Author: Margaret Kingsbury

For board book readers, check out Copy That, Copy Cat! by Katrina Tangen, an interactive board book with flaps and peek-throughs about inventions inspired by animals. For better or worse, picture book readers will love The Big Book of Butts by Eva Manzano, which uncovers fun facts about animal and human butts. For older elementary school kids, Superpowered Animals by Soledad Romero Mariño is fascinating. While not technically for kids, Allen Crawford’s nonfiction A Wild Promise celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act and would be a beautiful gift for middle graders.

Kids love funny books. For picture book readers, check out The Boy Who Cried Poop! by Alessandra Requena, Cake vs. Pie by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, and I Want to Be Spaghetti! by Kiera Wright-Ruiz. Kids who want to write their own jokes will enjoy Lol 101: A Kid’s Guide to Writing Jokes by David Roth and Rinee Shah. For my daughter, I’m buying the early reader graphic novels Baloney and Friends by Greg Pizzoli. Middle graders will enjoy Link + Hud: Heroes by a Hair by Jarrett Pumphrey and Jerome Pumphrey and Ellie Engle Saves Herself by Leah Johnson.

Picture book readers should check out the fantastical SEL Weather Together by Jessie Sima, the dark fairytale The Skull by Jon Klassen, and the magical River of Mariposas by Mirelle Ortega. The latest Princess in Black book is out —Prince in Pink — for chapter book readers, and I also love the new series Isla of Adventure by Dela Costa, the first book being Welcome to the Island. For middle grade readers, Nell of Gumbling by Emma Steinkellner is a delight, as is Lei and the Fire Goddess by Malia Maunakea and Abeni’s Song by P. Djèlí Clark.

I love a good book box! Here are some of my favorites. The ColorPop Books bundles center diverse families. Their picture book bundles are $45 and come with three hardcover books, an activity, and a card. The Little Feminist book subscriptions have four options for ages 0-9. Each box comes with 1-2 books, an activity, and discussion cards. Prices are $23 a month. I have yet to try out a middle grade book subscription, but a friend gets Owl Crate, Jr. and loves all the extra stuff. It’s $33 a month.

In this beautifully illustrated picture book, a saw-whet owl named Merry makes her home in a Norway Spruce named Hark. She loves hearing stories of adventure and travel from the great gray owl Sebastian. Merry has a frightening adventure of her own when Hark is cut down while Merry is still in it and the two leave their forest home and go to the city, where Hark becomes the city’s Christmas tree. Merry is frightened and hungry in the city, but then a human finds and rescues her. This is a magical picture book.

This is another gorgeously illustrated Christmas picture book, this one depicting the Christian Christmas story of Jesus’s birth. It depicts a caravan of creatures making their way to Bethlehem to honor the baby. The animals bring gifts with them, like a stork cradling wildflowers, an antelope with myrrh, a raven with a ruby ring, and more. When they arrive, the baby Jesus gurgles at them. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are all portrayed as brown-skinned.

This is my daughter’s personal favorite new Christmas book. It’s an adorable soundbook featuring a mouse family. Each page spread depicts a Christmas scene and the sheet music to a Christmas song. It opens with the mouse family on a street decorated for Christmas listening to carolers. The accompanying song is “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” Children can press the button and hear the song. Other songs include “Joy to the World,” “Deck the Halls,” and more. It’s a blast!

I adore the Anna Hibiscus chapter book series. In this one, Anna Hibiscus leaves her home in Nigeria to visit her grandmother in Canada. It’s a huge change for Anna. Of course the weather is very different, but she’s also nervous about Granny Canada’s dog because dogs are not pets in Nigeria. She loves playing in the snow and tries to make friends with the other nearby kids. At first, the kids shun her, but they eventually come around. This can be read as a stand alone, without having read the previous books in the series.

