Otis & Peanut: Forever and Ever

Words by Naseem Hrab

Drawings by Kelly Collier

Owlkids Books

978-1-77147-497-9

80 pp.

Ages 6-8

April 2024 

 

Like the classic early readers about Frog and Toad, Otis and Peanut have many stories to tell. The unlikely friendship of the long-haired guinea pig (Otis) and the naked mole rat (Peanut) is fodder for three more stories in Otis & Peanut: Forever and Ever that cover everything from cake to memories, gardening and absent sisters.

From Otis & Peanut: Forever and Ever, written by Naseem Hrab, illustrated by Kelly Collier

In the story titled "The Cake," Peanut surprises Otis with a luscious three-layer strawberry cake based on his sister Pearl's recipe. Though Peanut wants to dig in, Otis wonders what they are celebrating. Apparently, Peanut's answer of "celebrating cake with cake" doesn't cut it and is determined to save it for a special occasion. But would there ever be a good enough reason to eat cake?

From Otis & Peanut: Forever and Ever, written by Naseem Hrab, illustrated by Kelly Collier

The second story, "The Dream," has Peanut at home enjoying a breakfast of toast and jam when he discovers his last jar of strawberry jam made by Pearl. After eating, he is inspired to plant some strawberry seeds his sister had given him. After watching some kids play in the sprinkler and dreaming of when he and Pearl did the same, Peanut retrieves his own sprinkler to water his garden but to also reminisce and enjoy.

"The Collection" is Naseem Hrab's final story for Otis & Peanut: Forever and Ever, and says more about memories than the earlier chapters. While Peanut grieves the loss of his sister Pearl and finds himself remembering her in everything from baking to eating and playing, it is Otis who helps him to see the value in keeping memories as tangible objects. Otis himself keeps scrapbooks of memories and demonstrates to Peanut that, no matter how important the memories are, sometimes you can forget them. So, Peanut finds a way to keep his own memories, both happy and sad, safe and make new memories with his friend.

From Otis & Peanut: Forever and Ever, written by Naseem Hrab, illustrated by Kelly Collier

There is a gentleness to Naseem Hrab's stories of Otis and Peanut that invites young readers to see their own lives within the stories of the guinea pig and the mole rat. Children will be familiar with celebrating with cakes, planting a garden, playing in a sprinkler, and keeping bits and bobs of photos, ticket stubs, etc. as memories. They'll also know what it is to be a friend and have a friend. So, by nature of these stories, not only will they practise their reading and make connections between text and illustrations, they'll be making meaningful connections between the story and their own lives, learning about empathy, acceptance, cooperation and more.

Kelly Collier, who illustrated the first Otis & Peanut book, uses the same colour palette of turquoise and chartreuse with splashes of pink as she did in the first. It works to keep the overall effect uncomplicated but focused. Whether it's the cake or the jam and the garden or the keeping of memories, one emphasis is evident and not the background of detailed characters and settings or the jibber jabber of extraneous text. Together Kelly Collier and Naseem Hrab remember who their audience is and ensure that their reading and storytelling needs are met.

Because children have so much happening in their lives, whether it's a daily occurrence like picking clothes or reading books, or special events like a birthday party or performing at a recital, there are loads of stories that Naseem Hrab and Kelly Collier can share through Otis and Peanut. Whether it's to teach them about being a good friend, or to reflect the young lives of these readers, Otis and Peanut are there, as are we, to watch and learn. 

Otis & Peanut (2023)

Otis & Peanut: Forever and Ever (2024)

Rumie Goes Rafting

Written and illustrated by Meghan Marentette

Owlkids Books

978-1-77147-635-5

36 pp.

Ages 3-7

April 2024 

 

 

To a child, everything can become an adventure with a little imagination. But when the excitement takes over, sometimes safety is forgotten.

From Rumie Goes Rafting, written and illustrated by Meghan Marentette

Rumie roams the forest, picking up curious bits that draw his attention. There's a red string, a yellow bread clip, a spruce cone, and more that Rumie gathers in his wagon. His curiosity takes him to a stream where he plays with a twig and then a toy boat, but he is dismayed that nothing will float very far. A ladybug on a leaf gives him an idea and he suggests to his Uncle Hawthorne that they build a raft. What an idea!

