Today’s post comes to you from Song Yee Paik Since being published a year ago, "Song of a Blackbird" by Maria van Lieshout has been featured twice on GLLI (reviewed by Lynn Miller-Lachmann in March 2025, and explored in an author interview by Kim Tyo-Dickerson in May 2025) and has received significant critical acclaim. Last … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Song of a Blackbird
High schooler Jip has a big problem—an art class assignment to draw a self-portrait. That shouldn’t be a problem, as Jip is a talented artist who can draw bugs, shells, and other items in exquisite detail. Jip is also obsessed with biology in general and insects in particular, spending days (and nights) in an overgrown … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Self-Portrait
In the deep, dark, frigid days of winter, what could be more fun than curling up in a blanket with a shivery ghost story? Set during summer vacation, The Ghosts of Pandora Pickwick is a wonderful combination of two evergreen middle grade tropes: the aforementioned ghost tale and an adoption/origin story. Protagonist Mia Jones has … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: The Ghosts of Pandora Pickwick
Today’s post comes to you from Laura Simeon: This marks the 21st year that the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY), a division of the International Board on Books for Young People, has selected some of the very best titles from around the world for children and teens. Our dedicated committee of … Continue reading #WORLDKIDLIT: USBBY’S OUTSTANDING INTERNATIONAL BOOKS 2026
What’s faster than a jet? Or bigger than a whale? And have you ever wondered how many vertebrae are in a giraffe’s neck? These and myriad other fascinating questions are the focus of Faster Than a Jet, Bigger Than a Whale: An Illustrated Guide to Measuring Our World, a wonderful nonfiction book for readers age … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Faster Than a Jet, Bigger Than a Whale: An Illustrated Guide to Measuring Our World
Thirteen-year-old Vilda lives with her parents and younger sister Irma in northern Sweden. Her father is Swedish and her mother is Sámi. Her Sámi grandfather lives in the same town, and recently she has become interested in learning more about this Indigenous people’s language and culture. But just as her Áddjá begins teaching her to … Continue reading #WorldKidLIt Wednesday: Butterfly Heart
Okchundang Candy 옥춘당 by Jung-soon Go 고정순Translated from Korean by Aerin ParkLevine Querido, March 2025 “I still remember that house filled with summer lingering.” As the story opens, the narrator leads us back into the summers she spent with her grandparents, Mr. Go Jadong and Ms. Kim Soonim. Words rendered in crayon carry a handlettered … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Okchundang Candy
Take a cooking competition in graphic novel format and mix in zany illustrations, alien species and an intergalactic empire. Blend in a reluctant, kindhearted female heroine, top it all off with eco-, exoplanetary, and class politics, and you get The Big Tournament, the first book in the fabulous upper middle grade/YA sci-fi series, Magda: Intergalactic … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: The Big Tournament
Equal parts Our Bodies, Ourselves, Margaret Mead, and biology/history explainer, Born a Girl: It Takes Courage is an approachable feminist manifesto for today's teens that embraces difficult topics. Organized around the fictionalized stories of five teenage girls---one each from Nepal, France, Afghanistan, Kenya, and Mexico---this nonfiction YA illustrated book lays out a frank, sympathetic description … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Born a Girl: It Takes Courage
Today’s post comes to you from Rasil Kaur Ahuja When the Sun Sets “You read a lot of baby books,” a well-wisher commented recently. “This one,” she added, pointing to a book that was shortlisted for the 2025 Neev Book Award, “doesn’t even have words!” How to explain the power of a story spoken in … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: When the Sun Sets
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 