Jella Lepman and Her Library of Dreams: The Woman Who Rescued a Generation of Children and Founded the World’s Largest Children’s Library
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Katherine Paterson, illus. by Sally Deng. Chronicle, $21.99 (112p) ISBN 978-1-4521-8262-9
Paterson applauds the work of writer and translator Jella Lepman (1891–1970), who spearheaded a post-WWII effort to reeducate German youth, “mostly along the lines of an idealized American society.” Beginning with early adulthood, scene-setting storytelling notes Lepman’s major life milestones. After Hitler seizes control, promising “to make Germany great again,” Lepman—“one of the Nazis’ despised Jewish people”—flees, becoming a journalist abroad. At war’s end, the protagonist is recruited as an adviser on the educational needs of German women and children, and, despite initial reluctance, Lepman embraces the role with vigor, battling bureaucracy and working with limited funds to produce a children’s book exhibition that becomes the International Youth Library—itself a launchpad for the Young People’s United Nations. Deng’s digitally colored, monochromatic sketches incorporate historical photos. Amid real talk about war, there’s an optimism to be found in this lengthy profile of Lepman, presented here as a dogged champion for children and a believer in books. Ages 8–12. (Feb.)
Janie Writes a Play: Jane Yolen’s First Great Story
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Heidi E.Y. Stemple, illus. by Madelyn Goodnight. Charlesbridge, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-62354-327-3
Stemple pays tribute to her mother, author Jane Yolen (b. 1939), with this tightly written tale of Yolen’s debut as a school-age playwright. Centering on how “Janie loved a great story,” scenes paint the subject’s days as filled with reading and writing, while she anticipates the start of school play rehearsals. That initial excitement fizzles upon a read of the script, but Yolen’s writerly instincts kick in, and she draws on everyday experience to craft an original work whose performance achieves a standing ovation. With texturized coloring, Goodnight’s large-scale digital artwork moves between cheerful depictions of the mundane and Yolen’s imagination-infused perceptions. An author’s note concludes. Ages 5–8. (Feb.)
Book Comes Home: A Banned Book’s Journey
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Rob Sanders, illus. by Micah Player. Random House, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-593-81368-3
Sanders and Player explore book banning from the perspective of a dog-eared library volume. With a periwinkle cover, an upturned nose, and a gold award sticker, wide-eyed Book (written “by A. Person”) exudes contentment in opening scenes. But one day, when “her best reader friend” places her in the return bin, a shadowy figure moves Book to a shelf in a darkened space that several sorrowful peers identify as “the Banned Book Closet.” As Book learns more about banning, her pride shrivels: “The darkness of the room matched the sadness Book felt.” Luckily, Book’s beloved patron and others eventually spring the space’s denizens. With thick black digital outlines, figures have a clean crispness that distinctly contrasts with the fuzzy, unformed shadows of the Banned Book Closet—a meaningful visual echo of the work’s themes. Characters are portrayed with various abilities and skin tones. An author’s note concludes. Ages 5–8. (Mar.)
Orson and the World’s Loudest Library
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Laura Gehl, illus. by Stephanie Roth Sisson. Astra, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-66260-208-5
Gehl and Roth Sisson offer a winning library portrait in this evenhanded picture book with rough-edged, digitally colored pencil-drawn illustrations. Book lover Orson’s favorite places are quiet spots, so the child initially struggles to adapt when the local library’s reopening represents less hush than before. He urges the librarian to shush a child laughing at a comic book and a talkative book club, and when the librarian refuses, Orson, portrayed with brown skin, effectively takes on the job. As everyone falls silent, the result proves less pleasing than expected—“he remembers how happy the other kids seemed before, when they were talking, laughing, and reading.” Luckily, un-shushing proves an easy and joy-filled solution that leads to connection. Characters are shown with various abilities and skin tones. Ages 4–8. (Apr.)
Dear Bookstore
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Emily Arrow, illus. by Geneviève Godbout. Candlewick, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-5362-1069-9
This unabashed love letter to independent bookstores traces the crucial role they play. “Dear Bookstore, I remember the first time I ever visited you,” Arrow’s narrator intones as Godbout captures in velvety spreads a young child spotting a book in a shop window, then entering to welcome and belonging. Though the child’s wishes differ with each visit (“I wanted a mystery...// or an adventure!”), the bookstore grants them all. Godbout’s spreads visualize the “magic” that flows through books, illuminating them with a glow. When the pale-skinned narrator, older now, hears that bookstores are closing, they’re relieved to find that their beloved shop is still there, in this work about bookstores as places that can be counted on. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. An author’s note concludes. Ages 3–7. (Mar.)
