This slim collection of poems, a companion to Park and Sae-Heng’s previous collaboration The One Thing You’d Save, both inspired by Korean sijo verse, invites readers to reflect deeply about the needs and desires of people in their lives. After drawing from a hat the word family, friend, or a question mark that represents “other,” Ms. Chang’s students must choose someone they know who fits in that category. Told to consider “if you could give that person just one gift, what would it be?” the youth mut then pick something that the person has never asked for. Following initial confusion, the children brainstorm: a yard for a plant-loving dad, a vacation for a couple who owns a 24-hour convenience store, plane tickets for a grandparent to visit their grandchild in Nepal, and—in a private journal entry—a promise to support an older sister who recently confided in the writer that she “likes likes” girls. While the racially diverse characters’ individual voices aren’t often distinct, the loose sijo format makes each page approachable, creating an easy-to-digest, poignant presentation that effectively engages readers. Final artwork not seen by PW. Ages 8–12. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/30/2026 | Details & Permalink

Husband-and-wife collaborators Saint-Onge and Szpirglas (Super Switch) reteam in this tongue-in-cheek chapter book that humorously approaches the topic of book banning. Alpine Elementary School student Drita’s favorite books follow Fart Face, a superhero who battles the evil Barfbeard with the help of superpooch Poo Poo Poodle. Though the series captivates the whole school, the PTA—catching wind of the hero’s signature toilet humor—declares Fart Face a bad influence and removes the titles from school shelves. Drita, along with friends Josh and Aisha, decide to show the PTA that the books teach them about the human body via fun facts about digestion. Declarative text presents kid characters stepping up and taking charge as they exercise their agency and right to protest in an affirming novel that recalls the charm of Captain Underpants. Waterbury’s cartoony b&w illustrations depict bustling and visually exciting scenes throughout, including action-packed panels starring Fart Face. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 6–8. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/30/2026 | Details & Permalink

A self-obsessed protagonist makes narcissism absolutely ribbiting in this gaily cantankerous picture book. Google-eyed amphibian Truman Toad lives solo “in a little apartment with a giant mirror.” Fond of talking to his reflection, he spends hours chatting with it about “such pleasant topics as Toad Fashion, Swamp Culture, and the charm of Puddle Picnics,” writes Lavie (The Bear Who Wasn’t There), instantly establishing a feel for the character’s nature. Then a sublime dream sends Truman seeking what mirrors can’t provide: an ideal embrace. In elegant line work, saturated washes, and marvelously emotive characters that feel like a cross between the work of Arnold Lobel and James Stevenson, Kuhl (Perfect Presents!) follows Truman through a parade of discarded snuggles with a menagerie of acquaintances—each hug a comic gem of interspecies awkwardness. A desperate newspaper ad seeking “the second half of the perfect hug” fails the amphibian but unites the rejected huggers; in a sweetly funny spread, everyone pairs off in happy clinches. Only when Truman accidentally tumbles into an unexpected pair of arms does he discover that a great hug “isn’t about holding tight but really about letting go.” For anyone seeking their own perfect something, this irresistibly funny title hints, the answer may lie in embracing imperfection. Ages 5–8. Author’s agent: Katelyn Detweiler, Jill Grinberg Literary. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/30/2026 | Details & Permalink

Funke (the Inkheart series) presents 19 fantastical creatures from around the world in a handsome package that highlights both common and lesser-known entities. Each spread introduces a single being via a handful of anecdotal-feeling first-person paragraphs (“Should a genie ever grant me a wish, I would wish for a dragon friend”), while full-bleed images from debut illustrator Warnecke fill the remaining space with spare colorblock images. An entry about the unicorn portrays a white, horselike figure dipping its horn into a pool amid blooming flora, while text challenges readers’ mental image of the animal: “Some have the legs of an elephant. In India, they are red and black and very aggressive. And in Russia their horn is split at the tip like a fork.” Other highlighted beings include the scaled, antlered skywalking Qilin of China, Finland’s forest-protecting bear Otso, and Indigenous North Americans’ rain-bestowing thunderbird. An endnote cites that the author sought to limn the beings “without making them bringers of nightmares,” and gentle prose and graphical art succeed in rendering the entries as both approachable and intriguing for cryptozoologists of all ages. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/30/2026 | Details & Permalink

A straightforward and inclusive message distinguishes this powerfully wrought narrative definition of “we” from Reeves, making his picture book debut, and Tonatiuh (Game of Freedom), which opens with the U.S. Constitution’s Preamble. A clear concept serves as the work’s opening and concluding line, “ ‘We the people’ is all the people,” and unadorned language extrapolates in easy-to-understand descriptions. “We the people” includes those “next door,/ down the street,/ and across the country”; “living in houses,/ apartments,/ and in shelters”; worshipping in “churches,/ mosques,/ and temples”; and “who were here,/ who arrived later,/ who still come today.” Thinly outlined and digitally colored shapes in the artist’s signature style represent figures of various abilities, ages, genders, and skin tones interacting in concert and with the aim of mutual aid. It’s a clearly rendered tribute to community care and unity that’s anchored in hues of red, white, and blue. Includes creators’ notes. Ages 4–8. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/30/2026 | Details & Permalink

