Author: Karina Glaser

This book received a Caldecott Honor, and for good reason! The illustrations hold so much meaning and carry the story from start to finish. Readers will be cheering for a happy ending.

The gorgeous illustrations in this book remind me of a Pixar film. A young girl slowly develops a friendship with a stray dog and cannot stop thinking about him. Then one stormy night, both of their lives change forever.

Eight-year-old Kaita Taken and her family love fostering animals, but when they pick up Truman, they don’t know what they’re getting into! Even though Truman is an older rescue dog, he’s full of mischief. Can Kaita help Truman and find him a forever home?

This is one of my favorite middle grade books! (Spoiler alert: keep tissues handy.) When former foster kid Ben Coffin finds a stray dog outside the Coney Island Library, it leads him to befriend Halley. As the trio become fast friends, they support each other through tough trials and heartbreak.

When a beloved adult passes away, a young girl puts her heart in a bottle to protect it from getting hurt again. There it stays until she is reminded of all the wonderful things she learned from that adult, and how she can share those gifts with someone else.

A young girl’s grandfather passes away before she was born, and she finds herself missing him even though she has never met him. She asks her family what he was like and imagines what it would have been like to meet him. This is a beautiful and poignant book about feelings and grief.

Trille and Lena are best friends, and what they like to do most is create mischief! They coax a cow onto a boat and sled down the steepest and iciest hill with a chicken. They both love Trille’s granny’s waffles. But when Lena has to move away and Auntie Granny leaves the world, it sometimes seems like nothing will ever be right again. 

It’s autumn on 141st Street, and as the days get shorter, a dear neighbor of the Vanderbeekers is getting more and more sick. The family does their best to take care of him, realizing along the way that one of the hardest parts of life is saying goodbye.

I love this picture book biography about famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma. After studying his whole life and playing at famous venues all around the world, Yo-Yo Ma performed at the U.S.-Mexico border at the Rio Grande on April 13, 2019 as part of his multi-continent “Bach Project” tour.

This is one of my absolute favorite picture books of all time. The illustrations are so funny and charming! It’s a Friday night, and the 105 members of the New York Philharmonic are getting dressed in black and white so they can head to the concert hall and play music together.

Florence Price was a brilliant pianist who played her first piano concert when she was four. She was an avid composer, and she wrote music hoping that it would one day be performed by an orchestra. In 1933, her dreams came true when she prevailed against race and gender prejudices to become the first Black woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer and be performed by a major American orchestra.

Twelve-year-old twins Rose and Thomas are growing further apart. While Rose is focused on preparing for the Bach Cello Suites Competition, Thomas is consumed by growing the biggest pumpkin in their neighbor’s yard. But when a serious accident changes their summer entirely, the two twins learn more about what it means to be family, and how to help each other achieve their dreams.

I love this book, which reimagines city streets as being places where public transportation is easy and cheap to access and where living in a city is sustainable, healthy, accessible, and safe. This is a great book for budding architects and urban designers.

A mom and her child are looking forward to spending a Saturday together in the city they call home, but when their carefully laid plans go awry it feels like everything is ruined. Can they salvage their special day?

City streets come alive in the summer as kids spend the day outside jumping Double Dutch, opening the fire hydrants for a cool down, and chasing ice cream trucks.

A muralist arrives with a bucket of paint and brushes, and slowly a gray city transforms as color takes over. Based on the true story of the Urban Art Trail in San Diego, California, Maybe Something Beautiful reveals how art can inspire transformation

I think this book is clever in how it thinks about animals as architects who are constantly designing and modifying their environments to suit their needs. Chris Sasaki is one of my favorite illustrators, and I love how he depicts various animals and their habitats.

Wildlife expert Tyus D. Williams shares his knowledge about the biggest cats on earth in this book that is illustrated beautifully by Chaaya Prabhat.

This poetic book celebrates animals who live and travel in packs and explores how togetherness helps many creatures thrive. The illustrations are stunning!

This beautiful book by award winning author illustrator Yuyi Morales follows the journey of a fawn who is exploring the world in all its beauty and dangers.

Mirha is so excited about her first day of school, but when she arrives it seems like no one can pronounce her name! She is too shy to correct her classmates and her teachers, and she goes home wondering if she should change her name to something people can pronounce.

Stacey Abrams shares a childhood memory of the school spelling bee in this sweet picture book. Growing up, Stacey loved everything about words, so a spelling bee should be no problem, right? But Stacey is worried that the words won’t come when she’s up on stage, just like how words escape her when she’s faced by bullies. Can Stacey step into the spotlight and speak out?

Holly Mei is thrilled to move with her family to Hong Kong. Her school is right by the beach and she loves her new home. But school isn’t as fun as she thought it was going to be, especially when the most popular girl in the school becomes a frenemy. Can Holly Mei figure out how to fit in?