Can’t Stop Kissing That Baby
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K.L. Going, illus. by Fiona Lee. Beach Lane, $19.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4424-3416-5
Going and Lee spotlight mother-child bonds in this snuggle-inducing story. Rhythmic second-person lines articulate variations on, “Silly momma!/ She so loves kissing the baby./ So loves,/ yes, she just so loves.” Accompanying scenes—rendered in soothing washes of periwinkle, pumpkin, and sage—support with naturalistic depictions of parents of varying skin tones luxuriating in baby hugs all throughout the day as their cherubic charges laugh and smile. As arrayed mothers and babes converge at a park picnic table, the incredulous narrator playfully queries: “Are you still kissing the baby?” And even after a dog and other humans join in, text celebrates the way mommas “never run out of those kisses.” Text and visuals combine for a glowing portrait of doting caregivers. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)
Back to the Storks
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Cressida Gaukroger, illus. by Andrew Joyner. Little Hare, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-76121-187-4
Frustrated by the antics of its resident babies, a community sends mischievous tots “back to the storks” in this over-the-top picture book. It all starts with Otis, a child whose squeal is so loud that it even drives away dogs at the park. “When his mummy and daddy couldn’t take it any longer,” the child gets packaged up and shipped off, and other parents follow suit with biting and hair-pulling kids. The storks cleverly take advantage of the youths’ behaviors by doling out jobs (fire truck siren for loud Otis), and the remorseful parents’ return kicks off new familial tensions. Gaukroger’s comic storytelling questionably incorporates descriptions of the infants as “good” and “bad,” and feels aimed as much at caregivers as kids; Joyner’s cartoons, meanwhile, paint a picture of exhausting chaos through physical humor and exaggerated expressions in this picture of parental exasperation. Human characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 3 and up. (Mar.)
The Baby Who Stayed Awake Forever
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Sandra Salsbury. Doubleday, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-5938-0587-9
The gauntlet is thrown from the start of this chilling, not-so-hyperbolic picture book. Text that channels a round-headed, wide-eyed baby’s bedtime intransigence begins, “Sleeping is for koalas and teenagers. This baby intended to stay awake forever.” With various cries piercing the night air, Baby rebuffs all things soporific from a desperate, bleary Mama, Papa, and sister: “Not even seventeen binkies were enough to make this baby go to sleep.” The hour-by-hour telling is not so much a battle of wills as it is an appeal to comity, especially after a downstairs neighbor pipes up. Salsbury skillfully wields a wealth of composition styles to convey the excruciating passage of time (“At 2:15, Baby yelled a bit. At 2:30, she laughed at her own yelling”), until it seems that Baby has finally passed out, dreaming dreams of “glittering stars.” Nope, scratch that: “Not this baby!” Caretakers and new sibs will find plenty of comic comfort and validation in these pages. Characters are portrayed with light brown skin. Ages 3–7. (Mar.)
Sweet Babe! A Jewish Grandma Kvells
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Robin Rosenthal. Tundra, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-7748-8432-4
How does one Jewish grandmother dote on a toddler grandchild? With theatrical flourish (“Look. At. This. BABY!!”), absolute conviction (“You’re a genius”), and affectionate irony (“OY, you’re so sweet, I have a toothache”). But most of all, via lots of Yiddish words, including bubbeleh, ketzleleh, hertzeleh, and terms that present a full accounting of the baby’s features. Making her authorial debut, Rosenthal brings this laugh-out-loud linguistic breakdown to life through the broadly cartooned interplay between a pale-skinned grandmother and grandchild, portrayed in distilled single-plane spreads. Beginning and ending with a game of peekaboo, it’s a work truly focused on unadulterated kvelling, expressing cross-generational love through two sets of wide eyes and operatic text that speaks to an unalloyed bond. A glossary concludes. Ages 2–5. (Feb.)
Our Gorgeous Baby
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Smriti Prasadam-Halls, illus. by Eve Coy. Candlewick, $8.99 (24p) ISBN 978-1-5362-3932-4
“Our baby’s eyes are/ not brighter than/ the sun.” Allusive verse from Prasadam-Halls kicks off this clear-eyed board book tribute to babies and all of their quirks, as rhyming text establishes a truth-telling tone: “All day long people say that// she’s a gorgeous sight.// But we don’t think so when/ she wakes us up at night.” Other examples detail the subject’s uncouth behaviors (“Although we call her princess,// she acts more like a clown”), messy table manners, loud sounds, and stinky diapers. Coy’s richly colored artwork has a painterly aspect with soft-edged depictions of the child and family as they go about domestic activities and outings. Scenes frequently center the figure’s sibling observing with tender bemusement, amplifying the narration’s collective we as it affectionately concludes, “We love our baby more than/ anyone.” Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 2–5. (Mar.)
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