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
Today’s post comes to you from Suji DeHart. Baloo’s Big Win: How Palwankar Baloo Broke the Caste Barrier in Cricket by Mamta Nainy, illustrated by Saumya Oberoi (Puffin / India Puffin, 2024) - picture-book biography for ages 6+ Baloo’s Big Win by Mamta Nainy, is more than just sports history or an Indian biography; it’s a … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Baloo’s Big Win
It’s that time of year again--or at least it was when I wrote this post: San Diego Comic Con! For those who may not know, San Diego Comic Con is a huge four-and-a-half day lollapalooza of an annual convention celebrating all things comics related. There are panels with authors and actors; talks about art, craft, … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Four Eisner- Nominated Graphic Novels in Translation
A playful read-aloud board book for readers age 0-3, Who Ate the Little Bug? is filled with vivid colors and a tactile design of concentric die-cut circles that will entice very young readers into touching and engaging with its text. The concept is simple. Each page introduces an animal that MIGHT have eaten the little … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Who Ate the Little Bug?
Twelve-year-old Movits “Mo” Lind is the antithesis of cool. He plays chess, trains his guinea pig, cooks for his younger sister, and mortifies his popular older sister with his geeky interests. His life changes, though, when he agrees to travel with his best friend, Ruben, from their quiet suburb to downtown Stockholm to see Ruben’s … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Biggest Fake in the Universe
A deliciously absurd grammatical romp of a picture book, ashimpa: the mysterious word begins when a researcher rediscovered a long-lost word that has resurfaced "by chance in a dusty old dictionary: ASHIMPA. Quickly, the news spread. Everyone wanted to use this exciting discovery—but no one knew exactly how. No one knew what the word meant, … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: ashimpa: the mysterious word
A 2025 GLLI Translated Young Adult Book Prize Honor Book and the first fabulous volume in a sci-fi duology, Snowglobe is set in a post-apocalyptic, post-climate-change world. Life for the lower class is cold and brutal. Most labor daily to create electricity via giant human-powered hamster wheels, except for the lucky few who live in … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Snowglobe
This is the end of the 5th annual International Young Adult Literature Month (#IntlYALitMonth) here on the Global Literature in Libraries (GLLI) blog. (Again, thank you, Karen Van Drie, for starting this tradition!) Just in case you missed the previous events, below are links to the end-of-month summary list of each year’s offerings. 2021 – … Continue reading Wrap-up to GLLI’s 2025 #IntlYALitMonth
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 