“Papa painted a thousand birds…because the world was falling apart.” So begins this memoir for teen and adult readers by the father-daughter team of Ahmadjan and Maren Amini. Maren grew up in Germany amid her father’s art and stories of his native Afghanistan. The son of farmers from the Panjshir Valley of northern Afghanistan, Ahmadjan … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Papa Drew a Thousand Birds
"Deep in the forest sat a little house. The witch who lived in the house was very old. She was so old even her wrinkles were wrinkled. But one day she went for a walk and never returned.” So starts The Little House That Needed a Witch, a whimsically charming picture book for readers age … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: The Little House That Needed a Witch
Last week the 40th IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) Congress was hosted by IBBY Canada in Ottawa, Canada, with 500+ attendees from 60 countries in attendance. The theme was "Listening to Each Other's Voices" -- and it was echoed across all the sessions, with a special focus on Indigenous and endangered languages … Continue reading #WorldKidLit: IBBY & GLLI
First published in Singapore in 2021, the picture book Marvellous Mammals is now available worldwide and a valuable resource for learning about the geography and wildlife of Southeast Asia. Each letter in English corresponds to the name of a mammal that lives in the region (though the author is helped by the fact that the mammals go … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Marvellous Mammals
Whether it's your cup of tea or not, horror is having a moment. While not generally considered a horror story per se, Dante's Inferno is, in fact, one of the early masterpieces of the genre, right up there with the much older Greek myth of Oedipus Rex and the more recent Frankenstein and The Tell-Tale … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Dante’s Inferno: A Graphic Novel Adaptation
An explosion and traffic crash involving a truck filled with pigs on their way to the slaughterhouse leads to unexpected fame and terror for a teenage band in Rosario, Argentina in 1976. Sixteen-year-old Daniel Aguirre and his 15-year-old brother Adrián write a song from the perspective of pigs who end up in the neighborhood’s cooking … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Hear Ye Mortals
Wednesdays are reserved for #WorldKidLit posts, and today's will do double-duty as both #WorldKidLit and #IntYALitMonth. Vicky Lyfoung's recently published "Hmong: A Graphic History," translated from French by Kao-Ly Yang (2026), is an accessible account of the long and complex history of the Hmong people, now strewn around the world. She starts with her own … Continue reading #WorldKidLit: Hmong
A genocide almost a hundred years earlier echoes in the life of 16-year-old Nadine and her brother, who convince their parents to let them go on a family heritage tour to Armenia with their classmates in their afterschool Armenian program in Los Angeles. From there, she and her brother plan to travel to Istanbul, Turkey, … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Armaveni
On the Move: Things in Motion on Earth and Beyond (2025) / Куди і звідки (2020), written & illustrated by Romana Romanyshyn & Andriy Lesiv, translated from Ukrainian by Oksana Lushchevska, is a visual non-fiction delight for readers of all ages, exploring the concept of motion for humans, animals, vehicles, wind, water, as well as … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: On the Move
Today’s post comes to you from Alice Henry 'Under the London Sky' by Anna Woltz (2021), translated from Dutch by Michelle Hutchinson (2025), is a coming-of-age story for four teenagers during the Blitz, a context with profound impact on our narrator, Ella, and her friends. Fourteen-year-old Ella, born and bred in the East End into … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Under the London Sky
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 