Starred Reviews

Did you know that the earth is covered in three trillion trees? And that seven billion people weigh about the same as ten quadrillion ants? Our world is full of constantly changing numbers, from a hundred billion trillion stars in...

Spiders are creepy. Porcupines are scary. Bats are ugly. Or are they... This captivating book invites you to learn more about aweinspiring animals in the wild. After all, it’s best not to judge a beast until you understand its full,...

From National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestseller Sy Montgomery comes an ode to one of the most diverse, fascinating, and beloved species on the planet: turtles. With dazzling illustrations and emotionally engaging, fact-filled text, this picture book...

Care to meet a dunkleosteus? An apatosaurus? How about the dragonflyesque meganaura? In a collection that’s organized chronologically by epoch and is sure to intrigue everyone from armchair dino enthusiasts to budding paleontologists, David Elliott and Matthew Trueman illuminate some...

Trees are the tallest living things on Earth. But how do they grow to be so tall? Science writer Rebecca E. Hirsch presents a poetic introduction to the tree life cycle in Rise to the Sky. Accompanied by Mia Posada’s...

Kids 4 to 8 will marvel at the brightly glowing creatures and other living organisms in this stunning, poetic, and science-based exploration of bioluminescence. When it’s dark out, we need light to see. But what if your body could make...

From beloved African American folklorist Zora Neale Hurston comes a moving adaptation by National Book Award winner and #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist and Antiracist Baby, Ibram X. Kendi. Magnolia Flower follows a young Afro Indigenous girl who longs for freedom...

Orangutans are under threat from deforestation and climate change. How can people help? Through leveled text and crisp photos, this title tells readers about the threats that orangutans face and ways that humans are trying to help them survive. Special...

At the start of things, the elders say, the universe was hushed and still. The moon alone shone bright and round in the star-speckled dark of the sky. David Alvarez is one of the most extraordinary artists working today. His...

When Sharice Davids was young, she never thought she’d be in Congress. And she never thought she’d be one of the first Native American women in Congress. During her campaign, she heard from a lot of doubters. They said she...

Learn about the wild, wacky and downright disgusting ways some animals react out of fear. Are you afraid of the dark? Of getting lost? Or of something you saw in a movie? Maybe someone laughed at you for being scared...

This autobiographical picture book by the multiple Grammy Award-winning singer Roberta Flack recounts her childhood in a home surrounded by music and love: it all started with a beat-up piano that her father found in a junkyard, repaired, and painted...

Ahoy! To man a lighthouse over a century ago in America required guts, courage, and bravery. It was a job tackled by hundreds every day, many of whom . . . were not men! This true tale chronicles the amazing...

With simple, lyrical text and vibrant panoramic illustrations, this picture book explores the beauty and resources of thirteen ancestral Indigenous lands and how we all use those lands each day. Simple poetry and portrayals of children and families enjoying rivers,...

This unforgettable picture book introduces young readers to the life and work of Maya Angelou, whose words have uplifted and inspired generations of readers. The author of the celebrated autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya was the...

This stunning picture book biography of Nelson Mandela by Kadir Nelson is a receipient of the Coretta Scott King Honor award. In this lush, acclaimed book, awardwinning authorillustrator Kadir Nelson tells the story of global icon and Nobel Peace Prize...

This lyrical, empowering poem celebrates black children and seeks to inspire all young people to dream big and achieve their goals.

The story of a groundbreaking civil rights leader, John Lewis, comes to life in this compelling and beautifully told nonfiction picture book. John Lewis left a cotton farm in Alabama to join the fight for civil rights when he was...

A spectacular tour through the dwellings of twenty-seven different animals, from a hermit crab’s secondhand shell to a beaver’s lakeside dam to a comet moth’s silk cocoon. Acclaimed creator Isabelle Simler presents a poetic journey through amazing animal homes across...

Sometimes things happen by chance. A blue jay drops an acorn, a lucky acorn that happens to fall in just the right place and begins to grow. Though it begins life as a tiny part of the forest floor, the...

Your dreams can change the world! Colorful mosaics, playful flowing forms, imaginative facades—Barcelona shines with the buildings of Antoni Gaudí. How did the son of a Catalan blacksmith become a world-famous architect? The first years of Gaudí’s life were challenging....

Have you ever imagined what you might be when you grow up? When he was very young, Juan Felipe Herrera picked chamomile flowers in windy fields and let tadpoles swim across his hands in a creek. He slept outside and...

You may never have heard of a lightship. Once, lightships anchored on waters across America, on the oceans and in the Great Lakes, floating where lighthouses could not be built. Smaller than most ships, but more steadfast, too, they held...

Celebrate the beauty of Black hair creations through the rhyming text and vibrant collage art of lauded Coretta Scott King Award winners Carole Boston Weatherford and Ekua Holmes. Our hair is a lioness, born to be wild. We pride ourselves...