From Rumie Goes Rafting, written and illustrated by Meghan Marentette

And so, the two saw and hammer and construct a beautiful raft with ribbons dangling from a mast. Uncle Hawthorne insists on a safety test run with life vests, but Rumie is so excited and even more so when the rains come in the night and swell the stream. Though he never intends to set off on their raft, Rumie gets the raft ready for testing once Uncle Hawthorne awakens. But that slow moving stream is no longer and the current grabs the raft and starts taking Rumie along for an unexpected ride.

From Rumie Goes Rafting, written and illustrated by Meghan Marentette

What begins as a new adventure in sailing becomes a dangerous excursion from which Rumie is saved by his uncle, learning that patience could have saved him from disaster.

With spring streams and rivers becoming swollen with melted snow and rainwater, Rumie Goes Rafting is a valuable cautionary tale of the unpredictability of waters. Water will always draw children with its movement and opportunity for play but without consideration of safety, it can become a danger quickly and unexpectedly. Rumie's curiosity and imagination are laudable and nurtured by his uncle. He loves the outdoors and building and collecting. But he is impetuous, as we can all be when excited about something, and it is only his uncle's quick thinking and safety measures that saved the little mouse. 

Meghan Marentette, who previously wrote The Stowaways, a middle-grade novel about a sailing family of mice, may have revisited her theme of adventurous mice in Rumie Goes Rafting but her approach is quite different here. It is different is message, in audience, and in format, and it all works. Meghan Marentette created three-dimensional scenes and characters which were photographed, giving her story rich texture and immersive illustrations. Look for the details in Uncle Hawthorne's tail, the patch in his vest, the cone on a string for a life buoy, the tiny, crocheted pillow, and a home decorated with love. (Meghan Marentette is obviously skilled in making miniature models.) Because of the realism, young children will be inspired to create their own scenes with their small stuffies, build rafts to travel in puddles, and tell stories of sailing, and maybe flying, adventures. With Rumie's imagination and curiosity, I foresee further adventures on the horizon.

From Rumie Goes Rafting, written and illustrated by Meghan Marentette

The Pig and the Dumpling

Written by Bonnie Johnstone

Illustrated by Veselina Tomova

Running the Goat, Books & Broadsides

978-1-998802081

40 pp.

Ages 4-8

March 2024 

 

In a tale from a Newfoundland outport, Bonnie Johnstone tells a story of a pig, a dumpling, and mayhem. It's a story that could only come from a small rural community in which everyone knows everyone else, and their actions are noted and intertwined for good and with misfortune.

From The Pig and the Dumpling, written by Bonnie Johnstone, illustrated by Veselina Tomova

After three fishermen tend to the garden belonging to the local convent, they are compensated with a hearty meal of stew with dumplings. As one of the men was not fond of dumplings, he tossed it towards the pig pen of Ignatius, Tulip, and their piglets. To his delight, Ignatius grabs that dumpling. To his horror, it scalds his throat and lodges there.

                                      The scalding hot lump

                                    of gluey dough

                                  plopped down

                                into his throat

                              like

                           a cork

                        in

                  a

            bottle.

In desperation, Ignatius makes a mad dash to the ocean, the ocean with icy cold water that would be sure to soothe his burning throat. But there is much activity in the outport, and it seems everyone is out and about and unknowingly in Ignatius's path. There's Tommy and Gussie who've gotten their kite stuck in Father McGettigan's rose bush. Then there's Father McGettigan and Reeni Puddicombe delivering pies for the church supper. Of course, Ignatius runs through and into Lizzie Carey's laundry hanging on the line, and, though he was able to miss the elderly Mrs. Maddigan and her cow Maude, the peddler Nellis was not as lucky. 

From The Pig and the Dumpling, written by Bonnie Johnstone, illustrated by Veselina Tomova

Ignatius's misfortune continues with more encounters with an accordion, drying fish, and a cart of kelp. And all for relief from a perilous dumpling.

Perhaps The Pig and the Dumpling is a cautionary tale about gluttony or perhaps about chewing one's food, but maybe it's just a story about a community in which everyone is an important part, from a pig at a convent's farm to the kelp farmers, children, the elderly, and everyone in between. It's a community of life and living, in which neighbours help each other, in which fish is dried and kelp is collected, and laundry is hung out to dry, and pies are made for a church supper. That little dumpling may have stoppered poor Ignatius's throat temporarily, but it gave him the opportunity to get out and interact with others in the community. His interactions may have been problematic for many, including poor Ignatius, but Bonnie Johnstone gives us a happy ending and a glimpse into a rural Newfoundland community as it may have been in the 1800s. (Bonnie Johnstone's "A Note About the Story" gives a little more background.)

