This book is a celebration of creativity when the narrator imagines what life would be like as a dog. It’s a delightful romp as well as a display of acceptance of other ideas.
If We Were Dogs by Sophie Blackall, (List Price: $18.99, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 9780316581721, September 2025)
Reviewed by Rae Ann Parker, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee
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Eleanor loves the wild outdoors. When she invites the wild inside, she spins and leaps like the animals outside. This beautiful picture book inspires imagination.
The Wildest Thing by Emily Winfield Martin, (List Price: $19.99, Random House Books for Young Readers, 9798217023981, January 2026)
Reviewed by Rae Ann Parker, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee
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Rita is really, really bored. When her many boredom-fighting tactics don’t work (eating, stretching, jumping up and down in front of a mirror, etc.), she gets lost in her boundless imagination! I love a book about boredom with no mention of technology, and the illustrations are dramatic and amazing! Great for kids ages 4 to 8 who struggle with boredom and need a creative boost. It’s also hilarious and Rita is very relatable, rendered perfectly in various states of despair.
Bored by Felicita Sala, (List Price: $18.99, Neal Porter Books, 9780823461141, January 2026)
Reviewed by Julia Lewis, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia
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I love this celebration of forts, the ones found in nature, to the ones you can build for yourself. Forts are for gathering with friends or being alone in this delightful picture book.
Forts by Katie Venit, (List Price: $18.99, Viking Books for Young Readers, 9780593466155, July 2025)
Reviewed by Rae Ann Parker, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee
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A fantastical bedtime story of a young boy and a blue heron. It is simple, whimsical and comforting as we get to see this pair travel, separate, but remain connected.
Blue by Suzanne Kaufman, (List Price: $18.99, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 9780316311663, June 2025)
Reviewed by Morgan DePerno, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
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The Sato the Rabbit books are pure dreamy playful magic. Through gorgeous vivid spreads, this book makes me want to wake up early, live in a lighthouse, drink sparkles, and let my imagination dance.
Sato the Rabbit, Morning Light by Yuki Ainoya, (List Price: $17.95, Enchanted Lion, 9781592704392, May 2025)
Reviewed by Julie Jarema, Hub City Bookshop in Spartanburg, South Carolina
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A beautiful story about a child’s imagination. I loved the illustrations and the way this story felt like a classic from my childhood. The subtle attention to generational family members is of of my favorite reminders for young readers.
Sunday by Marcelo Tolentino, (List Price: $18.95, Blue Dot Kids Press, 9798989858811, January 2025)
Reviewed by Morgan DePerno, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
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I can’t wait to share Good Golden Sun at storytime for the first days of summer or bright sunny days! Brendan Wenzel has a talent for creating new verses that roll off the tongue like classic nursery rhymes. And it’s always wonderful to have a new book full of his gorgeous illustrations to share with readers!
Good Golden Sun by Brendan Wenzel, (List Price: $19.99, Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 9780316512633, February 2025)
Reviewed by Johanna Albrecht, McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro, North Carolina
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Everything Jon Klassen writes has me hypnotized (not to mention my 4-year-old). This one has even more eyes in it than usual!
Your Forest by Jon Klassen, (List Price: $8.99, Candlewick, 9781536230833, February 2025)
Reviewed by Doron Klemer, Octavia Books in New Orleans, Louisiana
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Every neighborhood needs a girl like Millie in Christy Mandin’s Millie Fleur’s Poison Garden. This adorable book has a fun storyline, an important message to be yourself no matter what they say, as well as, great illustrations. Check out Millie’s unique and yes, somewhat creepy garden, and you just might find yourself starting a trend in your own community!
Millie Fleur’s Poison Garden by Christy Mandin, (List Price: $18.99, Orchard Books, 9781339023274, July 2024)
Reviewed by Barb Rascon, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina
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Inspired by a real-life poison garden in England, this adorable picture book is full of fun, detailed illustrations and highlights the importance of being yourself.
Millie Fleur’s Poison Garden by Christy Mandin, (List Price: $18.99, Orchard Books, 9781339023274, July 2024)
Reviewed by Jeannine Sons, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky
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Perfect lawns with their manicured grass and neat hedges are SO 2020. Wilding is IN and every neighborhood needs a weird wild little garden like Mille Fleur’s. Share this delightful little gem with the weirdest and wildest kid in your world.
