramsey & illustrated by Floyd Cooper

The nibling is growing up in Florida, so I also read a lot of picturebooks about life in the water (drawing heavily on a "sea the oceans" GoodReads shelf I'd come across, though most of the ones I liked best came from Horn Book recs), including mermaids. Apparently I only liked 1 enough to actively rec it?

• Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist written by Jess Keating & illustrated by Marta Álvarez Miguéns [second tier]

I had been feeling like I'd read basically all the cool progressive board books and was gonna have to transition out of board books into gifting M other stuff -- and then Betsy Bird did a Top 100 Board Books Poll. My favorites (of the ones I didn't nominate myself):

• Baby 123 written & illustrated by Deborah Donenfield [N.B. this one is unfortunately out of print -- though I got some good copies from thriftbooks on eBay]
• Edible Colors written & illustrated by Jennifer Vogel Bass
• I'm a Librarian (A Tinyville Town Book) written & illustrated by Brian Biggs -- it's a gay male librarian, okay; I am fond
• My Friends written & illustrated by Taro Gomi

I was also already interested in checking out more of the Lil' Libros series (a Spanish-English board book series drawing on Mexican culture for its contents in both subject matter and illustration style). I didn't actually love them as much as I was hoping to, but I did like:

• Guadalupe: First Words/Primeras Palabras: A Bilingual Picture Book
• Los Tres Reyes Magos: Colors - Colores: A Bilingual Book of Colors

After someone I follow RTed a thread about a culturally clueless Kirkus review of Where's the Potty on This Ark?, I checked out Kar-Ben's catalog. My favorites of the ones I read:

• Talia and the Rude Vegetables written by Linda Elovitz Marshall & illustrated by Francesca Assirelli
• One Good Deed written by Terri Fields & illustrated by Deborah Melmon
• Rosie Saves the World written by Debbie Herman & illustrated by Tammie Lyons
• And There Was Evening, and There Was Morning written by Harriet Cohen Helfand and Ellen Kahan Zager & illustrated by Ellen Kahan Zager -- okay, I'm really meh on the text of this book, but I've shown off the illustrations so much that I have to include it

Not really on purpose, I ended up reading a bunch of books on emotions/difficult issues:

• I'm Sad written by Michael Ian Black & illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi [second tier?] [With the caveat that I'm uncomfortable with the author's "redemption is hard to find" stance on the occasion of Louis CK's "comeback," and I'm not convinced how much he's learned from the pushback he got.]
• Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story about Racial Injustice written by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard & illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin [second tier?]
• Allie All Along written & illustrated by Sarah Lynne Reul -- on anger

Other recs:

• The Christmas Miracle Of Jonathan Toomey written by Susan Wojciechowski & illustrated by P.J. Lynch
• Little Skeletons / Esqueletitos (Countdown to Midnight / Un Libro Para Contar en el Día de los Muertos) written & illustrated by Susie Jaramillo [accordion style board book]
• You Are Stardust written by Elin Kelsey & illustrated by Soyeon Kim [second tier]
• Octopus Opposites written & illustrated by Stella Blackstone and Stephanie Bauer [board book] [second tier?]
• A Big Mooncake for Little Star written & illustrated by Grace Lin [loosely the Mid Autumn Moon Festival]

***

The answer to how many kids' books I've read in 3 years?

730 -- I think.

I discovered the GoodReads export library function, but it left a LOT of the Date Read cells blank (I have no idea what that glitch is), which made cutting the data to just the date range I wanted more challenging. It puts all your shelves for a given book in a single cell, but that was easily solved by running a COUNTIF.

=COUNTIF(Q2:Q985,"*picturebooks*")

picture books (round 5) mostly Native/Indigenous/Aboriginal

Nibling turned 2 today!

***

People keep sharing with me links to lists of multicultural picture books and similar, which I appreciate the thought behind (it is Known that I am reading lots of picture books to select ones to buy for the nibling), but at this point I have heard of (if not read) most all the books that show up on those lists.

So I was so pleased to come across Minh Lê‏'s "Best Picture Books of 2017" where I had heard of almost none of the books AND at-a-glance it appeared to be a diverse author pool. I also liked that its categories were ones I wouldn't necessarily have thought of -- most touching, most charming, best surprise, best family, best adventure, best history, funniest, most clever, best on creativity, best concept, best (auto)biography, most beautiful, best nature/outdoors, best read aloud, most exuberant/fun, most powerful, best friendship/kindness, best design, best bedtime.