From The Pig and the Dumpling, written by Bonnie Johnstone, illustrated by Veselina Tomova

Veselina Tomova's art is highly textured, not unlike the story, with acrylic brushstrokes on canvas giving movement to Ignatius's quest for cooling and chaos along that crusade. As she demonstrated in earlier books like Spirited Away: Fairy Tales of Old Newfoundland, PB's Comet and Daphne's Bees, Veselina Tomova knows how to get the atmosphere appropriate for the story, from light and airy, to dark and brooding, or silly and chaotic. With the colours, the shapes, the application of paint, Veselina Tomova gives The Pig and the Dumpling the realism with the nonsense and will have readers wondering whether there was an Ignatius to whom this really happened. With a quick visit to this outport of days gone by, they'll all know soon enough.

Sometimes I Feel Like an Oak

Written by Danielle Daniel

Illustrated by Jackie Traverse

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-698-1

32 pp.

Ages 3+

April 2024

On Earth Day, I often like to review a book that speaks to me of the natural world and particularly our relationship with the environment. Too often, it's about our negative impact on the earth which, unfortunately, has had to take the brunt of poor choices with regards to overdevelopment, pollution, and burning of fossil fuels, just to name a few. With those choices have come deforestation and loss of habitat and species diversity, and global warming. We know all that, so today let's celebrate trees and what they mean to us by luxuriating in their diversity and their power. 

From Sometimes I Feel Like an Oak, written by Danielle Daniel, illustrated by Jackie Traverse

Danielle Daniel, author of Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox (2015) and Sometimes I Feel Like a River (2023), reminds us that we are not dissimilar to the living things outside of ourselves. Trees, like us, have life, reproduce, grow and heal, survive and support. They have their own personalities–should that be phytoalities?–that reflect everything from generosity to sensitivity, daring and resilience. With each tree highlighted, Danielle Daniel offers a poem about what a child feels and how it is expressed by each type of tree.

From Sometimes I Feel Like an Oak, written by Danielle Daniel, illustrated by Jackie Traverse

The first child feels like a maple, full and generous with the sap it shares. Still in winter, another child compares themselves to a birch with its peeling bark that brings hope. As we head into spring and then summer, there are cherry trees, cedars, aspens, spruce, and willows. Coming through all the seasons Danielle Daniel ends with the redwood, the ash, tamarack, oak, and pine. 

Sometimes I feel like a pine,

calm, still and gentle.

My branches cradle fresh-fallen snow,

filling me with peace.

From Sometimes I Feel Like an Oak, written by Danielle Daniel, illustrated by Jackie Traverse

Sometimes I Feel Like an Oak may be a contemplative picture book about making connections between trees and feelings, told through verse, but it feels like literary forest bathing. (Check out some online videos for examples of this practice.) Danielle Daniel reminds us that trees are living and show us the best ways we can live, by being courageous and peaceful, optimistic and strong. She speaks of her Algonquin ancestors who appreciated trees as "sentient beings with spirits who can feel things." For those who are empathetic to the feelings of non-human entities, Sometimes I Feel Like an Oak validates our connection with other living things, and perhaps even some non-living things, and Danielle Daniel shows us why we might be making those connections. (Personally, I have always felt a kinship with cedars and Danielle Daniel's poem helps me see why, especially as a child reads beneath the tree's limbs.)

 

Jackie Traverse, who is Ojibway from Lake St. Martin First Nation, uses her acrylic and gouache art to project the Indigenous backgrounds of both author and artist. There are dots that are reminiscent of beadwork, and swirls of lines hinting at a Woodland basis, but Jackie Traverse's illustrations are not wholly of any one style. Her art reflects her heritage, and that of Danielle Daniel, but it is also completely her own, blending realism with that heritage. Each tree is distinct in foliage and stature, bark and morphology, but Jackie Traverse gives us more with her children, the landscapes, and the spirit in the art.

From Sometimes I Feel Like an Oak, written by Danielle Daniel, illustrated by Jackie Traverse

On this Earth Day, let's celebrate our connections with the natural world, and particularly trees, with Danielle Daniel and Jackie Traverse's Sometimes I Feel Like an Oak. You'll feel better for having done so. 

I Am a Rock

Written by Ashley Qilavaq-Savard

Illustrated by Pelin Turgut

Inhabit Media

978-1-77227-475-2 

28 pages 

Ages 3-5

April 2024

Never has a rock been less of an insentient thing than in Ashley Qilavaq-Savard's I Am a Rock. For this child and his mother, this pet rock feels, sees, hears, and experiences all the seasons and life of an Arctic landscape, with or without its child by its side.

