Just South of Home begins as the story of mismatched cousins who must spend a summer together. Then the narrative takes an unexpected turn.

​Sarah and her brother Ellis live in a small Georgia community. Everyone knows everyone and everyone's business. Sarah’s grandmother, always referred to as Mrs. Greene, is a Church Deaconess Board member. She strictly enforces “the rules” and bakes the best red velvet cake.

This summer Ellis and Sarah won’t need to spend their days living under Mrs. Greene’s rigid rules. Mama trusts the two to be on their own while their parents are at work. Then a complication arises. Cousin Jamie comes to stay with them and she's not happy about living in a provincial southern town. Sarah is worried and with good reason. Jamie has "sticky fingers" and a knack for getting into trouble. 

Mae and Hugo create a documentary, interviewing the train’s passengers and recording each individual’s perspectives on love.
A charming romance filled with humor, heartbreak, and transcontinental travel.

Norris Kaplan, a black French-Canadian leaves all that is familiar and heads to the weird world of high school in Austin, Texas. The school’s counselor offers him a blank notebook. He decides to create a field guide, documenting high school life. He catalogs cheerleaders, athletes, and loners with biting insight, Kaplan carries the diary with him everywhere, skewering his classmates with his wit. Then he makes the mistake of showing his diary to a student. Mistake. Bad mistake.

Norris realizes that several of his initial assessments are not only inaccurate, but cruel. The cheerleader is more than a “laboratory engineered little bag of evil.”
The tall rich kid who wants to play ice hockey has a pain-filled history.
​Norris has misjudged his classmates. It may be too late to repair the damage that his notebook has caused.

​Lucy Everhart lives in a small town on the Massachusetts Coast. Her father is a member of the Salem Police dive team. Her mother, a marine biologist with a special interest in sharks died five years ago of a brain aneurysm. Lucy and her next-door neighbor Fred are inseparable companions. Recently they undertook a monumental summer project: creating a field guide to document Rockport animals. Fred, the detail-oriented science nerd writes the copy. Lucy illustrates.
A shark is caught off the coast and brought ashore. Lucy is baffled and intrigued. She wants to learn more about sharks in order to precisely enter the fish into the field guide.
 Without warning, Fred dies in a tragic drowning accident.
Lucy’s narrative is raw, painful, and honest.  Her struggles to make sense of the deaths of her friend and her mother are revealed in simple details. Her voice is one of wonder, hope and small moments of joy.

California surfer Trot spends her summer days with Cap’n Bill, a one-eyed rescue cat wearing a tiny red life vest who joins her on the surfboard and her Vietnamese grandfather who is in the early stages of dementia and sometimes wanders off.  

One day Trot and Cap'n Bill sneak away to catch a big wave. Her board capsizes, sending them into a magical world in the briny deep. When sea serpents threaten a bevy of lovely sea sirens, Cap'n Bill lashes out, sending away the serpents.

In gratitude, the seahorse-riding sirens give Trot and her cat the ability to breathe underwater and transport the duo back to their mother Queen Aquareine and her opulent kingdom, or more accurately, queendom. They are honored with a lavish celebration.

A special guest arrives for the festivities: grandpa!  He slipped into the ocean and wandered into this enchanted aquatic paradise. ​

Inspired by L. Frank Baum’s The Sea Fairies as well as Vietnamese folktales and fairy tales, Amy Chu has fashioned a remarkable comic. She breathes life into the story with imaginative characters and an interesting plot twist.  Inclusion of Vietnamese dialog and folktale elements enrich this sumptuous tale.

Janet K. Lee's art is stunning.  Innovative layout with full pages, insets, circles and angular lines burst beyond the confines of traditional rectangular panel configuration. Her art nouveau style is well suited to the story, giving it a classic feel. The gorgeous aqua-rich color palette and settings are magical. 

Recent children's nonfiction has taken a quantum leap forward. Gone are the didactic, textbook-style approaches to informational books, Today young readers are treated to interesting information in a variety of print formats. 

Hey, Water! is a stellar example of this current evolution in nonfiction. Portis has created a picture book that combines striking images, carefully selected text, and accurate information.

The author employs an unusual literary device. Little Zoe, enjoying a bath, considers her surroundings and speaks directly to water, an everyday friend. Zoe itemizes her ongoing experiences with water and considers the properties of this essential substance.

The Line Tender is a book of many things: A moving recital of the stages of grief. Fascinating glimpse into the world of sharks and marine ecosystems.  ​Description of a friendship which may be something more. Above all, it's story of a girl who discovers a part of herself that she never expected to find.