This hilarious counting board book follows a young Latke as they count down the eight nights of Hanukkah. On the first night, Latke lights the menorah. On the second, the latke toppings get into an argument. On the seventh, the presents wrestle. It’s a really funny read; the illustrations are colorful and expressive. Toddlers and preschoolers will love it.

This simple, rhyming picture book depicts diverse children from several homes celebrating Hanukkah. It also includes a brief history of Hanukkah and how to play dreidel. Sara Palacious is one of my favorite children’s book illustrators, and I love how warm and joyful the illustrations are in this one.

This new picture book has become one of my all-time favorite Hanukkah reads. It’s about two cousins who live on opposite sides of the world. In Aotearoa, New Zealand, Nora celebrates Hanukkah in the summer. In New York City, Noah celebrates in the winter. Which season is the best time to celebrate Hanukkah? Parallel illustrations depict the similarities and differences between their celebrations. It’s such a charming picture book, and I love how it shows that Jewish people live everywhere, celebrating the same holidays.

This gorgeously illustrated new picture book for animal lovers also feels like it could become a Hanukkah classic. Written in lyrical verse, a new animal invades an alarmed child’s home on each of the nights of Hanukkah. On the first night, it’s a polar bear; on the fourth, it’s four artsy armadillos; and on the eighth, it’s eight punk rock, dreidel-spinning penguins. It’s a funny and delightful Hanukkah read.

This is another beautifully illustrated picture book about a little girl and her papa spending a day together. They take a walk, go to a coffee shop, and play their violins outside. That’s when the narrator meets Papa’s friend, Mister Blue, who is unhoused. He and Papa are military veterans and served together. Mister Blue plays the drums. The little girl has lots of questions about Mister Blue, and when it rains, they invite Mister Blue over and make music together inside. It’s a simple and stunning picture book.

One day, on the walk to school, Jess and her mom see a woman in a doorway sleeping with her cat. The next day, her mom stops and chats with the woman, whose name is Grace. After that, Mom and daughter put together boxes for Grace and her cat Luna and eventually hear about her story as a refugee. When Jess brings a Christmas card, they find Grace has disappeared.

This picture book biography is about Kip Tiernan, the woman who opened the first unhoused women’s shelter in Boston in 1974. It begins with her childhood during the Great Depression and how she helped her grandmother feed unhoused men who came to her door. But Kip noticed some women dressed as men to get food. She also noticed women sleeping outside on benches. She vows to help these women and devotes her life to doing so. The watercolor illustrations are lovely, and this is an important biography about a little-known but important figure in U.S. history.

This powerful middle grade novel follows 12-year-old Ojibwe Opin, who lives in a car with his mother and older brother Emjay. They’re trying to make it across California to move in with Opin’s uncle, but Emjay, who is constantly angry, frequently disappears, slowing down their trip. Opin’s days aren’t filled with much happiness until he finds and adopts a puppy. The unhoused shelter his mom finds, however, won’t accept pets.

In this charming picture book, Harper attends a family reunion for the first time. Both her dad and daddy’s family come, and the park is packed with relatives. She befriends her cousin Noah, and the two wonder how the entire family could live together and what that would look like. They also notice the wide variety of families. This is a really sweet, fun read.

Every year, Lil Alan and his daddy pack up the car and head down to Granny’s house for a family reunion. As a tradition, all the kids share something meaningful at the celebration, which makes Lil Alan nervous this year. He doesn’t know what to share. But as he spends time with his family, he comes up with the perfect way to contribute to the tradition. This is a lovely, beautifully illustrated picture book celebrating the traditions of a Black family.

A Black boy isn’t looking forward to their annual family reunion. He’s dreading the long car ride and trying to make conversation with people he doesn’t know, but as the celebration continues, he finds himself having fun and enjoying time with his family. It’s a fun, rhythmic read a lot of kids will relate to.

This is also a rhythmic read and follows the pattern of “This Is the House That Jack Built.” It follows a young girl as her family prepares for a feast and gathers around the table that her grandfather built. It’s a joyous, inclusive read centering family traditions and meals. It’s perfect for holiday celebrations.

