What if Death liked his coffee "black and strong?" And left his scythe outside the door, so as not to scare the young ones? That's who Death is in Cry, Heart, But Never Break, originally written in Danish by award-winning children's author Glenn Ringtved, with wistful, pencil-and-watercolor illustrations by Charlotte Pardi. In this gentle, moving … Continue reading #WorldKidLitWednesday: Cry, Heart, But Never Break
Laura Taylor is on a years-long mission to read picture books from every country in the world. How’s that for ambition? Inspired by Ann Morgan, this busy writer, translator from French into English, and mother of two has: established the Planet Picture Book blog and social media pages in 2017. posted throughout #WorldKidLit Month here … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Meet Reviewer Laura Taylor
What price do we pay for progress? Moletown, a largely wordless book by German author/illustrator Torben Kuhlmann, encourages readers to ponder this question in some depth in a story set in a subterranean world of moles and machines. The machines are not there at the start, just one mole that lives under a ‘lush green … Continue reading #WorldKidLitWednesday: Moletown
What's a young, hungry but well-mannered young wolf to do when given a last wish by his freshly-captured future meal? Grant it...of course, just as his parents taught him to do! In this wickedly sly picture book for ages 4-8 by Jean Leroy, our polite wolf on the hunt for his first prey encounters a … Continue reading #WorldKidLitWednesday: A Well-Mannered Young Wolf
“So—are you saying that our souls can be knocked down like houses?” “Yes, my wise girl,” she says. “Our souls can crumble when we don’t care about our neighbors, or when we say hateful things about others, or exclude people for being different.” This exchange between eleven-year-old Chilean Celeste Marconi and her mother, in … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: I Lived on Butterfly Hill
Once in a while you happen on a book that requires you to slow down and savor each page in order to fully appreciate it. The Blue Bench is one such picture book. The blue bench has been a fixture of the local park for as long as anyone can remember. It features on every … Continue reading #WorldKidLitWednesday: The Blue Bench
Do you remember not being able to read? I certainly don't... Most of us have been reading for so long that we can't remember what it felt like not to be able to understand everything we saw around us. Nor do we have any inkling of what the mysterious world of visual symbols looked like … Continue reading #WorldKidLitWednesday: Lines, Squiggles, Letters, Words
When a boy calls young Nora “flamingo legs,” a magic bubble wand tells her that he secretly likes her. When a girl says, “I’m telling everyone not to play with you,” the wand reveals that the girl feels blue when she can't have Nora all to herself. Could it be that lots of what people … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Nora the Mind Reader
Shadow Sorcery Minister Beelzebub Preposter is in quite a pickle. His Aunt Tyrannia Vampirella is in the same pickle jar with him. It’s New Year’s Eve and Preposter's gotten behind on his evilness payments. Despite his best efforts, he has only managed to perform half his annual obligation of making ten species extinct, polluting five … Continue reading #WorldKidLitWednesday: The Night of Wishes, or The Satanarchaeolidealcohellish Notion Potion
How sweet is a picture book where the villain gets foiled *and* gets mooncakes? Happy Mid-Autumn Festival is that book. Ssshhh, don’t spoil the ending like I just did. To savor thoroughly, read aloud with a toddler-through-early elementary student who, at first glance, sees nothing more than a book about a holiday. Ho-hum. Your young … Continue reading #WorldKidLitWednesday: Happy Mid-Autumn Festival
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 