A new year brings a fresh start for the Tanaka family. In All in a Year, a picture book aimed at readers ages 3+, the Tanakas move out of their apartment into a cozy new home. With each new page, readers accompany the family through their daily lives and the changing seasons of the year. … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: All in a Year
Arranged and forced marriages are the reality for many young teenage girls around the world. But does it really have to be this way? This middle grade illustrated novel is based on the true story of Adi, as told to renowned Cameroonian author and poet Alain Serge Dzotap. Adidjatou, or Adi for short, is a … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Adi of Boutanga: A Story from Cameroon
The shoppers are out in force and the market is abuzz with activity. Women in brightly colored dresses carry baskets on their heads laden with fruit and vegetables, hens strut around, and moped driver wait for clients at the taxi rank. This is Baby and Mama’s destination: the vibrant world of a West African market, … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Baby Goes to Market
To borrow from a popular internet meme, I once again want to remind you that picture books are for everyone. Luckily, Enchanted Lion Books understands the assignment. Specifically targeted at teen and adult readers, the company's groundbreaking Unruly imprint has already brought us complex, award-winning written and visual narratives that both delight and discomfit. Originally … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: We Go to the Park
Up, down, over, under, open, close: learning opposites is an important piece of early childhood development. Learning opposites helps children learn not only vocabulary, but also develop observational skills, critical thinking, and a more concrete understanding of the world around them. Forthcoming this September from Eerdman's Books for Young Readers, Fast Cheetah, Slow Tortoise: Poems … Continue reading #WorldKidLitWednesday: Fast, Cheetah, Slow Tortoise: Poems of Animal Opposites
Named to the 2024 Global Literature in Libraries Initiative Translated Young Adult Book Prize shortlist, The Boy from Clearwater tells the story of Tsai Kun-Lin, "an ordinary boy" born in Qingshui District on the western coast of Taiwan. Tsai Kun-Lin's story, however, is nothing short of extraordinary. It is a story of surviving military occupation, … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: The Boy from Clearwater, Book 1
Review by Lyn Miller-Lachmann Having escaped his narrow-minded and isolated village in Palestine, Saeed moves to the city, marries, opens a bookstore, then returns with his pregnant wife. She gives birth to twin girls – Shams and Qamar – but the family is exiled to the village outskirts, accused of bringing a curse. Although they … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands
Coming of age stories are a often visited theme in young adult and even middle grades literature. It is not a common theme in picture books, however. Forthcoming from Catalyst Press, Wankijũ, Child of Mine is a picture book bildungsroman of a Kenyan girlhood. Like other titles from Catalyst Press, it gives pride of place … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Wankijũ, Child of Mine
For all the hand wringing about young people not liking to read or even reading proficiently, there sure is a lot of gatekeeping by adults around what is and what is not appropriate for young people to read. Bracketing and suspending for a moment current book banning efforts in the United States, there are adults … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Movements and Moments
Noor and Abdulla Al Owais here. Today, we decided to do a joint post about two stories from Palestine. Sitti's Bird: A Gaza Story Author and Illustrator: Malak Mattar Published by: Crocodile Books (2022) ISBN: 9781623718251. Book photos taken by reviewers. Sitti’s Bird is about a little girl who dreams of being an artist one day, … Continue reading #UAEReads – #WorldKidLit Wednesday with Emirati Kid Reviewers: Kidlit Stories From Palestine
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 