Author: Margaret Kingsbury

This is a cute middle grade graphic novel about a kid, Dale Donavan, who starts an art club at his very anti-art middle school. The vice principal detests art and creativity and pushes kids to figure out what practical jobs they’ll have as adults. I personally wanted to be a spy as a kid, so I’m glad I didn’t attend this school. Dale wants to prove to his vice principal and the school that artists can be successful and that the school should have an art club. So, he starts an art club with four other kids in the school. In their free time, the kids also bond over a video game they play. Each of the four characters has a nuanced background and story. I really love the character interactions.

This semi-autobiographical middle grade graphic novel also stars a tween who wants to become an artist but is told it’s an impractical career choice, this time by her mother. Steph, a Dominican 8th-grader living in the Bronx, wants to apply to an arts high school in Manhattan, but her mother wants her to continue going to Catholic school. Steph decides the only way to get what she wants is to lie, but it’s hard to keep up with all her lies.

Now for an action-packed fantasy novel. Kiki has anxiety, and to calm her nerves, she draws. She loves drawing characters from Indian myths and legends, but when she draws the legend of Mysore, she accidentally opens a portal into another world, and the demon king Mahishasura hops into her bedroom. Kiki has to return Mahishasura to his own world before he wreaks havoc in hers, but that means venturing into the portal.

In this lovely novel, 12-year-old Franny Petroski creates art with found objects. Her mother left when she was young, and she lives happily with her Nana. When Nana breaks her leg taking out the trash, the pair have to move to a new one-story rental, and then her uncle comes to live with them to help out. Her uncle doesn’t get along well with Nana due to difficulties with Franny’s mother when they were kids, which Franny is now learning about. It’s a quiet but touching novel about mental illness and family secrets.

This stunning picture book just won the Asian Pacific American Award for Literature and a Caldecott Honor at the recent ALA awards, and for good reason. It’s a beautifully illustrated and heartwarming picture book about a biracial child learning dragon folklore from grandmothers from two different cultures — Eastern and Western. He imagines himself exploring two different forests, encountering his grandmothers in these forests, and witnessing a dragon. It’s a really special book.

While the previous dragon picture book was a warm and delightful exploration of heritage, this one is completely hilarious and ludicrous. It won me over on the title alone, but I’m happy to say the contents lived up to the title. It’s a counting book about a large dragon family, all named Broccoli, slowly getting willowed down as they travel, go on adventures, and encounter wizards until finally, there’s only one dragon named Broccoli. Or is there more? The illustrations are so perfectly whimsical and expressive.

This delightful chapter book is on the lower end of chapter book reading levels. It describes the daily lives of two best friends — a dragon named Drag and a T-rex named Rex. These two friends have very different personalities. Drag is a daydreaming, disorganized, adventurous dragon full of new ideas. Rex is a polite, slightly grumpy, organized dinosaur who is always ready and willing to help friends. This chapter book is divided into three stories with three chapters each. It’s really great for kids just beginning to read chapter books.

This fun middle grade fantasy releases on March 5th. The world-building is really intricate and fascinating. The main character, 12-year-old Yeung, is training to become an immortal in a secret underwater world after being raised by an elderly healer woman and being shunned by her village because her hair doesn’t glow around dragon scales. All the students have to pass challenges to stay in the program. Meanwhile, the entire kingdom is being attacked by zombie-like creatures, and she has some kind of special powers to pull rails out of the sky. And a cute duck companion.

This is a lovely contemporary middle grade novel about a young Pakistani American girl who is trying to find her personal art style and help her mom with her Pakistani clothing home shop. Deena struggles with anxiety, though she doesn’t know to call it that yet. Meanwhile, she’s also experiencing friend drama because of social media. I loved Deena’s warm, supportive Pakistani family and community, and the depiction of anxiety is so realistic. This is likely to be one of my favorite middle grade novels of the year. This releases today!

I really loved this novel, and I worry it’s not getting the number of readers it deserves! Andy, who is Chinese American, is the kind of kid who tends to follow along with whatever his overbearing best friend Cindy says. That worked fine in elementary school, but this year, they’re starting middle school, and everything feels different. Cindy forces him to join the Movement Club, a dance club, which doesn’t sit right with Andy. He also befriends Jameel, a Chaldean American, whom Cindy does not like for valid reasons. Meanwhile, Andy’s grandparents are visiting from China so his grandfather can seek needed medical care. Andy is also a talented artist who has anxiety and trichotillomania (hair-pulling). There’s also a character with an eating disorder. This is such a contemplative, nuanced novel.

