To Thine Own Self Be True: Ninja Boy's Secret by Tina Schneider

NINJA BOY DID NOT WANT TO BE A NINJA.

Sneaking invisibly through trees and over rooftops on silent cat feet and climbing craggy walls like a spider do not make him happy.

NINJA BOY WANTED TO PLAY THE VIOLIN.

He knows that he will fail his ninja exams, and he knows his father, a man who meditates so deeply that he can discern the movement of molecules, will not be pleased.

Ninja Boy does not seek the path of his father. But he does possess the courage of a ninja.

HE SPOKE FROM HIS HEART.

"I WANT TO BE A VIOLINIST."

HIS FATHER'S EYES WERE HARDER THAN GLASS.

But Ninja Boy plays from his heart, filling the house with the joy of his music. And his father smiles and asks him to play another song.

Bravely being true to yourself is the thrust of Tina Schneider's new picture book, Ninja Boy's Secret (Tuttle Publishing, 2019), an oft-repeated theme for parent-and-child differences, but seldom seen in a Japanese ninja setting. Some youngsters will indeed envy the idea of a ninja school where students learn to scale rock walls, vanish into tall trees, and stealthily shift shape into invisibility, and indeed, Tina Schneider's striking black-on-white illustrations are inviting, but so also are her swirling depictions of Ninja Boy's music filling the house with lovely sound. A story of a different drummer who, to mix a metaphor, takes the road less traveled by to be himself.

Finding Her Own Way: Ona Judge Outwits the Washingtons by Gwendolyn Hooks

As an enslaved child, Ona Judge had a better life than most. Instead of working in the fields or kitchen, she was trained by her mother, Martha Washington's seamstress, who taught her to spin, weave, sew fine dresses, and serve as a lady's maid to Mrs. Washington, wife of George Washington, first president of the United States.

As she grew up, Ona learned to make stylish gowns and style Martha Washington's hair. She cleaned her shoes and mended and ironed her clothes. The work days were long, but young Ona was with her mother each day, as they moved first to New York, the first capital, and then to the new capital of the United States, Philadelphia, where Ona saw free black people living without masters and mistresses.

But then things changed abruptly. Mrs. Washington told them that Ona was to be sent to Mrs. Washington's granddaughter, Betsey Custis, as a wedding gift.

Ona knew Betsey well from her many visits to Mount Vernon. Could she bear Betsey's harsh demands and cruel punishments?

In Philadelphia, Ona felt freedom was within reach.

And when a free black man came to clean the chimneys, Ona asked for his aid in helping her escape.

One evening in May, 1796, Ona quietly left the Presidential Mansion as the family ate supper. 

With the help of her friend, she took a ship to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she took cleaning jobs and kitchen work go support herself. Spotted by a friend of the Washington family there, Ona managed to disappear before she could be captured and returned to slavery. She met and married a free black man who worked as a sailor, and although the Washingtons sent emissaries to capture her, Ona managed to slip away each time. When asked if she had any regrets about leaving the service of the President, Ona always said,

"No. I am free,"

Gwendolyn Hooks'account of Ona Judge Staines, How Ona Judge Outwits the Washingtons: An Enslaved Woman Fights for Freedom (Encounter: Narrative Nonfiction Picture Books) (Capstone Editions, 2019) is an unusual story of an escaped slave, one who fled from the Philadelphia "White House." Ona's is a story of determination and cooperation, intelligence and good fortune, one that covers slavery in high places in the first days of the Republic. For Black History Month, author Hooks offers an author's note with additional facts about the life of Ona Judge and a bibliography for further reading for elementary school students.

Total Immersion? How Do You Take a Bath? by Kate McMullan

Animals bathe in many ways that people don't want to imitate--like squirting water through our nose or rolling in the mud without our clothes!

ELEPHANT LIFTS HIS TRUNK AND GIVES HIMSELF A SHOWER.

Okay, that sounds like fun, but for kids, it just can't be done. But then there's Pig's idea of skin care.

Wallowing in mud hour after hour?

Licking ourselves clean like a cat?

Nobody wants to do THAT!

Chickens take a bath in dust! That certainly doesn't appeal to US!

Turtle lets minnows nibble algae from his back. The very thought of that makes a kid say AACKK!

Animals have many clever ways to stay clean, but when it comes to kids, there's a better scene.

