News & Reviews

Calkins Creek (Astra Books for Young Readers) (pub. 10.14.2025) 48 pages Ages 7 -10 A uthor: Erin Frankel    Illustrator: Jasu Hu C haracter: Mary Oliver O verview : " Young Mary Oliver was enthralled by nature. In the forest, she wondered about the birds and the lilies and the water in the stream—about all the things that cannot speak yet somehow spoke to Mary. She wondered, too, about poetry, about how words pieced together filled her with light and how some poems felt like

A True Story of the Black Woman Battalion of World War II A TRUE TALE WITH A C HERRY O N  T OP Harper (HarperCollins) (pub. 10.7.2025) 40 pages Ages 4 - 8 A uthor: Tonya Abari    Illustrator: Lance Evans C haracters: The Black Woman Battalion of WWII O verview : " In 1944, the United States was facing a unique wartime crisis—too much mail! Millions of letters and packages, stacked from floor to ceiling, sat unsent in cold, dark warehouses, with no one to sort through the bac

Toni Morrison's Life in Stories A TRUE TALE WITH A C HERRY O N  T OP Little, Brown Books for Readers (pub. 1.7.2025) 48 pages Ages 4 - 8 A uthor: Andrea Davis Pinkney    Illustrator: Daniel Minter C haracter: Toni Morrison O verview : " From imaginative child to visionary storyteller, Toni Morrison was a fiercely inspiring writer that helped change the world. This poetic picture book is part love letter and part biography, praising the power of this Nobel Prize winner. With i

Barbara Hillary, the First Black Woman to Reach the North and South Poles A TRUE TALE WITH A C HERRY O N  T OP Atheneum Books (Simon & Schuster) pub. 10.21.2025 40 pages Ages 4 - 8 A uthor: Deborah Blumenthal    Illustrator: Anastasia Magloire Williams C haracter: Barbara Hillary O verview : " As a young girl, Barbara Hillary imagined a life of adventure. Despite facing hardships in her childhood and illness as an adult, she never gave up on her dream: to travel the world and

André Leon Talley― A Fabulously Fashionable Fairy Tale A TRUE TALE WITH A C HERRY O N  T OP Henry Holt (MacKids) pub. 11.11.2025 56 pages Ages 4 - 8 A uthors: Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders    Illustrator: Lamont O'Neal C haracter: André Leon Talley O verview : " Growing up in the Jim Crow South wasn't easy for young André. He escaped into the glimmering worlds he discovered inside magazines like Ebony and Vogue . He fell in love with all things French, and honed

The Promise of the Packhorse Librarians A TRUE TALE WITH A C HERRY O N  T OP Union Square Kids pub. 8.12.2025 48 pages Ages 4 - 8 A uthor: Lauren H. Kerstein    Illustrator: Becca Stadtlander C haracters: Kentucky Packhorse Librarians O verview : "Following the Great Depression, literacy rates in the country had dwindled, and education and opportunities were harder to come by, especially in areas like rural Appalachia. But still, there was a dream: a vision of a nation in whi

How Ursula Marvin Mapped Moon Rocks and Meteorites A TRUE TALE WITH A C HERRY O N  T OP A Paula Wiseman Book (Simon & Schuster) pub. 10.14.2025 64 pages Ages 4 - 8 A uthor: Sandra Neil Wallace    Illustrator: Nancy Carpenter C haracter: Ursula Marvin O verview : " While attending college in the early 1940s, Ursula Marvin fell in love with geology, but when she asked her male professor about making the field her major, he tried to stop her, saying it would be a better use of

Thrilled that the esteemed Betsy Bird chose our book!! Here's her review: "Not the first Pei picture book we’ve seen but the first that focuses squarely on the construction of his work on the Louvre. It’s funny, but 2025 was a year when I was paying a lot more attention to how architects were portrayed in media. The film The Brutalist , for example, (out in 2024) was very much of the Genius Misunderstood type of take, which is a dangerous way to grapple with architecture as a

The Wondrous Tale of Joey Ramone A TRUE TALE WITH A C HERRY O N  T OP Drag City (Chicago) pub. 9.26.2025 51 pages Ages 4 - 8 A uthor: Jay Ruttenberg    Illustrator: Lucinda Schreiber C haracter: Joey Ramone O verview : " Gabba Gabba We Accept You is a children's picture book that tells the story of how a kid who was bullied and felt like a misfit grew up to become a hero to so many as lead singer of The Ramones. This story speaks to one of the greatest silent majorities in t

a story about Arnold Lobel A TRUE TALE WITH A C HERRY O N  T OP Viking Books for Young Readers (Penguin Random House) pub. 9.23.2025 40 pages Ages 4 - 8 A uthor and illustrator: Emmy Kastner C haracter: Arnold Lobel O verview : " Arnold Lobel was many things: a quiet observer, an avid reader, and the kind of man who kept a gorilla suit in his closet, just in case. Above all else, Arnold was an artist and a storyteller. And he infused pieces of himself in the characters he cre