Crushes of the Week: April 21-27, 2019

This week's crushes:

1. Ida and the Whale by Rebecca Gugger and Simon Röthlisberger (NorthSouth Books, March 2019)
2. We Are the Change: Words of Inspiration from Civil Rights Leaders by Harry Belafonte (Chronicle Books, May 2019)
3. My Dad, My Hero by Ethan Long (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, April 2019)
4. The Little Black Fish by Samad Behrangi, Farshid Mesghali, and Azita Rassi (Tiny Owl Publishing, April 2019)
5. Beastly Puzzles: A Brain-Boggling Animal Guessing Game by Rachel Poliquin and Byron Eggenschwiler (Kids Can Press, May 2019)
6. The Moon by Hannah Pang and Thomas Hegbrook (360 Degrees, April 2019)
7. Frankie Frog and the Throaty Croakers by Freya Hartas (Albert Whitman & Company, April 2019)

       

Let's Talk Illustrators #106: Soyeon Kim

I got a chance to talk to paper cut extraordinaire Soyeon Kim about her newest book You Are Never Alone, written by Elin Kelsey. I have admired her illustration style for many years, and it was such a pleasure picking her brain about how she makes each new book with Elin feel unique. Enjoy!!

Crushes of the Week: April 14-20, 2019

This week's crushes:

1. You Are New by Lucy Knisley (Chronicle Books, March 2019)
2. Grumpy Duck by Joyce Dunbar and Petr Horáček (Candlewick, March 2019)
3. Muddy: The Raccoon Who Stole Dishes by Griffin Ondaatje and Linda Wolfsgruber (NorthSouth Books, April 2019)
4. Hello, World by Aleksandra Szmidt (Flowerpot Press, March 2019)
5. One Whole Bunch by Mary Meyer and Sara Gillingham (Cameron Kids, April 2019)
6. I Am Farmer: Growing an Environmental Movement in Cameroon by Miranda Paul, Baptiste Paul, and Elizabeth Zunon (Millbrook Press, February 2019)
7. Goodnight, Max the Brave (board book) by Ed Vere (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, May 2019)
8. Skulls! by Blair Thornburgh and Scott Campbell (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, July 2019)

       

Let's Talk Illustrators #105: Kelly Pousette

I caught up with Kelly Pousette, debut illustrator of Little Things. Written by Nick Dyer, Little Things focuses on a young girl who takes time every day to notice the little things around her and appreciate the details. Kelly creates dioramas full of small, paper-cut images with TONS of details. A match made in heaven? I think so!

THE FRUITS OF YOUR LABOR

We've all heard about how a baby's growing size can be compared to fruit, but The Fruits of Your Labor: A Baby-Sized Guide to Your Baby's Size by Andrew Tobin might be the cutest representation of the concept ever.

Crushes of the Week: March 31-April 6, 2019

This week's crushes:

1. Grandpa's Stories by Joseph Coelho and Allison Colpoys (Abrams Books for Young Readers, April 2019)
2. Otto and Pio by Marianne Dubuc (Princeton Architectural Press, March 2019)
3. Red Bunny & Yellow Bunny by Claire Garralon (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, March 2019)
4. Lumber Jills: The Unsung Heroines of World War II by Alexandra Davis and Katie Hickey (Albert Whitman & Company, March 2019)
5. Flower Talk: How Plants Use Color to Communicate by Sara C. Levine and Masha D'Yans (Millbrook Press, March 2019)
6. The Cottingley Fairies by Ana Sender (NorthSouth Books, March 2019)
7. Undercover Ostrich by Joe Kulka (Carolrhoda Books, April 2019)

      

First Friday 5: April 2019

I'm back after a small comics break, and I've decided to change things up with First Friday 5. Rather than picking a theme, I'm going to keep it simple and simply pick five comics I'm enjoying. They have all recently published or will publish in April.

TREES: A ROOTED HISTORY

Trees: A Rooted History by Piotr Socha and Wojciech Grajkowski is far more than a simple catalog of tree classifications.

#kidlitpicks March Round-Up: 12 Magical Reads

“Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic.” —Albus Dumbledore.

Books are truly magical objects that can transport us into a whole other world without us ever having to leave the comfort of our chair! And in children's books that magic is all the more powerful. With characters that children connect with, stories that lift you into an adventure, illustrations that create a whole other world, picture books and children's novels capture the imagination like no other. Sometimes books which create magic aren't always the ones you expect because it's in the sharing of the story that the magic comes to life. This month we are looking for a little spark of magic! Share with us the books that have worked a little magic in your home with your children. They might not be the most beautiful, or the most well-known but if they have sparked magic in your heart then they are truly special books and need to be shared.

March meant magic for the @kidlitpicks book club, and our theme was chosen by Kim from BookBairn!

Let's Talk Illustrators #104: Joanne Chan & Amanda Uhle

A few months ago I wrote about Illustoria, a print magazine full of DIY crafts, art, comics, and more. You can read that post here, but I'm talking about it again today because Illustoria's Founding Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Joanne Chan announced last week that the magazine will now be published by McSweeney's, a boutique publisher located in San Francisco, California. This is exciting news, so I caught up with Joanne and McSweeney's Executive Director Amanda Uhle to talk about what's in store for Illustoria.