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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Published by Harry N. Abrams

Summary:  A girl gives a tour of the seven-story building, explaining what the door of each apartment looks like and what that says about the people who live there.  The first door has lots of locks on it; it’s home to a family of thieves with a love of ancient Egyptian artifacts. The muddy footprints around the second door indicate that an old man and his pet tiger reside within.  Whether these inhabitants are real or imagined is never clear, but each is portrayed in great detail on a two-page spread. The final apartment, #7, is the girl’s home, and seems to be pretty run-of-the-mill until the last page reveals a surprising secret about her and her family.  40 pages; ages 4-8.

Pros:  Kids will want plenty of time to pore over the fantastic illustrations of each apartment.  It would be fun to tie in some sort of art project where kids could design a door and then show the room that’s hidden behind it.

Cons:  I didn’t quite get the last page–is the girl a superhero like her parents, or are they planning on making her one some day?

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