I always thought my anxiety began during pregnancy, but then I read picture books like this, and I wonder. Maggie Smith is well known for her adult poetry collections and nonfiction, and this is her picture book debut. It’s a beautiful glimpse into a child’s life at night as she experiences intrusive thoughts while trying to sleep. Her mother comes in and snuggles with her in bed, reassuring her and guiding her to think about happy moments from the past, which helps calm the young girl’s mind. The illustrations are warm and tender. It’s a really beautiful and relatable book. This releases next Tuesday.

This is another very relatable picture book, as told by an ostrich with anxiety. Opal’s family is having a family party, and she’s in charge of picking up the dessert from the local bakery. But on the way, Opal constantly feels like everyone she encounters must be mad at her. This causes Opal to get a bad case of The Noodles, what her family endearingly calls Opal’s anxiety because of the way it makes her long neck wobble. By the end, Opal learns that not everyone’s feelings are directly related to her, and she enjoys the family party.

This is such a fantastic picture book biography of politician and Civil Rights activist John Lewis. Lewis grew up in a loving and large family in Alabama. When he went to a nearby town with his father, he saw how the town was divided by race. When he heard Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak on the radio, he decided he wanted to become an activist. He left his home and came to Nashville for college, and joined the Nashville chapter of the NAACP. The picture book depicts how he and his fellow members of the NAACP practiced nonviolent protest, marched with the Freedom Fighters, and ends with the march he led in Selma, Alabama. It’s impossible not to tear up at the end.

This picture book biography releases Tuesday and tells the story of Eunice W. Johnson, the co-founder of EBONY magazine and the founder of the EBONY fashion show. Johnson grew up in Selma, Alabama, and loved to sew clothes for her dolls and her friends’ dolls. She studied social work in college, where she met and fell in love with John H. Johnson. After they married, the two conceived of the idea of an all-Black magazine celebrating Black achievements. EBONY was born, and Eunice’s eye for design and style helped the magazine’s growth. In 1958, she founded and directed the EBONY fair as part of a hospital fundraiser that went on to become a worldwide tour showcasing Black fashion with Black models. I read this with my kindergartner, and she so enjoyed it! It’s a great conversation starter about Civil Rights, fashion, and Black success.

This is a gorgeously illustrated picture book adaptation of Coretta Scott King’s memoir for adults. It opens with her childhood, also in Alabama, and her experiences in high school and college. She describes the racism she experienced and how she became vocal about discrimination in the university system. She was working at the New England Conservatory when she met and began dating Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The picture book biography continues with their marriage, birth of children, acts of protest during the Civil Rights Movement, and her speaking after Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. Back matter includes the six principles of nonviolence and a Civil Rights timeline.

This is a different kind of Black history picture book, which recently won a Coretta Scott King Award. Originally a folksong written by Rhiannon Giddens for her album Freedom Highway (which is wonderful), this picture book illustrates the song. Giddens was inspired by Virginia Hamilton’s retelling of the folktale “The People Could Fly,” which she cherished as a child. The illustrations show a mother and daughter speaking about Granny Liza and how she could fly. It’s a lyrical and luminously illustrated picture book, great to read along with Hamilton’s classic folktale and to read while listening to the song.

In this adorable interactive board book, young readers can turn a wheel to hide a heart and then lift flaps to reveal where the heart is hidden. Each page shows different animals celebrating Valentine’s Day scenes. This would be a great read for toddlers, and I love the art.

This stunning picture book celebrates twelve Arabic expressions for different types of love. There’s the love of remembering one’s homeland, the love of welcoming new life into the world, the love of friendship, and more. The lovely, textured illustrations give the impression of a canvas and depict cherished moments in a Palestinian immigrant family’s life. The words for love are written in the Arabic script.

My daughter is a huge fan of the Flubby reader series. In this most recent addition to the series, the child main character wonders what to gift Flubby the cat for Valentine’s Day. Flubby doesn’t like any of the typical Valentine’s Day presents. This series uses repetition and humor to engage beginning readers.

This is the second book in the hilarious Teeny Houdini chapter book series, though they can be read in any order. Bessie Lee wants to be a magician, so when her teacher asks her to make an extra special Valentine for the class’s new student, she decides to make it into a magic trick. But how can she make the perfect magic Valentine?