So I kicked off my 2018 picture book reading with that (as if I didn't already have ~150 picture books on my to-read list...). And then got sidetracked by other things and slowly made my way through 7 of Lê‏'s 19(!) categories. I didn't actually love a lot of them, but here are some I did:

• Little Iffy Learns to Fly written & illustrated by Aaron Zenz [one of the Most Charming]
• Not Quite Narwhal written & illustrated by Jessie Sima [one of the Most Charming] largely for the illustrations, second-tier
• Through With the Zoo written & illustrated by Jacob Grant [one of the Most Charming] second-tier
• After the Fall: How Humpty Dumpty Got Back up Again written & illustrated by Dan Santat [Best Surprise]
• The One Day House written by Julia Durango & illustrated by Bianca Diaz [one of the Best Surprise]
• The Only Fish in the Sea written by Philip C. Stead & illustrated by Matthew Cordell [one of the Best Adventure]

I also learned about Inhabit Media -- an Inuit-owned publishing company -- and proceeded to interlibrary loan most every picturebook I could get my hands on. [Note: I am shifting from using the term "folklore" to "traditional stories" after reading this post on American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL).]

• The Raven and the Loon written by Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley & illustrated by Kim Smith [traditional story]
• Ava and the Little Folk retold by Neil Christopher and Alan Neal & illustrated by Jonathan Wright [traditional story]
• Lesson for the Wolf written by Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley & illustrated by Alan Cook [traditional story]
• The Walrus Who Escaped written by Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley & illustrated by Anthony Brennan [traditional story]
• Ukaliq and Kalla Go Fishing written by Nadia Mike & illustrated by Amanda Sandland [anthropomorphic animal story]
• Hurry Up, Ilua! written & illustrated by Nora Helen Hicks [anthropomorphic animal story] mostly for the illustrations
• Leah's Mustache Party written by Nadia Mike & illustrated by Charlene Chua

And I went through the American Indian Youth Literature Award for Best Picture Book winners and honorees.

• I am Dreaming of... Animals of the Native Northwest written by Melaney Gleeson-Lyall & illustrated by Mervin Windsor, Maynard Johnny Jr., Eric Parnell, Ernest Swanson, Ben Houstie, Paul Windsor, Allan Weir, Terry Starr, Nicole LaRock, Simone Diamond, and Francis Horne Sr. [2018 Honor Book] [board book] I love these illustrations!
• Little You written by Richard Van Camp & illustrated by Julie Flett [2016 Best Picture Book] [author is Tłı̨chǫ, illustrator is Cree-Metis] [board book] brb, buying copies of this for every baby
• Caribou Song written by Tomson Highway & illustrated by John Rombough [2014 Best Picture Book] [Cree; author is full-blooded Cree and illustrator is Chipewayan Dene] for the illustrations

And I ended up checking out more recommendations of books by and about Native/Indigenous/Aboriginal peoples. (Some sidebar reading on terminology: "Natives of the Hawaiian Islands are not Indigenous People, They’re Aboriginal" & "A Note on Terminology: Inuit, Métis, First Nations, and Aboriginal" -- the latter is Canadian and is adapted from the Report on the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.)

• The Apple Tree: A Cherokee Story written by Sandy Tharp-Thee & illustrated by Marlena Campbell Hodson

I started doing some searching for Aboriginal Australian picturebooks, and I found a 2013 blogpost "Top Ten Indigenous-authored Children’s Books," but plugging the titles into WorldCat I found that most of them were only in Australian library systems :( (Though it was interesting seeing which non-AUS/NZ libaries had some of them -- Singapore, Japan, Canada, a few places in the US.) I wonder what other quality kidlit I'm missing out on due to its not being published much outside its country of origin (not to mention, of course, the stuff that isn't translated into English #MonolingualProblems), which I'm again reminded of when I come across stuff like Betsy Bird's "Board Books 2018: What We’ve Got Here Is an Oddly Strong Year."

