These are fourteen titles that feature different themes, from early readers to middle school, graphic novels and holiday reads are in the mix as well!
Let’s start with early readers:
Spiro by Anna McGregor (Author)
This cute spider is hungry and would love some yummy insects in her spider’s web. However, when she thinks things will work out for her, a mishap will tear her web apart.
Undaunted, she will keep going, and going, and going, until a luminous moment when her ideas start to work and she can finally get to eat!
Anna McGregor has several picture books, most of which have been previously reviewed here on Geekdad.
Spiro is on sale since October 8, 2024.
Publisher: Scribble Us
Pages: 32/ Hardcover
EAN/UPC: 9781957363868
Up next, this is an artist’s take on a spider web:
I Worked Hard on That! Robyn Wall (Author) A. N. Kang (Illustrator)
This book talks about a different spider, one that wants to change the world by making beautiful and unforgettable webs.
Kiara used to make her web just to catch food, but one day she saw another spider’s creation, something so pretty that she was inspired to make something awe-inspiring herself.
Kiara starts creating, but even though she works hard on her webs, they can and they do get destroyed by careless passersby, talk about frustration!
Kiara will then meet Orb, a true artist, (even though he eats every web he weaves), and will gain a fresh perspective.
A book about the artistic process, trying, exploring, and failing, the joy of creating, and how making art must not be necessarily about the result. The life of a creative can be about the journey and making new friends along the way (even though they keep eating their silk creations).
I Worked Hard on That! is on sale since October 08, 2024.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Pages: 48/ Hardcover
ISBN: 9781665938723
Up next, let’s see a couple of Xmas advances:
A Stickler Christmas by Lane Smith (Author)
For those kids who want to make a gift for everybody in their family and sometimes feel frustrated because their budget is not that great, I loved the idea behind this:
Stickler is a character that seems like a gobbling made of sticks, and he is celebrating Christmas! He has made presents for all his friends. By carefully choosing the right stick, he has managed to give them new meaning and made each seemly undistinguishable stick into something wonderful for each friend: A Hop-Higher Stick for Rabbit, an Idea Stick for Crow, an In-a-Pear-Tree Stick for Partridge.
He is also going to help a very tiny tree, a fir tree called Doug, not to be covered with lights, because he is shy and dreads attention. Stickler is such a thoughtful little goblin!
A Stickler Christmas is on sale since October 8, 2024.
Published by Random House Studio
Hardcover | Pages: 40
ISBN: 9780593815281
A Cozy Winter Day by Eliza Wheeler (Author)
This is a whimsical book about the nice feelings surrounding winter. There is not much of a conflict or resolution going on, but the imagery and activities transmit a sense of wholeness.
Acorn Village loves to spend winter days doing all sorts of things together, whether indoors they’re reading, baking, or doing art projects. Outdoors, they love playing in the snow. And at the end of the day, there are even more nice things to do together as a family and a community: singing, hot beverages, and stories in front of the fireplace, these are perfect winter days.
A Cozy Winter Day is on sale since October 15, 2024.
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Hardcover | Pages: 40
ISBN: 9781665910224
Dolly Parton’s Billy the Kid Comes Home for Christmas by Dolly Parton (Author) Erica S. Perl (Author) MacKenzie Haley (Illustrator)
This cute French bulldog, Billy the Kid, lives on tour, constantly, because he has a great band, and they love howling at the moon in different venues.
He loves his music gig, his friends, and going cross country (as much as Dolly Parton does, I bet). But, sometimes, not even paw-some music can cut the feeling of loss when you are not home for Christmas in the name of work.
When Billy’s band is scheduled to perform at Barkafeller Center on Christmas Day, he’ll have to decide if either fame or family re the most important.
On the one hand, fame gives you that big sense of achievement. On the other, what’s better than family gatherings, right?