This beautiful interactive board book has over 140 flaps and follows Yue and her family as they celebrate the Lunar New Year in China. Richly detailed illustrations show the family attending a Lunar New Year parade, having a feast with the family, exchanging red envelopes, and so much more. Each page has many small flaps for kids to explore. There are also more details about the Lunar New Year throughout, like flaps that reveal which years are which Zodiac animal, the legend of the Nian monster, and more.

This picture book also follows a Chinese family as they prepare for and celebrate the Lunar New Year. It opens with two sisters cleaning a statue of the Kitchen God, with the older sister explaining who the Kitchen God is. The family picks flowers, writes poems on red paper, flies kites in the shape of the Zodiac animals, and more. What I really enjoy about the Celebrations & Festivals series is the extensive back matter. In this picture book, the back matter includes instructions on how to make red envelopes, a dumpling recipe, riddles, a quiz, how the Lunar New Year is celebrated in other countries, and much more.

The Korean Lunar New Year is called Seollal, and this delightful picture book follows Sohee as she prepares for Seollal. She’s so excited to eat as many bowls of tteokguk as she can so she can be a big girl. Each bowl of soup is supposed to make you one year older. However, every time she tries to eat her soup, she’s interrupted with pleas for help. She sets the table, helps her younger sibling get dressed, and lets everyone know breakfast is ready. When she returns to eat her soup, she finds that her younger sister has stolen everyone’s tteokguk. Now, there’s no way for Sohee to become a big girl, or so she thinks.

This is a funny and sweet reader about the Chinese New Year. Alex is so excited to show her best friend Ethan her family’s Lunar New Year traditions. The two fold dumplings with Nai Nai, attend a pattern festival, share a family feast, and more. Back matter includes more information about the Chinese New Year and a dumpling recipe. Shum’s illustrations are just always so joyful and child-friendly.

This picture book is a delightful retelling of “Rapunzel,” set in historical China. Princess Ra Pu Zel loves cooking, though her family would rather she be working on her needlework and entertaining princes. To get away from their constant nagging, she and her dog move to the top of a very tall tower, where she can cook to her heart’s delight. However, once she’s gone, her parents miss her. They call on heroes to tempt her down, but the only thing that’s going to tempt Ra Pu Zel from her tower is something that smells delicious.

This is also a culinary fairytale retelling, this time of “The Princess and the Pea.” The writing follows the same story pattern as “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly” and features a very hungry pea. As the pea eats everything it finds, it becomes bigger and bigger and bigger until it’s a really enormous pea. Then it takes a nap on the princess’s bed. This is a really funny retelling.

This is a lovely collection of three Indonesian fairytale retellings in graphic novel format for middle grade readers. I adore all three tales, which the author retells in a traditional way but with a feminist focus. The author bases the tales on stories from her childhood, retelling “Keong Mas,” “Bawang Merah Bawang Putih,” and “Timun Mas.” I could’ve read more! I’m not sure I know of any other books retelling Indonesian fairytales. If you know of any, let me know!

This magical Japanese retelling of “Cinderella” is set in the same universe as the Eva Evergreen series, but it can be read as a standalone. Alliana has grown up happily in her father’s inn on the edge of a magic preserve, but when her father dies, and then her grandmother, too, everything comes crashing down. Her stepmother demands she serve her and her two stepsisters, claiming Alliana owes them a debt. She despairs of ever being able to follow her dreams when a young dragon and witch befriend her.

This quirky, rhyming picture book is a blast. Katerina Cruickshanks is a bit of a troublemaker. They’re always making messes, inventing nonsense, and creating chaos where they go. When the neighborhood kids have had enough of Katerina’s antics, they tell Katerina to go home. But when they do, the kids find they miss Katerina’s antics and beg them to come back. This is a good read-aloud to replace a Dr. Seuss book.

This is the third book in the The Big, Big Series of picture books. Every book features a new child and is written in rhyming verse. This one is about a kid with big ideas who adults often dismiss. When they have a big idea that could help the community, their grandmother listens and helps them implement their idea. I love children’s books that encourage kids to participate in their communities and enact change for the better.

