The picture book My Book and Me by Linda Sue Park (illustrated by Chris Raschka; Red Comet Press, 2024) is a poem championing a child’s favorite book. It’s told with a first person child’s voice and, with Raschka’s distinct and unique, almost childlike, illustrations, it becomes universal with many children sharing their thoughts about their

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Africana: An Encyclopedia of an Amazing Continent by Kim Chakanesta, illustrated by Alabi Mayowa (Quarto Publishing, 2022) is an invaluable new volume for young people that captures basics about the history, landscapes, people, and cultures throughout the regions in Africa. Africa is a giant continent, so obviously one volume will never be enough. Africana provides

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My Family Tree and Me by Dušan Petričić (Kids Can Press, April 2015) has zany illustrations and a creative twist on the entire “family tree” metaphor for family history. The colorful family tree the author has illustrated represents people back to his great-great-grandfather on both sides. One side of the book portrays his father’s family, and

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Knees by Vanita Oelschlager (Vanita Books, 2012) and Wings by Christopher Meyer (Scholastic Press, 2000) are two middle-grade books about differences and coming to accept being different. Knees is told from the perspective of a young boy learning to deal with his dyslexia. Wings is told from the perspective of a girl who observes the new boy in town,

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Another Greg Foley written and illustrated winner is Purple Little Bird (2011, Balzer + Bray). In this story, Purple Little Bird loves everything purple. One day, he feels he’s missing something and he goes on an adventure looking for what it could be. No other place he finds feels like home, but he finds what he was

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