Dolly Parton’s Billy the Kid Comes Home for Christmas is on sale since October 1, 2024
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Hardcover | Pages: 40
ISBN: 9780593755006
Up next some good artsy books:
Dot! Scribble! Go! by Hervé Tullet (Author)
Tullet is a strong artist with amazing books to his name, where he combines deceptively simple concepts and creates wonderful books about art and art concepts in a toddler-friendly way. (Press Here is an Art teacher staple in a lot of classrooms).
In this book, you start with your hand and some simple lines, it is an invitation to draw, scribble, make dots, and see what comes up.
Soon the lines, squiggles, dots, and shapes become a variety of things.
His books are meant for toddlers but have enough headroom to be enjoyed by any artistic kid.
Dot! Scribble! Go! is on sale since October 08, 2024
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Hardcover | Pages: 64
ISBN: 9781797232584
Marina Abramovic Turned Herself Into Art and Wasn’t Sorry by Fausto Gilberti (Author)
This book is part of a series that explains very complex artistic ideas through doodles and a biography of an artist. It is intended for kids from 4 to 7, but adults tend to benefit a lot from these, as they provide key concepts in a child-friendly way.
Marina Abramovic is a fascinating performance artist. She uses her body to perform in unexpected and unusual ways, ways that make an audience think.
Her most famous installation is featured on the cover, she sat and stared at whomever wanted to sit across her for hours at a time in a museum. The experience was hard to describe for the participants, it was mystical, like visiting an oracle.
She also sat back-to-back with her partner and had their hair tied together for over 17 hours. Another time, she and her partner walked over the Wall of China from different ends, to meet themselves in the middle after a three-month journey.
This is a great take on the artist, and I was amazed at how easy to understand it is.
Marina Abramovic Turned Herself Into Art and Wasn’t Sorry <\em> will be available October 08, 2024.
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Hardcover | Pages: 56
ISBN: 9781838668822
Now let’s see a variety of picture books from all over the globe:
How We Share Cake by Kim Hyo-Eun (Author) Deborah Smith (Translator)
This was such a lovely read, from the author of I Am the Subway. As a sibling myself, I know what it was like to share cake, hot buns, and everything with my younger siblings.
Everything Kim wants must be carefully calculated. I loved the measures and infinite ways in which everything can be shared into five equal pieces, it speaks volumes about equity and the sense of fairness every child possesses.
How We Share Cake is available since October 08, 2024.
Publisher: Scribble Us
Hardcover | Pages: 52
ISBN: 9781957363851
John the Skeleton by Triinu Laan (Author) Marja-Liisa Plats (Illustrator) Adam Cullen (Translator)
This is by far my favorite of the lot. I enjoyed it immensely, because it is absurd, funny, loving, and makes you understand the grandparents’ quirks in such an endearing way.
John is a retired classroom skeleton. They used to exist in every type of classroom across Laan’s country of origin, Estonia. However, times have changed and instead of being tossed in the trash, John is adopted by Grams and Gramps, leaving the classroom to live on their farm.
What would you do with a human-sized skeleton on your farm? John lives the great life, he gets to ride in the car, watches sunsets, wears clothes, scares away crooks, and becomes a source of comfort for the entire family.
The illustrations are full of life, and make an endearing portrait of the tribulations of farm life, the aging of loved ones, and the pleasure to be found in the little things.
This book has won so many awards, and for good reason! It is a 2022 Bologna Children’s Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition winner, a 2021 The White Ravens catalog and a 2021 Tartu Prize for Children’s Literature.
John the Skeleton is available since October 1, 2024.
Publisher: Yonder
Hardback | Pages: 64
ISBN: 9781632063700
Step Into My Shoes by Alkisti Halikia (Author) Fotini Tikkou (Illustrator)
Kids will find the life of this Parisian girl intriguing.
Matou lives in suburban Paris, which looks way more like a city than suburban sprawls in the US. Besides, she walks alone from school every day. When she passes a mosque on her way home, she spots the shoes she has always wanted sitting alongside many others.