 

As a boy prepares for bed, a time open to great inquisition, Pauloosie asks his mother, "Anaana, what would it be like if rocks were alive?" as his adorable pet rock, Miki Rock, rests alongside him. With a playful voice and great wisdom, his mother answers him.

From I Am a Rock, written by Ashley Qilavaq-Savard, illustrated by Pelin Turgut

First, his mother tells of the rock watching as animals feed and make homes with the changing seasons. There are foxes and ptarmigan, belugas, and char. But there is more than just watching. There is also listening.

From chirps to howls to

beating hooves and squeaks,

I can hear them all.

From I Am a Rock, written by Ashley Qilavaq-Savard, illustrated by Pelin Turgut

And feeling? Miki Rock feels everything from the snow that blankets it to "the joy of the sun's warm kiss."

From I Am a Rock, written by Ashley Qilavaq-Savard, illustrated by Pelin Turgut

Finally, Miki Rock acknowledges that, though it can see, hear, and feel, it could not fly, run or walk until Pauloosie picked it up.

 

As I write this review, I hear Simon & Garfunkel's 1965 song with the same title but know their message is completely opposite to that of Ashley Qilavaq-Savard's book. While they sang of closing oneself off for protection, Ashley Qilavaq-Savard gives us a story of companionship and feeling that speaks to consciousness and awareness. Miki Rock is as sentient as we are. It may not be able to grow or to move (or can it?) but its appreciation for what goes on around it is evident. It senses warmth and cold and feels excitement and joy. It may be Pauloosie's Anaana who is giving that life to Miki Rock but, as a reader of I Am a Rock, I am convinced, as I'm sure Pauloosie is, that life exists within that rock.

 

If Ashley Qilavaq-Savard's words don't convince you, pair them with Turkish illustrator Pelin Turgut's artwork. Between Miki Rock's expressive face, which is limited to two specks for eyes and a crack for a smile, as well as orange lichen cheeks and a tuft of "hair" and landscapes of snowy mountains, frozen lakes, northern lights, and bright Arctic flora, Pelin Turgut gives us a rock that embraces its "life."

 

From I Am a Rock, written by Ashley Qilavaq-Savard, illustrated by Pelin Turgut

We may know logically that rocks don't feel anything but isn't fiction supposed to help us imagine different worlds and reach beyond the rational into something else? With the special companionship Pauloosie gets from Miki Rock, he already knows that a rock can be more than a fixed object. (A reading of I Am a Rock would be a fabulous lesson to teach the characteristics of living things.) Courtesy of his Anaana, Pauloosie now knows even more about his pet.

A Flock of Gulls, a Chorus of Frogs

Art by Roy Henry Vickers

Text by Robert "Lucky" Budd

Harbour Publishing

978-1-990776502

28 pp.

Ages 2-6

April 2024 

 

Roy Henry Vickers and Lucky Budd have taken young children on learning experiences into the natural world along the Pacific coast through their First West Coast Book series since 2017. Through colour and rhyme, shape and textured words, kids have been introduced to the concepts of the alphabet (A is for Anemone), animal sounds (Raven Squawk, Orca Squeak), numbers (One Eagle Soaring), colours (Sockeye Silver, Saltchuck Blue) and more. Now they will graduate to a higher concept, that of animal groupings, something with which many adults still struggle to name correctly. (FYI, it's a clowder of cats, and a murder of crows, just to name a few.) But Roy Henry Vickers and Lucky Budd keep us on the West Coast to revisit many animals they'd introduced in earlier books. 

From A Flock of Gulls, a Chorus of Frogs, art by Roy Henry Vickers, text by Lucky Budd

In easy rhyme, Lucky Budd gives us the terms for groups of orcas and seals, jellyfish and eagles, elk and foxes. They are animals of the air, of the water and of the land.

A jumble of jellies is called a bloom.

Shoals of dolphins zip and zoom.

The words are few, perfect for a concept book, with the grouping name in bold text for easy spotting. And yet, even with few words, Lucky Budd gives us movement and spirit. He carries us to play with the sea otters and fly with the gulls and geese. The text is truly evocative of a natural setting teeming with life, even quiet, resting life. And we learn.