In doing searches to purchase copies of books that weren't in my regional library networks, I learned that there are more Native publishing companies/bookstores than I had realized/expected -- the ones I have come across in my specific searches are below, but I know this isn't even a complete list:

• Inhabit Media (Inuit)
• Kamehameha Publishing (Hawaii)
• Sealaska Heritage Institute (Southeast Alaska)
• Native Northwest [Native Explore is their children's merchandise]
• Birchbark Books [physical store is in Minneapolis]
• Four Winds Indian Books [bought by Indian Country Books/Native Media Network, also affiliated with Clear Light Publishing]
• Oyate
• Magabala Books (Indigenous/Aboriginal Australia)
• Pemmican Publications (Metis) [and because of the Indigenous Canada Coursera course I'm taking, I got the reference!]
• HighWater Press -- okay, I'm not actually sure if they're Indigenous owned

When my copy of Shanyaak'utlaax: Salmon Boy (the 2018 American Indian Library Association's Youth Literature Award Best Picture Book) arrived in the mail (I ordered a copy because none of my regional library networks had a copy), I showed it to my housemate and she said, "Are you still going through books for your [nibling]?" I said, "Yes. The kid isn't even 2 years old yet, there are many years to go!" I have such a backlog of books I've "shelved," and I keep coming across more (like Betsy Bird's Caldecott and Newbery predictions, which while rarely accurate, contained almost entirely books I hadn't previously encountered).

February is Black History Month, and March is Women's History Month, so there were some kids' books that came up on recommendation lists relevant to that (plus books I saw at the Peabody Essex Museum gift shop). I didn't love any of them, but some fairly good ones are:

• This Little Trailblazer: A Girl Power Primer written by Joan Holub & illustrated by Daniel Roode [board book]
• Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History written & illustrated by Vashti Harrison
• Dear Girl, written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Paris Rosenthal & illustrated by Holly Hatam
• Shaking Things Up: 14 Young Women Who Changed the World written by Susan Hood & illustrated by Selina Alko, Sophie Blackall, Lisa Brown, Hadley Hooper, Emily Winfield Martin, Oge Mora, Julie Morstad, Sara Palacios, LeUyen Pham, Erin Robinson, Isabel Roxas, Shadra Strickland, and Melissa Sweet

There was also The Conscious Kid Library's "13 Recommended #OwnVoices Reads for Ramadan." I read most of the ones I hadn't read already, and of those new-to-me ones, these were my favorites:

• Mommy's Khimar written by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow & illustrated by Ebony Glenn [Black Muslim girl]
• Lailah’s Lunchbox: A Ramadan Story by Reem Faruqi, illustrated by Lea Lyon [Emirati immigrant to Atlanta, Georgia]
• Moon Watchers: Shirin’s Ramadan Miracle by Reza Jalali, illustrated by Anne Sibley O’Brien [9-year-old Arab girl]

Plus, of course, picturebooks I just happened to come across:

• Bob Is a Unicorn written by & illustrated by Michelle Nelson-Schmidt
• Islandborn written by Junot Díaz & illustrated by Leo Espinosa (Afro-Latina Dominican protagonist) [N.B. You can make your own choices as to whether you still want to consume and/or purchase Díaz's work given the allegations about his bullying, misogynistic, and sexually assaultative behavior.]
• Tiny Stitches: The Life of Medical Pioneer Vivien Thomas written by Gwendolyn Hooks & illustrated by Colin Bootman [for older readers, Black male biography]
• Take a Picture of Me, James VanDerZee! written by Andrea J. Loney & illustrated by Keith Mallett [Black male biography]
• I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark written by Debbie Levy & illustrated by Elizabeth Baddeley [biography]
• Mother Jones: Labor Leader written by Connie Colwell Miller & illustrated by Steve Erwin and Charles Barnett III [biography]
• The Rabbit Listened written & illustrated by Cori Doerrfeld

***

In total I've read ~176 kids' books this six-month period.

picture book recs (round 4)

Niblig turns 18 months in 2 days, and we leave tomorrow to visit, so I'm posting today.

Due to a GoodReads glitch, I'm not sure exactly how many picturebooks I've read this 6-month period, but I think ~98 (which is significantly more than I would have guessed before I tallied it up).

My big focus this time was on books set in Africa, not written by white folks. Prompted by this FB post about how not everyone who lives in Africa lives in a hut -- though I didn't actually find many picture books set in Africa that depict human people living in not-huts (I got a lot of village life and a lot of folktales).

