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1 month ago | 
hbook.com | Julie Roach |Julie Hakim Azzam |Jessica MacDonald |Grace Mckinney Beermann
Let’s Be Bees by Shawn Harris; illus. by the authorPreschool Porter/Holiday 40 pp. 2/25 9780823457090 $18.99e-book ed. 9780823462278 $11.99Bold, comical crayon illustrations set the tone for a boisterous game of pretend and its noisy cacophony of sounds. “Let’s be bees,” suggests the text on the opening page, while the accompanying illustration shows a grownup reading this very book to a child. “LET’S BUZZ,” the adult encourages.
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2 months ago | 
hbook.com | Elissa Gershowitz |Julie Hakim Azzam |Julie Roach |Sarah Ellis
Beti and the Little Round House by Atinuke; illus. by Emily HughesPrimary Candlewick 128 pp. 10/24 9781536225181 $18.99Fans of Atinuke’s beloved chapter-book series know that Anna Hibiscus “lives in Africa.
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2 months ago | 
hbook.com | Elisa Gall |Sarah Ellis |Julie Roach |Shelley Isaacson
A Sleepless Night by Micaela Chirif; illus. by Joaquín Camp; trans. from Spanish by Jordan LandsmanPrimary Transit 48 pp. 9/24 9798893389050 $19.95In this vibrant and absurdist Argentinian import, young Elisa cries so loudly that her narrator sibling says she sounds “like a fire truck instead of a baby,” and all the neighbors in their apartment building are disrupted.
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2 months ago | 
hbook.com | Julie Hakim Azzam |Julie Roach |Sarah Ellis |Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres
Every Story Ever Told by Ami PolonskyMiddle School Little, Brown 256 pp. 10/24 9780316570978 $16.99e-book ed. 9780316571005 $9.99In this sequel to World Made of Glass (rev. 3/23), set a generation later, seventh grader Stevie (daughter of Iris Cohen, the first book’s protagonist) is attending her New Jersey town’s annual Kickoff to Summer celebration when a mass shooter goes on a killing spree.
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Jan 21, 2025 | 
hbook.com | Julie Roach |Sarah Ellis |Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres
Quagmire Tiarello Couldn’t Be Better by Mylisa LarsenMiddle School, High School Clarion/HarperCollins 240 pp. 9/24 9780063324664 $18.99e-book ed. 9780063324688 $10.99Quagmire Tiarello, so often misunderstood by his peers and the adults in his life, has a strong sense of loyalty and fairness but little tolerance for rules or authority. This companion to Playing Through the Turnaround (rev.
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Oct 24, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Adrienne L. Pettinelli |Dean Schneider |Julie Roach
I was enamored with The Mango Tree / La mata de mango, written and illustrated by Edel Rodriguez, from the endpapers (an elegant leaf-and-mango pattern that could be a wallpaper pattern). In this wordless picture book, two friends spend their days in the safety and comfort of a backyard mango tree on their island home. A vicious storm hits, carrying off the mango tree in its pot along with one of the boys.
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Oct 22, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Annisha Jeffries |Adrienne L. Pettinelli |Dean Schneider |Julie Roach
November is Native American Heritage month, and Being Home, illustrated by Michaela Goade and written by Tracie Sorell, offers a heartfelt reminder of the importance to Native communities of family, tradition, and belonging. This exquisite picture book follows a young Cherokee girl and her mother on a journey — leaving behind the familiar city they’ve always known and traveling toward family and a renewed sense of home.
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Oct 17, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Shoshana Flax |Adrienne L. Pettinelli |Dean Schneider |Julie Roach
Susan Gal’s illustrations in Joyful Song: A Naming Story, written by Lesléa Newman, are full of vibrant colors — as well they should be. The book is a celebration of a new baby’s arrival, and of welcoming her into a family and a community — both of which are portrayed in an effortlessly inclusive way, with the illustrations extending cues in the text. As the title indicates, joy is in order.
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Oct 15, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Adrienne L. Pettinelli |Dean Schneider |Julie Roach |Christina Dorr
Dalmartian: A Mars Rover Story, written and illustrated by Lucy Ruth Cummins, has the same setup as the film E.T.: a crew of alien botanists is interrupted while collecting samples, and in the rush to escape, one of their number is left behind. In this case, though, the aliens look like dogs and are white with lime green markings. A boy, Stephen, finds the stranded alien, and the interactions between him and his “guest” are played for wry humor.
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Dean Schneider |Julie Roach |Christina Dorr |Adrienne L. Pettinelli
Adrienne Pettinelli captured the heart of Kevin Henkes’s work in her Horn Book review of his picture book The World and Everything in It (May/June 2023): “Henkes’s strength is in the poetry of the everyday and finding the profound in ordinary moments.” Finding Things, written by Henkes and illustrated by his wife, Laura Dronzek, focuses on just a portion of the greater world — a ball, a flower, a box, and a kitten.
