The word "parent" is not just a noun. It's also a verb.
Billy and his Nana share a special connection. They bake together, and put on shows together. Billy’s Nana directs, and Billy and his siblings perform. But Billy’s Nana is starting to have a hard time remembering things, and Billy is worried about the performance.
Ghosts are supposed to be sheets, light as air and able to whirl and twirl and float and soar. But the little ghost who is a quilt can’t whirl or twirl at all, and when he flies, he gets very hot.
He doesn’t know why he’s a quilt. His parents are both sheets, and so are all of his friends. (His great-grandmother was a lace curtain, but that doesn’t really help cheer him up.) He feels sad and left out when his friends are zooming around and he can’t keep up.
Using simple, exaggerated drawings and clear, unembellished writing, Hernandez tells the stories of: a kitchen maid v. a seven headed dragon; a woman who marries a mouse; and a slacker who has leaf cutter ants do all his work.
Spells and activities include Best Friends Forever Spell, Jump Rope Protection Spell, Get Well Soon Elixir, Blanket Fort Magical Fortress Spell, How to Make a Magical Fairy Garden, and Mermaid Bath Spell.
In her book, The Heart of Mi Familia, Lara seamlessly weaves a story of what it is like to be not only bilingual, but also bicultural, and she does so in a sweet story of a little girl that effortlessly moves between two cultures.
This book is visually stunning, as should be expected from Love. There is enough detail in her gorgeously rendered pages to get swept away in the melodies of her drawings. There is a grace to her artwork that draws beauty from the line between detail and abstraction. No finer example is found than the “mermaid tree” where our pair are ultimately found.
Through extrapolation, Accordionly, touches upon the obstacle many children face when going to school for the first time in a new country: the inability to communicate with children who do not speak a common language.
Sili Recio’s description of how her color was used as both a source of joy and encouragement and a weapon to cause pain is both poignant and inspirational. Her message to boys and girls with skin that is “a ribbon of different shades of brown” is especially important under the current climate our country and the world is experiencing.
Unger’s straightforward prose and Velez Aguilera’s black and white illustrations present an incomprehensible subject – war – in a simple way. And although the topic is serious and scary, Davico finds solace in the embrace of his family, and we the readers do too.