• Kitoto the Mighty written by Tololwa M. Mollel & illustrated by Kristi Frost -- a mouse seeks the most powerful being to protect him from the hawk [African folktale retold]
• Subira, Subira written by Tololwa M. Mollel & illustrated by Linda Saport -- a girl struggles to get her younger brother to behave [contemporary Tanzania, folklore elements]
• Big Boy written by Tololwa M. Mollel & illustrated by E.B. Lewis -- a Tanzanian boy wishes he were bigger ... but what if his wish were granted? [contemporary Tanzania]
• Song Bird written by Tololwa M. Mollel & illustrated by Rosanne Litzinger -- girl saves the day! (okay, magical song bird saves the day, but the girl keeps the grownups from messing it up) [African folktale retold]
• To Dinner, For Dinner written by Tololwa M. Mollel & illustrated by Synthia Saint James -- mostly I just love the mole wearing glasses [in the style of African folktales]
• A Is for Africa written & photographed by Ifeoma Onyefulu [Nigeria]
• The Magic Gourd written by & illustrated by Baba Wagué Diakité [African folklore]

I also read a bunch on labor:

• Old Tracks, New Tricks written by & illustrated by Jessica Petersen -- not explicitly about labor, but it very much has that feel as it's about toy trains being bossy and insisting that the toy tracks' only purpose is to do what the trains want ("You tracks exist so trains can go.")
• ¡Sí, Se Puede! / Yes, We Can!: Janitor Strike in L.A. written by Diana Cohn & illustrated by Francisco Delgado, with an essay by Luis J. Rodríguez -- about the janitorial strike in L.A. in 2000
• Side by Side/Lado a lado: The Story of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez/La historia de Dolores Huerta y Cesar Chavez written by Monica Brown & illustrated by Joe Cepeda (watching the Dolores documentary, I developed strong feelings about the importance of including Dolores Huerta in the Cesar Chavez narrative)
• Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909 written by Michelle Markel & illustrated by Melissa Sweet [Clara is a Jewish Ukrainian immigrant, though her demographic specifics are mostly elided by the narrative]
• That's Not Fair! / ¡No Es Justo!: Emma Tenayuca's Struggle for Justice/La lucha de Emma Tenayuca por la justicia written by Carmen Tafolla and Sharyll Teneyuca & illustrated by Terry Ybáñez

And some miscellaneous books:

• An Australian 1, 2, 3 of Animals by Bronwyn Bancroft -- probably my favorite of the Bronwyn Bancroft books I read, though all of her books I wanted to like more than I did. [Aboriginal Australia]
• Who Counts?: 100 Sheep, 10 Coins, and 2 Sons written by Amy-Jill Levine and Sandy Eisenberg Sasso & illustrated by Margaux Meganck
• The Adventures of Tulip, Birthday Wish Fairy written by S. Bear Bergman & illustrated by Suzy Malik -- supporting trans kids!

picture book recs (round 3)

Nibling turns 1 year old this Friday, and I know I'm not going to get any more picturebooks read between now and then, so am posting now. (Yes, I am on a 6-month posting schedule.)

I read ~150 picturebooks the first 6 months, ~50 the next 6 months, and ~83 this past 6 months (38 of which were over the winter holiday break week -- my most prime time for reading). Books are, as usual, listed in the order in which I read them.

Tier 1:

• Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People written by Monica Brown & illustrated by Julie Paschkis [Chilean]
• Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer written by Carole Boston Weatherford & illustrated by Ekua Holmes [African-American]
• My Night in the Planetarium: A true story about a child, a play, and the art of resistance by Innosanto Nagara [Indonesian]
• There Is a Flower at the Tip of My Nose Smelling Me written by Alice Walker & illustrated by Stefano Vitale [protagonist is a brown girl with what I suspect is African hair]
• Girl of Mine written by Jabari Asim & illustrated by LeUyen Pham [Black father and baby girl] (board book)

Tier 2:

• Doña Flor: A Tall Tale About a Giant Woman with a Great Big Heart written by Pat Mora & illustrated by Raúl Colón [Hispanic]
• The Invisible Princess by Faith Ringgold [slavery folktale]
• Little Night by Yuyi Morales [depicts a brown mother and black daughter]
• Max and the Tag-Along Moon by Floyd Cooper [depicts male characters of African ancestry]
• If You Were My Baby written by Fran Hodgkins & illustrated by Laura J. Bryant [NB: parent-child pair depicted on final page are white]
• Melena's Jubilee by Zetta Elliott [African-American protagonist]
• My First Book of Girl Power by Julie Merberg [DC comics; white, skinny, able-bodied superheroines] (board book)
• The Big Book of Girl Power by Julie Merberg [DC comics; various superheroines]

I didn't love any of the Chinese/Lunar New Year books I read, but probably my favorite that's About the holiday is The Next New Year written by Janet S. Wong & illustrated by Yangsook Choi. I also enjoyed:

• The Nian Monster written by Andrea Wang & illustrated by Alina Chau
• The Runaway Wok: A Chinese New Year Tale written by Ying Chang Compestine & illustrated by Sebastia Serra

And speaking of Chinese holidays, I also enjoyed (though again, not in love with) Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival by Grace Lin.

picture book recs (round 2)

Nibling turns 6 months old today, and I've definitely gotten far fewer picturebooks read in the last 6 months than I did in the preceding 6 months (~50 vs. ~150). I also feel like I've been excited by fewer books (understandable, as I've gotten through most of the obvious recommendations).