This book is SO easy for kids to follow. Each step in the recipe is depicted with photographs. My five-year-old can almost completely finish a recipe on her own with this cookbook, with me doing all the oven preparations, of course. Her favorite recipes so far have been the nutter nuggets, which are like peanut butter and oat balls, and wrap & rolls, which are like pigs in a blanket.

This picture book is a fascinating glimpse into Black history through the lens of cooking. Each page spread is divided by months exploring one historical moment with an accompanying recipe. January explores how the Black Panther Party implemented free school breakfast in 1966. The accompanying recipe is “The Black Panther Party’s creamy grits.” Back matter includes a closer look at some of the people mentioned in the book. This is such a neat book.

This vegetarian cookbook is part of a series and includes both text for each step in a recipe as well as illustrations so kids can easily follow. We make the banana pancakes frequently! More than 30 recipes are included. Other books in the series include Kids Can Bake and Kids Can Cook.

This is such a cool book. Each of the 15 recipes includes an illustrated fairytale that relates to the recipe. After making the pumpkin and spice flapjacks, for example, you can read a story about Cinderella and her pumpkins. After making a goat cheese and onion tart, read about some hungry billy goats and their cheese and onion tarts. The stories are silly, and the recipes are yummy. I admit my daughter won’t eat that cheese and onion tart, but maybe one day she will. 🙂

This nonfiction middle grade tells the story of Thanksgiving from the Indigenous perspective. Each chapter alternates between two perspectives: a fictional narrative titled “When Life Was Our Own,” which follows Little Bird of the Wampanoag tribe and her family and their daily lives. The other section is nonfiction, which further explores topics shown in the fiction section. It’s an excellent nonfiction for kids.

This picture book also explores Thanksgiving from the Indigenous Wampanoag perspective but for younger readers. It opens with N8hkumuhs planting weeâchumun (corn), beans, and squash, or the Three Sisters, in her garden with her grandchildren. They ask her about the true story of Thanksgiving, and she tells them of how they were warned of the Pilgrims’ arrival and how their ancestors taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn, beans, and squash to survive. This is the book elementary-aged readers need to be reading about the holiday.

This lyrical, rhyming picture book explores 12 harvest festivals and traditions from around the world. In Bolivia, people gather in the streets on the last day of the Carnival season to celebrate Martes de Challa. In Tamil Nadu, India, children and adults thank the cows on the third day of Pongal. Back matter includes a calendar of harvest festivals and more information about harvest season and the festivals presented.

This delightful picture book is set to the tune of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and features a sweet potato pie-loving girl celebrating a food-filled holiday with her family. More and more family members and neighbors arrive laden with delicious food to share, but while the narrator helps with the food, what she’s really craving is her grandmother’s sweet potato pie. While this picture book doesn’t specify a holiday, it’s a great read for Thanksgiving.

This picture book tells the story of Arctic animal life from millions of years ago. Many of these animals are ancestors of current animals, like the megalonyx and the sloth. It’s a really cool read and illustrated by an Indigenous artist. It’s part of a Nunavut-developed leveled book series.

This immersive, 124-page nonfiction book looks at the botanical life in different regions. Sections are divided by habitat: tropical, Mediterranean, temperate, arid, cold, and water. Each page spread explores different topics and places within that habitat, such as the Sonoran Desert, Mount Everest, the Congo rainforest, and so much more. It’s heavily illustrated in vibrant, bold colors. Plant lovers of all ages will enjoy it.

This paper-cut nonfiction is so cool! Each page has flaps to lift to uncover more about the human body. On one page, paper cuts of a running man’s muscles can be lifted to reveal the skeleton and more information about the skeletal and muscular systems. On the next page, ribs can be lifted to reveal the lungs and heart, which can be lifted to reveal a dissection of the heart. Every page is super neat and full of facts. It is for older readers; it says ages 8-12, but my 5-year-old loves it. I just wouldn’t give it to a toddler unless you want all those neat flaps to be torn out.