Lucy Everhart lives in a small town on the Massachusetts Coast. Her father is a member of the Salem Police dive team. Her mother, a marine biologist with a special interest in sharks died five years ago of a brain aneurysm. Lucy and her next-door neighbor Fred are inseparable companions. Recently they undertook a monumental summer project: creating a field guide to document Rockport animals. Fred, the detail-oriented science nerd writes the copy. Lucy illustrates.

 Without warning, Fred dies in a tragic drowning accident.

Lucy’s narrative is raw, painful, and honest.  Her struggles to make sense of the deaths of her friend and her mother are revealed in simple details. Her voice is one of wonder, hope and small moments of joy.

Award-winning author/illustrator Vera Brosgol has a unique approach to this concept. The Little Guys are acorns, as observed from a variety of perspectives. The story begins with an aerial view of an island with several microscopic dots. Subsequent pages reveal that the tiny specks are a cluster of acorns.

These nuts may be diminutive in appearance, but they have a mega-sized attitude. They proudly proclaim, as a collective force, they wield considerable power. ​​They are fearless:  scaling heights, moving what should be immovable, taking what they need. They are unstoppable.

Nick Dyer celebrates the often the overlooked and under-appreciated. Meet a girl, exploring her world and marveling at small things that can potentially have long-lasting ramifications.

Readers will observe that initial pages present a background that is slightly blurry.

Looking all around, she expands her search to include looking underwater as well as gazing up to the skies. 

Pousette's mixed media illustrations have a dimensional quality. Collages of cut paper lacy-leaf trees,  geese in flight, and tall blooms seem to pop off the page. ​A gatefold featuring fawns resting under a tree with a couple of bird nests transitions into mature deer standing under a massive tree that shelters several types of animals.

The beauty of Little Things is in the details.

It begins with a bully, a school locker, and a chicken. Oh. There’s one more thing...a hole in the universe. From the opening scene with a chicken in a school locker, Carlos Hernandez had me hooked.

He will need all these when he matches wits with a no nonsense principal, the school bully, and student council/ school newspaper editor Gabi Reál.

Sal has Type I diabetes, which he handles matter-of-factly. It's part of his life and he is conscious of the importance of caring for himself, but he doesn't allow the condition to limit him.

Zuri is preparing for a special day and wants to have the perfect hairstyle. Daddy is napping. She reasons that he deserves a rest and decides that she can handle styling detail. The task becomes more challenging than she envisioned.

Sequestered on a bathroom stool, she searches her tablet for hairstyle inspiration. When the tablet clatters to the tile floor, dad wakes up and comes to investigate.

He lovingly offers to help Zuri. "It'll be a piece of cake." Soon it is evident that this project is more difficult than he thought. Readers have the mirror’s perspective, viewing the reflected image of Daddy's repeated attempts at a variety of creative styles.

While this is his first picture book, Cherry is a well-known personality. He transitioned from career as an NFL wide receiver to director of music videos and filmmaker.
Hair Love is based on Cherry's direction of an animated short film.

Have you picked up a book and without cracking it open, knew that it was going to be something extraordinary? That was my initial response to We Are the Change: Words of Inspiration from Civil Rights Leaders.
​The case features embossed lettering  and Dan Santat's illustration of a John Lewis quote.

Sixteen remarkable artists lend their talents to this project. Each illustrator selected a  a Civil Rights leader's inspirational words. Art is reflective of the message and unique to the artist's style.  Each illustrator's personal consideration of the quotation is included.  Images and text are compelling and profoundly moving. 

The volume, inspired by the work of the American Civil Liberties Union, echoes a commitment to human rights. Harry Belafonte offers a thoughtful introduction.

Barack Obama and "We are the change"

Looking for opportunities to be involved in meaningful change? Try this site.

The powerhouse duo that created the 2018 Boston Globe-Horn Award winning Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide, are back.  Quintero and Peña capture the wonder of childhood, family, and community with this picture book. 

Beginning with the cover, readers come along on this joyful ride. Eyes closed, wind-whipped ponytail, hands securely grasping her strong Papi, little unicorn-helmeted Daisy exudes the exhilarating thrill of motorcycle travel.  Papi gives his daughter a tender glance as they ride together.

My Papi Has a Motorcycle is awash ​with tender moments and heartfelt nostalgia.

Sensory imagery is an integral part of the narrative. Papi smells like " a hard day at work."  His hands feel like "all the love he has the trouble saying."

There are visual treasures to be discovered and savored on each page. The title page features Daisy, holding a unicorn aloft on a toy motorcycle, dreams soaring. Our little protagonist whiles away the hours until her father returns with a Lowriders book.  An apt nod to the lowrider culture and specifically the Cathy Camper Raul III series.