DO YOU RUN WATER IN A TUB?

DO YOU CLIMB IN AND SCRUB-A-DUB?

DO YOU DRY OFF, RUB-A-DUB?

Given the options offered in nature, most preschoolers will definitely Say YES to the Bath, in Kate McMullen's jolly prelude to the suds, How Do You Take a Bath? (Alfred A Knopf, 2018).

With funny examples of animal hygiene, McMullan's easy-going but clever little rhymes slip in an easy segue to the bedtime bath that parents will appreciate. Illustrator Sydney Hansen's soft colors and appealing animals--mother bats, hens and chicks, mama monkeys and furry babies, dogs and ducks, and happy hippos at the bird spa--give this one quite a bit of appeal to preschoolers who may not always be ready to hit the suds. And don't forget the rubber ducky!

Kate McMullan is also the celebrated co-author (with Jim McMullan) of such preschool best-sellers as I'm Dirty! (Kate and Jim Mcmullan) and I'm Brave! (Kate and Jim Mcmullan) and their many other standouts for preschoolers (see reviews here).

Yearly, Newly: A Year with Mama Earth by Rebecca Grabill

We can't feel the earth's turning, but in September the children can see it happening.

Pumpkins peek out from under
wide yellowing leaves.

Hot summer winds turn chill and one morning the first frost is on the grass.

October's pumpkins grin.

By November, squirrels are fat and caterpillars are cocooned, and then...

In December, Mama Earth dons her winter coat.

In January, Winter settles in, wearing that white coat, but not a warm one. But by February, Mother Earth whispers to wake certain shoots, pale but hopeful, and March brings the rise of sap in the trees and the descent of squirrels climbing down to ground to search for stored nuts.

And then --it's May, with all of its promises.

May perfumes Mama Earth. Ferns unfurl their lacy arms
to greet Mama's gentle friend, the sun.
And seedlings push out their first prickly leaves
ripe with promise of fat melons.

And then it's summer--a time that belongs to barefoot kids and fireflies, sudden showers and crickets and summer fun.

By August her children have soaked the sun
right into their bones.

And the earth comes 'round again, in the cycle of the seasons in Rebecca Grabill's A Year with Mama Earth (Eerdman's Books, 2019), as Mother Earth wakes and sleeps through the year's turning. Says author Grabill, "I still love the way each season sings--with its own voice--a melody anyone who listens can hear. Who is the singer? A gentle, fun-loving mother, full of surprises."

It's good to know that as we fret through the seasons, sweaty days, cold rains, falling snows, windy days, and icy puddles, the earth knows what it's doing and where it's going. Grabill's lovely and lyrical words bring the beauty and worth of each season into sharp focus, assisted by Rebecca Green's careful paintings of children and nature through the year. This exceptional book is a first purchase for schools and libraries.

Don't Make Me Laugh! The Serious Goose by Jimmy Kimmel

[DEAR PARENTS,

THIS BOOK WILL TAKE 5 MINUTES TO READ SO THAT YOU CAN GET ON WITH YOUR LIFE.]

This is a serious goose.

Do not even try to be silly around this goose.

Okay, then, go on and try! Do silly stuff. Go right ahead. Knock yourself out!

This goose will not smile if you put a chicken of her head. OR a moose... or even a pizza--topped with snails.

See? Told you. Not even a smile.

"WHAT? THINK YOU CAN?"

Here's a mirror! Practice your goofiest face. See if you can make this goose laugh so hard she starts laying eggs!

Hey! You're pretty funny! WAIT! Is that the beginning of a smile on her lips?

(What? Geese have lips?)

This serious goose is not the only one who is going to be laughing in author-illustrator Jimmy Kimmel's new kids' book, The Serious Goose (Random House, 2019). Late-night comedian Kimmel is pretty funny. And if you have any doubts, you can take the serious goose test yourself.

Herself, Divided: The Other Half of Happy by Rebecca Balcarcel

The good thing about this house is that we can sing!

A move from an apartment with thin walls is a good thing for Quijana's family, who likes to sing, sometimes loudly with Dad's guitar. And there's a swing in the back yard.

The bad thing is that she has to start seventh grade at a new school.

"Don't you speak Spanish?" a girl with glasses says.

A light-haired girl looks over. "Oh, you're one of those. You don't speak Spanish, right? A coconut!"

