Hallelujah,Miss Eula is back! One of my favorite characters in Polacco's many wonderful books, this African-American grandmother takes the young Patricia under her wing when the author moves to California as a young girl. Before Trisha's own grandmother passes away through the "holes in the sky," she tells her granddaughter that she will send a sign that she is watching from the other side. 
The family moves to a diverse neighborhood in Oakland  where Trisha is befriended by Miss Eula's grandson Stewart. They join forces with the entire neighborhood to save a hurting neighbor and her dying garden. And Trisha finds her sign.
A heartwarming celebration of community, diversity and family.



​Tessa's Picks, K-3rd Grade, Family life, People of color, Picture books

Featuring a diverse cast of characters, this book sends the message that life is not color coded.  Just as boys and girls can enjoy race cars, unicorns, dress-up and baseball, they can like all colors as well. Every color is for every one! So express yourself in a rainbow of colors!

Felix loves to wear skirts; they feel fun and airy. He and his mom go to the store and buy him a new red one for the first day of school. Dad is a little worried about this decision and indeed Felix is teased when he arrives in a skirt.  After  discussing how unfair it is that girls can wear both pants and skirts but boys can only wear pants, he and his dad make a trip to the store. Both dad and son go to school dressed in twirly skirts and respond to the other boys' questions with "Today anybody can wear a skirt. Did nobody tell you?"
From then on no one asked Felix if he was a boy or a girl; they simply called him Felix.
The mom and dad in this empathetic book are so sweet and supportive. And the dad really rocks that green skirt.


​Tessa's Picks, K-2nd grade, Family life, Issues Fiction Picture books..

"Mom, I can't sleep!"
"Why not?"
"I don't know...I'm nervous and I can't stop thinking, thinking, thinking..."
"Do you want me to teach you how to breathe?"
"Breathe? But I already know how to breathe!"

This familiar scene of a child having difficulty falling asleep leads to fantastic and imaginative techniques to foster calm and mindfulness. From a boat on your belly to yoga poses these beautifully illustrated and gently described tools are sure to help restless people of any age. Further notes about the techniques are included in the back. This book could be read in a sitting or picked up and put down as needed when you want to try a new tool. The mixed media illustrations perfectly capture abstract concepts to help children with visualizations. A great resource for parents and educators!

Erica's Picks
k - 3
​Tags: Nonfiction, Picture Books

When Taylor's blocks are knocked over, everyone has advice about what they* should do. Chicken thinks Taylor should talk about it. Bear thinks they should get angry and shout. Snake thinks they should knock over someone else's blocks. But only bunny sits next to Taylor in silence and listens when they feel ready to talk. Eventually Taylor feels better and they make plans for a new, even bigger, structure. 

This sweet story has a lot of emotional wisdom. Taylor rejects everyone who tells them how they should feel. Only rabbit is willing to sit quietly and listen to Taylor actually process their feelings. This book is a great way to start a conversation with a child about how to work through big emotions. It's also great for teaching children how they can be good friends to others. I love that Taylor's gender is ambiguous and never explicitly stated. The illustrations make great use of white space to show Taylor's feelings of isolation. The use of a purple background at the beginning and end show that Taylor has recaptured their excitement about building with blocks. 

*I use they/them pronouns for Taylor in this review rather than assigning a gender to the character. 

Erica's Picks
K-2

A young boy is less than excited to spend time with his grandpa. They don't eat the same food. They don't watch the same shows. They don't even speak the same language! The boy soon grows bored and takes out some paper and markers to entertain himself. When his grandpa sees, he excitedly takes out his ink pot and brush. They have finally found a common language! Together, they go on an adventure combining their styles. 

The way Santat combines the grandson and grandfather's styles is simply breath-taking. The format goes from comic panels at the beginning to show time passing to full-color spreads in a more traditional picture book layout. I love the way the characters choose to draw themselves and that they exchange their preferred drawing implement at the end. The end papers bring it all together with the front displaying the grandson's style and the back the grandfather's. A sweet, inter-generational tale.

Erica's Picks
k-2
​Picture Books, Art

This seemingly simple book shows that if we each do our part using bravery, kindness, and friendship we can make the world a better place. A perfect message for the very young.
​
“When the news reports are flooded with tales of hatred and fear, a girl asks her papa what she can do to make the world a better place. “Come with me,” he says. Hand-in-hand, they walk to the subway, tipping their hats to those they meet. The next day, the girl asks her mama what she can do—her mama says, “Come with me,” and together they set out for the grocery, because one person doesn’t represent an entire race or the people of a land. After dinner that night, the little girl asks if she can do something of her own—walk the dog . . . and her parents let her go. “Come with me,” the girl tells the boy across the hall. Walking together, one step at a time, the girl and the boy begin to see that as small and insignificant as their part may seem, it matters to the world.”

​This colorful and practical guide leads kids through a variety of exercises in mindfulness. The bright illustrations and simple language make it an engaging way to teach mindfulness to even the youngest kids. The exercises are broken down into five sections: Be Calm, Focus, Imagine, Make Some Energy, and Relax. Each exercise gets a fully illustrated two page spread with large text in appealing fonts explaining what to do in kid-friendly language. I love the squirrels with their kindness exercise and the wolf that leads the get your grumpies out exercise, but it's afternoon as I write this, so I am most drawn to the energizers. This example from that section certainly looks appealing to me. Just look at that lion!

Breathe Like a Bear by Kira Willey, illustrated by Anni Betts

Erica's Picks
k-4
Tags: Nonfiction

This book is inspired by an annual event in the author's community. Hundreds of volunteers come together for The Labor of Love gathering where they help repair the homes of the elderly, disabled and needy.
Young Wilson visits his elderly neighbor GiGi and each time tells her that ONE DAY he will fix a part of her house that is worn or broken. All year he dreams of the plan until the day comes when neighbors and friends come together to take care of one of their own. One day is here.  Share this story of compassion and generosity to spark the spirit of can-do kindness. 




​Tessa's Picks, K-2nd grade, Picture Books

This books is about your heart. (The little bit inside of you that makes you, you!) In simple words and evocative images, the message is conveyed that words have extraordinary power.  They can heal or hurt, they can create or destroy.  Words can spread love. Read this book and foster empathy and compassion in the youngest readers.  "Today, somebody's world can be a better place because of you! Doesn't that make your heart feel good?"  Pass it around.

Tessa's Picks, K-1st grade, Picture books,

​When Lola spills orange juice all over a nice, white armchair she exclaims "I've ruined everything! I'll hide in the library! They have books and bathrooms. And I'll stay there till I'm a grownup." But on the way to the library one catastrophe follows another and soon Lola's gathered a large group. When everything seems to go wrong a little bird whispers "accident" and shows everyone how to own up to their mistakes make it all better again instead of running away.

I would have spent hours pouring over the details in these illustrations as a kid. There's so many small, humorous moments in the background. Above all I like that it emphasizes that accidents are okay and everyone from kids to adults can have them. The characters' overreactions are funny, but in the end the message that is clear that calmly admitting your mistake and helping to fix it is the way to go.

Adults might appreciate this episode from Hidden Brain talking about how language can influence the way we see the world. Part of it focuses on how our language around accidents affects where we place the blame and how we remember them. https://www.npr.org/2018/01/29/581657754/lost-in-translation-the-power-of-language-to-shape-how-we-view-the-world

Just look at all the hilarious details in one page of this book:

Accident by Andrea Tsurumi
Erica's Picks
k-2nd Grade
​Tags: Picture Books