This beautifully illustrated accordion-style picture book folds out to 8 feet tall! Both front and back contain lots of fascinating ecological information as it follows a river to the sea. It can be read unfolded or like a normal book. It’s part of a series that includes several other foldout books. I’ve only read one other — The Sea Below My Toes — and loved it as well.

Maggie is visiting Granny in the city, and for the first time, Granny agrees to teach her how to bead. As Granny teaches her, she talks about her history, how she lost her First Nations status as an Anishinaabe woman when she married a man who wasn’t First Nations, how her Auntie Jeannie taught her how to bead, and the meaning behind heart berries. It’s a lovely, warm picture book. The author includes a note about what inspired the story and more details about some of the history the grandmother mentions.

This is a super cool musical book that relates a Cree folktale and includes eight Cree songs. It includes a Cree glossary in the back. The story is about a young rabbit who runs to tell his village that Grand Chief Salamoo Cook is heading their way and will host a contest to win the waaskee-choos juice. The publisher, The Secret Mountain, specializes in children’s books that share music from all over the world. Tomson Highway is a Cree author and playwright.

This is a short, nonfiction graphic novel for elementary school readers about Sacajawea. I was a little nervous about reading this because so many portrayals of Sacajawea are problematic, but I find this one to be both nuanced and accessible. It opens with Sacajawea thanking the water, then being taken from her Shoshone tribe by raiding members of a different tribe. She spoke multiple languages, which is why Lewis and Clark wanted to take her on their expedition, even though she was pregnant. The author, who is a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of Fort Hall, Idaho, was the model for the U.S. coin Sacajawea appears on. The illustrator is also Shoshone. There’s lots of room to continue the conversation surrounding Indigenous genocide and colonization while reading this, depending on the age of the child.

This picture book is lyrically narrated by water, nibi. Nibi remembers how the Anishinaabe honored and cherished it, but as time passed, fewer and fewer people respected it. Then Grandma Josephine came along and advocated for water. She taught the younger generation, including her great-niece Autumn Peltier, about the importance of water and how to honor it. Autumn became an activist at the age of 12, confronting the Canadian government about poor water conditions. Back matter includes more information about Autumn Peltier and Josephine Henrietta Mandamin. This is an excellent book to accompany We Are Water Protectors.

This adorable board book follows a day in the life of a white cat. Each page has one action sentence—”The cat slurps a drink of water”—followed by the action repeated three times—”slurp, slurp, slurp.” Pages are mostly black and white with pops of vibrant color. My daughter particularly likes the page where the cat poops.

This adorable picture book based on a true story would also make a great winter read. A family has decided to adopt their first kitten, and everyone has different ideas about what to name the kitten. Surprisingly, they agree on Nigel, but when the youngest member of the family and the mom arrive at the shelter, they find it’s shut down. The next day, the mom goes to another shelter alone, but instead of bringing home a kitten, she brings home a cat, and she’s named him something completely different. This is such a sweet story.

Ethan walks to school with his older brother, and one day, he sees stray kittens and ends up naming them. He worries about them when the weather turns cold. He and his brother take the kittens to a local vet clinic where they’re spayed and neutered. Ethan and his brother are also given boxes with straw to help the kittens stay warm. Ethan ends up bringing one of the kittens home. There are a lot of stray cats where my mom lives, and she converted a shed into a heated barn for them during the winter (and she also captures them to be spayed and neutered). It’s great to see practical stories about how to help the feral cat population like this.

Now for a completely different kind of picture book. A boy chronicles all the amazing ballet moves his cat performs—glissades on slippery floors, pas de deux with the new puppy, en pointe while staring out the window. His friends also have cats capable of amazing feats, like stealing stuffed animals, riding vacuum cleaners, and sliding down banisters. Worried that his friends don’t believe that his cat does ballet, the boy invites his friends and their cats to a party at his house. What follows is a most improbable ballet performance.