- 3 days ago
The Collaboration That Created Winnie-the-Pooh
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Henry Holt and Company
(pub. 3.31.2026)
48 pages
Ages 4-8
Author: Annette Bay Pimentel
Illustrator: Faith Pray
Character: Winnie-the-Pooh collaborators
Overview:
" How a Bear Became a Book tells the story of how writer, illustrator, and editor came together to craft Pooh's first adventure. But deeper than that, this book introduces our youngest readers to how stories begin and where they can go. As Pooh's voice enters the text, he slowly comes to life in the art."
Tantalizing taste:
"You started with an idea.
And ideas that you think ...
become stories you tell which...
become books everyone can read."
I see I'm made of
words. But how will I
ever become a book?
That's quite a story! Let me show you ...
Alan Alexander Milne was an author. He wrote stories.
One day he had an idea and wrote down some words about a bear.
A bear?! Where?
Oh. Me!
The words lingered on the page ... waiting.
Waiting, waiting, waiting.
Wait!
What am I
waiting for?
Waiting for readers' eyes, of course.
For people to read you alive..."
And something more: Annette Bay Pimentel shared in In Which We Meet the Author: "I grew up with tattered paperback copies of Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner (which I loved) but didn't encounter When We Were Very Young until I met my father-in-law. In August 1925, when he was five years old, he received a present. A family friend in London had mailed all the way to Oakland, California, a copy of the hottest book in the bookstore - Alan and Ernest's book of poetry... Today it sits on my bookshelf (even more bedraggled than when I first met it). The characters inside, including Mr. Edward Bear, are now delighting the fourth generation of our family."
- 6 days ago
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Red Comet Press
(pub. 3.11.2026)
48 pages
Ages 7 -11
Author: Mia Wenjen
Illustrator: Violeta Encarnación
Characters: Two girls. Eighty years apart.
One from a Japanese internment camp.
One as a contemporary U.S. migrant.
Overview:
" Barbed Wire Between Us is a powerful reverso poem that tells two deeply resonant stories across time. It begins with a Japanese American girl sent to an internment camp in Oklahoma during World War II. Read in reverse, it reveals the journey of a Latina girl detained in the very same camp decades later, during the U.S. policy of migrant family separation."
Tantalizing taste:
"In this land of promise, we hoped to find a place to belong.
To our surprise, we were unjustly imprisoned.
We came with only what we could carry.
...
To our surprise, we were unjustly imprisoned.
We came with only what we could carry.
In this land of promise, we hoped to find a place to belong."
And something more: The Setting in the Back Matter explains: "Set in Fort Sill, north of Lawton and about eighty-five miles southwest of Oklahoma City, this army base served as one of more than seventy internment camps, housing approximately seven hundred Japanese Americans during World War II.
Starting in 2014, Fort Sill served as an immigrant detention center for children. It is this parallel that serves as the setting for this book."
Mia Wenjen shared in the Author's Note: "My mother was born in San Francisco's Japantown, making her and her siblings US citizens. Her parents emigrated from Hiroshima, Japan. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japanese Americans were forced into prison camps known as internment camps. My mother and her family were fortunate. They had relatives living in a remote part of Utah and relocated there. Still, life was hard. For more than four years, they lived in a tent and worked as farm laborers. My mother rarely talked about her years in Utah. I only remember her saying that there were times that her family would joke that they would have been better off at a concentration camp."
The True Story of Maria Pepe
and her Battle to Play Ball
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Christy Ottaviano Books
(Little Brown and Company)
(pub. 3.3.2026)
48 pages
Ages 6 - 8
Author: Maria Pepe & Jean L.S. Patrick
Illustrator: Sarah Green
Character: Maria Pepe
Overview:
" Maria Pepe loved baseball. When Little League formed in her hometown in 1972, she was eager to prove herself as a competitor. There was only one problem: Little League was not open to girl players. This didn’t stop Maria. She took her glove and joined her friends, Nicky and Louie, at tryouts. She could hit, pitch, and catch as good as any of the boys—better than many, even, and it was no surprise that Maria made the team. Little did she know, she would make history when the Little League officials refused to let her play because she was a girl."
Tantalizing taste:
"On November 7, 1973, hearing officer Sylvia Pressler announced her decision.
Girls must be allowed to participate in Little League.
"The institution of Little League is as American as the hot dog and apple pie,' she stated. 'There's no reason why that part of Americana should be withheld from girls.'"
And something more: Note from Maria Pepe shares: "My personal experience with discrimination at such a young age did not deter me from playing sports... Participating in sports helped me both professionally and personally to appreciate the importance of teamwork, winning and losing, and so much more. These are the values that Little League has as its mission...
"It has been over fifty years since I stepped onto the pitcher's mound in Hoboken and the 1974 court ruling that followed, and I have come full circle... I still live in Hoboken, where the batting cages at the Little League field are named after me. Currently, I dedicate my time and support to encouraging girls to follow their passions and believe in themselves. The best part of all is the privilege of watching girls play baseball and participate in the sport I love."