This is one of my absolute favorite middle grade books. Set during the Vietnam War, Holling Hoodhood is starting seventh grade and is certain that his new teacher hates his guts. The book goes through the whole school year, charting Holling’s progress through the year as he gains an appreciation for Mrs. Baker, diagramming sentences, and running while also facing the ramifications of the Vietnam War.

This beautifully written book is accompanied by the sweetest illustrations. Two train passengers find courage in the hats they wear and befriend each other. Together they complete the journey and learn that traveling is always better with a companion.

There’s a train for every letter in the alphabet in this fun book that’s perfect for the train obsessed!

This was one of my kids’ favorite books to read when they were young. Available in a sturdy board book format, this wonderful book is great for the littlest readers.

See what train travel was like in the 1800s as a family journeys from Omaha to Sacramento via the newly completed Transcontinental Railroad in 1869. This gorgeously illustrated picture book won a Caldecott medal.

This is delightfully silly take on a very unusual bookstore where the owner only sells books about… books! Read about how to grow books on trees, a town where the clouds rain books, and the once in every five year phenomenon where all the animals can read. I am a huge fan of Yoshitake’s artwork which is filled with humor and heart.

This is a story about a bookstore that began in Harlem in the 1930s. Started by Lewis Michaux Sr., he named it the National Memorial African Bookstore. It became a gathering place for people in the neighborhood as well as people from around the world. It was a special place to share ideas and culture.

Okay, this is not a bookstore book, but it’s so beautiful that I had to include it in this collection. Set during World War II at a War Relocation Center in the Desert, Tama works in the prison camp’s tiny library. There she meets George who waits by the entrance every morning with an armful of books. Tama has no idea how he can read so much! Or is he coming for another reason? I just love this book!

Bookstore lovers will surely welcome this sweet bedtime book into their collection. Walk through the end-of-day rituals of a beloved local bookstore – saying goodbye to the customers and saying goodnight to the bookstore cat and the boxes of new arrivals. The illustrations are so sweet and inviting.

Anna Walker is one of my favorite illustrators, and this picture book is so charming! Lottie goes to swim lessons every Saturday, but she never gets into the pool because she’s convinced a shark wants to eat her up. Then Walter appears, and he likes singing and reading books and bubble baths. Can their friendship encourage Lottie to face her fears?

I know fans of graphic novels will be thrilled to pick up Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas. This is the story of Bree who starts a new school where she’s forced to take swim lessons. Bree hates the water and does everything she can to avoid class until she learns that her neighbor Etta was a former swim captain and is willing to give Bree lessons. As she grows in confidence, Bree joins the swim team and finds friendship among her relay team.

Fans of Hena Khan’s Amina’s Voice and Jasmine Warga’s Other Words for Home will love Unsettled! When her dad gets a job in America, Nurah has to adjust to life in Peachtree City. She finds solace in the pool where she wants to win medals like her brother. But when she is complicit in an attack on her brother, Nurah has to re-examine what kind of person she wants to be.

Thirteen-year-old Annabelle feels at home in the water. She’s the fastest swimmer on the middle school swim team, and when she’s asked to join the high school team, she is thrilled. But as she abandons her old friends for new ones, and then she gets caught in a prank gone wrong, Annabelle finds herself lost. This is a lovely coming-of-age story that I think so many young teens will relate to.

This beautiful picture book tells the story of extraordinary human Yo-Yo Ma, who picked up the cello at age four and honed his amazing talent over decades. His music became a reflection of his own life between borders, cultures, disciplines, and generations. On April 13, 2019, as part of his multi-continent “Bach Project” tour, he performed at the US-Mexico border at the Rio Grande to prove a point—through music, we can build bridges rather than walls between different cultures.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is an immigration policy that has provided relief to thousands of undocumented children, referred to as “Dreamers,” who came to the United States as children and call this country home. This is the true story of Areli Morales, a Dreamer whose DACA application was eventually approved and what her life was like leading up to being an American citizen.

This gorgeous picture book tells the story of Tyrus Wong, a young man who traveled from China to America with only a suitcase and a few papers. He then did everything he could to pursue art, eventually taking a job as a janitor while enrolling at an art institute in Los Angeles. He ended up working for Disney and came up with the iconic backgrounds of Bambi. The art in this book is stunning, especially that last spread.

This is the story of a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court (the Supreme Court has been in the news a lot lately). When American-born Wong Kim Ark returns home to San Francisco after a visit to China, he’s stopped and told he cannot enter: he isn’t American. After being imprisoned on a ship for months, Wong Kim Ark challenges the Supreme Court for his right to be an American citizen and won, confirming birthright citizenship for all Americans.