They speed off, leaving me in the dust. I pull out my phone and type quickly. "Coconut": slang term for a Latino who acts white."

This isn't me. My mom is white. How do I act half Latina?

Quijana feels as if she has two halves, and only one can be happy at a time. She loves her kind Guatemalan father, his jokes and songs and even his annoying quotes from Don Quixote. She loves her mom's mother, her Grandmother Miller, who texts her everyday and loves manatees and sea turtles and takes her canoeing, but she dreads the monthly awkward phone calls from her father's mother, who speaks as little English as Quijana speaks Spanish. And then her aunt and uncle move from Chicago to live near them in Dallas, and her two cousins speak Spanish like natives. She's lost at their house with everyone rattling on around her.

Luckily, she finds two friends, a boy named Jayden and a girl named Zuri,who sit down beside her in the cafeteria and share phone numbers. But despite her Latina half, Quijana is terrible in Spanish class. Still, she has English class with Jayden and Zuri, and she loves choir, so school is mostly all right. But at home her toddler brother is behaving oddly, and Quijana's Google searches leading to autism turn out to be a likely diagnosis. She quarrels with her dad and half intentionally kicks his guitar and ruins it. Nothing is easy anymore.

But then Grandmother Miller texts her that she may have cancer. Their Thanksgiving visit to her in Florida is cancelled, and Quijana discovers that her family has been planning to spend Christmas in Guatemala with her abuela.

Quijana feels pulled in two directions, half American, half Latina, half of her happy, half sad. Secretly she plans a trip alone to Grandmother Miller's at Christmas. She manages to come up with money to buy herself a bus ticket to get there, planning to leave on the late night bus on the day before her family plans to fly to Guatemala. But then Grandmother Miller dies suddenly.

And in a couple of days Quijana gets a postcard from her grandmother. She says,

"Think of me in quiet moments and you will feel my love. Do everything for joy. I love you.

And love warms Quijana, melting her selves together, in Rebecca Balcarcel's moving coming-of-age novel, The Other Half of Happy: (Middle Grade Novel for Ages 9-12, Bilingual Tween Book) (Chronicle Books, 2019). There are many ways middle graders feel divided, half looking back at childhood, half looking forward with anxiety and hope, and Quijana deals with that dichotomy, heightened by divided families but also bound by deep love. Says School Library Journal's starred review, "Balcárcel's well-rounded characters, complex friendships, and nuanced family dynamics will resonate with many readers. This is a title that will remain relevant long past its publication date. A must-have for all library collections."

The State of Matter Matters! The Luckiest Snowball by Eliot Kreloff

Izzy likes the snow. It's soft. It's cold.

You can pick it up, ... and throw it!

"WAIT! STOP!"

Izzy is immediately frozen in place.  Who is this talking to him?

It's the SNOWBALL!

"If you throw me--BLAM--it's the end of me!"

But Izzy's new friend, SNOWBALL, is fine with making snow angels, snow forts, and a snowman. The two new friends have a great snow play.

But it's getting dark and Izzy has to go home. He takes his special snowball inside to introduce him to his mom as Larry. But it's warm in there! Larry notices that he's about to undergo a strange change of state.

"I'M MELTING!"

Emergency care for melting snowballs calls for time in the freezer, where Larry finds good company among some sweet peas and cool ice cubes.

When spring comes, Izzy takes Larry outside to admire the all the fresh colors of the new season, but... and in a few minutes, Larry is... (you guessed it!)...

MELTING!

Whoops! It's back to the freezer, where Larry and the frozen asparagus spears reminisce about the growing season together. And then... it's summer, and Izzy carefully packs Larry in the cooler for an outing.

Larry enjoys the beach scene until...

HELP!

Izzy rushes Larry back to the freezer just in the nick of slush! Larry refreezes while the frozen blueberries wax sentimental about the day they were picked. And then, finally, it's fall!

Izzy takes Larry outside where the air is cool and the leaves are falling all around. But where did he go? At last the dripping Larry is found under the leaves and re-stashed in the freezer under the wing, so to speak, of a very large frozen turkey.

