Author: Margaret Kingsbury

Like a lot of newsletter readers I imagine, I loved A Wrinkle in Time when I was a kid, at least partially because I shared a name with the protagonist, though mostly because it’s such a magical book. This picture book written by L’Engle’s granddaughter frames Madeleine L’Engle’s biography with her love of asking questions. Writing came to be the way she set about answering and exploring the answers.

This is one of the most beautiful picture book biographies I’ve ever read, from the stunning illustrations to the moving biographical poems. Watson chronicles Angelou’s life from her joyful but also traumatic childhood through her adulthood, ending when Angelou recited a poem at Bill Clinton’s inauguration. As a content warning, one poem does address Angelou’s childhood sexual assault, though it doesn’t detail specifically what happened. I had a chance to hear Angelou speak a few years before her death, and it was such an amazing experience.

As a child, Jane Austen delighted in telling funny stories to her family about the people they encountered, and that mischievous storytelling spark would later form the basis for her novels. This lovely picture book depicts Jane’s humor and where she found inspiration for her stories, and can help young writers experiment with their own storytelling style! I still have the battered copy of her complete works on my bookshelf, a gift from my mother in my early teens.

This picture book bio about Zora Neale Hurston is such a good read aloud, with prose as vivid as the illustrations. As a child, Hurston’s mother told her to jump at the sun. Williams uses that phrase as a refrain as Hurston’s joy for folklore and storytelling sends her jumping off toward college and talking to everyone to learn their stories. I studied her folklore collections in grad school, and I loved how this focused on her love of folklore.

Can a book get any more fun? Readers can sing and dance along to this delightful riff on “The Wheels on the Bus” starring several drag queens with fantastic names: Mother Lucy Goosey, Cinderfella, Rita Booke, and more. With vibrant colors and catchy lyrics, this is a book you should expect to read many times. Also check out the second book in the series — If You’re a Drag Queen and You Know It.

With Wig on, the young B.B. Bedazzle is more than ready for a local drag competition. However, when B.B. arrives, she’s no longer as confident in winning. Everyone looks so fabulous! But Wig does help B.B. feel confident, and when Wig blows off in the wind, it helps audience members feel like they can embrace their wildest dreams, too. This is a really imaginative, joyful picture book.

It’s storytime at the library. When the kids aren’t looking, librarian Mr. Stephen sneaks out and, in a few minutes, Ms. Stacks appears. She’s everyone’s favorite storytime leader. She’s exciting and so good at performing the books! The kids have a blast, but they also love Mr. Stephen, who reappears after storytime, though clever readers will realize he was there the entire time.

This is the first board book in a series by Foreman and Bowers and while I enjoy all of them, I must admit this first one is still my favorite. With simple, poetic text, it celebrates Black hair as four girls with different hair types get ready. Also check out the other books in the series: Glow, Bloom, and Ours.

I’m surprised I haven’t reviewed this book yet because it was one of my favorite picture books of 2022. It’s an intergenerational, rhythmic read aloud centering Black disabled joy. Emmalene, who is blind and uses a cane, loves listening to all the songs the city sings, but her distracted Grandma Jean doesn’t want to pause and listen. In vibrant, evocative language, Emmalene describes what she hears to her grandmother on the way to church until Grandma Jean finally stops, listens, and hears the songs.

Fourth grader Miles Lewis comes from a family of skaters, so when his teacher announces the class will be taking a field trip to an ice skating rink to learn about physics, he’s excited. He knows the perfect person to ask ice skating tips from: his Nana. This is especially important after his friend R.J. bets that Miles will wipe out, and they set up a friendly challenge. However, Miles has one big worry hanging over his head: his Nana lives with Miles and his parents, but she might be moving out. This is the first book in a fantastic STEM-themed chapter book series. Check out Kelly Starling Lyons’ other children’s books too, which all center Black joy.

This middle grade novel has another week until it releases but I finished it recently and really wanted to share it. It entwines the comic book format with prose chapters and would be great for kids who are struggling a bit to transition into reading all-prose books. It’s about two brothers with very active, and very destructive, imaginations. When their parents hire a new babysitter in the form of the strict, gold-toothed Ms. Joyce, the boys immediately cast her as the villain in their pretend play. But is she really that villainous?

Delphine Denise and her friends usually ride their bikes with the Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans, but this year Delphine has a big idea: she wants to make a float and win the float contest! Her friends aren’t keen on the idea, though they do initially try to help. As Delphine tries to turn her big ideas into a reality, she realizes some things are more important than competing. Today is Mardi Gras, so it’s a perfect perfect read for the day!

Jabari wants to make a flying machine in the backyard, and insists he doesn’t need help from his father or little sister. But no matter what he does, his contraption is a failure. He just can’t get it to work! When he opens himself up to help from his father and little sister, however, he realizes he can build something even better than he imagined.

In this rhythmic picture book, Abby is so excited about inviting Phoebe Dupree — the coolest girl in class — to a tea party. But when Phoebe arrives, everything goes wrong! Pastries are spilled, wet dogs are let inside, clothes are ruined. Everything is a disaster! However, it turns out that Phoebe was never expecting perfection, and that maybe friendship can bloom when everyone relaxes and has a good laugh.

All of Bella’s family is good at something. One sibling has perfected somersaults, another is fantastic at piano. Bella has a tendency to give up on things after an initial failure, so when she falls after a somersault attempt and her piano playing causes a racket, she gives up. Yet she wants to find something she’s good at. She decides it’s going to be baking like her abuela. However, baking isn’t as easy as she thought it would be. This fun intergenerational picture book includes Spanish.