Books I'm excited to recommend:

• My People written by Langston Hughes & illustrated by photographer Charles R. Smith Jr. [African-American]
• Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music written by Margarita Engle & illustrated by Rafael López [Chinese-African-Cuban girl, based on a historical true story]
• The Name Jar written by Yangsook Choi [Korean immigrant]
• Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story written by Paula Yoo & illustrated by Lin Wang [Chinese-American biography]
• Bee-bim Bop! written by Linda Sue Park & illustrated by Ho Baek Lee [Korean]
• Chachaji's Cup written by Uma Krishnaswami & illustrated by Soumya Sitaraman [India/Indian-American]
• The Dead Family Díaz written by P.J. Bracegirdle & illustrated by Poly Bernatene [except I can't tell if the author is of Mexican heritage or not]

Second tier:

• 28 Days: Moments in Black History that Changed the World written by Charles R. Smith Jr. & illustrated by Shane W. Evans
• Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters written by Andrea Davis Pinkney & illustrated by Stephen Alcorn [more of an older kid book -- mostly text]
• René Has Two Last Names / René tiene dos apellidos written by René Colato Laínez & illustrated by Fabiola Graullera Ramírez [Salvadoran-American]

***

Initially, I was particularly interested in books about the African-American experience, because my (white) nibling was going to be growing up in St. Louis, southwest of Ferguson.

Then about 4 months post-birth, my brother got a new job and they started planning a move to Florida, and the Hispanic/Latinx/Caribbean(-American) experience felt to me most relevant (with Cuba particularly in mind given Fidel Castro's death while we were visiting for Thanksgiving) -- and yes, I know that Afro-Caribbean is very real.

But then I was going through the picturebooks remaining on my To Read list on GoodReads and yeah, I'm still interested in All the books.

I went to the Fathom Events broadcast of George Takei's Broadway musical Allegiance earlier this month, and I want more books about people of Asian ancestry, including historical books. (Including history that's not American history -- I recently read Haruki Murakami's novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and was aware of how little I know about the historical context of the Asian portion of WWII.)

And in looking at my GR to-read list, I was aware that many of the African-American books on there are biographies -- which is great, but I also want to have plenty of books about regular people today, that makes people-not-like-me part of the reader-child's natural world (thinking of my own nibling; obviously it's also important for kids to see themselves reflected), not just distant figures in history (this is especially true for Native Americans, who we tend to forget still exist).

I have said before that I'm grateful to be picturebook shopping at a time when there are so many well-written well-illustrated picturebooks by and about people who aren't the unmarked default of white, straight, cisgender, Christian, economically comfortable, etc. And that's certainly true, but I'm also conscious of how few books (available in English in the US) there are about kids from India, how few books there are about kids with disabilities (especially ones that aren't aimed at teaching Valuable Life Lessons to non-disabled kids), etc., etc. I'd guess there are the most picturebooks about default-setting kids; followed by African-American; followed by Latinx; followed by East Asian-American; then I'm not sure the breakdown of Jewish, Muslim, Native American, Indian, disabled, Deaf, other identity categories I'm not thinking of...

picturebooks rec list (round 1)

In the 6+ months since my brother and sister-in-law announced they were expecting a baby, I've read approximately 150 picturebooks -- ranging from board books to books for elementary schoolers.

I remain a very text-oriented person, but I'm trying to be more more attentive to the art and the ways the art and text interact.

Things I have learned:

1. Most picture books don't indicate reading level. (1a) The books I've been reading I think have tended toward older kids, but without explicit indicators on the book itself it's really hard for me (who doesn't have very much experience with kids) to guess at what age a kid would probably be reading this book.
2. I like books that are not About The [X] Experience -- I prefer books that are clearly rooted in a particular culture/experience but are not About being X (this has made it difficult to find picturebooks with disabled protagonists that I even want to read).
3. I want books to be written by people for whom that culture is native to them/they share that experience. (This is not so much a thing I have learned as a stance I already had and have been really reaffirmed in. Not only am I very much on a break from books by/about white dudes, but I don't want books by white people about chromatic culture/experience -- yes, I want fewer stories about white people, but I want to lift up the voices of actual people of color ... if I'm going to read a book about PoCs, I want to be reading a PoC's voice. Yes, there are some really excellent books by white people, but I would rather be spending my time hearing the stories of actual PoCs.)