Then, at last it's winter again, in Eliot Kreloff's The Luckiest Snowball (Holiday House, 2019) It is time for Izzy and Larry to take sled rides together while new snowflakes fall, in Eliot Kreloff's jolly story of the seasons. Winter is where Larry belongs, but human kids get to live and have fun in all four seasons, and Larry the Unlikely playmate stars in comic illustrations of the fun of all the seasons. Author Kreloff includes a brief appendix, explaining the cycle of the seasons and the water cycle as well, from water, to snowflake, to ice to melting water again.

Been Cool? The Cool Bean by Jory John

BEANSIDE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Home of the Pods

All of a sudden, some beans are the really cool beans.

The Cool Beans are known all over school.

The rest of us are--HAS BEENS.

Oh, this Has Bean tries.

I wore sun glasses. I slicked my hair back.

But when it comes to being cool, copying the Cool Beans only makes you even more un-COOL.

And then things get worse for Has Bean. He drops his tray in the cafeteria. He falls off the slide. One day he gets caught daydreaming when the teacher calls on him. People laugh... How low can he go? He feels as limp as a canned green bean. He feels as squashed as a toddler's green peas. He feels smaller than a lentil.

But then one of the Cool Beans comes over and shows him his place on the page.

THEN SHE GAVE ME A WINK!

Just knowing someone has your back makes things cool in legume-land in Jory John's latest, The Cool Bean (Harper, 2019). Kids will readily recognize the coolness factor that begins in elementary school, giving this latest of John's little life lessons resonance with early graders. We can't all be COOL, but we can all be KIND, and with plenty of beanpod puns and Pete Oswald's comic illustrations, at least there can be peace in this pod. Kirkus Reviews says, "Cool beans, indeed!"

No Place Like Home: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball by Jeff Kinney

It all begins when the Heffley family receives a letter from a lawyer, informing them that they have been left an inheritance from Great-Aunt Reba.

Their big mistake is choosing to spend it on home improvements.

Dad wants a bigger hot tub. Greg, Manny, and Rodrick, tired of tangling legs in Dad's hot tub, vote for a backyard pool. Mom pulls rank, declaring that she's the only one who even sent Great Aunt Reba a thank you-note, and calls first dibs on a kitchen re-do. But like most improvement plans, the bigger kitchen grows exponentially into THE ADDITION.

Many mishaps ensue but at last the addition is done. But then...

The building inspector came out to check the framing of the addition. And when he DID, he found out the whole structure was too close to Mrs. Tuttle's property line by about three FEET. The whole structure had to come DOWN.

Not to be deterred, Mom, filled with House Beautiful lust, finds the perfect new place. All they have to do is repair the new hole in the wall in the old house and find a buyer for it.

What could possibly go wrong?

The hapless Heffleys find their windfall to be their downfall. They manage to find a customer for their house, but the buyer has toddlers and insists that Dad's hot tub has to go, and the construction company's crane operator manages to drop the hot tub right through the roof.

There's probably a LESSON I could learn from the whole experience... like "be happy with what you've got." But that's the kind of corny stuff they put in books for little kids.

Wrecking Ball (Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 14) (Amulet Books, 2019) is Jeff Kinney's fourteenth graphic novel about the hilarious. if unfortunate, Heffleys, and Kinney's comic characters continue to call forth the kind of belly laughs for kids and grown-ups alike that boost his books into best-selling territory.

Pair this one with Greg's, er, best friend Rowley's own book, Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson's Journal. (Abrams, 2019). Says Kirkus Reviews, "The character work is terrific. The fact that Kinney can expose new facets of his characters this deep into the series is a credit to the property . . . A pleasant twist on a sturdy franchise."

Chain Reaction! Crazy Contraptions: Rube Goldberg Machines by Laura Perdew

Have you ever watched a line of dominoes fall? Have you ever played the game Mouse Trap? Do you like to think of complex ways to accomplish simple tasks?

You might love doing Rube Goldberg-like projects!

Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist who became famous for his comic illustrations of how to do things the hard way through science. Falling lines of dominoes were just the beginning of his ideas for cartoon creation that used everything--from monkeys, shoes, birds, alarm clocks, and dogs' wagging tales to set off chain reactions ending in some small and silly tasks. Goldberg used concepts of force and gravity from physics to create comics that have made people laugh for over 100 years.

This is the time of late winter when science projects bloom in school gyms--the time of the SCIENCE FAIR--a time when vast quantities of blank tri-fold posters yawn emptily before middle graders, waiting to be filled. And into this vast void comes a phalanx of science project books.