This picture book is told from the perspective of a paper crane a young boy makes with his grandmother. The crane and boy are inseparable, and the boy keeps the crane on his nightstand so its the first thing he sees every morning. But years pass and one day a picture of a girl covers the crane. When it comes time to propose to his girlfriend, the boy, now a man, borrows the crane, and the crane once more becomes an intricate part of the boy’s life, especially when a new little one arrives. This is a super sweet, heartwarming read.

Minh Lê and Dan Santat’s latest team-up features parents watching their baby grow up into an adult in a whirlwind of days. The child — whom they dub The Blur — is like a superhero, darting and zooming through days and milestones. It’s a poignant yet energetic read, and would also make a perfect graduation present.

This stunningly illustrated picture book (the same illustrator as My Friend Earth) opens with a grandmother teaching her grandson how to plant a tree on her land. The grandmother continues to teach her grandson about taking care of the land until she dies, and the grandson takes up her knowledge and teaches it to his daughter, and so on, until the grandmother’s property is covered in trees, with loving children climbing among the many branches. It’s a beautiful story and book with intergenerational and nature themes.

This is a really neat children’s biography collection of 12 Black Americans where kids can press a button on every page to hear an excerpt from one of the subject’s speeches. The sound clips are from primary source audio files. The mini-biographies include profiles of James Baldwin, Stacey Abrams, John Lewis, Jay-Z, and more, and each biography is illustrated. It’s a great read for later elementary school and middle school readers.

This searing picture book biography of Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till, recently won a Caldecott Honor and the Coretta Scott King Award for best illustrations. Mamie Till-Mobley left the South to live in Chicago, and after leaving her abusive husband, she taught her son Emmett how to whistle to help him when he stuttered. After her son’s brutal murder, she become an activist and spoke out against hate crimes.The paper collage illustrations are beautiful and powerful. This is a book to share with older kids.

This picture book biography tells the story of Mabel Fairbanks and her determination to learn how to figure skate in the 1930s, and how she eventually became the first Black figure skating star. A child orphan, Mabel struggled to find a place to live, eventually being taken in by handyman Uncle Wally (of no relation to her). She longed to skate, but most public places in New York City wouldn’t let Black folks skate, so Uncle Wally built her a mini ice rink at home, where she would practice on too-large skates. Eventually she mustered up the courage to skate in the whites-only Central Park rink, and while some tried to kick her out, the manager was so impressed by her skill he let her stay, ordering others to allow her in to skate. It’s a lovely biography of a little-known figure.

I adore Kim Taylor’s quilted illustrations in this celebratory picture book history of the first Juneteenth. It is Huldah’s 10th birthday when she wakes up on a plantation in Texas to the news that she is now free. She and her community celebrate their freedom and sew a quilt to commemorate the day. It’s a vibrant addition to the growing collection of Juneteenth picture books.

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.

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?

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.

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?

This fantastic picture book biography doesn’t release until March 23rd, but I had to include it here. Judith Geller/Jacqueline Gauthier was a Jewish member of the French Resistance. For five years during WWII, she posed as a non-Jewish social worker and visited Jewish homes with identity papers smuggled inside a wooden toy duck. She was able to save more than 200 lives. It’s a beautifully written biography, but just as moving is the author’s note in the back about connecting with Judith as a Jewish journalist with family killed during the Holocaust and the research she conducted to write this book.

Jella Lepman was a Jewish woman who fled Germany prior to WWII and returned afterward both to help rebuild the country and to share international books in a children’s books museum in the hopes of building “bridges of understanding.” This fictional picture book tells the story of two poor siblings who stumble upon Lepman’s museum and become enchanted with reading. This is a good companion to more discussions about the Holocaust and WWII.

Reminiscent of E.T.A. Hoffmann and Hans Christian Andersen, this middle grade fantasy depicts the horrors of the holocaust through the eyes of a doll, Karolina. Karolina’s doll world has been ravaged by rats, and when she escapes with a toy soldier named Fritz, a wind ferries them to our world and into the hands of two human magicians. Karolina’s magician is the dollmaker of Krakow, a kind-hearted and shy war veteran who makes toys. With Karolina’s help, he breaks out of his introverted shell and makes friends with a violinist and his daughter. Both are Jewish. When the Germans invade Krakow, a dark magic descends on their lives, reminding Karolina of when the rats invaded her homeland.

Today is a young groundhog’s first Groundhog Day. It’s his turn to predict whether winter will continue or if spring will come early. It can’t be that hard, right? When Groundhog gets it wrong and predicts an early spring, chaos ensues. Groundhog learns that he needs to learn about meteorology and how weather works to make accurate predictions. This is a great read for Groundhog Day and for kids interested in meteorology.

This is the third book in Brown-Wood’s Where in the Garden? series, and this time Logan, a wheelchair user, is searching for carrots in the community garden’s greenhouse on a winter day. He’s attending a pet playdate with his friends, but he has to find the carrots for pet treats. Young readers can help Logan compare and contrast different fruits and vegetables until he finally finds the carrots. Other books in the series include Amara’s Farm, Miguel’s Community Garden, and the forthcoming Linh’s Rooftop Garden. These are wonderful reads for preschoolers.

I kept seeing this book reviewed on Instagram and finally picked it up at the library. It’s such a fantastic, rhythmic read aloud; I’m glad I was influenced! Children gather one by one at a school bus stop as the snow begins falling more and more heavily. After all the children have gathered, a toddler pops out of her house shouting “Snow day!” The kids then play in the snow together. It’s such a fun read, and really brings back memories of snow days when I was a kid!

This lyrical, nonfiction picture book explores the many ways animals adapt to winter. It begins in the fall when some animals begin hiding away food while others prepare for hibernation. Still others, like the monarch butterflies, begin the long journey to a warmer climate. It’s a lovely, fascinating book for nature lovers.