So, she decides to try them on. Afterward, she starts playing a game, stepping into kids’ shoes and trying to guess who they belong to.
She then waits outside, out of view, to see if her guesses were accurate It’s a game that surely will be frowned upon, but she sees no harm in getting into people’s shoes for a second and then guessing if the personality she feels in them
Does it resemble the owners?
This is a surprising experiment on empathy. If you think about it, shoes can tell you a lot: if they are clean, or dirty, if a lot of walking is done with them, if they’re expensive or cheap…
And her new ability will help when she starts arguing with her mother. When she comes home late and fails on a promise, Mom asks her to step into her shoes for a moment, and it is a good thing that Matou knows exactly how to do that.
Step Into My Shoes is available since October 01, 2024.
Publisher: Lantana Publishing
Hardcover| Pages: 32
ISBN: 9781915244925
Where to Hide a Star by Oliver Jeffers (Author)
We love Olive Jeffers’ work over here and we have the first of the series. This is a wonderful re-visit to the world of Boy and Penguin and Star.
Boy loves to play hide-and-seek with his friends the star and the penguin. The star is a cute character, she needs to help a lot and is always easy to find until the day she is missing.
Boy asks his friend Martian for help, and soon they end up on a rescue mission to the North Pole!
Star, meanwhile has found a new friend over there. And friendship has to be shared. Luckily Martian has an excellent idea as to where to hide a star.
Where to Hide a Star is available since October 08, 2024.
Publisher: Philomel Books
Hardcover| Pages: 48
ISBN: 9780593622247
The Bakery Dragon by Devin Elle Kurtz (Author)
This is a whimsical story that garnered a lot of attention when the author published the cover illustration process on Instagram.
Ember is a cute dragon that cannot assault peasants for gold as his bigger friends do. Dubbed as harmless by the villagers, Ember flies in frustration, trying to get his hand on some respectable hoard of gold.
That is until he stumbles on a bakery and learns how to bake!
And this type of gold, the one you make, is way better than the gold you steal—especially if you can share what you create.
The Bakery Dragon is available since October 01, 2024.
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
Hardcover| Pages: 48
ISBN: 9780593710968
Finally, we get to a graphic novel and a middle-grade novel.
Drawn Onward by Daniel Nayeri (Author) Matt Rockefeller (Illustrator)
This graphic novel relies heavily on imagery with sparse vocabulary throughout. It is a journey to grief and back, in an interesting fantasy take.
A young boy whose mother has passed feels inconsolable.
When he runs into the dark forest, he has one question: “Mom, were you glad you were mom?” he faces different fantasy foes and stumbles down through different landscapes until he can travel through time and reconnect with his mom.
He will then return home, knowing he will never be truly alone.
Drawn Onward is available since October 08, 2024.
Publisher: Harperalley
Hardcover| Pages: 40
ISBN: 9780063277168
Deer Run Home by Ann Clare Lezotte (Author)
This new style of rhyme novels relies heavily on beauty. Efie loves beautiful words and discover her talent as a poet, even though she was born deaf.
Together with her older sister, Deja, they have recently moved into their father’s trailer after an incident at their mom’s house. Daddy barely communicates with Effie and does not care to inquire why they are living with him at the trailer again.
Her ASL teacher does care and has questions. She notices many things: her hunger, her poorly maintained clothes, and the violence. So she will ask for her trust and then, for her custody. The novel covers Efie’s thoughts throughout the trial.
Can people believe Efie, even though she cannot speak through her voice? What if her voice can be found, in different ways, with trust and care? The feelings Efie has are very complicated as she feels anxious all the time, so Golden Eyes, the deer she sees through her window, is a living thing she wants to protect as well, always at risk, ready to flee, perhaps she identifies with that feeling of vulnerability all of the time.
Deer Run Home is available since October 01, 2024
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Hardcover| Pages: 224
ISBN: 9781339021904