And among this avalanche comes Laura Perdew's new Crazy Contraptions: Build Rube Goldberg Machines that Swoop, Spin, Stack, and Swivel: with Hands-On Engineering Activities (Build It Yourself) (Nomad Press, 2019), with novel and arresting ideas for real physics projects that solve problems and promise fun for the creators and laughs for their viewers. Author Perdew provides the principles and demonstrates process and product for moving projects with photographs and illustrations of inclined planes (sliding boards, toy dump truck beds, water slides), levers (windshield wipers, catapults), wheels (pizza-cutters, pottery wheels, windmills), and other simple and complex machines that come in handy when combined into a Rube Goldberg contraption to claim for your own.

Along with diagrams, drawings, and cartoons from illustrator Micah Rauch, there are many project starter suggestions for young inventors and artists. Author Perdew also includes quite an appendix, with a glossary, an excellent list of resources for videos, materials (some recyclables), and handy tools and supplies, and an complete index, with which kids can construct their own crazy contraptions.

Says School Library Journal, "A delight for all budding engineers in elementary grades who, as Perdew puts it, 'like to think of complex ways to accomplish simple tasks.'"

Sister Act! Sisters: Venus and Serena Williams by Jeanette Winter

Daddy and Mama want their two youngest girls to learn tennis.

They have dreams for their future.

Daddy and Mama even learn to play tennis so they can teach Venus and Serena to play.

Luckily the little sisters, only one year apart in age, like to play tennis. They eagerly get up early to practice before school. They don't have a posh country club, but they have the city of Compton, California's city park courts, and although they sometimes have to clear the court of trash first, they take to serving and volleying quickly.

Venus and Serena concentrate HARD.

And Serena and Venus hit HARD. They tease and taunt and teach and compete with each other.

Older boys come to jeer, but stay to cheer. These girls got game!

THWOCK!

THWANK!

And the crowds that see them play their first tournaments cheer their wins, and the trophies begin to pile up back in their house. Soon a tennis academy in Florida invites the girls to come there, and the family moves, and the plucky little sisters grow into powerful teenage stars and strong international stars with a flair for stylish tennis togs and beaded hairdos.

But through big wins, sad losses, and health problems, they keep hitting that ball and inspiring many younger players.

Jeanette Winter's new biography of the famed Williams sisters, Sisters: Venus and Serena Williams (Beach Lane Books, 2019) offers primary readers a short biography of the world's most famous tennis team that emphases the hard work they and their parents put in to make them star athletes. Winter's illustrations are big and bold and yet charming depictions of the two tennis mavens that ace the story visually for younger readers.

Says Booklist, "A great introduction to an incredible sister act."

Jeanette Winter is also the author of the noted The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq, (see review here).

John Lewis: Getting to Know the Statesman Who Marched for Civil Rights by Jehan Jones Radgowski

In 1965 John Lewis organized a peaceful protest in Selma, Alabama,... to improve voter rights. The first protest took place on March 7. John planned to march from Selma to Montgomery (the state capital). As they crossed the bridge just outside Selma. Alabama state troopers demanded they turn around. Those who did not do so were beaten by police officers. John Lewis's skull was fractured.

Journalists called it "Bloody Sunday." News stations broadcast the images around the world. People were horrified to see violence used against peaceful protesters. Bloody Sunday was a turning point in the civil rights movement. President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965.

John was born in Troy, Alabama, where he attended a two-room school for black children when he wasn't need to help on his family's farm. As he grew up, Rosa Parks' arrest led the Montgomery bus boycott. Black students led the "sit-ins" which tried to integrate eating places. As a student participated in the "Freedom Riders," who attempted to integrate public accommodations such as buses and trains. One bus was hit and by a firebomb. "Burn them alive," the attackers yelled. But the Riders were sworn to non-violence and they persisted until segregation in public facilities was made illegal by Congress.

John was willing to risk everything for equality. But it was only the beginning of his battle.

There was much more to be done. John Lewis went to college and finally was elected a congressman from Georgia in 1986, where he has served since.