From A Flock of Gulls, a Chorus of Frogs, art by Roy Henry Vickers, text by Lucky Budd

As always, it's Roy Henry Vickers's art that elevates the amazing text to the divine. With limited colours and spot-gloss in each spread, Roy Henry Vickers's takes us to a natural world of beauty and relationship, between environment and animal. His Northwest Indigenous art style is rich with formlines that give shape to heads and tails, wings and appendages. Even when those lines are at their simplest, as in the earth of foxes or the galaxy of sea stars, they hold forms that are distinct and evocative of heart.

From A Flock of Gulls, a Chorus of Frogs, art by Roy Henry Vickers, text by Lucky Budd

This may be a board book and a concept book that is aimed at our youngest children, but A Flock of Gulls, a Chorus of Frogs could more accurately be intended for all ages. Its small size may disqualify it as a coffee table book but, between the information that is relayed through simple rhyme and the expressive illustrations that exhibit page after page of incomparable art, this book could easily spark discussion and uplift a room or library beyond a lovely teaching tool.

• • • • • • •

First West Coast Book series, to date

Hello, Humpback! (2017)

One Eagle Soaring (2018)

Sockeye Silver, Saltchuck Blue (2019)

Raven Squawk, Orca Squeak (2020)

A is for Anemone (2021)

A Flock of Gulls, a Chorus of Frogs (2024)

Sydney Smith wins 2024 Hans Christian Andersen Award

On April 8, 2024 at the Bologna International Children's Book Fair, IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) announced the winners of the very prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award. This award, given biennially, to an international author and an illustrator of books for young people has never been awarded to a Canadian, until now. This year, alongside Austrian author Heinz Janisch, the award was given to Nova Scotia illustrator (and also author) Sydney Smith.

 

At CanLit for LittleCanadians, I have had the pleasure to review a great number of Sydney Smith's books, both those that he illustrated and those that he wrote and illustrated. They include:

 

Sidewalk Flowers

Written by JonArno Lawson
Illustrated by Sydney Smith
Groundwood Books
32 pp.
Ages 4-7

2015

 

Grant and Tillie Go Walking

Written by Monica Kulling
Illustrated by Sydney Smith
Groundwood Books
32 pp.
Ages 4-8

2015

 

The White Cat and the Monk

Written by JoEllen Bogart
Illustrated by Sydney Smith
Groundwood Books
32 pp.
Ages 4-8

2016 

 

Look Out for the Fitzergerald-Trouts

Written by Esta Spalding
Illustrated by Sydney Smith
Tundra
224 pp.
Ages 8-12

2016

 

Town Is by the Sea

Written by Joanne Schwartz
Illustrated by Sydney Smith
Groundwood Books
52 pp.
Ages 5-9

2017 

 

Inkling

Written by Kenneth Oppel
Illustrated by Sydney Smith
HarperCollins
256 pp.
Ages 8-12

2018

 

Small in the City

Written and illustrated by Sydney Smith
Groundwood Books
40 pp.
Ages 4-7

2019

 

 

 

My Baba's Garden

Written by Jordan Scott
Illustrated by Sydney Smith
Neal Porter Books (Holiday House)
32 pp.
Ages 4-8

2023

Do You Remember?

Written and illustrated by Sydney Smith
Groundwood Books
40 pp.
Ages 3-6

2023

 

 

 

 

 

These are only a selection of Sydney Smith's books. For a more complete listing, check out his web page at https://www.sydneydraws.ca/.

 

Also, if you'd like to read the press release from IBBY, with lovely comments about Sydney Smith's art, it is posted  here.

 

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 

Congratulations to 

Sydney Smith 

on this extraordinary recognition!

The Keeper of Stars

Written by Jennifer Harris

Illustrated by Dorothy Leung

Owlkids Books

978-1-77147-568-6

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

April 2024 

 

We know the bedtime routine. It usually includes getting washed, brushing teeth, dressing in pajamas, and the reading of stories. Milo's routine includes these but with a few extras, like tapping his dad's picture three times and then hitching a ride on a comet to help the Keeper of Stars. He'll have a busy night ahead.

From The Keeper of Stars, written by Jennifer Harris, illustrated by Dorothy Leung

What does the Keeper of Stars do? They clean up the skies, and there's a lot to clean up. There are airplane smudges, balloons, and stray feathers, but also stars that need washing and polishing. (This sweet sentiment is so reminiscent of my own father speaking about moving the clouds and shining the stars while we slept that I get a little lump in my throat.)

