Happy Tuesday, kidlit friends! I have bad news, for me at least: our entire household is sick again. This means at least one of us has been sick for the entire month of January. Yay for accomplishments, I guess? Meanwhile, I still have work to complete from December, when we all got RSV. At least I’m not alone according to this NPR article a friend sent me yesterday about kids being adorable germ vectors.
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Bookish Goods
Love Books Pocket-Size Notebook by NightOwlPaperGoods
This cute notebook would make a perfect gift for book lovers. $11
New Releases
Jump In! by Shadra Strickland (picture book)
In this rhythmic picture book, an entire neighborhood joins in on double dutch jump rope fun. From siblings to skateboarders and even the local preacher, everybody’s ready to jump in and show their moves. It’s a delightful read with fold-out pages.
This Book is My Best Friend by Robin Robinson (picture book)
Sunny and Aarush love going to the library and they both consider books to be their best friends, especially one book in particular — Factory Friends. When they both reach for the book at the same time, they have a conundrum. Who gets to check it out? Can they convince the other to check out a different book? This is a super sweet picture book any book lover will enjoy.
For a more comprehensive list, check out our New Books newsletter!
Riot Recommendations
Here are four more recent picture books about books.
Once Upon a Book by Grace Lin and Kate Messner (picture book)
This book releases in a week, and it’s one of my favorites of the year so far (how can I have so many favorites already!?). When a bored Alice picks up a book on a snowy day, the characters invite her to step into the book. Inside she discovers many landscapes and characters to get lost in. It’s beautifully illustrated.
Books Aren’t for Eating by Carlie Sorosiak, illustrated by Manu Montoya (picture book)
Or are they? Leopold the goat is a bookseller and is proud of his ability to find the perfect book for every customer. That is until another goat shows up and gobbles up every book Leopold recommends. Can Leopold convince this hungry goat that books aren’t for eating?
A Land of Books: Dreams of Young Mexihcah Word Painters by Duncan Tonatiuh (picture book)
Long before European colonizers arrived, Aztecs and other indigenous Mexican cultures were making books and recording their stories and histories. In this nonfiction picture book, a young Aztec girl tells her brother about how their parents make books, or codices, and what those books document. It’s a fascinating and important history.
How to Eat a Book by Mrs &. Mr MacLeod (picture book)
Yep, there are two books about eating books on this list. In this imaginative picture book, Sheila and her twin cousins are hunting for yummy books to eat when the books instead eat them. The books send them on wild adventures but, in the end, are the books consuming the kids, or are the kids consuming the books?
My grandmother recently had a bad fall and had to be hospitalized (she’s doing much better now and is in a rehab facility). Inspired by the hospital trip, my daughter has been pretend playing that her dolls are in the hospital. Here she is reading to one of them to help her feel better. So. Adorable.
If you’d like to read more of my kidlit reviews, I’m on Instagram @BabyLibrarians, Twitter @AReaderlyMom, and blog irregularly at Baby Librarians. You can also read my Book Riot posts. If you’d like to drop me a line, my email is kingsbury.margaret@gmail.com.
Until next Tuesday!