George Lewis has been there through it all, and he still serves in Congress, the last surviving member of the "Big Six," civil rights leaders who worked with Martin Luther King. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011 and helped bring about the National Museum of African American History opened in 2016. Jehan Jones-Radgowski's John Lewis: Get to Know the Statesman Who Marched for Civil Rights (People You Should Know) (Capstone Books, 2019) is a brief biography of Lewis which also incorporates the significant moments in the civil rights movement. Brief and succinct, this 32-page non-fiction book covers a lot of ground in American history.  With ample historic illustrations, and names, dates and places, this entry in Capstone's People You Should Know series puts the biography of John Lewis in its historical setting, and includes a glossary, a short bibliography and list of internet sources, and an index to help young researchers in those Black History Month presentations and reports.

Friendship-Blendship? 12 Before 13 by Lisa Greenwald

Dear Ari/Arianna/Little Miss Cool Camp Girl/BFFAE,

How's camp? I still can't believe you're gone! I might never get used to it!

Sooooo, things here are fine. I've been hanging with the lunch table girls a ton. I feel like we're all really bonding! We went to the comedy night at the performing arts center. We had the best time! BTW--did you get the big P again?

I miss you more than those sparkly Mary Janes we had in fifth grade!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO,
Kaylan

Arianna is loving her first sleep-away camp, Camp Silver. Her bunkmates are like soulmates already, and she's beginning to get into the sessions on Judaism, especially since she's facing her Bat Mitzvah in the fall. There's even a cute, funny boy nicknamed Golfy who seems to like her a lot. But Kaylan is her BFF, and Ari can't help feeling a touch of jealousy thinking of Kaylan "bonding" with their lunch table girls and worrying about facing eighth grade alone if Kaylan comes to like them more than her while she's away.

And when Ari returns home, she does find it hard to get that special relationship with Kaylan back to the pre-camp level, especially since she misses her camp friends so much. She and Kaylan still work on THE LIST, thirteen things they want to achieve before their thirteenth birthdays, but Ari finds it hard to watch how much fun Kaylan is having with the lunch table girls and how hard it is to fit back into that group. Item #1 on The List is "Keep our Friendship Strong," and Arianna never dreamed that that one would be so hard.

"Let's just take a break from each other, okay?" yelled Kaylan.

I lean against the brick building and cry. I take the list out of my bag and rip it to pieces. Barely any of it even makes sense to me anymore.

I don't need to "tell a boy how I really feel." I need to tell Kaylan how I really feel.

Seventh grade means that it's not easy to mesh with two groups, where loyalty to one sometimes seems disloyalty to the other. School work is harder, and with Bat Mitzvah classes, she seems always to be rushed. But when her dad loses his job and Ari discovers that her mom is considering selling the house, she finds her emotions are torn three ways. One of the responsibilities of her Bat Mitzvah is to be a "woman in her community," and dealing with it all is making Ari realizes that her roles are changing, no matter how much she misses the security of her old life. Life was so simple back in sixth grade!

Lisa Greenwald's second book in her Friendship List series, both funny and serious, finds her two best friends turning thirteen and finding it hard to meet their own expectations, much less those of everyone else, in her Friendship List 2: 12 Before 13 (Katherine Tegen Books, 2019) narrated by Arianna. There is plenty of adolescent angst and teen drama as the two friends renegotiate their friendship and work their way toward maturity, but there is some powerful growing up going on as well. Fans of Greenwald's popular first book, Friendship List 1: 11 Before 12, written in Kaylan's voice will find this one a must-read, a moving and insightful page turner of the changing ways of being a friend, daughter, and "a woman in her community." And Greenwald's next in this series, Friendship List 3: 13 and Counting, is just out and ready for readers.

So... This Is Baby by Jimmy Fallon

Babies come with all kinds of parts.

But they all come ready for love in their hearts.

They have darling parts in all sorts of shapes.

Knees with sweet dimples and necks with cute napes.

And late-night comedian Jimmy Fallon has his third hit baby book to join his long-time best-selling Your Baby's First Word Will Be DADA and Everything Is Mama, (see reviews here) in his latest celebration of infant and the parents of same, This Is Baby (Feiwel and Friends, 2019) in which Fallon provides a rhyming catalog of each delightful little part:

THIS IS BABY'S TUMMY,
AND EACH TICKLE IS A PROBLEM.
JUST TURN BABY OVER,
AND THIS IS BABY'S BOTTOM.