From The Keeper of Stars, written by Jennifer Harris, illustrated by Dorothy Leung

The Keeper of Stars, a large bear with a star patch upon its forehead, instructs Milo how to bathe the stars, even as they get ticklish, and then, watched over by owlets and bats, how to put back all those fallen stars which sailors use for navigation. It's a lovely playful time for Milo and the stars.

 

When they are finally done for the night, the Keeper of Stars and Milo sit down for a repast of herring sandwiches and cocoa before the child returns to his bed, not always remembering his nightly endeavours.

From The Keeper of Stars, written by Jennifer Harris, illustrated by Dorothy Leung

Most bedtime stories are filled with tenderness as little ones settle and a quiet descends. But Jennifer Harris's story has a special gentleness to it. Perhaps it's the solemnity with which Milo taps his father's photo beside his bed when sleep is nigh. Perhaps it's his mother's exhaustion as she maintains Milo's bedtime routines as she falls asleep as he slips away to join the Keeper of Stars. Perhaps it's the camaraderie of working alongside others to get a job done but still having time for a bit of joyous play. Perhaps it's all of those things. Reading The Keeper of Stars will leave young readers calm and intrigued, looking into the heavens for the big bear of Ursa Major and falling stars and even owls and bats in the night sky. And maybe even dreaming of their own celestial adventures.

 

Toronto's Dorothy Leung, who illustrated When the Wind Came and The Bird Feeder, uses a style of art that enhances Jennifer Harris's sensitive story. She uses pencil and gouache, as well as Photoshop, to create images that are both ni and grounded, taking readers into the heavens but from the familiarity of a child's room at bedtime. Even when juggling the stars and arranging them into messages, Milo has an earnestness about him. He is quiet and busy, doing what he must but recognizing the joy in what he is doing, for himself and others. Dorothy Leung gives him an inner serenity which, considering his focus on his father's photo, would be a challenge for many. She brings the quiet and takes away the fears of the night, through her choice of colours, the softness of her shapes, and the expressive lines of her characters, which include the stars.

 

If you have a little one who needs to be drawn gently into the world of sleep, The Keeper of Stars will do just that. It will take them in hand to dream of nightly duties by joining those who populate our heavens and add sparkle to our lives. It will help them sail into the calm of sleep and the respite of the tireless.

Group Book Launch: May 26, 2024 (Toronto, ON)

If you read my January 1st post about upcoming books, you'll know that there are hundreds of books of kidCanLit released in a 6 month period. While it's hard to get to all the launches that are set, it is far easier when multiple authors get together to launch their new books. In the spirit of cooperation, and under the umbrella of Authors' Booking Service, eight authors of picture books, and middle-grade fiction and non-fiction will be launching their new books in a special Group Book Launch.  

 

Creators who will be present are Dana L. Church, Caroline Fernandez, Deborah Kerbel, Amanda West Lewis, Monique Polak, Sade Smith, Michael F. Stewart, and Farida Zaman. These are their books:

 

Remember This: The Fascinating World of Memory (Orca Think)

Written by Monique Polak

Illustrated by Valéry Goulet

Orca Book Publishers

96 pp.

Ages 8-13

March 2024

Iggy Included

Written by Deborah Kerbel 

Scholastic Canada

240 pp.

Ages 8-12

May 2024

 

Seeking Draven

Written by Michael F. Stewart

Red Deer Press

200 pp.

Ages 9-12

April 2024

 

 

 

 

A Planet is a Poem

Written by Amanda West Lewis

Illustrated by Oliver Averill

Kids Can Press

40 pp.

Ages 8-12

May 2024

 

Asha and Baz Meet Katia Krafft

Written by Caroline Fernandez

Illustrated by Dharmali Patel

Common Deer Press

114 pp.

Ages 6-9

February 2024

 

 

 

Plague Thieves

Written by Caroline Fernandez

DCB Young Readers

208 pp.

Ages 9-12

May 2024

 

 

The Monarch Effect: Surviving Poison, Predators, and People

Written by Dana L. Church 

Scholastic Focus

320 pp.

Ages 8-12

April 2024

 

 

 

Meena Can't Wait 

Written and illustrated by Farida Zaman

Orca Book Publishers

32 pp.

Ages 6-8

March 2024

 

 

 

And the launch?  Here are its details:

Sunday, May 26th, 2024

2-3 PM (EST)

at

Toronto Public Library

Northern District Branch

Gwen Liu Meeting Room

40 Orchard View Blvd.

Toronto, ON

Get this free, family-friendly event into your calendar now. It's a great opportunity to chat with creators of kidCanLit and get autographed books for all your young readers.