Review by Logaine Navascués
What is home? Is it a place? A people? A refuge? Or the memory of a smell you can almost taste? For Salma, a young Syrian girl who just immigrated to Canada, it’s all that and more: it means making her Mama smile again.
… More Salma the Syrian Chef by Danny Ramadan, Illustrated by Anna Bron
Review by Jieun Lee
Myra Louise is a very good thinker, reader, and best of all, listener. But other people only notice she’s quiet. In a society that views extroversion and vocalized opinions as signs of strength and success, thoughtfulness is not always valued or understood. … More Why Are You So Quiet? by Jaclyn Desforges, Illustrated by Risa Hugo
Review by Jocelyne Gregory
Cockroaches can send chills up a person’s spine. Most people conjure mental images of small bugs fleeing when a bathroom light is switched on? Do they deserve this bad rep? … More The Cockroach by Elise Gravel
Review by Jocelyne Gregory
Chiroptera. What does the word mean? Where does it come from? Should we be worried? It’s the scientific name for a bat, and that information sets off The Bat by Elise Gravel. … More The Bat by Elise Gravel
Review by Logaine Navascués
When young Emily Carr goes into the garden, she cannot help but feel tuned in to its natural rhythms. The reader follows the thumpety-bumpety of Emily’s heart and discovers the girl’s way of seeing and her connection to the Wild. … More When Emily Was Small by Lauren Soloy
Review by Logaine Navascués
Friends share a common language. Sometimes it’s in the words they speak or in the games they play. Others, in the small details of daily life, those instants when magic reveals itself, such as when cicada bugs leave the underground world and emerge into the sunlight. … More Natsumi’s Song of Summer by Robert Paul Weston, Illus. by Misa Saburi
Review by Logaine Navascués
The ocean is a big blue mystery and Marie wants to unravel it. She is used to investigating the countryside with her father, but the sea is different: she can hear it calling, although she still cannot understand what it says. … More Ocean Speaks: Marie Tharp and the Map that Moved the Earth by Jess Keating, Illus. by Katie Hickey
Review by Elizabeth Leung
In the world of Perfect Pets, Barnabus is a failed project. Half-elephant and half-mouse, he isn’t fluffy enough and his eyes are kind of beady, so he is hidden away with the other failed projects in a secret lab deep underground and guarded by the Green Rubber Suits. … More The Barnabus Project by The Fan Brothers with Devin Fan
Review by Lauren Hathaway
Picture books that feature intergenerational relationships can be surprisingly hard to come by. Maud and Grand-Maud not only helps fill this gap in the market, but it also honors the special bonds that some children share with their grandparents. … More Maud and Grand-Maud by Sara O’Leary, Illustrated by Kenard Pak
Review by Jocelyne Gregory
Monsters. They’re everywhere. They wear disguises, hide in plain sight, and—according to Cale Atkinson’s Monsters 101—there’s a one in three chance that your home might have a monster hiding under a bed. But that doesn’t mean they’re bad or scary. … More Monster 101 by Cale Atkinson