From nose to toes, from top to bottom, this is another charming board book for new parents and new babies, in a series that is too much fun to miss.

The Getaway! Just in Case You Want to Fly by Julie Fogliano

FISH GOTTA SWIM, BIRDS GOTTA FLY....

And kids are also going to want to try their wings out in the world.

Just in case you want to fly

here's some wind..

and here's the sky....

Fledglings need a bit of wind beneath their wings as they work up to a solo flight. After all--"a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

But for those first short flights, there is support.

...a fork
and a dish,
and a spoon...

And with a la-la for a song and a joke for the journey, a blanket and a kiss and a spoonful of honey to sweeten the trip and--

...a map with an X to mark the spot find your way home...

... In Julia Fogliani's and Christian Robinson's new joint effort, Just In Case You Want to Fly (Neal Porter Books/Holiday House, 2019), little fledglings can look forward to flights and many happy returns and soft landings. Fogliani's rhymes are simple and rhythmic, and Caldecott Award-winning Christian Robinson's illustrations are geometrical and elemental, and yet comforting, with soaring birds to represent the journey and warm tea and a bed and blankie imprinted with items from the journey at the end, a flight to the heights that is, as Robert Frost's poem says, "good both going and coming back" to earth, "the right place for love."

A Friend Indeed: Lost and Found by JiWon Beck

An indigenous girl makes her way through the snowscape to her hole in the ice, where she catches three fish, and with them over over her shoulder, confidently heads toward home. But a blinding snowstorm suddenly blows in, and she is lost in the vast expanse of white.

Through the windblown snowflakes she spots a fisherman's igloo, but when she takes shelter inside, she sees a young polar bear has gotten there first.

But the two see themselves in the same situation. The bear is friendly, and sensing that he is hungry, she gives him her fish, and the two share her little blanket through the cold night.

When the storm ceases, she catches more fish for her friend, and as the snow begins again, he escorts her, even giving her a ride on his back until she spies her little house ahead. The two say goodbye with a nose rub and a hug, and seeing that the young bear is reunited with his mama, the girl runs toward her own mother, their front door open wide for her.

In his wordless picture book, JiWon Beck's Lost and Found (Peter Pauper Press, 2019) tells a moving story of kindnesses shared, with strikingly lovely illustrations done in the spare colors of the arctic scene, gray, white, black, and the red of the child's mittens. Telling the same timeless story of kindness between unlikely friends as Aesop's ancient fable of the lion and the mouse, Beck's tale does it without text, but with the language of beautiful artwork that speaks volumes.

Share this one in the snowy season with Matthew Cordell's 2018 Caldecott winner, Wolf in the Snow (read review here).

All Heart! Little Miss Valentine by Roger Hargreaves

Little Miss Valentine is all heart --REALLY.

LITTLE MISS VALENTINE HAD ONE DAY A YEAR WHEN SHE WAS TERRIFICALLY BUSY.

From her center of operations in Cupid's Cottage, she manages the distribution and delivery of Valentines all around the world. Santa has a sleigh, but Little Miss Valentine sails her heart-shaped hot-air balloon through the sky, dropping Valentine cards in their envelopes which always find the right mailbox as if by magic.

And her Valentines are especially designed for each individual.

LITTLE MISS SCARY'S CARD JUMPED OUT FROM THE PAGE WHEN SHE OPENED IT!

Little Miss Valentine thought hers was the best job in the whole world--but not this year!

Chaos was a real possibility. Imagine what could happen if MR. QUIET got the Valentine made for MR. NOISE?

Who you gonna call?

It's Little Miss Hug to the rescue in Roger Hargreaves' Little Miss Valentine (Mr. Men and Little Miss) (Grosset and Dunlap, 2019). With her cute red braids and her bright smile drawn by Adam Hargreaves, it looks like Little Miss Valentine and her friend will make sure that Valentines find their mailboxes again this year!

A Friend Indeed: My Friend by Elisa Amado

I knew you would be my best friend the day I came to school the first time.

Right away you understood so much about me. And I understood you.

The two girls don't look alike, but they understand each other. They are different but they learn to share everything. They are best friends, even when the other kids cannot see why.

But when one invites the other girl to have dinner with her family, it feels awkward.

I could tell you didn't like the food so much.

But that was okay. You'd never eaten our kind of food before.

And then her dad talks too loud and too much, and then he sings along with his favorite CD--way too loud.