Partly for my own reference, and partly because other people have expressed interest, here's my rec list so far. These are listed in approximately the order in which I read them.

Favorites:

• Just In Case: A Trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book by Yuyi Morales
• The Zero Dads Club written by Angel Adeyoha & illustrated by Aubrey Williams (from S. Bear Bergman's micro-press Flamingo Rampant) [most if not all characters are PoC, and one is a wheelchair user]

I have quibbles with just about everything, but other books that would probably make my rec list are:

• All the Colors of the Earth by Sheila Hamanaka [characters of various ethnicities]
• The Longest Night: A Passover Story written by Laurel Snyder & illustrated by Catia Chien
• Global Babies by Global Fund for Children (board book)
• Princess Smartypants by Babette Cole [white characters]
• Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns: A Muslim Book of Colors written by Hena Khan & illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini
• The Night of the Moon: A Muslim Holiday Story written by Hena Khan & illustrated by Julie Paschkis [Pakistani-American protagonist]
• Tough Chicks written by Cece Meng & illustrated by Melissa Suber
• Pirate Girl written by Cornelia Funke & illustrated by Kerstin Meyer [white characters]
• Crazy Horse's Vision written by Joseph Bruchac & illustrated by S.D. Nelson [Lakota characters]
• God's Dream written by Desmond Tutu and Douglas Carlton Abrams & illustrated by LeUyen Pham [characters of various ethnicities]

Second tier:

• I Look Like a Girl by Sheila Hamanaka [pictures girls of various ethnicities]
• Counting on Community by Innosanto Nagara (board book) [characters of various ethnicities]
• Deep in the Sahara written by Kelly Cunnane & illustrated by Hoda Hadadi [Mauritania, Muslim]
• Everywhere Babies written by Susan Meyers & illustrated by Marla Frazee (board book) [characters of various ethnicities]
• Here Is the World: A Year of Jewish Holidays written by Lesléa Newman & illustrated by Susan Gal
• Here Come the Girl Scouts!: The Amazing All-True Story of Juliette 'Daisy' Gordon Low and Her Great Adventure written by Shana Corey & illustrated by Hadley Hooper [white characters]
• Baxter, the Pig Who Wanted to Be Kosher written by Laurel Snyder & illustrated by David Goldin
• Cradle Me by Debby Slier (board book) [Native American babies]
• Welcome Song for Baby: A Lullaby for Newborns by Richard Van Camp (board book) [Dene author]
• SkySisters written by Jan Bourdeau Waboose & illustrated by Brian Deines [Ojibway characters]
• Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship & Freedom written by Tim Tingle & illustrated by Jeanne Rorex Bridges [characters are Choctaw and enslaved African-Americans]
• Jingle Dancer written by Cynthia Leitich Smith & illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu [Muscogee/Ojibway protagonist]
• Muskrat Will Be Swimming written by Cheryl Savageau & illustrated by Robert Hynes [Native American, includes retelling of a Seneca tale]
• Chik Chak Shabbat written by Mara Rockliff & illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker [Jewish woman protagonist, characters of various religions and ethnicities]

I also did specific dives into particular topics --

Diwali:

• Diwali: Khushiyon Ka Tyohaar/Diwali: A Festival of Lights and Fun written by Manisha Kumar & Monica Kumar and illustrated by Sona & Jacob
• Let's Celebrate Diwali written by Anjali Joshi & illustrated by Tim Palin
• The Diwali Gift written by Shweta Chopra and Shuchi Mehta & illustrated by Anna Koan

slavery:

• Love Twelve Miles Long written by Glenda Armand & illustrated by Colin Bootman
• In the Time of the Drums written by Kim L. Siegelson & illustrated by Brian Pinkney
• Light in the Darkness: A Story about How Slaves Learned in Secret written by Lesa Cline-Ransome & illustrated by James E. Ransome
• Ben and the Emancipation Proclamation written by Pat Sherman & illustrated by Floyd Cooper (NB: written by a white woman)
• [as mentioned above] Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship & Freedom written by Tim Tingle & illustrated by Jeanne Rorex Bridges [characters are Choctaw and enslaved African-Americans]