A beloved relative’s treasured artifacts convey events personal and historical in this meaningful telling from Barth Isler (The Color of Sound), making a picture book debut inspired by a family story, and Stamper (A Knot Is Not a Tangle). An unnamed child narrator enjoys visiting Great-Grandma Inge, who “sets the table like it’s a special occasion... and serves our water in fancy glasses.” When the youth inadvertently shatters one of the rose-tinged vessels, the woman offers comfort, saying, “It’s not only good luck to break glass sometimes, but it’s also tradition,” and gestures to three shards on the windowsill. Depictions of the events behind each follow: one, part of a glass crushed under the bridegroom’s foot on Great-Grandma Inge’s wedding day, is a token of “all sixty-five years they were married, and... a reminder of their love.” The other two relate to difficult events of WWII. The first, from Germany’s Kristallnacht, was an indicator that “it was time to leave our home and find a new place, where we could be safe”; the other is a good luck piece that preceded the family’s wartime reunification. Watercolor and gouache illustrations depict the past in b&w and the present in full color. Jagged cracks reflect destruction, separation, and the world coming apart, while transparent feathery washes background rich, detailed scenes of new lives coming together. An author’s note concludes. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Emily Keyes, Keyes Agency. Illustrator’s agent: Lori Kilkelly, LK Literary. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/30/2026 | Details & Permalink

In this playful parable about collaboration, ingenuity, and persistence, a solo debut from Michels (Giraffe and Jackal Are Friends (Again!)), the titular object—a house-size, spectacularly intrusive ball of scribbled orange string—lands suddenly in a young, pale-skinned protagonist’s yard. “It’s a dilemma, a quandary, a pickle, an obstacle, a can of worms” the buoyant narrative voice frets, a cascade of descriptors that capture that sinking feeling that can arrive when problems loom large. But after hauling up a ladder and having a good think atop the tangle, the child hits on a strategy: make the problem smaller. With each push and pull away from the child’s residence, the object shrinks, possibilities grow, and partnerships are born. A squirrel helps navigate the object around a stone wall, and an initially grumpy-looking bear helps manufacture a string border protecting a fallen bird’s nest. Digitally finished monoprint, ink, and collage illustrations lend printmaking textures to the ball’s transformation from burden to tool, as the orange orb becomes both a guide to a sunset vista and a trail leading home. That’s how life works sometimes, suggests this amiable portrait of thinking on one’s feet, by turning a “WHAT NOW?// into a THAT’S HOW!” Ages 4–8. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/30/2026 | Details & Permalink

An unnamed protagonist who uses a wheelchair on land rolls “under the deep blue water” of a swimming pool “like I roll under the deep blue sky with grace at a pace set by me” in this lushly imagined picture book. Through comparisons to various sea creatures, the child narrates their experience as “a starfish cartwheeling across a universe, my burble of bubbles the only sound when I breathe out” and “a catfish with legs that swish like fins.” Describing their mobility aid as “my other starfish limb and just as much a part of me as my toes” and the swim therapy coach who helps them move through the water, the voice explores different kinds of movement on land and in water, noting that in both places, “I can be silly and free.” Making her picture book debut, Sumner employs direct adjectives (“fearless and brave except when I’m not”) to demonstrate the narrator’s perspective, while gouache, colored pencil, and collage illustrations from Holzwarth (A Flicker of Hope) render the fluid underwater motions of the brown-skinned child alongside undulating flora and fauna. The result is an expansive portrait of bodily autonomy and movement. Secondary characters are portrayed with various body types and skin tones. Ages 4–8. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/30/2026 | Details & Permalink

In a wordless picture book whose grayscale architectural illustrations incorporate hints of glorious full color, Fong (The Clock) explores a child discovering life’s glimmers on their own terms. Rain seems imminent in a Paris-cued city as a child, presumably Claire, heads outside with a caregiver. Amid intricate monochromatic linework, a golden coin and a busking violinist’s melody that’s depicted as a jewel-toned ribbon draw the youth’s attention, but the tune disappears as the child and adult, whose skin tones reflect the white of the page, enter a huge cathedral that resembles Notre Dame. As the grown-up gestures enthusiastically to the magnificent Gothic surroundings, Claire wilts into a bored, dramatic slump. But when sunlight breaks through the cathedral’s rose window, it transforms the space into a kaleidoscope of colored light, and an ecstatic Claire dances through the sparkling beams. Though clouds and rain soon interrupt the bright moment, Claire realizes that it’s possible to nurture the things that enliven their world. Sharing the found coin with the busker, the child splashes in a rainbow-tinged puddle, then heads to play instruments with their caregiver at home, where shimmering light pours from a window. Wonder isn’t only something to be found, this winking work firmly communicates—it’s something that can be made, too. Background figures are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. Agent: Abigail Frank. Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/30/2026 | Details & Permalink

A dissatisfied Viking trades battle axe for pizza oven in a stylish picture book from Vaisberg (Dino, a Pet Unlike Any Other) about finding one’s true calling—one pie at a time. Pale-skinned Gunnar the Conquerer is known as “one of the boldest and bravest of Vikings”; in his horned helmet and red tunic, the warrior tackles hordes all on his own. But years of warfare have left Gunnar feeling empty, and when he stumbles, Goldilocks-like, into an empty cabin where an unfamiliar dish—pizza—is cooking over the fire, he develops a foodie’s obsession with finding “the correct amount of flour and water, the perfect combination of ingredients, and the right temperature to bake it.” In a limited palette of coral, mint, and plum, geometric inflections and screen-printing textures lend a handcrafted quality to the visuals, mirroring the Viking’s artisanal pizzaiolo quest. When Gunnar perfects the dish, even old enemies arrive peacefully to try it, and the pizzeria becomes a beloved gathering place. It’s a savory tale about trading stale goods to feed personal passions—and community, too. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–7. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/30/2026 | Details & Permalink