Published by Dial Books

Summary:  The expression “Hands Up!”, sometimes used by Black Lives Matter protesters, is seen through the lens of a young black girl’s experiences.  Starting as a toddler, she lifts her hands to greet the sun or to help her parents dress her. As she grows, she raises her hands to show she has the answer, to reach books on a high shelf, and to dance.  Still later, her hands are up in worship and in basketball…and to hoist the  trophy over her head at the end of the game. The last page shows her as an adult, marching with others, her hands up to show her sign reading “Lift Every Voice.”  Includes notes from the author and illustrator about their inspirations for creating this book. 32 pages; ages 4-8.

Pros:  This empowering picture book transforms an expression that sometimes has connotations of anger or hopelessness into one filled with power and connection.  

Cons:  The librarian who put the adventure books on the top shelf should consider making the collection more accessible.  

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Published by Neal Porter Books

Summary:  The new babysitter takes a little getting used to, but after the two kids adjust to her alien ways, they think she’s the greatest.  The pictures tell the story: while the babysitter performs mundane tasks like helping with tooth-brushing and singing a lullaby, the illustrations show a magical loop of toothpaste traveling to the brushes and the children floating up the stairs to the song.  When the parents go out the next Friday night, the children send their teenage babysitter packing and call up the babysitter from another planet. This time, she bring some friends for a groovy intergalactic party.  32 pages; ages 3-6.

Pros:  Readers will be clamoring for their own alien babysitter after seeing the fun these two children have.  Their house looks like it was designed by Mike Brady and furnished by Ward and June Cleaver; parents will enjoy the retro styles.  

Cons:  For some reason, this felt to me like it should have been told with rhyming text.

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Published by Lee and Low Books

Summary:  A young girl talks about the different women in her life–her baker grandmother, doctor mother, artist aunt, and fashionista older sister–and how each one has a distinctive way of wearing her hijab.  Her mother tucks hers inside her white coat, while her aunt wears hers piled up high and pinned with a jewel. At home, each woman removes her head scarf, and the girl comments on the different hairstyles as well.  She usually doesn’t wear a hijab, but enjoys trying one on occasionally. Includes a note at the end entitled “About the Hijab” that gives more information about the role it plays in the lives of Muslim women, and the different options to wear it that women have.  32 pages; ages 4-8.

Pros:  The rhyming text and cheerful illustrations will empower Muslim kids, especially girls, and will answer questions in a straightforward manner that non-Muslim children might have about the hijab.

Cons:  The author talks about how some Muslim women, like herself, only wear the hijab occasionally, such as when visiting a mosque or praying.  It would have been interesting to have a woman like that included in the story.

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Published by HMH Books for Young Readers

Summary:  Bear and Hare, the main characters from the authors’ Tops and Bottoms return in this tale.  Bear would rather sleep in his chair than work on his farm, and growls at Fox when he comes around to try to sell him a donkey egg.  Fox convinces Bear that he needs a donkey for a companion, and that the egg (which bears an uncanny resemblance to a watermelon) will hatch one if Bear takes care of it.  Bear is skeptical, but after paying Fox $20, he does his best to make sure the egg is warm and safe. Hare stops by periodically to see how things are going.  Disaster seems to strike when the egg escapes and rolls to the bottom of a hill where it splits open to reveal…watermelon.  When Bear sees the seeds, though, he gets an idea. He and Hare plant and care for a large watermelon patch, and when they ripen, Bear sells them to buy himself a donkey. Includes sidebars with interesting facts about seconds, minutes, hours, and days as the time Bear spends hatching the egg goes by.  48 pages; ages 4-8.

Pros:  Kids will love this funny story and illustrations, and will applaud Bear for his cleverness that allows him to turn the “egg” into a real donkey.

Cons:  Here’s hoping it doesn’t take another 24 years to produce book three of this series.

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Published by Dial Books

Summary:  “My heart is a window/my heart is a slide./My heart can be closed/or open up wide.”  This extended metaphor shows how a heart can grow or shrink, break or mend. The gray, black, and yellow illustrations show the same girl as she experiences ups and downs of the heart.  Readers are empowered by the final few pages to see that they have some control over the unpredictabilities of the heart: “My heart is a shadow,/a light, and a guide./Closed or open…/I get to decide.”  32 pages; ages 4-8.

Pros:  From the creator of The Book of Mistakes comes this beautiful meditation on the heart.  Kids and adults will want to savor it slowly, enjoying the illustrations and discussing the text.

Cons:  It’s probably not a book kids will gravitate toward without some adult assistance.

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Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books

Summary:  Henry is the only bunny in Rabbit Town who doesn’t like to read, preferring to play games and have real-life adventures instead.  When he finds a lost book one day, he goes looking for the owner, leaving the comforts of Rabbit Town to venture into the human realm.  Eyes glued to their electronic devices, the humans don’t see him until he finally catches the eye of a little girl on a train. The two become friends and spend the rest of the afternoon together, supervised by her oblivious phone-addicted father.  At the end of the day, Henry gives the girl the book. The final pages show Henry sharing his adventures with his siblings and the girl reading the book to her friends…which looks to be identical to the book you have just read.  32 pages; ages 4-8.

Pros:  Don’t let the seriously cute Henry in his hoodie distract you from the messages that books are good and phones are distracting.  There’s also a nice little mind-blowing touch when the lost book turns out to be The Lost Book.

Cons:  I was hoping Henry was going to embrace books and reading by the end of the story, but he didn’t, although he does tell a bedtime story “for the first time”.

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