But I could see that you were trying to understand and be really polite.

I was kind of embarrassed, but then I thought to myself, you are my best friend.

But her best friend asks to go home way too early.

And on the way to school the next morning, the girl wonders if she no longer has a best friend.

But there is someone is waiting for her in front of the school, in Elisa Amado's My Friend (Groundwood Books, 2019). Amado's story of two friends who take the first step of negotiating family differences bravely takes on a part of childhood that most kids encounter as they grow up, in which the lucky ones learn that people can be friends even when they don't share all the same things. A friend in need in a friend indeed. Artist Alfonso Ruando's realistic and detailed illustrations and sense of place ground this heartwarming story of enduring friendship.

I've Got This! I'm Brave! I'm Strong! I'm Five! by Cari Best

I've had Mama's stories and Papa's jokes and coffee kisses. It's bedtime now," they said.

But I'm not tired.

It's crunch time. It's dark in her bedroom. Mostly dark.

But this girl has power over the darkness. She's got her flashlight. She makes patterns, putting one hand over the light. She pretends it is a headlight and and lighthouse lantern.

But there are noises! A phone rings somewhere. A piano plays and a baby howls. She investigates out the window and sees what's making the noises inside her neighbors lighted windows. That's just people doing normal stuff. But what about that scary giant eye on the moon. What about the spooky shape she sees (sort of) on her bedroom wall? Should she be afraid! She looks at the moon, but it's the same old moon as always. She switches on her flashlight and sees no ghost, just her tree costume for the class program. But what's that clattery sound? Something big?

I could always call Mama. She'd come in with Papa.

But "No! I'm brave! I'm strong! I'm five!"

With her blanket protecting her and her flashlight lighting up the room, she sees it's just her cat Tuna, who has taken a clumsy leap in the dark at the stack of books on her floor.

Wait! She can read her own bedtime story until she's really sleepy! Wow!

She's five and she's got what it takes to put her own self to sleep, in Cari Best's charming story of bedtime fears overcome, I'm Brave! I'm Strong! I'm Five! (Holiday House, 2019). Being five years old is empowering, and this girl is well on her way. Author Cari Best skillfully builds a soupcon of suspense, step by step, while her plucky heroine takes care of the business of developing independence. Artist Boris Kulikov makes the most of the murky shadows and bright flashlight beams with a masterful use of nighttime colors and crosshatching in his evocative illustrations, and readers know this five-year-old has totally got this bedtime business under control.

Shadows Rising! Gloom Town by Ronald L. Smith

The town was called Gloom, which was a strange name for a town. Some said that sailors gave it the name long ago when they pulled their ships into the harbor only to be met by wind, rain, and very little sunlight.

In the midst of all this gloom there lived a boy named Rory.

Rory is too old for school and too young for a real job, but when he and his hard-working mother are threatened by the cruel Mr. Bumbailiff with the loss of their tiny house, Rory goes out into the fog to find a job to earn the rent to keep the roof over their heads. When he sees an ad for a "gentleman's valet at Foxglove Manor," he applies, even though he has no idea what a valet is.

But at Foxglove Manor, a valet does everything, all the dirty work, as well as fetching and carrying for the frightful Lord Foxglove. Still, Rory knows he must help his mother save their home, so he signs the contract, noticing as he does an inscription in fanciful script below the line for his name.

Upon Penalty of Death

It's a horrible job, but then Rory discovers that his master is a vicious shape-shifting necromancer who serves a blood-lusting goddess of evil, murmuring "I thirst. I hunger."

She is the Destroyer, Queen of Sorrow.

And only Rory, with his best friend Isabelle, a witch herself, have the knowledge and courage to save themselves and those they love... if they can.

In a time past but not yet distant, in a drear and dismal town where visiting ships stay in the harbour no longer than they must, a dark and nefarious sorcerer threatens all, even stealing the children's very shadows. Rory and Izzy, with a little help from her friends, must screw their courage to the sticking point and save their town and their people, in Ronald L. Smith's latest fantasy, Gloom Town (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Clarion, 2020), a tale told of a town than is indeed benighted by its own miasma. Middle reader fans of Ronald Smith's Coretta Scott King Award-winning Hoodoo (see my 2015 review here), will want to get their hands on this atmospheric adventure novel.