The Prickletrims Go Wild by Marie Dorléans. Floris Books, c2022, 2024. 9781782508830 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 5 Format: Hardcover picture book What did you like about the book?  In this tall, narrow picture book, readers meet the precise Prickletrims, who keep their garden clipped and tamed into submission. Their slim two-story house (drawn in meticulously ruled pen-and-ink) faces a formal French garden with evenly distributed flowers and mercilessly espaliered trees. The Prickletrims’ neat, geometrically-patterned clothing further emphasizes their love of orde ..read more

How It Works: Shark  by Molly Littleboy, illustrated by David Semple. Tiger Tales, 2024. 9781664351011 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 3.5 Format: Board book What did you like about the book? Colorful die-cut pages allow young scientists to explore the biology of a shark.  Readers will learn interesting facts, such as how dorsal fins aid balance, that sharks can sense movement a mile away, and that they have two types of muscle.  Each turn of the page reveals more parts of the shark such as gills, teeth, internal organs, and the skeleton.  A little scub ..read more

How to Help a Hare and Protect a Polar Bear by Jess French; illustrated by Angela Keoghan. Nosy Crow, 2024. 9798887770574 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 3 Format: Hardcover picture book What did you like about the book:   How to Help a Hare and Protect a Polar Bear is a beautifully illustrated nonfiction picture book about habitats and conservation. This book introduces 9 different habitats, 4 – 5 of example animals that live in each of those habitats, and ways kids can help protect the habitat and animals. Each habitat is first introduced with a two-page spread that ..read more

Animal Albums from A to Z by Cece Bell. Walker Books, 2024. 9781536226249 Rating:  1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 4 Format: Hardcover picture book What did you like about the book?  This alphabet book consists of album cover art, song lyrics, and “delightful bits of treasured memorabilia” featuring a wide array of creatures and musical genres.  From the Tex-Mex flavor of Arnie Dillow’s Accordion Americana to the sleepy stylings of The Zydeco Zebras’ Zigzag Zinnia, readers are in for a silly songfest.  Each page spread includes, on the left, the full text of on ..read more

Dragonfruit by Makii Lucier. Clarion Books, 2024. 9780358272106  Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 5 Format: Hardcover Genre:  Fantasy What did you like about the book? A new addition to the growing number of books by AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) authors, this book features Pacific Island characters, magical tattoos, a strong heroine, and seadragons. What’s not to love? Tamarind is a matriarchal island in the Nominomi Sea but the queen is getting old and the princess has been in a coma since being poisoned ten years ago. The only thing that may save her i ..read more

As the Seas Rise: Nicole Hernandez Hammer and the Fight for Climate Justice by Angela Quezada Padron. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2024. 9781665913942 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 5 Format: Hardcover picture book Genre:  Biography What did you like about the book:   This excellent picture book biography presents the life of Nicole Hernandez Hammer, a scientist and Guatemalan American climate activist. The book appropriately centers her experience growing up in frontline communities of color and then dedicating her life to educating others about the dispro ..read more

A Place for Vanishing by Ann Fraistat. Delacorte Press, 2024. 9780593382219 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 5 Format: Hardcover Genre:  Young Adult Horror/Sci Fi Fantasy What did you like about the book? After her failed suicide attempt, Libby and her family try to make a fresh start in a mysterious house that’s been abandoned for decades. But while the family struggles to cope with their trauma, they must also face the secrets of the house, which include a history of séances, rumored disappearances, and creepy bugs – so many creepy bugs. The author deftly balances a ..read more

The Souls of Flowers: the Loveliest Flowers in Our Meadows and Gardens by Pavlína Kourková and Klára Mandausová, illustrated by Pavlína Kourková and translated by Andrew Oakland. Albatros Media, 2024. 9788000071008 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 5 Format: Hardcover What did you like about the book? So many words come to mind after reading this book—stunning, breathtaking, wonderful…This book is not only about these beautiful flowers, it’s also about the artist herself.  Along with the astonishing artwork, we learn about legends, myths, stories, and botany for each fl ..read more

Escaping Mr. Rochester by L. L. McKinney.  HarperTeen, 2024. 9780062986269  Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 5 Format: Hardcover Genre: Historical/ Romance/ Mystery/ LGBTQIA What did you like about the book? Jane Eyre is a 19-year-old orphan living at Lowood school when she becomes governess to Adele, Edward Rochester’s ward, living at Thornfield Hall.  She develops an immediate rapport with the lonely Adele and with the cook, Emma.  Mr. Rochester is decidedly erratic, angry at one moment, ingratiating at another and mostly aloof, spending most of his tim ..read more

Behold the Hummingbird by Suzanne Slade,  illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez. Peachtree, 2024. 9781682636527 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 4 Format: Hardcover picture book What did you like about the book?  Following up on their well-received 2023 Behold the Octopus, Slade and Gonzalez return with this beautiful book on hummingbirds. The lush, realistic illustrations done with pastel and colored pencils show the glowing jewel-tones of twelve individual species, with each two-page spread focusing on a specific characteristic. Slade’s text operates on two levels; des ..read more