This early reader graphic novel is a blast, and I’ve read it many, many times to my six-year-old. Batcat happily lives alone in their treehouse, watching shows and playing video games, but then a ghost turns up and starts haunting their treehouse. The ghost even has the audacity to eat all their snacks! Batcat visits a witch to find out how to rid their treehouse of the ghost. After learning the ingredients for a potion, they set out on a quest to find the ingredients, and in doing so they question whether they’re bat or cat enough. By the end of the quest, their perspective on the ghost has shifted. Book two in this series releases in April, and I can’t wait to read it.

I love this middle grade novel about a nonbinary, genderfluid homeschooler, Shai, starting public school for the first time. Shai immediately makes two great friends, but they’re unsure about sharing their pronouns just yet. For a big project for English class, Shai decides to explore their Jewish heritage. While their grandparents are active in the Jewish community, their mother is not for unknown reasons, and they haven’t been raised Jewish. They hope to discover more about their heritage, but this seems to set their mother on edge. Meanwhile, they’re keeping a secret from everyone. When their mother lost her job and the two moved in with Indigenous friends, Shai began picking at their arms. They wear arm sleeves designed by their best friend to cover the marks, but they haven’t even told him the truth.

Lucía loves dressing up as a superhero on the playground and leaping and flying off the monkey bars, but the boys tell her girls can’t be superheroes. At home, she tells Abu what happened at the playground, and her grandmother shows her pictures of when she was a luchadora, and gives her her old costume. Now when Lucía goes to the playground, she dresses in her Abu’s costume and shows she can be a luchadora and a superhero. I also recommend the second book in this series, Lucía the Luchadora and the Million Masks.

Pizza and Taco is a hilarious early reader graphic novel series. Wrestling Mania! is the seventh and most recent book in the series. At school, Pizza and Taco have to sign up for a sport, but they don’t really feel inspired by any of the options. But then they notice wrestling is an option. That would be fun! Do the two really have what it takes to excel at wrestling, however? My six-year-old loved this.

This is a lovely contemporary middle grade about a young girl, Addie, who decides to connect with her biological father — whom she knows nothing about — when her stepfather proposes adopting her. It turns out her biological father and family are famous luchadors, and she wants to learn how to be one, too. Meanwhile, Addie is starring in her school’s annual production of The Nutcracker, and it’s the first time a Brown girl has been chosen as Maria, the lead role.

This middle grade novel follows two sixth-grade wrestlers. Both of Mykala (Mickey) Delgado’s older brothers are wrestlers, and she wants to be one, too. But when she tries to join the same team they were members of, she’s told girls can’t compete. So, instead, she joins another nearby wrestling team, where the coach welcomes her. She’s paired with Lev Sofer because they’re in similar weight categories. He loves poetry and frequently writes poems to process his emotions. He also sometimes struggles with wrestling meetups and competitions occurring during Shabbat and other religious obligations he has.

This is the graphic novel that inspired this list! I checked it out from the library after Eileen Gonzalez recommended it in Book Riot’s comic book newsletter, The Stack. I adored it! I could not stop smiling while I read. It’s about 12-year-old Cici, who has just moved from Taiwan to Seattle. She so misses her A-má (grandmother) and their time spent cooking together. She wants A-má to visit for her 70th birthday, but she can’t afford the plane ticket. To earn the money, Cici enters a kid’s cooking contest. LaMotte and Xu have another collaboration coming out in April of this year, Unhappy Camper. I can’t wait to read it!

This is a sweet and slim yet powerful graphic novel about a boy, Bình, who is being bullied at school because of his Vietnamese heritage. He fights back but then gets into trouble with the school. Immediately after, his parents take him and his sister on a silent Buddhist retreat that is supposed to help with meditation. Bình’s swirling thoughts and worries initially prevent him from meditating, but a nun’s stories about Siddhartha and Buddha’s past lives inspire him. I actually recommended this to my therapist recently, ha!

This is the first book I think of whenever anyone says the word “cozy.” It’s an absolutely adorable and quiet fantasy series about Greta, a blacksmith’s apprentice, learning more about tea dragons as she befriends the shy Minette. Kay O’Neill is a great read in general for cozy middle grade graphic novels.

I haven’t read the Garlic graphic novels yet (there are two), but they are number one on my TBR. When the hesitant Garlic hears about a vampire who has moved into the forest surrounding her vegetable village, she knows she needs to protect her veg friends. But can she find the courage? The illustrations look so cute and charming!