Millie Fleur’s Poison Garden by Christy Mandin, (List Price: $18.99, Cartwheel Books, 9781339023274, July 2024)
Reviewed by Angie Tally, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina
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Like many of my stories, Millie Fleur’s Poison Garden started with something I read about that made my brain light up – a real life poison garden in England! You see, I myself am wonderfully weird and a poison garden would’ve been just the kind of place I would’ve wanted to visit as a child. From a very early age I was multi-passionate, interested in all manner of things. But my unquenchable curiosity and varied interests often made me feel like I didn’t quite fit into any one box. And being curious and questioning sometimes put me at odds with the grown-ups in my life. I wasn’t satisfied with “because it’s always been that way” or “because I said so.” And I especially wasn’t interested in the words “you can’t.” In that way, Millie Fleur and I are alike.
― Christy Mandin, Letter to booksellers
What booksellers are saying about Millie Fleur’s Poison Garden
About Christy Mandin
Christy Mandin is the author and illustrator of multiple picture books. She’s grown many interesting plants in her garden over the years but, so far, none with teeth or tentacles. She currently lives in Florida with her husband and four children. Visit Christy online at christymandin.com.
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Just below the canopy built on sticks and stilts, thats where you’ll find treehouse town With sunset lookout towers, nooks for books, and soft willow tree beds treehouse town has something for everyone. Snuggle up, with a sweet story and illustrations that have stories of their own, this one is the perfect read-together.
Treehouse Town by Gideon Sterer, (List Price: $18.99, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 9780316592628, February 2024)
Reviewed by Angie Tally, The Country Bookshop in Raeford, North Carolina
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By that time (middle school), I had already discovered poetry, but [was also] reading rap lyrics at home and making the connection. I’m figuring out very young that these things are very much the same, and they’re being talked about differently and they’re being contextualized differently and they’re being sensationalized in different ways. But as far as I’m concerned, in my 10-year-old brain, these things are exactly the same. Tupac’s “Dear Mama” and Langston Hughes’ “Mother to Son” could very well be a response to the other.
You start digging through Langston Hughes’s work, and you realize, man, this is the best way to begin a life in letters. To write something that feels simple, one must be extraordinarily talented. On the totem of my ancestors, I choose for him to be there.
― Jason Reynolds, Interview, People Magazine
What booksellers are saying about There Was a Party for Langston
About Jason Reynolds
Jason Reynolds is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, a Newbery Award Honoree, a Printz Award Honoree, a two-time National Book Award finalist, a Kirkus Award winner, a UK Carnegie Medal winner, a two-time Walter Dean Myers Award winner, an NAACP Image Award Winner, an Odyssey Award Winner and two-time honoree, the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors, and the Margaret A. Edwards Award. He was also the 2020–2022 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. His many books include All American Boys (cowritten with Brendan Kiely); When I Was the Greatest; The Boy in the Black Suit; Stamped; As Brave as You; For Every One; the Track series (Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu); Look Both Ways; Stuntboy, in the Meantime; Ain’t Burned All the Bright (recipient of the Caldecott Honor) and My Name Is Jason. Mine Too. (both cowritten with Jason Griffin); and Long Way Down, which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Honor. He lives in Washington, DC. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.
Jerome Pumphrey is a designer, illustrator, and writer. His work includes It’s a Sign!, Somewhere in the Bayou, The Old Boat, and The Old Truck, which received seven starred reviews, was named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, and received the Ezra Jack Keats Writer Award Honor—all of which he created with his brother Jarrett. They also illustrated Jason Reynolds’s There Was a Party for Langston. Jerome works as a graphic designer at The Walt Disney Company. He lives in Texas.
Jarrett Pumphrey is an award-winning author-illustrator who makes books for kids with his brother, Jerome. Their books include It’s a Sign!, Somewhere in the Bayou, The Old Boat, and The Old Truck, which received seven starred reviews, was named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, and received the Ezra Jack Keats Writer Award Honor. They also illustrated Jason Reynolds’s There Was a Party for Langston. Jarrett lives near Austin, Texas.
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